Amity Island Welcomes You: 50 Years of Jaws

1. You’ve probably heard that the on-screen shark—bearer of those intimidating titular jaws—was nicknamed Bruce. 

But did you know that Bruce was not one, not two, but three pneumatic sharks, named after Spielberg’s lawyer, Bruce Ramer? And Bruce the Shark(s) turned out to be quite the diva: The complicated, unwieldy props had to be moved by truck and required more than 14 operators per shark.

In the end, the unholy trinity of Bruces accounted for a third of the film’s bloated (but still minuscule by modern blockbuster standards!) $9 million budget.

2. Another reason for the film’s budgetary woes was due to the fact that it was the first major motion picture to be shot on the ocean, presenting unique challenges that forced cinematographer Bill Butler to innovate all new equipment for underwater shooting. Spielberg has said that they spent about 4 hours out of their 12-hour day actually filming, and that on particularly challenging days, they wouldn’t complete any scenes at all. Production went overboard on time as well as budget: The shoot took 159 days instead of the projected 55. 

3. Spielberg, who at the time was a largely untested young director, managed to clinch the job in part because he highlighted the parallels he perceived between Jaws and his own made-for-TV movie Duel, in which a traveling salesman is ruthlessly pursued by a big-rig truck.

He went on to reference Duel directly in Jaws by reusing the sound of (spoiler alert!) the truck being destroyed in Bruce the shark’s explosive death scene.

4. While Benchley himself did several initial passes of the screenplay, Spielberg eventually enlisted Carl Gottlieb to inject the script with a little humor. He was still finessing the dialogue as shooting was underway, and he didn’t hesitate to draw inspiration from real life. 

Some of the dialogue was improvised and/or based on actual lines and quips said by the actors at informal dinners during production, adding a natural humor and authentic texture to the film.

5.  Anyone who’s ever seen Jaws surely remembers the film’s biggest jump scare: The shocking underwater discovery of Ben Gardner’s body.

This blood-curdling moment was actually personally financed by Spielberg, who devised it after a test screening.

Yes, one of the most traumatizing scares in horror history cost just $3,000 and was filmed in editor Verna Field’s backyard swimming pool in Encino.

6. The first time composer John Williams played Spielberg the theme for the film—those two sinister notes—the director assumed he was joking.

But Williams himself definitely had the last laugh: Jaws boasts what is arguably the most iconic film score of all time. What other movie can be called immediately to mind with just two simple notes?

You don’t even have to hear them. To wit: Dun-dun.

Yikes, right?!

It’s enough to send any hapless swimmer scrambling for the shore. 

7. In Benchley’s book, Richard Dreyfuss’ character, Matt Hooper, (spoiler alert!) dies; not so in Spielberg’s film version. But it wasn’t Dreyfuss’ charms that saved him.

Instead, Hooper survived because Spielberg had access to footage of an empty shark cage being destroyed by a real great white, which he wanted to use in the film.

Since the empty cage implies that Hooper somehow escapes, his grisly end had to be scrapped and reworked as a hasty retreat.

8. Spielberg wasn’t present on the set when the final scene of the shark exploding was filmed because he thought the crew—tired of the long hours and difficult shoot—would take the opportunity to dunk him underwater directly after wrapping.

After the massive success of Jaws, this practice of avoiding the set on his films’ final day of shooting became a superstitious tradition for Spielberg.

9. Jaws was the very first bona fide summer blockbuster, pioneering several practices that went on to become de rigueur for big-budget summer releases for decades to come—namely, the television marketing blitz (including TV commercials and promotional interviews) and the wide release.

Before Jaws, which debuted on over 400 screens in the U.S. and Canada, wide releases were mainly reserved for “low quality” exploitation movies, while “good” movies had a slower rollout. 

10. The terror was real: Not only did Jaws inspire a number of unfortunate shark-hunting crusades—so much so that animal welfare groups had to reassure the public that sharks were relatively harmless and should be left alone—it also induced a case of verified “cinematic neurosis” in one teenage viewer, who exhibited PTSD-like symptoms that lasted long after she’d left the theater.

 Later, Jaws was studied alongside The Exorcist as an example of the effects of cinematic stressors on audiences.

Ready to test your own capacity for stress? Celebrate 50 years of Jaws when the new 4K UHD Blu-ray, including new bonus materials, hits on June 17, 2025. Dun-dun.

Featured still from “Jaws” via Zanuck/Brown Company