Parasailing shark encounter echoes scene from JAWS movie

Footage of a shark leaping out of the Red Sea and latching on to the foot of a parasailer has emerged.

The short video of the man parasailing above the water before the shark strikes will be familiar to JAWS fans, as it echoes an almost similar scene in JAWS 2.

That moment is a great tension raiser and certainly has the audience raise their feet as the shark’s point of view moves ever closer to the dangling legs, viewers literally willing the parasailer out of the water prior to the shark reaching him.

The parasailer is swooped up into the air, in the nick of time, but not before our heart is in our mouths, thanks in no small part to the tense use of the JAWS theme by John Williams.

People may scoff at the shark making for the parasailer in the 1978 sequel to JAWS, just as they did with the great white shark leaping out of the water and onto the back of the Orca at the end of Steven Spielberg’s original film, but both have since been captured as happening.

You can see both real events and those from JAWS 2 side by side, below.

What JAWS shark myths will be captured next, a shark swimming backwards like in JAWS 3D or a shark roaring like at the end of JAWS the Revenge?

Words by Dean Newman

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