Which Jaws movie has the biggest shark?
Size matters. But bigger doesn’t always mean better - especially when it comes to shark movies. The Jaws books and films have sharks almost doubling in size (and screen time) throughout the franchise.
While the quality of the Jaws movies faltered, the proportions of the movie sharks themselves continued to push the realms of science and believability. Here, The Daily Jaws takes a look at the Jaws sharks to see which one is the biggest animal in the fish film series. The largest size ‘Jaws shark is about the size of a small Megalodon.
Jaws (book): shark length 20 ft / 6.01 m
In Peter Benchley’s 1974 novel ‘Jaws’, a killer shark unleashes chaos on a beach community off Long Island, it's up to a local sheriff, a marine biologist, and an old seafarer to hunt the beast down. Described being ‘the size of a station wagon’ (around 5.6 meters / 18.4ft), the Great White in question was at the time upper end of the known size scale although the Canadian Shark Research Centre has confirmed a female caught by David Mckendrick, off Prince Edward Island in 1988, being 6.1 m (20 ft) in length.
‘Jaws’ as illustrated in Reader’s Digest (1974)
Jaws (movie): ‘Bruce’ shark length 25 ft / 7.62 m
Steven Spielberg’s 1975 film adaptation of Peter Benchley’s source novel saw the story streamlined and the shark increase in size from 20 ft to 25ft (3 tonnes of him). As the ambitious (and naive) Spielberg insisted on as much realism as possible, shooting on the ocean with a full sized shark, Jaws Production Designer Joe Alves (pictured below) was tasked with getting the monster animatronic designed and built.
To make sure Jaws got the 25ft size shark it wanted, Joe shrewdly presented Universal execs with 3 full size cut-outs, 20ft, 25ft and 30ft respectively. Anticipating correctly. the studio suits opted for the middle option and the 25ft Great White was a go.
Named ‘Bruce’ after Speilberg’s lawyer, Three full-size pneumatically powered prop sharks were made for the production: a "sea-sled shark", a full-body prop with its belly missing that was towed with a 300-foot (roughly 100-m) line, and two "platform sharks", one that moved from camera-left to -right (with its hidden left side exposing an array of pneumatic hoses), and an opposite model with its right flank uncovered.
Recently restored by SFX maestro Greg Nicotero and on show at the Academy Museum Of Motion Picture and Sciences, Bruce the shark from Jaws was ranked the eighteenth greatest villain on the AFI's list of 100 Heroes and Villains.
Jaws 2: ‘Brucette’ shark length 30 ft / 9.1 m
Police chief Brody must protect the citizens of Amity after a second monstrous shark begins terrorizing the waters.
The sharks from the original film had rotted behind sheds on the lower lot of Universal Studios in the intervening years, and the only pieces that were salvageable were the chromoly tube frames so brand new sharks had to be built for the sequel.
Continuing the tradition of the naming of the sharks, ‘Brucette’ (a.k.a. Ms. Jaws, Jaws II, Scarface, Bruce 2, or Fidel) was the unofficial name of a gigantic great white shark that terrorized Amity Island during the Second Amity Incident of 1978.
One of her most prominent features is the right side of her face being burnt and scarred from what she received during both a boating attack and a subsequent explosion.
Robert A. Mattey's shark design was much more complicated and ambitious than the one in the first film. The same (male) body was used, but a brand-new head was built, which made use of an all-new mouth mechanism, concealing the jowls to disguise the pinching of the cheeks that had proven to be a problem with the shark in the original film.
Jaws 3-D: ‘Brucetta’ shark length 35 ft / 10.6 m
A giant thirty-five-foot shark becomes trapped in a SeaWorld theme park and it's up to the sons of police chief Brody to rescue everyone.
When it comes to the last two Jaws movies, bigger is proved not to be better. The shark in Jaws 3-D is the largest. At 35ft, ‘Brucetta’ is ten feet longer than the 1975 original Bruce.
Budgetary restraints kept the filmmakers from providing a true sense of scale for the creature, with it appearing mostly in darkness and in partial shot / close up.
Side note: The baby shark is much too large to have been born recently inside the park. A real newborn great white isn't much bigger than a Chinook salmon - adult fish range in size from 24 to 36 in (61 to 91 cm), but may be up to 58 in (150 cm) in length.
Unlike the previous two, or subsequent, Jaws films, the shark in Jaws 3 only surfaces once throughout the entire film. Excluding shots of the shark's fin, the only time it breaches the surface of the water is when it attacks and injures Lea Thompson's character Kelly Ann.
Jaws The Revenge: ‘Vengeance’ shark length 28 ft / 8.5 m
Chief Brody's widow believes that her family is deliberately being targeted by another shark in search of revenge.
For the first time in the Jaws franchise, the shark in a sequel is smaller than its predecessor. Coming in at 28ft (8.5m), ‘Vengeance’ is 7ft shorter than ‘Brucetta’, star of Jaws 3-D making her the third largest ‘Jaws’ shark. Alas, making the shark smaller didn’t improve the realism or quality of the film.
Spending more timeout of the water than in it, Bruce (aka Vengeance) the Rubber Shark created for Jaws The Revenge was nominated for a Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Actor in this movie, thus making him the first animal nominated for one since Jaws 3-D's "shrieking dolphins," Cindy and Sandy.
The shark's infamous roar during the climax actually comes from a Tom and Jerry cartoon called, The Milky Waif (1946). Reportedly, this was actually done because the sound editor refused to make an original sound effect, thinking that the idea of a shark roaring was ridiculous.
Ranking the sharks from Jaws (by size)
1st Jaws 3-D (Brucetta): 35ft / 10.6m
2nd Jaws 2 (Brucette): 30ft / 9.1m
3rd Jaws The Revenge (Vengeance): 28ft / 8.5m
4th Jaws (Bruce): 25ft / 7.62m
5th Jaws (book): 20ft / 6.01m
Average Great White sharks: males 3.4 to 4.0 m (11 to 13 ft) long, while females at 4.6 to 4.9 m (15 to 16 ft)
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