Continuity mistake: When the pump is given to Brody, Quint says, "Pump it out, Chief," and then Quint, with his long blue sleeves, thrusts his machete into the side of the boat. However, in the close-up Quint's arm has no sleeve whatsoever, as the machete meets the wood. (01:45:30)
Continuity mistake: While Quint leads the shark into the shallows, Brody asks, "Have you ever had a Great White do this?" and Hooper is beside the foremast holding one of the rungs, directly under the crow's nest. However, in the next shot, he stands at the edge of the bridge deck, beside the rigging. (01:47:25)
Continuity mistake: Hooper runs into the very thick black-smoke filled cabin to go below deck, but in the next interior shot the entire cabin is bright and there is hardly any smoke anywhere. (01:48:40)
Continuity mistake: While Brody is in the flooded cabin, before the shark joins him, in the shots facing the aft cabin wall a few things are very different. The wood paneling on the entire wall, the porthole window beside the door, the ceiling and the black fire extinguisher holder all differ, and the round fixture that was screwed into the wall is gone. Also, visible through the window, the permanent ladder is positioned differently and things hanging in front of the window differ from the previous shot. (01:49:00 - 01:57:40)
Continuity mistake: When Hooper gets his gear from below, after the explosion in the engine room, he runs to the deck passing Quint using the fire extinguisher. The camera pans from Brody, who stands on the bridge deck, to Hooper right below him. So where exactly is the tall iron ladder that leads up to the bridge deck in this shot? It should be behind Hooper, in front of the window, but it's gone. Don't fret, it's back in the following shots. (01:49:05)
Continuity mistake: When the shark rams Hooper's cage, Hooper loses the spear and when it is shown floating through the water, it hits the sea floor just before it cuts to the live shark footage. Following the live shark footage, the spear is shown hitting the sea floor again. (01:49:45)
Continuity mistake: During the shark's attack on Orca, the tall, large steam pipe clamped to the wall, beside the bridge deck ladder, actually differs from the steam pipe seen in previous shots. (01:49:55)
Continuity mistake: As Hooper climbs into the cage, in the wideshot the regulator hangs down in front of him. However, in the next overhead shot the hose lies across his chest, with the regulator thrown over his shoulder. (01:51:45)
Continuity mistake: After Hooper enters the shark cage, Brody takes Hooper's eyeglasses and places the left earpiece in his mouth, but when Hooper tells them to try and keep the shark off him till he's lowered, it's the right earpiece that's in Brody's mouth. (01:52:20)
Continuity mistake: When Hooper climbs into the cage he is not wearing fins, yet when he is lowered in the cage, in the very first shot underwater, he is wearing fins. In the following shots he is not wearing fins, but after the shark destroys the cage and he swims to the bottom of the ocean, he is wearing fins once again. (01:52:40)
Continuity mistake: When Hooper is lowered in the shark cage, his right hand holds a dart while the left holds a cage bar. But as soon as the angle changes, Hooper's dart changes hands as well. (01:52:55)
Continuity mistake: Throughout the film, Hooper wears on his left ring finger a gold ring with a distinctive design and a small black stone. When Hooper is lowered in the shark cage, underwater the ring design differs and the stone is a much larger oval shape. (01:53:05)
Continuity mistake: When the shark is swimming towards the shark cage, it shows the three barrels above the water. If Quint shot them in different parts of the shark's body, they would be spread out and in different places, but the barrels are stuck together. (01:53:25)
Continuity mistake: When Chief Brody and Hooper tie the ropes to the stern cleats, Quint shoots a harpoon under the shark's mouth. When Hooper is in the shark cage, look at the shark's mouth when it passes by. There is no harpoon there. (01:53:35)
Continuity mistake: When Hooper is lowered into the water in the shark cage, in the following shots the ring he is wearing on his left hand vanishes and reappears in a few shots, such as when he drops the poison shark dart. (01:53:50)
Continuity mistake: After the first shot of Hooper's shark dart falling, in the next shot of the shark swimming away, the cage top is wide open, yet in the previous shots and following close-up the top of the cage is closed, until Hooper actually opens it. (01:54:15)
Continuity mistake: When the shark slams into the cage and makes Hooper drop his weapon, it shows the underside of the shark; look at the its mouth. When the shark is about to slam into the cage again its mouth isn't the same size as it was before. You can tell that they used a real shark when they showed the underside. (01:54:15)
Continuity mistake: The damage to the bars of the cage and the top canister changes, and is quite different once Quint and Brody hoist it up. (01:55:05)
Continuity mistake: After the Orca breaks down for good, Hooper goes into the shark cage to try to kill the shark. The shark proceeds to completely trash the bars on one of the sides. After Hooper escapes to the sea bottom, the shark is attacking the top of the cage, but the bars are now intact. [Extra info: The scene with the bars intact actually shows a very real shark that got caught in the line(s) holding the intact cage. When they raised the cage it was still caught in the line(s). They inserted this footage after the scenes with Hooper and Bruce where the cage got trashed.] (01:55:20)
Continuity mistake: When Quint is telling Brody and Hooper about his body loses during the past, he pulls out a partial denture. In the final scene on the Orca, Quint is shown without this denture, but when he is being eaten by the shark and screams in pain, his teeth are complete again. (01:56:20 - 01:57:20)
Chosen answer: As mentioned in the movie, the posion was in the needle and the shark's hide was too tough for the needle to penetrate. Hooper had to go in the water so that he could get the needle into the shark's mouth, where the flesh was less tough.
Kevin Howard