Screenplay by Carl Gottlieb and Peter Benchley - Directed by Steven Spielberg
LOGLINE
The beaches of a small touristic island are terrorised by a huge, man-eating shark.
SYNOPSIS
In the waters of Amity, a small touristic island, a swimmer gets killed by a shark. The local businessmen persuade police chief Brody to cover up the incident and keep the beaches open.
A little boy becomes the shark's second victim. A bounty triggers a wave of aspiring fishermen looking for the killer shark. They come back with a dead shark, but Hooper, a shark expert from the oceanographic institute, says this is not the shark that killed the swimmers.
Brody and Hooper discover that they are dealing with a great white shark still on the loose.
The mayor still refuses to shut the beaches down. The tourists arrive, and the shark attacks again, almost killing Brody's child.
The mayor agrees to hire Quint, a veteran shark hunter, to kill the shark. Brody and Hooper set out on Quint's boat, spot the shark and are amazed by its size.
The shark proves to be too strong for Quint's fishing boat and methods. It escapes and hits back, causing great damage on their boat.
Hooper gets in an anti-shark cage, wielding a poisoned harpoon, but fails to kill the shark. Quint gets killed, and Brody is the only man left on the boat.
Brody kills the shark. Hooper comes back to the surface, and the two men swim safely to the shore.
STEP OUTLINE
A. COVERING THE SHARK ATTACK
During a night beach party, a girl throws her clothes away and runs into the sea. A boy stumbles, following; he is drunk. The girl is already in deep water, when something attacks her from below and kills her. The boy lies asleep on the shore.
Chief Brody introduced: a family man from NYC.
The following day, Chief Brody receives a phonecall and drives off. He is the chief of police of the island, a swimming paradise that fills with tourists every summer.
Brody finds the girl's body, washed out on the beach.
Brody files the incident's report as “possible shark attack,” while his secretary and other civilians try to draw his attention on petty neighbourhood crime.
Brody walks the street, where another man stops him, trying to tell him something about some other trivial disturbance.
He walks into a hardware store and buys some paint and wood. He orders the deputy to make signs warning the swimmers.
The mayor tells Brody that he can't shut the beaches down. They ask him to report the incident as a boat accident, so they don't scare the tourists, who will arrive in a few days. (Complications: they want to coverup the shark attack as a boat accident. Revealing the sin: greed.)
The beach is full of local people. Brody watches closely. The shark appears and kills a kid. His mother goes crazy when she sees its shattered raft. (Everybody sees the shark; now nobody can deny it.)
B. THE BOUNTY
Quint introduced: "You all know me. You know what I do for a living..."
There is a $3,000 bounty on the shark and people gather in the Town Hall to discuss the measures. Chief Brody tells them that they will shut the beaches, and the local hotel owners protest. The mayor compromises, to Brody's disagreement: says the beaches will be shut for 24 hours. Quint, a thick-skinned veteran shark-hunter, tells everyone that he can catch the shark for $10,000.
The beaches close.
In his study, Brody reads about sharks. When he realizes that his son sits in a small boat, Brody shouts at him to get away from the water. His wife tells him to relax, but when she sees a picture in the book showing a shark attacking a boat, she screams to her son to get out of the boat.
The night falls, finding two fishermen on a small pier. They bait a big hook with a piece of meat. / Brody still reading about sharks. / The shark comes, bites the hook, and pulls the chain, tearing the pier apart and dragging half of it, and one of the two fishermen, into the water. Then, the floating half-pier does a U-turn, as the shark returns to grab the man in the water. His partner pulls him out, just before the shark gets him.
Hooper introduced.
Next day, the deputy tells Brody about the two fishermen incident. The bounty has turned every fisherman crazy. Boats filled with men leave the harbour. Hooper, a young shark expert, arrives on the island and calls for Brody's attention, as the chief struggles with all the fishermen going wild. Hooper and Brody eventually meet and Hooper asks to see the dead girl's body.
The bounty hunting fishermen throw blood and meat in the sea.
In the morgue, Hooper sees the girl's body. He tells Brody that this is definitely a shark attack and not a boat accident.
The bounty hunting fishermen come back with the carcass of a shark. Hooper measures the mouth size, while the fishermen squeeze in for a photograph. Hooper tells Brody that the bite radius is different. He asks to cut the fish open and see what is in it, but the mayor doesn't let them. Then, the dead boy's mother, dressed in black, appears and blames Brody for the death of her son.
C. IT'S A GREAT WHITE
This sequence is about Hooper's research until he realizes that the killer is a great white shark.
Brody's darkest moment is brightened by his son.
Brody drinks in silence. Hooper arrives and repeats to Brody that the shark caught is not the killing one. Brody agrees to cut the shark open.
Hooper and Brody open the shark's stomach and find no remains of human victims in it.
The same night, the two men go on Hooper's boat, looking for the shark. They spot a half-sank boat, which Brody recognizes; it belongs to one of the local fishermen. Hooper puts on his diving uniform and gets into the water to inspect the boat's damage.
Underwater, Hooper finds the boat's hole. He finds a shark's tooth, but drops it in terror when he sees the fisherman's corpse looking at him.
D. THE TOURISTS ARRIVE
Brody fails to convince the Mayor to close the beaches, until the shark strikes again.
Hooper and Brody tell the mayor that their enemy is a great white shark, but can't convince him to shut the beaches. Hooper is ready to quit, but Brody calms him down. The mayor accuses Hooper of being driven by sheer ambition for fame.
The tourists arrive. Brody and Hooper call for backup forces. Hooper contacts the institute telling them that he has to stay here.
Brody patrols the beach, which is now full of sunbathing tourists. He speaks on the radio with Hooper, who is in a coast guard patrol boat. A helicopter patrols the area from the sky. As the rumour of the shark has spread, nobody goes near the water. The mayor asks a family of locals to show the way. The family goes in, and soon more people follow. The sea fills with swimmers. / Brody tells his son Michael to put his boat in the pond, not the open sea. / The mayor tells a reporter that they have killed the shark. / A shark fin appears, and the swimmers flee in panic. The fin is a toy; a prank by two kids. / A girl sees the real shark going into the pond. The shark eats a boatman right in front of Michael's eyes. / Michael is in shock, but is safely taken out of the water.
E. FINDING THE SHARK
Son Michael is recovering and Brody's wife considers moving back to NY. The mayor apologizes to Brody. Brody makes the mayor sign a contract to hire Quint catch the shark.
Brody and Hooper meet Quint, the absolute sharkman. Brody and Hooper try to convince Quint to get Hooper on board. Quint mocks Hooper for being a rich educated boy, but agrees to get both of them under his commands.
A rivalry subplot between the two men begins here, resounding the mayor's harsh comments for Hooper.
They get the boat ready. Hooper brings his equipment on board, including an anti-shark cage. Quint makes fun of him.
Sailing for the big adventure, later than halfway through the film.
Brody says bye to his wife. They get on the boat and sail off.
On the boat, Brody throws blood and meat in the water, to attract the shark. He accidentaly drops Hooper's tanks of compressed air. Hooper tells Brody that they explode easily, planting the weapon Brody will use to kill the shark at the end. (Quint even mentions that the shark "might eat this stuff...")
Brody tries to learn tying knots, when something bites the fishing line. Quint fastens a pair of belts on himself and pulls hard with his fishing pole, but the line breaks.
Brody throws meat in the sea, and the shark appears. Only now do they realize how big it is. Quint shoots the shark with a harpoon attached to a rope and a barrel. The shark disappears, dragging the barrel underwater.
They turn and turn, but the shark doesn't show up to the surface.
F. THE BOAT GETS WHACKED
The sequence starts with Quint's narrating his personal horror story of sharks, setting up the genre's atmosphere again, as their situation is about to take a serious turn to the worse.
Three men in a boat, sharing their wound stories. Male bonding, before... dismemberment.
At night, the three men sit around the table and drink. Quint and Hooper share stories about old wounds and become friends, resolving their rivalry subplot [+]. Quint tells a story about a large scale shark attack during WWII, revealing some of his backstory and scaring the other two men [-]. The sing together, raising their morale, again [+].
Sequence's catalyst: The shark hits the boat, opening some little holes. Quint fires his shotgun, but the shark disappears.
The next day, Quint repairs the boat. The shark appears again. Brody calls the coast guard, but Quint destroys the radio. They are on their own, now, having no way back.
The shark comes back. Quint fires his harpoons, attaching a second barrel on the shark. They follow the barrel, as it floats quickly away. Brody shoots with his pistol, but with no result.
They catch the barrels' rope and fasten it on the boat's cleats, in an attempt to drag the shark behind them. (Another moment between Brody and the oxygen tanks, refreshing the setup in our minds.) It's the shark who drags them, though, pulling the boat hard, around. The cleats are about to give in, so Hooper and Brody struggle to untie the rope again. Quint brings a machete to cut the rope, but the shark breaks free without his help.
Then, the shark attacks the boat. They start leading the shark towards the shore, to drown it in shallow waters. As the shark chases them, Quint drives too fast and the boat's engine gets overheated.
The barrels swim away and disappear underwater. Mission accomplished.
G. HOOPER'S METHODS FAIL
Having seen Quint's methods fail, now we are about to see what Hooper can do with his cage and needles.
Dark night of the soul: The boat is now full of water. Quint asks Hooper to use his methods. A moment of tension, as Brody protests. "You got any better suggestions?" asks Hooper and they proceed.
They assemble the cage. Hooper gets in with his poisoned harpoon and they lower him underwater. The shark hits the cage, and Hooper drops and looses his harpoon. He fights the shark with a knife. As the shark ruins the cage, Hooper escapes and hides behind some underwater rocks. The two men on the boat pull the cage up. Hooper is not there.
The shark jumps on the boat, tilting it with its weight. Quint looses balance and slides into its mouth. The shark eats Quint.
H. BRODY KILLS THE SHARK
The boat is half-sank and Brody is alone on it. The shark attacks, but he hits it with a compressed air tank. The shark bites the tank and swims away, cocking the hammer for the climactic explosion.
The boat sinks quickly; Brody climbs on the mast. The shark attacks him again. Brody shoots with the shotgun. After a few shots, he hits the tank in the shark's mouth. The shark explodes.
Hooper comes up. Brody tells him that Quint is dead.
The two men swim back to safety.
THE END
LOGLINE
The beaches of a small touristic island are terrorised by a huge, man-eating shark.
SYNOPSIS
In the waters of Amity, a small touristic island, a swimmer gets killed by a shark. The local businessmen persuade police chief Brody to cover up the incident and keep the beaches open.
A little boy becomes the shark's second victim. A bounty triggers a wave of aspiring fishermen looking for the killer shark. They come back with a dead shark, but Hooper, a shark expert from the oceanographic institute, says this is not the shark that killed the swimmers.
Brody and Hooper discover that they are dealing with a great white shark still on the loose.
The mayor still refuses to shut the beaches down. The tourists arrive, and the shark attacks again, almost killing Brody's child.
The mayor agrees to hire Quint, a veteran shark hunter, to kill the shark. Brody and Hooper set out on Quint's boat, spot the shark and are amazed by its size.
The shark proves to be too strong for Quint's fishing boat and methods. It escapes and hits back, causing great damage on their boat.
Hooper gets in an anti-shark cage, wielding a poisoned harpoon, but fails to kill the shark. Quint gets killed, and Brody is the only man left on the boat.
Brody kills the shark. Hooper comes back to the surface, and the two men swim safely to the shore.
STEP OUTLINE
A. COVERING THE SHARK ATTACK
During a night beach party, a girl throws her clothes away and runs into the sea. A boy stumbles, following; he is drunk. The girl is already in deep water, when something attacks her from below and kills her. The boy lies asleep on the shore.
Chief Brody introduced: a family man from NYC.The following day, Chief Brody receives a phonecall and drives off. He is the chief of police of the island, a swimming paradise that fills with tourists every summer.
Brody finds the girl's body, washed out on the beach.
Brody files the incident's report as “possible shark attack,” while his secretary and other civilians try to draw his attention on petty neighbourhood crime.
Brody walks the street, where another man stops him, trying to tell him something about some other trivial disturbance.
He walks into a hardware store and buys some paint and wood. He orders the deputy to make signs warning the swimmers.
The mayor tells Brody that he can't shut the beaches down. They ask him to report the incident as a boat accident, so they don't scare the tourists, who will arrive in a few days. (Complications: they want to coverup the shark attack as a boat accident. Revealing the sin: greed.)
The beach is full of local people. Brody watches closely. The shark appears and kills a kid. His mother goes crazy when she sees its shattered raft. (Everybody sees the shark; now nobody can deny it.)
B. THE BOUNTY
Quint introduced: "You all know me. You know what I do for a living..."There is a $3,000 bounty on the shark and people gather in the Town Hall to discuss the measures. Chief Brody tells them that they will shut the beaches, and the local hotel owners protest. The mayor compromises, to Brody's disagreement: says the beaches will be shut for 24 hours. Quint, a thick-skinned veteran shark-hunter, tells everyone that he can catch the shark for $10,000.
The beaches close.
In his study, Brody reads about sharks. When he realizes that his son sits in a small boat, Brody shouts at him to get away from the water. His wife tells him to relax, but when she sees a picture in the book showing a shark attacking a boat, she screams to her son to get out of the boat.
The night falls, finding two fishermen on a small pier. They bait a big hook with a piece of meat. / Brody still reading about sharks. / The shark comes, bites the hook, and pulls the chain, tearing the pier apart and dragging half of it, and one of the two fishermen, into the water. Then, the floating half-pier does a U-turn, as the shark returns to grab the man in the water. His partner pulls him out, just before the shark gets him.
Hooper introduced.Next day, the deputy tells Brody about the two fishermen incident. The bounty has turned every fisherman crazy. Boats filled with men leave the harbour. Hooper, a young shark expert, arrives on the island and calls for Brody's attention, as the chief struggles with all the fishermen going wild. Hooper and Brody eventually meet and Hooper asks to see the dead girl's body.
The bounty hunting fishermen throw blood and meat in the sea.
In the morgue, Hooper sees the girl's body. He tells Brody that this is definitely a shark attack and not a boat accident.
The bounty hunting fishermen come back with the carcass of a shark. Hooper measures the mouth size, while the fishermen squeeze in for a photograph. Hooper tells Brody that the bite radius is different. He asks to cut the fish open and see what is in it, but the mayor doesn't let them. Then, the dead boy's mother, dressed in black, appears and blames Brody for the death of her son.
C. IT'S A GREAT WHITE
This sequence is about Hooper's research until he realizes that the killer is a great white shark.
Brody's darkest moment is brightened by his son.Brody drinks in silence. Hooper arrives and repeats to Brody that the shark caught is not the killing one. Brody agrees to cut the shark open.
Hooper and Brody open the shark's stomach and find no remains of human victims in it.
The same night, the two men go on Hooper's boat, looking for the shark. They spot a half-sank boat, which Brody recognizes; it belongs to one of the local fishermen. Hooper puts on his diving uniform and gets into the water to inspect the boat's damage.
Underwater, Hooper finds the boat's hole. He finds a shark's tooth, but drops it in terror when he sees the fisherman's corpse looking at him.
D. THE TOURISTS ARRIVE
Brody fails to convince the Mayor to close the beaches, until the shark strikes again.
Hooper and Brody tell the mayor that their enemy is a great white shark, but can't convince him to shut the beaches. Hooper is ready to quit, but Brody calms him down. The mayor accuses Hooper of being driven by sheer ambition for fame.
The tourists arrive. Brody and Hooper call for backup forces. Hooper contacts the institute telling them that he has to stay here.
Brody patrols the beach, which is now full of sunbathing tourists. He speaks on the radio with Hooper, who is in a coast guard patrol boat. A helicopter patrols the area from the sky. As the rumour of the shark has spread, nobody goes near the water. The mayor asks a family of locals to show the way. The family goes in, and soon more people follow. The sea fills with swimmers. / Brody tells his son Michael to put his boat in the pond, not the open sea. / The mayor tells a reporter that they have killed the shark. / A shark fin appears, and the swimmers flee in panic. The fin is a toy; a prank by two kids. / A girl sees the real shark going into the pond. The shark eats a boatman right in front of Michael's eyes. / Michael is in shock, but is safely taken out of the water.
E. FINDING THE SHARK
Son Michael is recovering and Brody's wife considers moving back to NY. The mayor apologizes to Brody. Brody makes the mayor sign a contract to hire Quint catch the shark.
Brody and Hooper meet Quint, the absolute sharkman. Brody and Hooper try to convince Quint to get Hooper on board. Quint mocks Hooper for being a rich educated boy, but agrees to get both of them under his commands.
A rivalry subplot between the two men begins here, resounding the mayor's harsh comments for Hooper.
They get the boat ready. Hooper brings his equipment on board, including an anti-shark cage. Quint makes fun of him.
Sailing for the big adventure, later than halfway through the film.Brody says bye to his wife. They get on the boat and sail off.
On the boat, Brody throws blood and meat in the water, to attract the shark. He accidentaly drops Hooper's tanks of compressed air. Hooper tells Brody that they explode easily, planting the weapon Brody will use to kill the shark at the end. (Quint even mentions that the shark "might eat this stuff...")
Brody tries to learn tying knots, when something bites the fishing line. Quint fastens a pair of belts on himself and pulls hard with his fishing pole, but the line breaks.
Brody throws meat in the sea, and the shark appears. Only now do they realize how big it is. Quint shoots the shark with a harpoon attached to a rope and a barrel. The shark disappears, dragging the barrel underwater.
They turn and turn, but the shark doesn't show up to the surface.
F. THE BOAT GETS WHACKED
The sequence starts with Quint's narrating his personal horror story of sharks, setting up the genre's atmosphere again, as their situation is about to take a serious turn to the worse.
Three men in a boat, sharing their wound stories. Male bonding, before... dismemberment.At night, the three men sit around the table and drink. Quint and Hooper share stories about old wounds and become friends, resolving their rivalry subplot [+]. Quint tells a story about a large scale shark attack during WWII, revealing some of his backstory and scaring the other two men [-]. The sing together, raising their morale, again [+].
Sequence's catalyst: The shark hits the boat, opening some little holes. Quint fires his shotgun, but the shark disappears.
The next day, Quint repairs the boat. The shark appears again. Brody calls the coast guard, but Quint destroys the radio. They are on their own, now, having no way back.
The shark comes back. Quint fires his harpoons, attaching a second barrel on the shark. They follow the barrel, as it floats quickly away. Brody shoots with his pistol, but with no result.
They catch the barrels' rope and fasten it on the boat's cleats, in an attempt to drag the shark behind them. (Another moment between Brody and the oxygen tanks, refreshing the setup in our minds.) It's the shark who drags them, though, pulling the boat hard, around. The cleats are about to give in, so Hooper and Brody struggle to untie the rope again. Quint brings a machete to cut the rope, but the shark breaks free without his help.
Then, the shark attacks the boat. They start leading the shark towards the shore, to drown it in shallow waters. As the shark chases them, Quint drives too fast and the boat's engine gets overheated.
The barrels swim away and disappear underwater. Mission accomplished.
G. HOOPER'S METHODS FAIL
Having seen Quint's methods fail, now we are about to see what Hooper can do with his cage and needles.
Dark night of the soul: The boat is now full of water. Quint asks Hooper to use his methods. A moment of tension, as Brody protests. "You got any better suggestions?" asks Hooper and they proceed.
They assemble the cage. Hooper gets in with his poisoned harpoon and they lower him underwater. The shark hits the cage, and Hooper drops and looses his harpoon. He fights the shark with a knife. As the shark ruins the cage, Hooper escapes and hides behind some underwater rocks. The two men on the boat pull the cage up. Hooper is not there.
The shark jumps on the boat, tilting it with its weight. Quint looses balance and slides into its mouth. The shark eats Quint.
H. BRODY KILLS THE SHARK
The boat is half-sank and Brody is alone on it. The shark attacks, but he hits it with a compressed air tank. The shark bites the tank and swims away, cocking the hammer for the climactic explosion.
The boat sinks quickly; Brody climbs on the mast. The shark attacks him again. Brody shoots with the shotgun. After a few shots, he hits the tank in the shark's mouth. The shark explodes.
Hooper comes up. Brody tells him that Quint is dead.
The two men swim back to safety.
THE END
