| “ | You know the thing about sharks, he's got... lifeless eyes, black eyes, like a doll's eye. When he comes at ya, doesn't seem to be living. Until he bites ya and those black eyes roll over white. And then, ah then you hear that terrible high pitch screaming and the ocean turns red and spite of all the pounding and the hollering they all come in and 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 don't know how many men, they averaged six an hour. | „ |
| ~ Quint about the Shark. |
| “ | You're gonna need a bigger boat. | „ |
| ~ Martin Brody after seeing Bruce up close and one of the most famous and iconic quotes in cinema history. |
The Great White Sharks, actually known as Jaws, are the titular main antagonists of the franchise of the same name.
They are all shown to be ravenous great white sharks (Carcharodon carcharias) of abnormal size and ferocity that; terrorize Amity Island (and SeaWorld in Jaws 3-D). None of the sharks have official names; but many nicknames have arisen from them, mostly derived from the production names for them.
Their vocal sound effects were provided by Frank Welker and Brett Goldstein.
Depiction
| “ | There is a creature alive today who has survived millions of years of evolution... without change, without passion, and without logic. It lives to kill. A mindless eating machine, it will attack and devour anything. It is as if God created the Devil, and gave him... jaws. | „ |
| ~ Narrator in Jaws trailer |
Each Jaws film showcases a giant great white shark (scientifically called "Carcharodon carcharias") in Jaws, Jaws 2, Jaws 3-D and Jaws: the Revenge as well as the video games Jaws: Unleashed and Jaws: Ultimate Predator. Each shark is a different shark in every film although the race is the same, and all have a size of about 20 to 35 feet in length and weighing between 2.5 and 5 tons.
Jaws first appeared in the novel by Peter Benchley before Steven Spielberg adapted it into a motion picture. In the movies, the sharks are much larger than normal Great Whites, which are believed to top out at 20 feet long and 2.5 tons at the very most. During the course of the series, they show to have a certain amount of intellect. The shark is the playable character in the video games Jaws Unleashed and Jaws: Ultimate Predator.
Though none of the sharks have official names, all of them have been given monikers to differentiate them from each other. The animatronic sharks in the first film were nicknamed "Bruce" by the film crew, after Steven Spielberg's lawyer. Whereas the sharks in Jaws 2 were nicknamed "Brucette" by fans. On the set, keeping in tradition with the first film, the two puppet sharks made for the production were known as Bruce Two, "Fidel" (unburned) and "Harold" (burned), the latter after David Brown's Beverly Hills lawyer. The mother shark from Jaws 3-D was nicknamed "Brucetta".
The juvenile shark from Jaws 3-D was named Baby Shark in the movie. The shark in Jaws: The Revenge has no official nickname, but has been dubbed "Vengeance" by fans, as this shark is seeking vengeance on Chief Brody's family. Additionally, the name "Jaws" has been attributed to the sharks (though this is technically incorrect, as this is the title of the films and the sharks are never referred to as such in the films).
Notable Sharks
- Bruce (Jaws) - 25 feet in length and weighs in at 3 tons. Hooper claimed it to be a 20 footer at first. Apparently 12 years old, Bruce is the first shark to terrorize the citizens of Amity Island.
- Brucette (Jaws 2) - 24 feet in length and 3 tons in weight. Apparently 10 years old, she is implied to be the mate of Bruce in the novel adaptation. Brucette also had the highest body count out of any of the sharks, killing eight, not counting Bob in a deleted scene. Just like her mate Bruce, Brucette is terrorizing the people of Amity Island.
- Brucetta (Jaws 3-D) - 35 feet in length, weighing 13.5 tons, and she is apparently 14 years old. Her son, Baby Shark’s size is unknown, but likely closer to 15 feet in length; Kay claimed him to be 10 feet long. Brucetta is terrorizing Sea World as revenge for the capture and death of Baby Shark. Brucetta is the largest great white shark to appear in the franchise.
- Vengeance (Jaws: The Revenge) - 21 feet in length, weighing 5,500 pounds, and is apparently 10 years old. It is supposedly the child of Bruce and Brucette, as said in the novel based on the film. Vengeance is seeking vengeance on Chief Brody's family for the deaths of both his parents.
- Jaws (Jaws: Unleashed) - 35 feet long and weighing 5 tons. Being the first among the sharks to be officially called Jaws[1], it is wreaking havoc on Amity Island 30 years after the events of the first movie and possibly getting its revenge upon the human race for causing destruction to its habitat through contamination, by destroying Oil Fields, flooding Amity's Aquarium, even causing an explosion at the Environ Plus laboratory. At the same time, it is trying to avoid Michael Brody (who is trying to capture the shark) and Cruz Raddock (who is trying to kill the shark).
- Bruce (Peter Benchley's Jaws: A Novel) - 20 feet in length and 2.5 tons in weight, the book is very different from its classic film counterpart.
- Brucette (Hank Searl's Jaws 2) - 30 feet in length, she is implied to be the mate of Bruce the Shark. She is the first shark to be the largest (in the novel series' storyline) before the massive Brucetta, which was 35 feet in length, and overruled novel Brucette's giant size.
- Vengeance (Hank Searl's Jaws: The Revenge) - 28 feet in length, implied to be the pup of Bruce and Brucette. Vengeance was 21 feet in the film, even though in some shots it did look 25-30 feet in length, due to some tests and size comparisons and some advice during the documentary of the making of Jaws: The Revenge, Vengeance was 21 feet, but in the novel, he was an outstanding 28 feet.
All have a size of about 20 to 35 feet in length.
List of Victims
| List Of Victims |
|---|
Jaws (Novel)
Jaws
Jaws 2
Jaws 3-D
Jaws: The Revenge
Jaws: Unleashed
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In Other Media
- The Shark appears in numerous episodes of Family Guy.
- In the episode, The Father, the Son and the Holy Fonz, he stars in Jaws V: Fire Island.
- In a DVD exclusive scene in Play It Again, Brian, he eyes Lois and Brian Griffin after they tell Peter there are no sharks in Martha's Vineyard.
- In Brian Griffin's House of Payne, Jaws appears in Peter's television series Big Jaws, where he and the other humans team up to fight the antagonist Big Jaws. There he was voiced by Seth Macfarlane.
- He is voiced by Mike Henry (who also voices Herbert in the same series) in all appearances. He is one of the many anthropomorphic creatures that uses the voice of Bruce, the very flamboyant Southern gay man who was also voiced by Mike Henry. Interestingly, "Bruce" was the name given to the mechanical shark prop used in the making of the film.
- In the novel It, Jaws is one of the disguises of Pennywise.
- The Shark appeared in the computer game called Fisher Price Pirate Ship.
- Jaw from Amagi Brilliant Park is based on Jaws being virtue of similar name and appearance and even has a head that looks like Jaws when he is on water.
- In The Lego Batman Movie, Bruce appears as one of the numerous Phantom Zone Criminals who teams up with The Joker to defeat Batman and destroy Gotham City. This incarnation of Bruce is shown to be super-humanly intelligent, to the point of being a parody, as he is shown piloting a plane without assistance.
- In Courage the Cowardly Dog during the episode "Courage in the Big Stinkin' City", a shark is seen behind the second door that Courage opens in an apartment complex.
Trivia
- Jaws is the only animal character (in fact, the only villain not portrayed by a human) to occupy any slot in the Villains' half of "AFI's 100 Years… Heroes and Villains", coming in at #18.
- Despite being often called "Jaws" by the general public, this is only the name of the film and not the shark itself, which is never given a name in the film.
- When Bruce sinks to the bottom of the sea after he is blown up by Brody, a demonic-like roar can be heard. This is the same sound used in Duel when the truck drives off a cliff.
- It is unknown why the sharks attacked humans, especially in the first and second movies. In the third and fourth movies, both sharks are seeking revenge after losing family members to humans.
- In the novelization of Jaws 2 and Jaws 4: The Revenge - which, belonging to minor differences, are in continuity with the book of Benchley, ignoring the events of Jaws 3-D - explains that sharks are all related to each other: the shark's first book would have impregnated one of the second book, and that of the third book would be their son. This is not mentioned in the film. It then suggests that the reason why they attack the family of Martin Brody would be tied to a voodoo curse hurled by a shaman enemy of Brody's. This detail does not appear in the film, however, in the film version of the story is a phrase uttered by Michael Brody that references this subplot of the book: "Come on, sharks do not commit murder. Tell me you do not believe in that voodoo".
- Brucetta is the only mother shark in the Jaws movie series (while in the series of novels it is Brucette who is the only female shark to become a mother).
- Although it is not confirmed by either the book nor the movies, it is thought that the sharks are no ordinary great white sharks, but rather mutated white sharks, or possibly an uncategorized subspecies of Great White. That would make sense for their abnormal size, appearance, strength, intelligence and the desire to continually devour people. It is also possible they could be Megalodons.
- In real life Great White Sharks very rarely eat people and the odds of winning an American Idol is greater than being devoured by a Great White. The ones from Jaws are likely more than average sharks, since they not just often eat people, but are even sadistic to them.
- In Jaws 2, an orca has been shown as one of Brucette's victims. It is believed that this was due to the film Orca: The Killer Whale, which was released the year prior, shows an orca killing a great white shark near the beginning, seemingly to spite Jaws.
- Bruce was named by the Jaws crew after Steven Spielberg's lawyer Bruce Ramer.
References
 Villains
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Super Secret Police
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