Corrected entry: If you look in the sky when Brody goes for his gun when Jaws first attacks you can see a digitally edited in shooting star and after when they show the boat a few seconds later you can see another digitally edited in shooting star go by.
Corrected entry: Quint repeatedly calls the shark Orca, but an Orca is a killer whale, not a shark, something a shark expert should know.
Correction: That is correct. "Porkers Mr. Hooper. Are you talking Porkers?" Porkers is apparently slang for Great White Sharks. Use of the slang adds to Quint being an experienced old salt of the sea.
Corrected entry: Though the movie takes place in midsummer, many of the townfolks are dressed for much cooler weather.
Correction: As an island off the coast of New England, even the summer temperatures are extremely moderate. Martha's Vineyard, which Amity is based on, has an average July temperature of 63-79°. Combined with an offshore wind, it would feel even cooler.
Corrected entry: If the shark was terrorizing the town by staying close to shore, why did Quint think that going out to sea would give them the best chance of identifying and killing the correct shark?
Correction: Quint knew that if the beaches were closed, the shark would go somewhere else for food. The most logical place would be out at sea, they just needed bait and voila! A shark on a silver platter.
Corrected entry: When Chief Brody fires the shot that hits the air tank and blows up the shark, one second before the explosion the shark is not moving.
Correction: Impossible to notice without resorting to slow motion, and mistakes which require slow motion to notice do not belong on this website.
Corrected entry: At the end of the film, where Brody finally kills the shark, he was only a couple of feet from it when it exploded. Brody should have been blown sky high.
Correction: Not at all. First, Brody is more than 'a couple of feet away'. More like fifty or sixty feet. The 'explosion' was the bursting of a compressed air cylinder, not a bomb going off. The shockwaves will dissipate very rapidy underwater, and Brody is above the surface on the mast of the sinking ship. He won't feel a thing.
Corrected entry: After Hooper cuts open the Tiger shark, he tells Brody that it isn't the shark. He adds "you still got a hell of a fish out there, with a mouth about this big." He indicates size of the bite by holding his hands about 2 feet apart. This estimate is based on the bite marks on the first victim. Of course, later we see the shark's bite radius is much larger, around 3 to 4 feet. Hooper is a shark expert and should be able to more accurately determine bite radius. (00:44:30)
Correction: Clearly nobody involved, including Hooper, believed a shark as large as the one later seen could exist. His estimate was based on what he concluded could be the largest shark out there.
Hooper is a shark expert. His bite radius estimate should be based on the available facts, like the actual bite marks in the victim, and not what he thought would be the biggest shark. It's pretty difficult the get the bite radius wrong by a foot or more when you have clear bite marks in the victim.
Unless a bite radius can be estimated by the distance between puncture marks, Hooper had no way of knowing how large the shark actually is. As the previous correction states, he's using his own knowledge and experience to guess the size.
Correction: All that was left of the one and only victim that he examined, Chrissy Watkins, were pieces so effectively you could argue there were no bite marks, and he was making an assessment of best judgment and experience. Either way, 2 feet is still a big mouth.
Corrected entry: In Bruce's first "full length" scene, as Quint and Hooper are guessing at his length, you can see the mechanical shark passing the Orca has no tail whatsoever.
Correction: Three model sharks were made, all full length with tails. So the sharks tail is just obscured by the water splash and reflection of light on the water.
Corrected entry: Hooper is in his wetsuit waiting to enter the shark cage. As he stands on the deck, notice behind him that the stern of the Orca is now shorter in length, painted white, and well above sea level.
Correction: First, Orca's paint color is the very same pale greenish tint as in the rest of the shots, not white. Second, the shot when Hooper puts on the air tank that Quint holds for him, shows the stern through the cabin doorway and because most of the starboard side of the rail can't be seen in this shot, the depth perception of the deck may be deceiving. The deck is not shorter here, nor is it shorter in similar shots. Third, it is impossible to even determine the level of the water directly around Orca's hull in this shot, or even in the next shot as Hooper climbs into the cage.
Corrected entry: When Brody and Hooper see that the shark is chewing its way through the ropes attached to their boat, they call Quint to come and shoot him. When Quint comes over with the gun, the shark rears out of the water and roars. Sharks cannot roar.
Correction: The shark does not roar when it comes out of the water. The only sound is that of air rushing into the shark's mouth, which is something that has been reported by survivors of shark attacks.
Well, no, if you go to the end of the movie where the shark goes inside the boat it makes a noise again so they do have it doing that.
I think you are correct. It is definitely a roar! The shark roars 3 times in total including the scene showing the shark's blown up corpse sinking down. The "correction" is a mistake.
The gurgling sound Bruce makes in this scene also sounds a lot like water rushing into his maw.
Corrected entry: Brody hands Hooper the spear gun while he's in the shark cage. Seconds later he's cleaning off his goggles using both hands. So where did the spear gun go?
Correction: Brody holds out the hypodermic spear (shark dart filled with strychnine nitrate) while Hooper wipes his goggles and places it around his head.
Corrected entry: At the beginning, Sheriff Brody walks onto the "boat" that takes people and, at most, two cars across the water to the mainland. A car joins Brody with 3 men, the medical examiner, the major and the newspaper man. Brody has been told, by the medical examiner, that it was a shark attack that killed the young woman who swam at night (the first death in the film) but now he is being coerced into saying it was a boating accident. Meanwhile, the man who handles the "boat" has already put it in reverse, heading back where they have come from Nonetheless, the mayor says, "You can take us back now." Turning around, he would have seen the folly in his words.
Correction: Rewatch this scene. Brody, Vaughn, et al., board Amity ferry scow (in reality the On Time scow). Brody tells Charlie to take him to the kids swimming off shore across the water (Chappaquiddick Island). They cast off from Dock St ferry landing, and just as the lighthouse is in the background, the Captain turns the scow to dock at the 2nd ferry landing ramp properly. Distance between the 2 ferry landings is approx 520 ft. When Vaughn says, "Take us back now," we see the 1st landing behind them.
Corrected entry: When Brody fills out the report on the girl found on the beach he has an orange towel on his right shoulder. It is still there under his jacket when he walks down the road. When it switches to the front shot it's gone.
Correction: You can see the towel for several shots including one where Brody is seen tucking it under his jacket.
Corrected entry: When Brody and Hooper try to hook the lines at the back of the Orca the barrels are stationery and just floating on the surface. Sharks are constantly moving, so the barrels would be moving in some way.
Correction: Slack in the line occurs frequently when a fish changes direction. The barrels need not be moving at all times.
Corrected entry: The movie is made and set in 1974. The reward sign on the wall at the town meeting says Alex Kintner was killed on Sunday, June 29. A check of the 1974 calendar reveals June 29 was a Saturday, not Sunday. (00:17:30)
Corrected entry: When the shark first hits Hooper's cage and swims by the camera, watch the cage in the background. The top door is open. This is obviously so if the stunt double got into trouble, he could get out.
Correction: Actually, the force which the great white exerted on the cage would be enough to force the top door to open.
Corrected entry: When the shark was dragging Chrissie in the water, why didn't it just pull her underwater as soon as it grabbed her? I thought the shark didn't want to wait to eat his meal.
Correction: Sharks will often "taste" a victim before coming back for more, this is why so many people are able to survive encounters with even great whites. From a film standpoint, it was done to prolong the terror and suspense of the audience.
Corrected entry: Hooper says he can't poison Bruce because his skin is too thick and he'll have to go in the water and poke him in the mouth. However, when Brody stabs him in the head with the gaff, it leaves several bloody holes. It's just a bit too convenient for the plot to be believable that Hooper would choose to go into the water with a creature so powerful and dangerous (as opposed to at least trying to drug him from the surface first). And he had enough of the drug to try more than once: he fills one syringe from a good sized bottle of the stuff.
Correction: "Get this little needle though his skin?" as quint said. Much more delicate and breakable than the "gaff."
Corrected entry: At the end of the movie, Brody picks up a floating oxygen tank, revealing that it's empty. Full tanks would sink from their weight, not float.
Correction: The Aqua-Lung scuba cylinder is not floating, it's lying on the cabin table's wood debris which is moving about, with water splashing all around it. Nothing reveals the scuba cylinder to be empty.
Corrected entry: When Quint is being attacked, his machete is in his left hand. When he's dragged into the water, it's in his right hand.
Correction: The machete does not change hands between shots. Quint is holding the machete in his left hand, then there's a closeup of the shark's snout, and then a closeup of Quint's face as he spits blood, and it's not until the fourth shot we see Quint holding the machete in his right hand, which he had time to do during those closeups.
Correction: The shooting star was not digitally placed into the scene where they show a medium shot of the boat on the water. Jaws contains no digitally altered scenes. THe shooting star is, in fact, genuine. It has been mentioned before and was just a stroke of luck that happened during filming.