Directed by: Steven Spielberg. Written by Peter Benchley and Carl Gottlieb, based on the novel by Peter Benchley.

Chief Martin Brody

• "Slow ahead." I can go slow ahead. Come on down here and chum some of this shit. [the shark suddenly appears, causing Brody to recoil in shock] You're gonna need a bigger boat.
  • Note: the bolded line is ranked #35 in the American Film Institute's list of the top 100 movie quotations in American cinema.

• [about to kill the shark] Smile, you son of a bitch!

Quint

• Y'all know me. Know how I earn a livin'. I'll catch this bird for you, but it ain't gonna be easy. Bad fish! Not like going down to the pond and chasing bluegills and tommycod. This shark, swallow ya whole. Little shakin', little tenderizin', down you go. And we gotta do it quick, that'll bring back the tourists, that'll put all your businesses on a payin' basis. But it's not gonna be pleasant! I value my neck a lot more than three thousand bucks, chief. I'll find him for three, but I'll catch him, and kill him, for ten. But you've gotta make up your minds. If you want to stay alive, then ante up. If you want to play it cheap, be on welfare the whole winter. I don't want no volunteers, I don't want no mates, there's too many captains on this island. Ten thousand dollars for me by myself. For that you get the head, the tail, the whole damn thing.

Mayor Larry Vaughn

• I don't think you appreciate the gut reaction people have to these things...Martin, It's all psychological. You yell 'Barracuda,' everybody says 'Huh? What?' You yell 'Shark,' we've got a panic on our hands on the Fourth of July.

Other

• Mrs. Kintner: [to Chief Brody] My Alex was a beautiful little boy and you killed him. Did you know that? You knew there was a shark out there. You knew a girl got killed here last week. I just found that out. But you knew. You knew it was dangerous, but you let people go swimming anyway. You knew all those things, and still my boy is dead now and there's nothing you can do about that. My boy is dead. I wanted you to know that.

Dialogue

Vaughn: We're really a little anxious that you're, ah, you're rushing into something serious here. It's your first summer, you know.

Brody: What does that mean?

Vaughn: I'm only trying to say that Amity is a summer town. We need summer dollars. If people can't swim here, they'll be glad to swim in the beaches of Cape Cod, the Hamptons, Long Island.

Brody: That doesn't mean we have to serve them up a smorgasbord.

Mayor's Assistant: We've never had that kind of trouble in these waters.

Ellen: Martin hates boats. Martin hates water. Martin - Martin sits in his car when we go on the ferry to the mainland. I guess it's a childhood thing. It's a - there's a clinical name for it, isn't there?

Brody: Drowning! Isn't it true that most people are attacked by sharks in three feet of water and about ten feet from the beach.

Hooper: Yes, that's true.

Brody: Now this shark that, that swims alone...

Hooper: A rogue.

Brody: Rogue, yeah, now this guy, he - he keeps swimming around in a place where the feeding is good until the food supply is gone, right?

Hooper: That's the theory...A theory I happen to believe.

Brody: Then why don't we have one more drink and go down and cut that shark open.

Ellen: Martin? Can you do that?

Brody: I can do anything. I'm the chief of police.

Quint: I'm not talkin' about pleasure boatin' or day sailin'. I'm talkin' about workin' for a livin'. I'm talkin' about sharkin'.

Hooper: Well I'm not talkin' about hookin' some poor dog fish or sand shark. I'm talkin' about findin' a Great White.

Quint: You've got city boy hands, Hooper. You been countin' money all your life.

Hooper: I don't need this working-class-hero crap.

Quint: Maybe I should go alone.

Quint: [seeing Hooper's equipment] What are you? Some kind of half-assed astronaut? [examining the shark cage] Jesus H Christ, when I was a boy, every little squirt wanted to be a harpooner or a sword fisherman. What d'ya have there - a portable shower or a monkey cage?

Hooper: Anti-shark cage.

Quint: Anti-shark cage. You go inside the cage? Cage goes in the water? You go in the water? Shark's in the water? Our shark? [singing] Farewell and adieu to you, fair Spanish ladies. Farewell and adieu, you ladies of Spain. For we've received orders for to sail back to Boston. And so nevermore shall we see you again.

Brody: [pointing at Quint's tattoo scar] What's that one?

Quint: Oh, that's a tattoo. I got that removed.

Hooper: Let me guess. Mother! [laughs]

Quint: Hooper, that's the U.S.S. Indianapolis.

[Hooper's face drops]

Hooper: You were on the Indianapolis?

Brody: What happened?

Quint: Japanese submarine slammed two torpedoes into our side, Chief. We was comin' back from the island of Tinian to Leyte. We'd just delivered the bomb. The Hiroshima bomb. Eleven hundred men went into the water. Vessel went down in 12 minutes. Didn't see the first shark for about a half-hour. Tiger. 13-footer. You know how you know that in the water, Chief? You can tell by lookin' from the dorsal to the tail. What we didn't know, was that our bomb mission was so secret, no distress signal had been sent. They didn't even list us overdue for a week. Very first light, Chief, sharks come cruisin', so we formed ourselves into tight groups. You know it was kinda like old squares in a battle, like you see on a calendar, like you see in the Battle of Waterloo. And the idea was the shark come to the nearest man, that man he starts poundin' and hollerin' and sometimes that shark he go away... but sometimes he wouldn't go away. Sometimes that shark looks right into ya. Right into your eyes. And the thing about a shark is he's got lifeless eyes. Black eyes. Like a doll's eyes. When he comes at ya, he doesn't even seem to be livin'... until he bites ya, and those black eyes roll over wide and then... ah then you hear that terrible high-pitched screamin'. The ocean turns red, and despite all the poundin' and the hollerin' those sharks come in and... they rip you to pieces. You know by the end of that first dawn, lost a hundred men. I don't know how many sharks, maybe a thousand. I do know how many men, they averaged six an hour. Thursday mornin', Chief, I bumped into a friend of mine, Herbie Robinson from Cleveland. Baseball player. Boatswain's mate. I thought he was asleep. I reached over to wake him up. He bobbed up, down in the water, he was like a kinda top. Upended. Well, he'd been bitten in half below the waist. At noon on the fifth day, a Lockheed Ventura swung in low and he saw us, a young pilot, a lot younger than Mr. Hooper here. Anyway he saw us and a few hours later a big fat PBY come down and started to pick us up. You know that was the time I was most frightened. Waitin' for my turn. I'll never put on a lifejacket again. So, 1,100 men went into the water, 316 men come out, the sharks took the rest, June the 29th, 1945. Anyway, we delivered the bomb.

Brody: Hey, what day is this?

Hooper: It's Wednesday...eh is Tuesday, I think.

Brody: The tide is with us.

Hooper: Keep kickin.

Brody: I use to hate the water.

Hooper: I can't imagine why.

Taglines

• Don't go in the water.

• The terrifying motion picture from the terrifying No. 1 best seller.

• When beaches open this summer, you will be taken by Jaws.

• She was the first.

• Do you like fish? Well, he likes you too...

• See it before you go swimming.

• You'll never go in the water again!

Cast

• Roy Scheider - Police Chief Martin Brody
• Robert Shaw - Quint
• Richard Dreyfuss - Matt Hooper
• Lorraine Gary - Ellen Brody
• Murray Hamilton - Mayor Larry Vaughn
• Carl Gottlieb - Ben Meadows
• Jeffrey Kramer - Deputy Leonard 'Lenny' Hendricks
• Lee Fierro - Mrs. Kintner