Jaws

Factual error: Chief Brody is wearing his badge on the wrong side of his chest in every scene. That must have been deliberate for reasons only known to cast and/or crew. A sworn Peace Officer always wears his badge on the left side of his chest, symbolizing that it is over his heart. (00:18:25)

Garylorann

Factual error: In the scene when Brody and his deputy, Hendricks, are at the boat dock watching all the fishermen get into their boats, there are many shots when you see the town behind them. If you'll notice, there are no leaves on any of the trees, suggesting that it may be autumn. The events in the movie are supposed to occur during the 4th of July holiday. This mistake is also repeated when the mother of the boy comes to the dock and slaps Brody. (00:28:40 - 00:36:00)

Factual error: When Hooper sees the hole in the hull of Ben Gardner's boat, he uses his knife to pry out the shark tooth. The tooth is located at the bottom of the hole, with its flat root side stuck deep in the wood and its pointy side facing up. It is completely impossible for the shark's tooth to become wedged in the wood this way, while he takes a nice bite out of the wood hull. (00:49:15)

Super Grover

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: When Hooper uses the knife to pry to tooth out, it took very little effort, suggesting that the tooth wasn't wedged into that spot, but merely just resting in that spot.

The shark tooth was inserted into the wood by the prop crew with its flat root side down, which would have been impossible to have occurred during the attack on the hull. As to the statement that the tooth was "merely just resting in that spot" then Hooper would not have needed to use the blade to remove it from the wood, plus the fact that since it was underwater it would have floated away during the hours after the attack. But it did not float away, so it must have been at the very least snugly fit into the wood hull. Still impossible.

Super Grover

The original mistake says that the root of the tooth was embedded In the wood. Not possible since it should be the sharp end in the wood and the root showing on top (as described in the mistake).

Ssiscool

Factual error: When the woman is yelling that the shark is in the pond, it shows the shark's dorsal fin and tail fin sticking out of the water. The tail fin is moving straight. If the shark needs its tail to swim, wouldn't the tail fin be moving side to side? (01:01:00)

Factual error: Right after Quint shoots the third barrel into the shark, the shark swims towards the camera with his mouth open and you hear a roar. Sharks do not roar since they have no vocal cords. (01:43:55)

Factual error: After the shark tries to attack Brody on Orca, it swims backwards out of the cabin, just as it does in other shots. No shark can swim backwards. (01:58:05)

Factual error: Shooting an oxygen tank (or even an air tank) would not cause it to explode, rather the tank would just empty quickly, but it wouldn't blow up, no matter where the bullet hit.

Factual error: When Hooper examines the remains of the swimmer he lifts up what is left of the woman's left hand and forearm. The blood and flesh are a bright colour. Blood and flesh discolour very quickly on a dead body - these bits should be a lot darker and the flesh a lot paler and dark bluish in colour.

Jaws mistake picture

Continuity mistake: Quint embeds his machete into the wood at the side of the boat, but in the following wideshot the machete is gone. Then as Orca starts to move, when Hooper says, "He's chasing us, I don't believe it," the machete is back. But when the shark leaps onto the boat the machete is gone again, and then as the shark devours Quint the machete is back for him to grab, so he can valiantly stab the shark. (01:44:30)

Super Grover

More mistakes in Jaws

Hooper: You know those eight guys in the fantail launch out there? Well, none of 'em are gonna make it out of the harbor alive.

More quotes from Jaws

Trivia: Actor Robert Shaw took inspiration from and based his performance of Captain Quint on an eccentric, real-life Martha's Vineyard fisherman named Craig Kingsbury. Steven Spielberg was deeply impressed by Kingsbury, also, and actually cast him in the role of fisherman Ben Gardner. Beyond that, Kingsbury's colorful language around the set was often written into the dialogue of Captain Quint and Ben Gardner.

More trivia for Jaws

Question: When Quint and Hooper are comparing leg scars, they are sitting near each other with legs overlapping. The shot moves to Brody, then back to Quint and Hooper at the table, sitting apart. Quint is fastening his pants, buckling his buckle, and zipping his zipper. He obviously showed them something that was edited out of the movie. What was it?

Rick Neumann

Answer: Possibly a scar from having his appendix removed, I've been told.

The appendix shot is Brody - he is feeling inferior as the other two share tales of the sea and the only scar he has is from his appendix being removed.

Chosen answer: I just watched this on DVD. As the men were supposed to be comparing their body scars to one another, it appears that Quint had just shown one that was hidden beneath his pants. Whatever this was, it was edited out. When movie scenes are originally filmed, they are usually much longer in length than what is in the final version. After editing, some actions, dialogue, and character movements are deleted either to shorten the running time, for better storytelling flow, or the action was considered unnecessary to the scene. Also, film censorship at this time (mid-1970s) was far stricter than it is today, and it may have been that a review board deemed it inappropriate to have a character unzipping his pants in that manner and insisted it be removed from the final version.

raywest

I believe it was Brody, not Quint that was looking down his pants. And I believe that he was embarrassed that his (maybe appendix) scar was not as big or impressive as Quint and Hoopers.

Watch it again and as Quint is scooting back over to his spot he's fastening his pants, but no explanation is given.

I thought Brody had been shot as a cop in the big city (and that was why he took the job in a quiet, small town) and that in this scene he was looking at the scar and comparing it in his mind to the scars the other guys were showing but not saying anything to them about it.

Answer: After Brody looks down at his abdomen scar (probably an appendix scar) the camera switches back to Quint and Hooper. As Hooper starts talking, watch Quint. He is buttoning his pants and then struggles to zip them up. He leaves his belt unbuckled. I've seen Jaws more times than I can count - starting the year it premiered in 1975 - and I didn't notice this weirdness until a few years ago.

More questions & answers from Jaws

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