Jaws Page #19

END OF UNDERWATER SEQUENCE

THE BOAT, HOOPER EMERGING FROM THE WATER

He is gasping for breath, his whole body vibrating with

urgency. The salt water in his lungs combines with the

adrenaline in his blood to deprive him of speech.

BRODY:

You all right?

HOOPER:

A White! A Great White, I found a

tooth buried in the hull. He must've

attacked... I knew it... Gardner's

dead in there. I didn't see the

mate...

BRODY:

No shark did that to a boat!

Hooper, despite his shock and surprise, is strangely elated,

almost giddy with the wonder of his discovery.

HOOPER:

Jesus Christ! A Great White! Who'd

believe it! We're not talking about

a shark, we're talking about a Shark!

Brody sinks weakly into a chair. Brody huddles in the stern,

Hooper kicks the engine in with a roar, and still a-shiver

with excitement, turns the boat and its grim tow back to

port.

EXT. ISLAND HIGHWAY - THE BILLBOARD - DAY

Next to the "Amity Welcomes You" billboard is a group of

selectmen, Vaughn, Meadows, Hendricks, and another deputy

standing by with paint and brushes. Brody's wagon is there,

along with a few other cars. Busy late afternoon traffic is

starting to pile up as early weekenders and curiosity seekers

slow down to see what's happening.

Behind the billboard, Brody and Hooper have gotten Vaughn to

one side. They are making a closely reasoned presentation to

him.

BRODY:

There is a kind of shark called a

Great White Shark that every expert

in the world agrees is a maneater.

HOOPER:

You're situation here suggests that

a Great White has staked out a claim

in the waters around Amity Island,

and that he will continue to feed

here as long as there is food in the

water.

BRODY:

There's no limits to where he can

strike, and we've had three attacks

and two deaths in the past few days.

It happened like this before, in

1916, when a Great White killed five

swimmers at Jones Beach, in Long

Island.

HOOPER:

A shark's attack is stimulated by

the kind of splashing and activity

that occurs whenever humans go

swimming -- you can't avoid it!

BRODY:

A 4th of July beach is like ringing

a dinner bell, for Chrissake!

HOOPER:

I just pulled a shark tooth the size

of a shot glass out of the hull of a

wrecked boat out there.

BRODY:

We towed Ben Gardner's boat in, Larry;

he was dead and his boat was all

chewed up.

VAUGHN:

Is that tooth here? Did anyone see

it?

HOOPER:

I don't have it.

BRODY:

He lost it on the way up.

VAUGHN:

What kind of a shark did you say it

was?

HOOPER:

Carcaradon carcharias. A Great White.

VAUGHN:

Well, I'm not going to commit economic

suicide on that flimsy evidence. We

depend on the summer people for our

lives, and if our beaches are closed,

then we're all finished.

BRODY:

We have got to close the beaches. We

have got to get someone to kill the

shark, we need non-corrosive mesh

netting, we need scientific support...

It's gonna cost money just to keep

the nuts out and save what we have.

VAUGHN:

I don't thing either of you is

familiar with our problems...

HOOPER:

I'm familiar with the fact that you

are going to ignore this thing until

it swims up and bites you on the

ass! There are only two ways to solve

this thing:
you can kill it, or you

can cut off its food supply...

BRODY:

That means closing the beaches.

VAUGHN:

Come here, I want to show you

something.

He leads Brody around to the front of the billboard, on which

we see that some pranksters have painted a huge shark fin in

the water behind the swimmer, so she looks now like a frantic

bather fleeing a pursuing monster.

VAUGHN:

Sick vandalism! Brody, that's a

deliberate mutilation of a public

service message! I want those little

paint-happy bastards caught and hung

up by their baby Buster Browns!

HOOPER:

(who has followed

them around)

That's it! I'm standing here arguing

with a guy who can't wait to be a

hot lunch. Goodbye.

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