Jaws 2
Encyclopedia
Jaws 2 is a 1978 thriller film and the first sequel to Steven Spielberg
's Jaws
(1975), which is based on Peter Benchley
's novel of the same name
. Directed by Jeannot Szwarc
, it stars Roy Scheider
as Police Chief Martin Brody, who must deal with another great white shark
terrorizing the waters of Amity Island, a fictional seaside resort.
Like the first film, the production of Jaws 2 was troubled. The original director, John D. Hancock, proved to be unsuitable for an action film and was replaced by Szwarc. Scheider, who only reprised his role to end a contractual issue with Universal, was also unhappy during production and had several heated exchanges with Szwarc.
Jaws 2 remained on Varietys list of top ten box office hits of all time until the mid-1990s, and was the highest-grossing sequel in history until 1980. The film's tagline
, "Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water...," has become one of the most famous in movie history and has been parodied and homaged several times. It is widely regarded as the best Jaws sequel.
, but not before one of the divers' camera gets a photo of the shark's eye. The shark later prowls the coastal waters of Amity Island, killing a female water skier. The female driver of the speedboat tries to defend herself by first throwing a gasoline tank at the shark (accidentally spilling some on herself) and then igniting the fuel with a flare gun
. The fire ignites the gas tank and the speedboat explodes, killing the driver and leaving the shark heavily scarred on the right side of his head.
In addition to these incidents, a dead killer whale is beached at a nearby lighthouse with large wounds all over its body, which Police Chief Martin Brody (Roy Scheider
) suggests were caused by a great white shark. Once again, Mayor Vaughn (Murray Hamilton
) doesn't share Brody's belief that the town has another shark problem and warns him not to do something hasty. Later, Brody spots a section of a ruined speedboat bobbing in the surf just off the beach. When he goes to retrieve it, he encounters the burnt remains of the female speedboat driver.
Brody angrily grounds his son Mike (Mark Gruner) because of his reluctance to find a summer job, preferring to go sailing every day, and gives him a job at the beach. The following day, while Brody is in an observation tower, he sees a large shadow produced by a school of bluefish
, which he mistakes for a shark. In his haste, Brody orders everyone out of the water and fires his gun, causing a panic. Later that evening, he receives the photo of the shark's eye, taken by one of the attacked divers. Brody shows it to Vaughn and his Townsmen, but they refuse to accept the evidence put in front of them. Len Peterson (Joseph Mascolo
) (who has built a new resort in Amity to attract people) and the town council fire Brody for the beach incident, with Mayor Vaughn being the only one to vote against dismissal, and promote Deputy Hendricks (Jeffrey Kramer
) to Brody's position.
The next morning, Mike sneaks out and goes sailing with his friends, but has to take his young brother Sean (Mark Gilpin) along to stop him telling his parents about Mike's trip. Later, they go past a group of divers led by Tom Andrews (Barry Coe
). Tom encounters the shark minutes after entering the water to catch lobsters and escapes, but suffers an embolism
due to rushing to the surface too fast. Tina (Ann Dusenberry
) and Eddie (Gary Dubin
) later encounter the shark when he smashes into their sailboat, devouring Eddie and leaving Tina terrified and alone.
Brody and his wife Ellen (Lorraine Gary
) find the panicked diver being put into an ambulance, and Brody suspects that something must have scared him to make him come up so fast. Hendricks informs Brody that Mike has gone out sailing to the lighthouse with his friends, so Brody insists on taking the police launch to rescue them, with Ellen and Hendricks both joining him. They find Tina's boat, with Tina hiding in the hull, who confirms Brody's suspicions about the shark in the area. Hendricks and Ellen take Tina ashore in a passing boat, while Brody continues to search for the teenagers using the police launch.
All seems well with the other teenagers, until the shark appears, smashing into one of their sail boats, causing panic and their boats to collide with each other. Mike is knocked unconscious and is pulled out of the water just as the shark appears; two friends take him back to the shore for help. The rest of the teens remain floating on the wreckage of tangled boats, drifting out toward the open sea. A Harbor Patrol marine helicopter arrives and a line is rigged to tow the boats to shore, but before the pilot can tow them, the shark attacks the chopper causing it to crash into the water. Sean also falls into the water, but is quickly saved by Marge (Martha Swatek). As Marge tries to get back into the boat, her hands slip on the wet hull, and she falls back into the water. The shark approaches and devours Marge. Back at mainland as Tina was sent to the hospital, Ellen berated Peterson for getting Brody fired and denying him about the shark's presence.
Brody encounters Mike, who informs his father about the situation. Sean and his friends are drifting on the wreckage toward Cable Junction, a small rocky island housing an electrical relay station (with the open sea beyond it). Brody quickly finds the teenagers, but the shark attacks again, which causes Brody to run his boat aground on the rocks. Brody tries to tie a rope line, but snags an underwater power cable instead. Most of the teenagers are tossed into the water during the shark's next attack, and they swim to safety on Cable Junction, but the shark injures Lucy. Using an inflatable raft, Brody gets the shark's attention by pounding the power line with an oar, and gets the shark to bite the power cable. The plan succeeds, the shark gets electrocuted and sinks to the bottom of the sea, dead. Brody collects Sean and Jackie and paddles over to Cable Junction, to await rescue with the other teenagers.
and other sequels meant that the producers were under pressure to deliver a bigger and better shark. They realized that someone else would produce the film if they didn't, and they preferred to be in charge of the project themselves.
In October 1975, Steven Spielberg
told the San Francisco Film Festival that "making a sequel to anything is just a cheap carny trick" and that he did not even respond to the producers when they asked him to direct Jaws 2. He told the audience that the planned plot was to involve the sons of Quint and Brody hunting a new shark. Brown said that Spielberg did not want to direct the sequel because he felt that he had done the "definitive shark movie".
Despite Spielberg's rejection the studio went ahead with plans to make the sequel leading to an arduous 18 month pre-production process. Howard Sackler
, who had contributed to the script of the original movie but chose not to be credited, was charged with writing the first draft. He originally proposed a prequel
based on the sinking of the USS Indianapolis
, the story relayed by Quint in the first film.
Although Universal Studios
President Sid Sheinberg thought Sackler's treatment for the film was intriguing, the executive rejected the idea. On Sackler's recommendation, theatre director John D. Hancock
was chosen to helm the picture. Sackler later felt betrayed when Dorothy Tristan, Hancock's wife, was invited to rewrite his script.
The film, under Hancock's direction and Tristan's writing, had originally a different tone and premise than what would eventually be seen in the final film. The two had envisioned Amity as a sort of ghost-town when the film opened with several businesses shuttered and the overall economy of the island in ruins due to the events portrayed in the original film. The new resort and condos built on the island by developer Len Peterson were to help celebrate its rebirth giving the island's economy a much needed boost. Tristan had borrowed a subplot from the original Jaws novel and from a discarded early draft of the original film, in which Amity officials were in debt to the mafia. Both Mayor Vaughn and Len Peterson were anxious for the new island resort to be a success not only to revive Amity but to pay back loans from the mob that helped build it, thus leading to Vaughn's and Peterson's ignoring of Brody's warning. Tristan and Hancock felt this treatment would lead to more character development that would make the overall story that much more believable.
Hancock began filming the movie in June 1977. However, after nearly a month of filming Universal and MCA executives disliked the dark subtle tone that the film was taking and wanted a more lighthearted and action oriented story. Additionally Hancock ran into trouble with MCA executive Sid Sheinberg. Sheinberg suggested to Hancock and Tristan that his wife Lorraine Gary
"should go out on a boat and help to rescue the kids." When told of the idea, Richard D. Zanuck
replied, "Over my dead body." The next draft of the Jaws 2 screenplay was turned in with Gary not going out to sea. Hancock says that this, and his later firing of another actress who turned out to be the girlfriend of a Universal executive, contributed to his own dismissal from the film.
Hancock began to feel the pressure of directing his first epic adventure film "with only three film credits, and all small-scale dramas". The producers were unhappy with his material, and on a Saturday evening in June 1977, after a meeting with the producers and Universal executives, the director was fired. He and his wife left for Rome
and production was shut down for a few weeks. The couple had been involved in the film for eighteen months. Hancock blamed his departure on the mechanical shark, telling a newspaper that it still couldn't swim or bite after a year and a half; "You get a couple of shots and [the shark] breaks." Echoing the production of the first film, Carl Gottlieb
was enlisted to further revise the script, adding humor and reducing some of the violence. It cost the producers more money to hire Gottlieb to do the rewrite than it would have if they had hired him in the first place.
At this point, Spielberg considered returning to direct the sequel. Over the Bicentennial weekend Spielberg hammered out a screenplay based on Quint's Indianapolis speech. Because of his contract for Close Encounters of the Third Kind
, however, he would not be able to film for a further year, a gap too long for the producers. Production designer Joe Alves
(who would direct Jaws 3-D
) and Verna Fields
(who had been promoted to vice-president at Universal after her acclaimed editing on the original film) proposed that they co-direct it. The request was declined by the Directors Guild of America
, partly because they would not allow a DGA member to be replaced by someone who was not one of its members, and partly because they, in the wake of events on the set of The Outlaw Josey Wales
, had instituted a ban on any cast or crew members taking over as director during production of a film. The reins were eventually handed to Jeannot Szwarc
, best known for the movie Bug
and Night Gallery
and whom Alves knew from the Night Gallery days. Szwarc recommenced production by filming the complicated waterskier scene, giving Gottlieb some time to write. He reinstated the character of Deputy Hendricks, played by Jeffrey Kramer
, who had been missing from the original script. Many of the teenagers were sacked, with the remaining roles developed.
Three sharks were built for the film. The first was the "platform shark", also referred to as the "luxurious shark". Special mechanical effects supervisor Bob Mattey and Roy Arbogast used the same body mold used for the shark in the original film. The original "Bruce" sharks rotted behind sheds on the lower lot of Universal Studios, the only pieces that were salvageable were the chromoly tube frames. Mattey's design was much more complicated and ambitious than the original film. The same (male) "Bruce" body was used; even though JAWS 2's shark is described as female. A brand new head was also sculpted by sculptor Chris Mueller which made use of an all new mouth mechanism, one which incorporated jowls to disguise the pinching of the cheeks that had proven to be a problem with the original "Bruce" shark. The sharks were known as Bruce Two (after the original sharks), but on set they were referred to as "Fidel" and "Harold", after David Brown's Beverly Hills lawyer. The other 'sharks' were a fin and a full shark, both of which could be pulled by boats. "Cable Junction", the island shown in the climax of the movie, was a floating barge. This was created in order to have the effects platform positioned as close to the island as possible. Like the first film, footage of real sharks filmed by Australian divers Ron & Valerie Taylor
were used for movement shots that could not be convincingly achieved using the mechanical sharks.
Although the first film was commended for leaving the shark to the imagination until two thirds of the way through, Szwarc felt that they should show it as much as possible because the "first image of it coming out of the water" could never be repeated. Szwarc believed that the reduction of the first's Hitchcockian
suspense was inevitable because the audience already knew what the shark looked like from the final third of the first film. Reviewers have since commented that there was no way that they were ever going to duplicate the effectiveness of the original. The filmmakers gave the new shark a more menacing look by scarring it in the early boat explosion.
Like the first film, shooting on water proved challenging. Scheider said that they were "always contending with tides, surf and winds [...] jellyfish, sharks, waterspouts and hurricane warnings." After spending hours anchoring the sailboats, the wind would change as they were ready to shoot, blowing the sails in the wrong direction. The corrosive effect of the saltwater damaged some equipment, including the metal parts in the sharks.
Susan Ford
, daughter of US president Gerald Ford
, was hired to shoot publicity photographs. Many of these appeared in Ray Loynd's Jaws 2 Log, a book documenting the production the film in the same way as Carl Gottlieb had for the first film.
was again used as the location for the town scenes. Although some residents guarded their privacy, many islanders welcomed the money that the company was bringing. Shortly after the production arrived in June 1977, local newspaper the Grapevine wrote:
Many residents enjoyed being cast as extras. Some people, however, were less pleased by the presence of the film crew and refused to cooperate. Only one drugstore allowed its windows to be boarded up for the moody look that Hancock wanted. "Universal Go Home" T-shirts began appearing on the streets in mid-June.
The majority of filming was at Navarre Beach
in Florida
, because of the warm weather and the water's depth being appropriate for the shark platform. The company was at this location from August 1 until December 22, 1977. The production "was a boost to the local economy because local boaters, extras and stand-ins or doubles were hired. Universal brought in actors, directors, producers and their wives, camera and crew people who needed housing, food and clothing for the movie. Services were needed for laundry, dry-cleaning and recreation." Navarre's Holiday Inn "Holidome" was used as the film's headquarters, with the ground floor converted into production offices, and some of the Gulf-front suites remodelled for David Brown and Roy Scheider. Universal rented 100 of the hotel's 200 rooms, spending $1 million. Boats and parts for their maintenance were purchased from local businesses. One proprietor said that he sold "Universal approximately $400,000 worth of boats and equipment".
Cable Junction Island was built on a barge so that the huge mechanism of the platform shark could go close to, or even underneath, it. On one occasion the set broke loose from its anchorage and had to be rescued as it drifted towards Cuba
. Real hammerhead shark
s circled the teen actors during the filming of one shot. Because the characters they were playing were meant to be in distress, the crew (filming from a distance) did not realize that the actors were genuinely calling for help.
The interior shots of the teen hang-out where they play pinball
were filmed in the original location of the Hog's Breath Saloon on Okaloosa Island
. This restaurant later relocated to Destin, Florida
as its original building was susceptible to hurricane damage. The production company had to seek dredge and fill permits from the State of Florida
's Department of Environmental Regulation to sink the revised platform that controlled the shark on the sea bottom.
Principal photography ended three days before Christmas 1977, on the Choctawhatchee Bay
, near Destin, Florida
. The actors had to put ice cubes in their mouths to prevent their breath showing on camera. The final sequence to be filmed was the shark being electrocuted on the cable. In mid-January the crew reconverged in Hollywood with some of the teenage actors for five weeks of post-production photography.
Jaws 2 cost $30 million to produce, over three times more than the original. David Brown says that they did not budget the film "because Universal would never have given a green light to a $30 million budget in those days." The Marine Division Head for Universal on location, Philip Kingry, says that "It cost approximately $80,000 per day to make that movie." When Kingry asked Brown what his budget was, the producer responded, "We're not wasteful, but we're spending the profit from Jaws, and it will take what it takes."
reluctantly returned to reprise his role as Martin Brody. He had quit the role of Steven Pushkov in The Deer Hunter
two weeks before the start of filming because of "creative differences". Universal used Scheider's failure to fulfill this contractual obligation to force him to appear in Jaws 2. The actor heavily resisted the film, claiming that there was nothing new to create and that people would be watching the film to see the shark, not him. According to his biographer, Scheider was so desperate to be relieved from the role that he "pleaded insanity and went crazy in The Beverly Hills Hotel". He made Marathon Man
and Sorcerer
to put as much time as he could between the two Jaws films. However, he was given an attractive financial package for appearing in Jaws 2; he quadrupled his base salary from the first film, and negotiated points (a percentage of the film's net profits). The Star newspaper reported that Scheider received $500,000 for 12 weeks work, plus $35,000 for each additional week that the schedule ran over.
Despite his reluctance, Scheider pledged to do the best job that he could, wanting to make Brody believable. However, the atmosphere was tense on the set, and he often argued with director Szwarc. On one occasion, Scheider complained (in front of extras) that Szwarc was wasting time with technical issues and the extras whilst ignoring the principal actors. A meeting was called with the two, David Brown and Verna Fields, in which Scheider and Szwarc were encouraged to settle their differences. The discussion became heated and a physical fight broke out, which Brown and Fields broke up. The rift was also articulated in written correspondence. In a letter to Szwarc, Scheider wrote that "working with Jeannot Szwarc is knowing he will never say he is sorry or ever admitting he overlooked something. Well, enough of that shit for me!" He requested an apology from the director for not consulting him. Szwarc's reply focused upon completing the film to the "best possible" standard.
Many extras were recruited from Gulf Breeze High School
. The students were paid $3 per hour, well above the minimum wage at the time, and revelled in being able to miss classes. Casting director Shari Rhodes, requested members of the Gulf Breeze band performed as the Amity High Band, seen in an early scene in the film showing the opening of the Holiday Inn Amity Shores "Amity Scholarship Fund Benefit". "The GBHS band consisted of approximately 100 members, and band director John Henley chose 28 student musicians, including the section of the band known as Henley's Honkers." Universal scheduled their involvement for mid-afternoons to prevent them missing too much time in school. Universal made a contribution of $3,500 to the school and the band for their part in the film. Several other GBHS students were hired as stand-ins or doubles for the teenage actors to appear in the water scenes and to maintain and sail the boats.
returned to score Jaws 2 after winning an Academy Award for Original Music Score
for his work on the first film. Williams says that it was assumed by everyone that "the music would come back also and be part of the cast ... it would require new music, certainly, but the signature music of Jaws should be used as well". He compares this to "the great tradition" for repeating musical themes in Hollywood serials such as Roy Rogers
and The Lone Ranger
. In addition to the familiar themes, director Szwarc says Williams also composed a "youthful counterpoint to the shark that is always around when the kids are sailing or going out to sea. It was very inventive".
Szwarc said that the music for the sequel should be "more complex because it was a more complex film". Williams says that this score is broader, allowing him to make more use of the orchestra, and use longer notes, and "fill the space" created by the director. Williams used a larger ensemble than for the first film, and "the orchestral palette may have been broader or had longer notes". Delays in shooting meant that Williams was forced to start working on the score before the film was completed. Szwarc discussed the film with the composer, showing him edited sequences and storyboards. The director praises Williams in being able to work under such difficult conditions. Critic Mike Beek suggests these time constraints enabled Williams "to create themes based on ideas and suggestions, rather than a locked down print."
Critics have praised Williams' score, comparing it favorably to the original. Williams "uses a few basic elements of the original—the obligatory shark motif, for one—and takes the music off in some new and interesting directions." The score is "more disturbing in places" than the original, and "Williams fashion some new and hugely memorable out to sea adventure music." Because Jaws 2 "isn't a film that requires subtlety ... Williams pulls out all the stops to make it as exciting and hair raising as possible."
According to the liner notes
on the soundtrack album, Williams' "sense of the dramatic, coupled with his exquisite musical taste and knowledge of the orchestra definitely stamp this score as truly one of his best." It is "brilliantly performed by a mini-symphony made up of the finest instrumentalists to be found anywhere." Mike Beek makes positive comments about the film, saying that "the music certainly elevates it to a level it would otherwise never have achieved." The cover of the album features a different image than the main theatrical poster; instead of the water skier sequence, the album depicts the scene with Eddie and Tina.
in 1979. It opened in 640 theaters to a $9,866,023 gross, ranking first. The domestic gross for its first release was $81,766,007, making it the sixth highest domestic grossing film of 1978. It eventually surpassed the $100 million mark with further reissues, with a final gross of $102,922,376. It was also the third highest grossing movie worldwide in 1978 with $187,884,007. Its current worldwide gross stands at $208,900,376, so that it stayed on Varietys list of top ten box office hits of all time until the mid-nineties.
Jaws 2 inspired much more merchandising and sponsors than the first film. Products included sets of trading card
s from Topps
and Baker's bread, paper cups from Coca-Cola
, beach towels, a souvenir program, shark tooth necklaces, coloring and activity books, and a model kit of Brody's truck. A novelization by Hank Searls
, based on an earlier draft of the screenplay by Sackler and Tristan, was released, as well as Ray Loynd's The Jaws 2 Log, an account of the film's production.
The film has met with mixed reviews, though it is widely regarded as the best of the Jaws sequels. On the film's Rotten Tomatoes
listing, 56% of critics gave the film positive reviews. DVD Authority says "After this one, the other Jaws movies seemed to just not be as good. One review says: "it's obviously not a patch on Spielberg's classic, but it's about as good as could be hoped for, with some excellent sequences, almost worthy of the original, several genuine shocks, a different enough story and some pretty decent characters." The performances of Scheider, Gary and Hamilton are particularly praised. George Morris for the Texas Monthly
preferred Jaws 2 over the original because it is "less insidious in its methods of manipulation" and "because director Jeannot Szwarc streamlines the terror ... By crosscutting among the teenagers, Scheider, and the officials' efforts to rescue them, Szwarc works up enough suspense to keep the adrenaline going." However, Morris' review is not entirely complimentary. He would have preferred the shark to have been seen less, positing "producers and audiences alike seem to have forgotten that the greatest suspense derives from the unseen and the unknown, and that the imagination is capable of conceiving far worse than the materialization of a mere mechanical monster." Similarly, John Simon
felt that the "shark's waning is caused by a decline in direction: Jeannot Szwarc has none of Steven Spielberg's manipulative cleverness. For one thing, he allows us close and disarming close-ups of the shark almost immediately..."Simon praises Scheider and Hamilton, but is less complimentary about Gary. A reviewer for the BBC complained that the additional screen time awarded to the shark makes it "seems far less terrifying than its almost mystical contemporary". The Radio Times
was not pleased with Jaws 2, calling it a "pale imitation of the classic original" and stating that "the suspense comes unglued because the film floats in all-too-familiar waters. You just know how everyone is going to react — from the stars to the director, and even the mechanical shark."
Although many critics identify some flaws, often comparing Szwarc negatively to Spielberg, they say that "this sequel does have some redeeming qualities going for it that make it a good movie in its own right". The presence of Richard Dreyfuss
and Robert Shaw
are missed, especially since the teenage characters are labeled "largely annoying 'Afterschool Special' archetypes" who are "irritating and incessantly screaming" and "don't make for very sympathetic victims". Because of its emphasis upon the teenage cast some critics have compared the film to the slasher film
s that were rising in popularity at that time.
The film's tagline
, "Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water...", has become one of the most famous in film history. Andrew J. Kuehn, who developed the trailer for the original Jaws, is credited with coining the phrase. It has been parodied in numerous films; most notably the tagline of the 1996 feature film adaptation
of the television series, Flipper
, "This summer it's finally safe to go back in the water."
and Laserdisc
, following its 1980 theatrical re-release in theaters. In the 1990s, MCA-Universal Home Video reissued it on both formats. The film received a DVD
release on May 22, 2001. Many reviewers praised it for the quantity of special features, with DVD Authority asserting that it had "more than a lot of titles labeled as 'special edition
' discs". It includes a 45-minute documentary produced by Laurent Bouzereau, who is responsible for many of the documentaries about Universal films. Actor Keith Gordon
reminisces in a short feature, and Szwarc explains the phonetic problem with its original French title, Les Dents de la mer 2, as it sounded like it ended with the expletive merde (mer deux). This was combated by using the suffix Part 2.
The disc also contains a variety of deleted scene
s. These scenes show the animosity between Brody and his wife's boss, and the selectmen voting to fire Brody; the Mayor (Murray Hamilton
) is the only person to vote to save him. These scenes were cut because they were slowing the pace of the film. Also included is footage of the shark attacking the coast guard pilot underwater after his helicopter had capsized. The scene was cut because of the struggle with the ratings board to acquire a PG certificate.
Although the audio was presented in Dolby Digital
2.0 mono, a reviewer for Film Freak Central comments that "Williams' score often sounds deceptively stereophonic". The BBC, though, suggest that the mix "really demands the added bass that a 5.1
effort could have lent it".
Steven Spielberg
Steven Allan Spielberg KBE is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, video game designer, and studio entrepreneur. In a career of more than four decades, Spielberg's films have covered many themes and genres. Spielberg's early science-fiction and adventure films were seen as an...
's Jaws
Jaws (film)
Jaws is a 1975 American horror-thriller film directed by Steven Spielberg and based on Peter Benchley's novel of the same name. In the story, the police chief of Amity Island, a fictional summer resort town, tries to protect beachgoers from a giant man-eating great white shark by closing the beach,...
(1975), which is based on Peter Benchley
Peter Benchley
Peter Bradford Benchley was an American author, best known for his novel Jaws and its subsequent film adaptation, the latter co-written by Benchley and directed by Steven Spielberg...
's novel of the same name
Jaws (novel)
Jaws is a 1974 novel by Peter Benchley. It tells the story of a great white shark that preys upon a small resort town, and the voyage of three men to kill it....
. Directed by Jeannot Szwarc
Jeannot Szwarc
Jeannot Szwarc is a French Film/TV Director.Szwarc was born in Paris. He began working as a director in American television during the 1960s, in particular on Ironside...
, it stars Roy Scheider
Roy Scheider
Roy Richard Scheider was an American actor. He was best known for his leading role as police chief Martin C...
as Police Chief Martin Brody, who must deal with another great white shark
Great white shark
The great white shark, scientific name Carcharodon carcharias, also known as the great white, white pointer, white shark, or white death, is a large lamniform shark found in coastal surface waters in all major oceans. It is known for its size, with the largest individuals known to have approached...
terrorizing the waters of Amity Island, a fictional seaside resort.
Like the first film, the production of Jaws 2 was troubled. The original director, John D. Hancock, proved to be unsuitable for an action film and was replaced by Szwarc. Scheider, who only reprised his role to end a contractual issue with Universal, was also unhappy during production and had several heated exchanges with Szwarc.
Jaws 2 remained on Varietys list of top ten box office hits of all time until the mid-1990s, and was the highest-grossing sequel in history until 1980. The film's tagline
Tagline
A tagline is a variant of a branding slogan typically used in marketing materials and advertising. The idea behind the concept is to create a memorable phrase that will sum up the tone and premise of a brand or product , or to reinforce the audience's memory of a product...
, "Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water...," has become one of the most famous in movie history and has been parodied and homaged several times. It is widely regarded as the best Jaws sequel.
Plot
Two divers are photographing the wreck of the Orca, Quint's boat from the first film, and are suddenly attacked and killed by a large great white sharkGreat white shark
The great white shark, scientific name Carcharodon carcharias, also known as the great white, white pointer, white shark, or white death, is a large lamniform shark found in coastal surface waters in all major oceans. It is known for its size, with the largest individuals known to have approached...
, but not before one of the divers' camera gets a photo of the shark's eye. The shark later prowls the coastal waters of Amity Island, killing a female water skier. The female driver of the speedboat tries to defend herself by first throwing a gasoline tank at the shark (accidentally spilling some on herself) and then igniting the fuel with a flare gun
Flare gun
A flare gun is a firearm that launches flares. It is typically used for signalling, as distress signalling, at sea or from the ground to aircraft...
. The fire ignites the gas tank and the speedboat explodes, killing the driver and leaving the shark heavily scarred on the right side of his head.
In addition to these incidents, a dead killer whale is beached at a nearby lighthouse with large wounds all over its body, which Police Chief Martin Brody (Roy Scheider
Roy Scheider
Roy Richard Scheider was an American actor. He was best known for his leading role as police chief Martin C...
) suggests were caused by a great white shark. Once again, Mayor Vaughn (Murray Hamilton
Murray Hamilton
Murray Hamilton was an American stage, screen, and television actor who appeared in such memorable films as The Hustler, The Graduate and Jaws.-Early life:...
) doesn't share Brody's belief that the town has another shark problem and warns him not to do something hasty. Later, Brody spots a section of a ruined speedboat bobbing in the surf just off the beach. When he goes to retrieve it, he encounters the burnt remains of the female speedboat driver.
Brody angrily grounds his son Mike (Mark Gruner) because of his reluctance to find a summer job, preferring to go sailing every day, and gives him a job at the beach. The following day, while Brody is in an observation tower, he sees a large shadow produced by a school of bluefish
Bluefish
The bluefish , called tailor in Australia, is a species of popular marine gamefish found in all climates. It is the sole species of the Pomatomidae family....
, which he mistakes for a shark. In his haste, Brody orders everyone out of the water and fires his gun, causing a panic. Later that evening, he receives the photo of the shark's eye, taken by one of the attacked divers. Brody shows it to Vaughn and his Townsmen, but they refuse to accept the evidence put in front of them. Len Peterson (Joseph Mascolo
Joseph Mascolo
Joseph Mascolo is an American musician and dramatic actor. During his long career, he has acted in numerous motion pictures and television series. He is best known for playing Stefano DiMera, a role he originated in 1982 on NBC's long running Days of our Lives.-Early life:Mascolo was born and...
) (who has built a new resort in Amity to attract people) and the town council fire Brody for the beach incident, with Mayor Vaughn being the only one to vote against dismissal, and promote Deputy Hendricks (Jeffrey Kramer
Jeffrey Kramer
Jeffrey Kramer is an American film and television actor and film producer.-Life and career:Kramer was born in New York City and grew up in Teaneck, New Jersey, graduating from Teaneck High School with the Class of 1963. He made his first appearance on the TV series Barney Miller starring in the...
) to Brody's position.
The next morning, Mike sneaks out and goes sailing with his friends, but has to take his young brother Sean (Mark Gilpin) along to stop him telling his parents about Mike's trip. Later, they go past a group of divers led by Tom Andrews (Barry Coe
Barry Coe
Barry S. Coe is an American actor who appeared in film and on television from 1956-1978. Many of his motion pictures parts were minor, but he co-starred in one series, Follow the Sun, which aired on ABC during the 1961-1962 season, and also played the recognizable "Mr...
). Tom encounters the shark minutes after entering the water to catch lobsters and escapes, but suffers an embolism
Embolism
In medicine, an embolism is the event of lodging of an embolus into a narrow capillary vessel of an arterial bed which causes a blockage in a distant part of the body.Embolization is...
due to rushing to the surface too fast. Tina (Ann Dusenberry
Ann Dusenberry
Ann Dusenberry is an American actress from Tucson, Arizona known primarily for a variety of television series and made-for-TV movie roles in the 1970s, 80s and early 90s.-Acting career:...
) and Eddie (Gary Dubin
Gary Dubin
Gary Dubin is an actor who portrayed Punky Lazaar, a friend of Danny's on The Partridge Family. He also voiced Toulouse in the UK version of The Aristocats in 1970 and played a person who was eaten by the shark in Jaws 2.He has also acted in many other projects as well...
) later encounter the shark when he smashes into their sailboat, devouring Eddie and leaving Tina terrified and alone.
Brody and his wife Ellen (Lorraine Gary
Lorraine Gary
Lorraine Gary is an American actress best known for her role as Ellen Brody in Jaws, Jaws 2, and Jaws: The Revenge...
) find the panicked diver being put into an ambulance, and Brody suspects that something must have scared him to make him come up so fast. Hendricks informs Brody that Mike has gone out sailing to the lighthouse with his friends, so Brody insists on taking the police launch to rescue them, with Ellen and Hendricks both joining him. They find Tina's boat, with Tina hiding in the hull, who confirms Brody's suspicions about the shark in the area. Hendricks and Ellen take Tina ashore in a passing boat, while Brody continues to search for the teenagers using the police launch.
All seems well with the other teenagers, until the shark appears, smashing into one of their sail boats, causing panic and their boats to collide with each other. Mike is knocked unconscious and is pulled out of the water just as the shark appears; two friends take him back to the shore for help. The rest of the teens remain floating on the wreckage of tangled boats, drifting out toward the open sea. A Harbor Patrol marine helicopter arrives and a line is rigged to tow the boats to shore, but before the pilot can tow them, the shark attacks the chopper causing it to crash into the water. Sean also falls into the water, but is quickly saved by Marge (Martha Swatek). As Marge tries to get back into the boat, her hands slip on the wet hull, and she falls back into the water. The shark approaches and devours Marge. Back at mainland as Tina was sent to the hospital, Ellen berated Peterson for getting Brody fired and denying him about the shark's presence.
Brody encounters Mike, who informs his father about the situation. Sean and his friends are drifting on the wreckage toward Cable Junction, a small rocky island housing an electrical relay station (with the open sea beyond it). Brody quickly finds the teenagers, but the shark attacks again, which causes Brody to run his boat aground on the rocks. Brody tries to tie a rope line, but snags an underwater power cable instead. Most of the teenagers are tossed into the water during the shark's next attack, and they swim to safety on Cable Junction, but the shark injures Lucy. Using an inflatable raft, Brody gets the shark's attention by pounding the power line with an oar, and gets the shark to bite the power cable. The plan succeeds, the shark gets electrocuted and sinks to the bottom of the sea, dead. Brody collects Sean and Jackie and paddles over to Cable Junction, to await rescue with the other teenagers.
Cast
- Roy ScheiderRoy ScheiderRoy Richard Scheider was an American actor. He was best known for his leading role as police chief Martin C...
as Martin Brody - Lorraine GaryLorraine GaryLorraine Gary is an American actress best known for her role as Ellen Brody in Jaws, Jaws 2, and Jaws: The Revenge...
as Ellen Brody - Murray HamiltonMurray HamiltonMurray Hamilton was an American stage, screen, and television actor who appeared in such memorable films as The Hustler, The Graduate and Jaws.-Early life:...
as Mayor Larry Vaughn - Joseph MascoloJoseph MascoloJoseph Mascolo is an American musician and dramatic actor. During his long career, he has acted in numerous motion pictures and television series. He is best known for playing Stefano DiMera, a role he originated in 1982 on NBC's long running Days of our Lives.-Early life:Mascolo was born and...
as Peterson - Jeffrey C. KramerJeffrey KramerJeffrey Kramer is an American film and television actor and film producer.-Life and career:Kramer was born in New York City and grew up in Teaneck, New Jersey, graduating from Teaneck High School with the Class of 1963. He made his first appearance on the TV series Barney Miller starring in the...
as Len Hendricks - Collin WilcoxCollin Wilcox (actress)Collin Wilcox was an American actress in film, on stage and television. She was also credited as Collin Wilcox-Horne or Collin Wilcox-Paxton....
as Dr. Elkins - Ann DusenberryAnn DusenberryAnn Dusenberry is an American actress from Tucson, Arizona known primarily for a variety of television series and made-for-TV movie roles in the 1970s, 80s and early 90s.-Acting career:...
as Tina Wilcox - Mark Gruner as Mike Brody
- Barry Coe as Andrews
- Susan French as Old Lady
- Gary Springer as Andy
- Donna WilkesDonna WilkesDonna Wilkes is an American film actress known for her roles in several films, most notably the starring role in 1984's Angel, which became a cult classic. She has also appeared in several television programs such as Father Murphy and the soap opera Days of our Lives...
as Jackie - Gary DubinGary DubinGary Dubin is an actor who portrayed Punky Lazaar, a friend of Danny's on The Partridge Family. He also voiced Toulouse in the UK version of The Aristocats in 1970 and played a person who was eaten by the shark in Jaws 2.He has also acted in many other projects as well...
as Eddie - John Dukakis as Polo
- G. Thomas Dunlop as Timmy
- David Elliott as Larry
- Marc Gilpin as Sean Brody
- Keith GordonKeith GordonKeith Gordon is an American actor and film director.-Life and career:Gordon was born in New York City, the son of Barbara, an actress, and Mark Gordon, an actor and stage director. He grew up in an atheist Jewish family and was inspired to become an actor at the age of twelve, after seeing James...
as Doug - Cynthia Grover as Lucy
- Ben Marley as Patrick
- Martha Swatek as Marge
- Billy Van ZandtBilly Van ZandtWilliam "Billy" Van Zandt is an American playwright and actor.-Personal life:Van Zandt was born in Red Bank, New Jersey, the son of Mary H. Lento and William Brewster Van Zandt. He is of Italian and Dutch descent...
as Bob - Gigi Vorgan as Brooke
- Jerry M. Baxter as Helicopter Pilot
- Christine Freeman as Water Skier
- Jean Coulter as Boat Driver
- Herb Muller as Fogerty
- William "Bill" Green as Irate Man
Production
The studio ordered a sequel early into the success of Jaws. The success of The Godfather Part IIThe Godfather Part II
The Godfather Part II is a 1974 American gangster film directed by Francis Ford Coppola from a script co-written with Mario Puzo. The film is both a sequel and a prequel to The Godfather, chronicling the story of the Corleone family following the events of the first film while also depicting the...
and other sequels meant that the producers were under pressure to deliver a bigger and better shark. They realized that someone else would produce the film if they didn't, and they preferred to be in charge of the project themselves.
In October 1975, Steven Spielberg
Steven Spielberg
Steven Allan Spielberg KBE is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, video game designer, and studio entrepreneur. In a career of more than four decades, Spielberg's films have covered many themes and genres. Spielberg's early science-fiction and adventure films were seen as an...
told the San Francisco Film Festival that "making a sequel to anything is just a cheap carny trick" and that he did not even respond to the producers when they asked him to direct Jaws 2. He told the audience that the planned plot was to involve the sons of Quint and Brody hunting a new shark. Brown said that Spielberg did not want to direct the sequel because he felt that he had done the "definitive shark movie".
Despite Spielberg's rejection the studio went ahead with plans to make the sequel leading to an arduous 18 month pre-production process. Howard Sackler
Howard Sackler
Howard Oliver Sackler , was an American screenwriter and playwright who is best known for writing The Great White Hope . The Great White Hope enjoyed both a successful run on Broadway and, as a film adaptation, in movie theaters...
, who had contributed to the script of the original movie but chose not to be credited, was charged with writing the first draft. He originally proposed a prequel
Prequel
A prequel is a work that supplements a previously completed one, and has an earlier time setting.The widely recognized term was a 20th-century neologism, and a portmanteau from pre- and sequel...
based on the sinking of the USS Indianapolis
USS Indianapolis (CA-35)
USS Indianapolis was a of the United States Navy. She holds a place in history due to the circumstances of her sinking, which led to the greatest single loss of life at sea in the history of the U.S. Navy...
, the story relayed by Quint in the first film.
Although Universal Studios
Universal Studios
Universal Pictures , a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, is one of the six major movie studios....
President Sid Sheinberg thought Sackler's treatment for the film was intriguing, the executive rejected the idea. On Sackler's recommendation, theatre director John D. Hancock
John D. Hancock
John D. Hancock is an American stage and film director, producer and writer. He is the son of Ralph and Ella Mae Rosenthal Hancock. His father was a musician with the NBC Symphony Orchestra in Chicago, Illinois and his mother a school teacher. Hancock spent his youth between their home in...
was chosen to helm the picture. Sackler later felt betrayed when Dorothy Tristan, Hancock's wife, was invited to rewrite his script.
The film, under Hancock's direction and Tristan's writing, had originally a different tone and premise than what would eventually be seen in the final film. The two had envisioned Amity as a sort of ghost-town when the film opened with several businesses shuttered and the overall economy of the island in ruins due to the events portrayed in the original film. The new resort and condos built on the island by developer Len Peterson were to help celebrate its rebirth giving the island's economy a much needed boost. Tristan had borrowed a subplot from the original Jaws novel and from a discarded early draft of the original film, in which Amity officials were in debt to the mafia. Both Mayor Vaughn and Len Peterson were anxious for the new island resort to be a success not only to revive Amity but to pay back loans from the mob that helped build it, thus leading to Vaughn's and Peterson's ignoring of Brody's warning. Tristan and Hancock felt this treatment would lead to more character development that would make the overall story that much more believable.
Hancock began filming the movie in June 1977. However, after nearly a month of filming Universal and MCA executives disliked the dark subtle tone that the film was taking and wanted a more lighthearted and action oriented story. Additionally Hancock ran into trouble with MCA executive Sid Sheinberg. Sheinberg suggested to Hancock and Tristan that his wife Lorraine Gary
Lorraine Gary
Lorraine Gary is an American actress best known for her role as Ellen Brody in Jaws, Jaws 2, and Jaws: The Revenge...
"should go out on a boat and help to rescue the kids." When told of the idea, Richard D. Zanuck
Richard D. Zanuck
Richard Darryl Zanuck is an American film producer. He iscredited for producing famous movies of the 1970's, 80's, 90's and the 21 century.-Life and career:...
replied, "Over my dead body." The next draft of the Jaws 2 screenplay was turned in with Gary not going out to sea. Hancock says that this, and his later firing of another actress who turned out to be the girlfriend of a Universal executive, contributed to his own dismissal from the film.
Hancock began to feel the pressure of directing his first epic adventure film "with only three film credits, and all small-scale dramas". The producers were unhappy with his material, and on a Saturday evening in June 1977, after a meeting with the producers and Universal executives, the director was fired. He and his wife left for Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
and production was shut down for a few weeks. The couple had been involved in the film for eighteen months. Hancock blamed his departure on the mechanical shark, telling a newspaper that it still couldn't swim or bite after a year and a half; "You get a couple of shots and [the shark] breaks." Echoing the production of the first film, Carl Gottlieb
Carl Gottlieb
Carl Gottlieb is an American screenwriter, actor, comedian and executive. He is probably best known for co-writing the screenplay for Jaws, as well as directing the 1981 low-budget cult film Caveman.-Early life:...
was enlisted to further revise the script, adding humor and reducing some of the violence. It cost the producers more money to hire Gottlieb to do the rewrite than it would have if they had hired him in the first place.
At this point, Spielberg considered returning to direct the sequel. Over the Bicentennial weekend Spielberg hammered out a screenplay based on Quint's Indianapolis speech. Because of his contract for Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Close Encounters of the Third Kind is a 1977 science fiction film written and directed by Steven Spielberg. The film stars Richard Dreyfuss, François Truffaut, Melinda Dillon, Teri Garr, Bob Balaban, and Cary Guffey...
, however, he would not be able to film for a further year, a gap too long for the producers. Production designer Joe Alves
Joe Alves
Joe Alves is an American film production designer, perhaps best known for his work on three of the Jaws films. He directed Jaws 3-D....
(who would direct Jaws 3-D
Jaws 3-D
Jaws 3-D is a 1983 thriller film directed by Joe Alves and starring Dennis Quaid, Bess Armstrong, Lea Thompson and Louis Gossett, Jr...
) and Verna Fields
Verna Fields
Verna Fields was an American film editor, film and television sound editor, educator, and entertainment industry executive. In the first phase of her career, from 1954 through to about 1970, Fields mostly worked on smaller projects that gained little recognition. She was the sound editor for...
(who had been promoted to vice-president at Universal after her acclaimed editing on the original film) proposed that they co-direct it. The request was declined by the Directors Guild of America
Directors Guild of America
Directors Guild of America is an entertainment labor union which represents the interests of film and television directors in the United States motion picture industry...
, partly because they would not allow a DGA member to be replaced by someone who was not one of its members, and partly because they, in the wake of events on the set of The Outlaw Josey Wales
The Outlaw Josey Wales
The Outlaw Josey Wales is a 1976 American revisionist Western film set during and after the end of the American Civil War. It was directed by and starred Clint Eastwood , with Chief Dan George, Sondra Locke, Sam Bottoms, and Geraldine Keams.The film was adapted by Sonia Chernus and Philip Kaufman...
, had instituted a ban on any cast or crew members taking over as director during production of a film. The reins were eventually handed to Jeannot Szwarc
Jeannot Szwarc
Jeannot Szwarc is a French Film/TV Director.Szwarc was born in Paris. He began working as a director in American television during the 1960s, in particular on Ironside...
, best known for the movie Bug
Bug (1975 film)
Bug is a 1975 American horror film starring Bradford Dillman, Joanna Miles, and Richard Gilliland. It was directed by Jeannot Szwarc and written by William Castle and Thomas Page, from Page's 1973 novel The Hephaestus Plague...
and Night Gallery
Night Gallery
Night Gallery is an American anthology series that aired on NBC from 1970 to 1973, featuring stories of horror and the macabre. Rod Serling, who had gained fame from an earlier series, The Twilight Zone, served both as the on-air host of Night Gallery and as a major contributor of scripts, although...
and whom Alves knew from the Night Gallery days. Szwarc recommenced production by filming the complicated waterskier scene, giving Gottlieb some time to write. He reinstated the character of Deputy Hendricks, played by Jeffrey Kramer
Jeffrey Kramer
Jeffrey Kramer is an American film and television actor and film producer.-Life and career:Kramer was born in New York City and grew up in Teaneck, New Jersey, graduating from Teaneck High School with the Class of 1963. He made his first appearance on the TV series Barney Miller starring in the...
, who had been missing from the original script. Many of the teenagers were sacked, with the remaining roles developed.
Three sharks were built for the film. The first was the "platform shark", also referred to as the "luxurious shark". Special mechanical effects supervisor Bob Mattey and Roy Arbogast used the same body mold used for the shark in the original film. The original "Bruce" sharks rotted behind sheds on the lower lot of Universal Studios, the only pieces that were salvageable were the chromoly tube frames. Mattey's design was much more complicated and ambitious than the original film. The same (male) "Bruce" body was used; even though JAWS 2's shark is described as female. A brand new head was also sculpted by sculptor Chris Mueller which made use of an all new mouth mechanism, one which incorporated jowls to disguise the pinching of the cheeks that had proven to be a problem with the original "Bruce" shark. The sharks were known as Bruce Two (after the original sharks), but on set they were referred to as "Fidel" and "Harold", after David Brown's Beverly Hills lawyer. The other 'sharks' were a fin and a full shark, both of which could be pulled by boats. "Cable Junction", the island shown in the climax of the movie, was a floating barge. This was created in order to have the effects platform positioned as close to the island as possible. Like the first film, footage of real sharks filmed by Australian divers Ron & Valerie Taylor
Ron & Valerie Taylor
Ron Taylor and Valerie Taylor are prominent Australian shark and underwater experts. Their expertise has been called upon for films such as Jaws, Orca and Sky Pirates....
were used for movement shots that could not be convincingly achieved using the mechanical sharks.
Although the first film was commended for leaving the shark to the imagination until two thirds of the way through, Szwarc felt that they should show it as much as possible because the "first image of it coming out of the water" could never be repeated. Szwarc believed that the reduction of the first's Hitchcockian
Alfred Hitchcock
Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, KBE was a British film director and producer. He pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. After a successful career in British cinema in both silent films and early talkies, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood...
suspense was inevitable because the audience already knew what the shark looked like from the final third of the first film. Reviewers have since commented that there was no way that they were ever going to duplicate the effectiveness of the original. The filmmakers gave the new shark a more menacing look by scarring it in the early boat explosion.
Like the first film, shooting on water proved challenging. Scheider said that they were "always contending with tides, surf and winds [...] jellyfish, sharks, waterspouts and hurricane warnings." After spending hours anchoring the sailboats, the wind would change as they were ready to shoot, blowing the sails in the wrong direction. The corrosive effect of the saltwater damaged some equipment, including the metal parts in the sharks.
Susan Ford
Susan Ford
Susan Elizabeth Ford Bales is an American author, photojournalist, and former chairman of the board of the Betty Ford Center for alcohol and drug abuse.-Youth:...
, daughter of US president Gerald Ford
Gerald Ford
Gerald Rudolph "Jerry" Ford, Jr. was the 38th President of the United States, serving from 1974 to 1977, and the 40th Vice President of the United States serving from 1973 to 1974...
, was hired to shoot publicity photographs. Many of these appeared in Ray Loynd's Jaws 2 Log, a book documenting the production the film in the same way as Carl Gottlieb had for the first film.
Location
Martha's VineyardMartha's Vineyard
Martha's Vineyard is an island located south of Cape Cod in Massachusetts, known for being an affluent summer colony....
was again used as the location for the town scenes. Although some residents guarded their privacy, many islanders welcomed the money that the company was bringing. Shortly after the production arrived in June 1977, local newspaper the Grapevine wrote:
Many residents enjoyed being cast as extras. Some people, however, were less pleased by the presence of the film crew and refused to cooperate. Only one drugstore allowed its windows to be boarded up for the moody look that Hancock wanted. "Universal Go Home" T-shirts began appearing on the streets in mid-June.
The majority of filming was at Navarre Beach
Navarre Beach, Florida
Navarre Beach, is an unincorporated community in Santa Rosa County in the U.S. state of Florida. It is on Santa Rosa Island, a barrier island in the Gulf of Mexico. The community is considered part of the Pensacola–Ferry Pass–Brent Metropolitan Statistical Area.Immediately to its east...
in Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
, because of the warm weather and the water's depth being appropriate for the shark platform. The company was at this location from August 1 until December 22, 1977. The production "was a boost to the local economy because local boaters, extras and stand-ins or doubles were hired. Universal brought in actors, directors, producers and their wives, camera and crew people who needed housing, food and clothing for the movie. Services were needed for laundry, dry-cleaning and recreation." Navarre's Holiday Inn "Holidome" was used as the film's headquarters, with the ground floor converted into production offices, and some of the Gulf-front suites remodelled for David Brown and Roy Scheider. Universal rented 100 of the hotel's 200 rooms, spending $1 million. Boats and parts for their maintenance were purchased from local businesses. One proprietor said that he sold "Universal approximately $400,000 worth of boats and equipment".
Cable Junction Island was built on a barge so that the huge mechanism of the platform shark could go close to, or even underneath, it. On one occasion the set broke loose from its anchorage and had to be rescued as it drifted towards Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
. Real hammerhead shark
Hammerhead shark
The hammerhead sharks are a group of sharks in the family Sphyrnidae, so named for the unusual and distinctive structure of their heads, which are flattened and laterally extended into a "hammer" shape called a "cephalofoil". Most hammerhead species are placed in the genus Sphyrna while the...
s circled the teen actors during the filming of one shot. Because the characters they were playing were meant to be in distress, the crew (filming from a distance) did not realize that the actors were genuinely calling for help.
The interior shots of the teen hang-out where they play pinball
Pinball
Pinball is a type of arcade game, usually coin-operated, where a player attempts to score points by manipulating one or more metal balls on a playfield inside a glass-covered case called a pinball machine. The primary objective of the game is to score as many points as possible...
were filmed in the original location of the Hog's Breath Saloon on Okaloosa Island
Okaloosa Island
Okaloosa Island is a regionally used term for a small section of larger Santa Rosa Island located in Okaloosa County, Florida. Okaloosa Island is home to hundreds of residential homes, high rise condominiums and major hotels and motels. The area is unincorporated and uses Fort Walton Beach as a...
. This restaurant later relocated to Destin, Florida
Destin, Florida
Destin is a city located in Okaloosa County, Florida. It is a principal city of the Fort Walton Beach-Crestview-Destin, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area.Located on Florida's Emerald Coast, Destin is known for its white beaches and emerald green waters...
as its original building was susceptible to hurricane damage. The production company had to seek dredge and fill permits from the State of Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
's Department of Environmental Regulation to sink the revised platform that controlled the shark on the sea bottom.
Principal photography ended three days before Christmas 1977, on the Choctawhatchee Bay
Choctawhatchee Bay
Choctawhatchee Bay is a bay in the Emerald Coast region of the Florida Panhandle. The bay, located within Okaloosa and Walton counties, has a surface area of 129 mi2...
, near Destin, Florida
Destin, Florida
Destin is a city located in Okaloosa County, Florida. It is a principal city of the Fort Walton Beach-Crestview-Destin, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area.Located on Florida's Emerald Coast, Destin is known for its white beaches and emerald green waters...
. The actors had to put ice cubes in their mouths to prevent their breath showing on camera. The final sequence to be filmed was the shark being electrocuted on the cable. In mid-January the crew reconverged in Hollywood with some of the teenage actors for five weeks of post-production photography.
Jaws 2 cost $30 million to produce, over three times more than the original. David Brown says that they did not budget the film "because Universal would never have given a green light to a $30 million budget in those days." The Marine Division Head for Universal on location, Philip Kingry, says that "It cost approximately $80,000 per day to make that movie." When Kingry asked Brown what his budget was, the producer responded, "We're not wasteful, but we're spending the profit from Jaws, and it will take what it takes."
Casting
Roy ScheiderRoy Scheider
Roy Richard Scheider was an American actor. He was best known for his leading role as police chief Martin C...
reluctantly returned to reprise his role as Martin Brody. He had quit the role of Steven Pushkov in The Deer Hunter
The Deer Hunter
The Deer Hunter is a 1978 drama film co-written and directed by Michael Cimino about a trio of Russian American steel worker friends and their infantry service in the Vietnam War. The film stars Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken, Meryl Streep, John Savage, John Cazale, and George Dzundza...
two weeks before the start of filming because of "creative differences". Universal used Scheider's failure to fulfill this contractual obligation to force him to appear in Jaws 2. The actor heavily resisted the film, claiming that there was nothing new to create and that people would be watching the film to see the shark, not him. According to his biographer, Scheider was so desperate to be relieved from the role that he "pleaded insanity and went crazy in The Beverly Hills Hotel". He made Marathon Man
Marathon Man (film)
Marathon Man is a 1976 thriller film based on the novel of the same name by William Goldman. The film was directed by John Schlesinger, and stars Dustin Hoffman, Roy Scheider, and Laurence Olivier. The original music score was composed by Michael Small....
and Sorcerer
Sorcerer (film)
Sorcerer is a 1977 thriller adventure film, produced and directed by William Friedkin, starring Roy Scheider, Bruno Cremer, Francisco Rabal and Amidou. It is the second remake of the 1953 French film Le Salaire de la Peur ....
to put as much time as he could between the two Jaws films. However, he was given an attractive financial package for appearing in Jaws 2; he quadrupled his base salary from the first film, and negotiated points (a percentage of the film's net profits). The Star newspaper reported that Scheider received $500,000 for 12 weeks work, plus $35,000 for each additional week that the schedule ran over.
Despite his reluctance, Scheider pledged to do the best job that he could, wanting to make Brody believable. However, the atmosphere was tense on the set, and he often argued with director Szwarc. On one occasion, Scheider complained (in front of extras) that Szwarc was wasting time with technical issues and the extras whilst ignoring the principal actors. A meeting was called with the two, David Brown and Verna Fields, in which Scheider and Szwarc were encouraged to settle their differences. The discussion became heated and a physical fight broke out, which Brown and Fields broke up. The rift was also articulated in written correspondence. In a letter to Szwarc, Scheider wrote that "working with Jeannot Szwarc is knowing he will never say he is sorry or ever admitting he overlooked something. Well, enough of that shit for me!" He requested an apology from the director for not consulting him. Szwarc's reply focused upon completing the film to the "best possible" standard.
Time and pressure are part of my reality and priorities something I must deal with.
You have been consulted and your suggestions made part of my scenes many times, whenever they did not contradict the overall concept of the picture.
If you have to be offended, I deplore it, for no offense was meant. At this point in the game, your feelings or my feelings are immaterial and irrelevant, the picture is all that matters.
Sincerely, Jeannot
Many extras were recruited from Gulf Breeze High School
Gulf Breeze High School
Gulf Breeze High School is a public secondary school located at 675 Gulf Breeze Parkway in Gulf Breeze, Florida. It is one of six high schools of the Santa Rosa County School District and is the only high school in the city of Gulf Breeze....
. The students were paid $3 per hour, well above the minimum wage at the time, and revelled in being able to miss classes. Casting director Shari Rhodes, requested members of the Gulf Breeze band performed as the Amity High Band, seen in an early scene in the film showing the opening of the Holiday Inn Amity Shores "Amity Scholarship Fund Benefit". "The GBHS band consisted of approximately 100 members, and band director John Henley chose 28 student musicians, including the section of the band known as Henley's Honkers." Universal scheduled their involvement for mid-afternoons to prevent them missing too much time in school. Universal made a contribution of $3,500 to the school and the band for their part in the film. Several other GBHS students were hired as stand-ins or doubles for the teenage actors to appear in the water scenes and to maintain and sail the boats.
Music
John WilliamsJohn Williams
John Towner Williams is an American composer, conductor, and pianist. In a career spanning almost six decades, he has composed some of the most recognizable film scores in the history of motion pictures, including the Star Wars saga, Jaws, Superman, the Indiana Jones films, E.T...
returned to score Jaws 2 after winning an Academy Award for Original Music Score
Academy Award for Original Music Score
The Academy Award for Original Score is presented to the best substantial body of music in the form of dramatic underscoring written specifically for the film by the submitting composer.-Superlatives:...
for his work on the first film. Williams says that it was assumed by everyone that "the music would come back also and be part of the cast ... it would require new music, certainly, but the signature music of Jaws should be used as well". He compares this to "the great tradition" for repeating musical themes in Hollywood serials such as Roy Rogers
Roy Rogers
Roy Rogers, born Leonard Franklin Slye , was an American singer and cowboy actor, one of the most heavily marketed and merchandised stars of his era, as well as being the namesake of the Roy Rogers Restaurants franchised chain...
and The Lone Ranger
The Lone Ranger
The Lone Ranger is a fictional masked Texas Ranger who, with his Native American companion Tonto, fights injustice in the American Old West. The character has become an enduring icon of American culture....
. In addition to the familiar themes, director Szwarc says Williams also composed a "youthful counterpoint to the shark that is always around when the kids are sailing or going out to sea. It was very inventive".
Szwarc said that the music for the sequel should be "more complex because it was a more complex film". Williams says that this score is broader, allowing him to make more use of the orchestra, and use longer notes, and "fill the space" created by the director. Williams used a larger ensemble than for the first film, and "the orchestral palette may have been broader or had longer notes". Delays in shooting meant that Williams was forced to start working on the score before the film was completed. Szwarc discussed the film with the composer, showing him edited sequences and storyboards. The director praises Williams in being able to work under such difficult conditions. Critic Mike Beek suggests these time constraints enabled Williams "to create themes based on ideas and suggestions, rather than a locked down print."
Critics have praised Williams' score, comparing it favorably to the original. Williams "uses a few basic elements of the original—the obligatory shark motif, for one—and takes the music off in some new and interesting directions." The score is "more disturbing in places" than the original, and "Williams fashion some new and hugely memorable out to sea adventure music." Because Jaws 2 "isn't a film that requires subtlety ... Williams pulls out all the stops to make it as exciting and hair raising as possible."
According to the liner notes
Liner notes
Liner notes are the writings found in booklets which come inserted into the compact disc jewel case or the equivalent packaging for vinyl records and cassettes.-Origin:...
on the soundtrack album, Williams' "sense of the dramatic, coupled with his exquisite musical taste and knowledge of the orchestra definitely stamp this score as truly one of his best." It is "brilliantly performed by a mini-symphony made up of the finest instrumentalists to be found anywhere." Mike Beek makes positive comments about the film, saying that "the music certainly elevates it to a level it would otherwise never have achieved." The cover of the album features a different image than the main theatrical poster; instead of the water skier sequence, the album depicts the scene with Eddie and Tina.
Soundtrack track listing
Reception
Jaws 2 was the most expensive film that Universal had produced up until that point, costing the studio almost $30 million. The film grossed 45% of the original, not adjusting for inflation. Despite this, the film became the highest-grossing sequel in history at that point, succeeded by the release of Rocky IIRocky II
Rocky II is a 1979 American film that is the sequel to Rocky, a motion picture in which an unknown boxer had been given a chance to go the distance with the World Heavyweight Champion. Sylvester Stallone, Carl Weathers, Tony Burton, Burgess Meredith, Burt Young and Talia Shire reprised their...
in 1979. It opened in 640 theaters to a $9,866,023 gross, ranking first. The domestic gross for its first release was $81,766,007, making it the sixth highest domestic grossing film of 1978. It eventually surpassed the $100 million mark with further reissues, with a final gross of $102,922,376. It was also the third highest grossing movie worldwide in 1978 with $187,884,007. Its current worldwide gross stands at $208,900,376, so that it stayed on Varietys list of top ten box office hits of all time until the mid-nineties.
Jaws 2 inspired much more merchandising and sponsors than the first film. Products included sets of trading card
Trading card
A trading card is a small card, usually made out of paperboard or thick paper, which usually contains an image of a certain person, place or thing and a short description of the picture, along with other text...
s from Topps
Topps
The Topps Company, Inc., manufactures chewing gum, candy and collectibles. Based in New York, New York, Topps is best known as a leading producer of baseball cards, football cards, basketball cards, hockey cards and other sports and non-sports themed trading cards.-Company history:Topps itself was...
and Baker's bread, paper cups from Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola is a carbonated soft drink sold in stores, restaurants, and vending machines in more than 200 countries. It is produced by The Coca-Cola Company of Atlanta, Georgia, and is often referred to simply as Coke...
, beach towels, a souvenir program, shark tooth necklaces, coloring and activity books, and a model kit of Brody's truck. A novelization by Hank Searls
Hank Searls
Hank Searls is an American author and screenwriter. His novels included The Crowded Sky , which was adapted as a film with Dana Andrews and Rhonda Fleming, The Penetrators , and The Pilgrim Project , which was adapted as the 1968 film Countdown...
, based on an earlier draft of the screenplay by Sackler and Tristan, was released, as well as Ray Loynd's The Jaws 2 Log, an account of the film's production.
The film has met with mixed reviews, though it is widely regarded as the best of the Jaws sequels. On the film's Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
listing, 56% of critics gave the film positive reviews. DVD Authority says "After this one, the other Jaws movies seemed to just not be as good. One review says: "it's obviously not a patch on Spielberg's classic, but it's about as good as could be hoped for, with some excellent sequences, almost worthy of the original, several genuine shocks, a different enough story and some pretty decent characters." The performances of Scheider, Gary and Hamilton are particularly praised. George Morris for the Texas Monthly
Texas Monthly
Texas Monthly is a monthly American magazine headquartered in Austin, Texas. Texas Monthly is published by Emmis Publishing, L.P. and was founded in 1973 by Michael R. Levy, Texas Monthly chronicles life in contemporary Texas, writing on politics, the environment, industry, and education...
preferred Jaws 2 over the original because it is "less insidious in its methods of manipulation" and "because director Jeannot Szwarc streamlines the terror ... By crosscutting among the teenagers, Scheider, and the officials' efforts to rescue them, Szwarc works up enough suspense to keep the adrenaline going." However, Morris' review is not entirely complimentary. He would have preferred the shark to have been seen less, positing "producers and audiences alike seem to have forgotten that the greatest suspense derives from the unseen and the unknown, and that the imagination is capable of conceiving far worse than the materialization of a mere mechanical monster." Similarly, John Simon
John Simon (critic)
John Ivan Simon is an American author and literary, theater, and film critic.-Personal life:Simon was born in Subotica, Bačka, County of Bačka, the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, later, known as Yugoslavia . He is of Hungarian descent...
felt that the "shark's waning is caused by a decline in direction: Jeannot Szwarc has none of Steven Spielberg's manipulative cleverness. For one thing, he allows us close and disarming close-ups of the shark almost immediately..."Simon praises Scheider and Hamilton, but is less complimentary about Gary. A reviewer for the BBC complained that the additional screen time awarded to the shark makes it "seems far less terrifying than its almost mystical contemporary". The Radio Times
Radio Times
Radio Times is a UK weekly television and radio programme listings magazine, owned by the BBC. It has been published since 1923 by BBC Magazines, which also provides an on-line listings service under the same title...
was not pleased with Jaws 2, calling it a "pale imitation of the classic original" and stating that "the suspense comes unglued because the film floats in all-too-familiar waters. You just know how everyone is going to react — from the stars to the director, and even the mechanical shark."
Although many critics identify some flaws, often comparing Szwarc negatively to Spielberg, they say that "this sequel does have some redeeming qualities going for it that make it a good movie in its own right". The presence of Richard Dreyfuss
Richard Dreyfuss
Richard Stephen Dreyfuss is an American actor best known for starring in a number of film, television, and theater roles since the late 1960s, including the films American Graffiti, Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, The Goodbye Girl, Whose Life Is It Anyway?, Stakeout, Always, What About...
and Robert Shaw
Robert Shaw (actor)
Robert Archibald Shaw was an English actor and novelist, remembered for his performances in The Sting , From Russia with Love , A Man for All Seasons , the original The Taking of Pelham One Two Three , Black Sunday , The Deep and Jaws , where he played the shark hunter Quint.-Early life...
are missed, especially since the teenage characters are labeled "largely annoying 'Afterschool Special' archetypes" who are "irritating and incessantly screaming" and "don't make for very sympathetic victims". Because of its emphasis upon the teenage cast some critics have compared the film to the slasher film
Slasher film
A slasher film is a type of horror film typically involving a psychopathic killer stalking and killing a sequence of victims in a graphically violent manner, often with a cutting tool such as a knife or axe...
s that were rising in popularity at that time.
The film's tagline
Tagline
A tagline is a variant of a branding slogan typically used in marketing materials and advertising. The idea behind the concept is to create a memorable phrase that will sum up the tone and premise of a brand or product , or to reinforce the audience's memory of a product...
, "Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water...", has become one of the most famous in film history. Andrew J. Kuehn, who developed the trailer for the original Jaws, is credited with coining the phrase. It has been parodied in numerous films; most notably the tagline of the 1996 feature film adaptation
Flipper (1996 film)
Flipper is a 1996 remake of the 1963 film of the same name, starring Paul Hogan and Elijah Wood. The movie is about a boy who has to spend the summer with his uncle Porter , who lives in the Florida Keys...
of the television series, Flipper
Flipper (1964 TV series)
Flipper, from Ivan Tors Films in association with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Television, is an American television program first broadcast on NBC from September 19, 1964, until April 15, 1967. Flipper, a bottlenose dolphin, is the companion animal of Porter Ricks, Chief Warden at fictional Coral Key Park...
, "This summer it's finally safe to go back in the water."
Home releases
In 1980, MCA Home Video (then known as MCA Videocassette Inc.) released Jaws 2 on VHSVHS
The Video Home System is a consumer-level analog recording videocassette standard developed by Victor Company of Japan ....
and Laserdisc
Laserdisc
LaserDisc was a home video format and the first commercial optical disc storage medium. Initially licensed, sold, and marketed as MCA DiscoVision in North America in 1978, the technology was previously referred to interally as Optical Videodisc System, Reflective Optical Videodisc, Laser Optical...
, following its 1980 theatrical re-release in theaters. In the 1990s, MCA-Universal Home Video reissued it on both formats. The film received a DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
release on May 22, 2001. Many reviewers praised it for the quantity of special features, with DVD Authority asserting that it had "more than a lot of titles labeled as 'special edition
Special edition
The terms special edition, limited edition and variants such as deluxe edition, collector's edition and others, are used as a marketing incentive for various kinds of products, originally published products related to the arts, such as books, prints or recorded music and films, but now including...
' discs". It includes a 45-minute documentary produced by Laurent Bouzereau, who is responsible for many of the documentaries about Universal films. Actor Keith Gordon
Keith Gordon
Keith Gordon is an American actor and film director.-Life and career:Gordon was born in New York City, the son of Barbara, an actress, and Mark Gordon, an actor and stage director. He grew up in an atheist Jewish family and was inspired to become an actor at the age of twelve, after seeing James...
reminisces in a short feature, and Szwarc explains the phonetic problem with its original French title, Les Dents de la mer 2, as it sounded like it ended with the expletive merde (mer deux). This was combated by using the suffix Part 2.
The disc also contains a variety of deleted scene
Deleted scene
In Entertainment, especially the film and television industry, Deleted scenes are parts of a film removed or censored from or replaced by another scene in the final "cut", or version, of a film...
s. These scenes show the animosity between Brody and his wife's boss, and the selectmen voting to fire Brody; the Mayor (Murray Hamilton
Murray Hamilton
Murray Hamilton was an American stage, screen, and television actor who appeared in such memorable films as The Hustler, The Graduate and Jaws.-Early life:...
) is the only person to vote to save him. These scenes were cut because they were slowing the pace of the film. Also included is footage of the shark attacking the coast guard pilot underwater after his helicopter had capsized. The scene was cut because of the struggle with the ratings board to acquire a PG certificate.
Although the audio was presented in Dolby Digital
Dolby Digital
Dolby Digital is the name for audio compression technologies developed by Dolby Laboratories. It was originally called Dolby Stereo Digital until 1994. Except for Dolby TrueHD, the audio compression is lossy. The first use of Dolby Digital was to provide digital sound in cinemas from 35mm film prints...
2.0 mono, a reviewer for Film Freak Central comments that "Williams' score often sounds deceptively stereophonic". The BBC, though, suggest that the mix "really demands the added bass that a 5.1
Surround sound
Surround sound encompasses a range of techniques such as for enriching the sound reproduction quality of an audio source with audio channels reproduced via additional, discrete speakers. Surround sound is characterized by a listener location or sweet spot where the audio effects work best, and...
effort could have lent it".
See also
- Jaws: The RevengeJaws: The RevengeJaws: The Revenge, Also known as, 'Jaws 4: The Revenge', is a 1987 thriller film directed by Joseph Sargent. It is the third sequel to Steven Spielberg's Jaws and the final installment of the series....
- Deep Blue SeaDeep Blue SeaDeep Blue Sea is a 1999 science fiction horror film that stars Thomas Jane, Saffron Burrows, LL Cool J, and Samuel L Jackson. The film was directed by Renny Harlin and was released in the United States on July 28, 1999.- Plot :...
- OrcaOrca (film)Orca is a 1977 horror film directed by Michael Anderson and produced by Dino De Laurentiis, starring Richard Harris, Charlotte Rampling, and Will Sampson. The film was poorly received by critics and audiences alike due in part to its similarities to the film Jaws released two years prior...
- List of killer shark films