Jaws Page #38

EXT. THE SURFACE - BRODY AND QUINT

Their turning heads tell us that the barrels are still

circling.

Suddenly, both heads stop turning.

THE SEA:

The barrels have come to a stop. Delicately, they change

course and meander toward the lowered cage.

UNDERWATER - HOOPER

His back is to us. He is just now completing a visual sweep

and turns, eyes front into closeup and: fixes wildly on

something monstrous... and fascinating.

HOOPER'S POINT OF VIEW

The water is clear and shafts of sunlight streak downward in

the blue. From the deep gloom -- diving slowly, smoothly --

comes the shark. It moves with no apparent effort, sinuous

beyond comparison. As it nears the cage, it turns, and its

ghastly length passes right in front of him: first the snout,

then the jaw, slack and smiling, then the black eye.

Hooper tentatively reaches out. It is too far for the

strychnine pole. The vinyl flesh is pocked with bullet holes,

iron scars, gaffing hooks and strange open wounds that tinge

the passing currents with pink.

SURFACE:

The trailing barrels gong and scratch the keel of the Orca

above. Brody and Quint leap back.

HOOPER - CLOSE

The shark has vanished into a cloud of rising silt. Hooper,

expecting the shark to attack out of that same general

direction, braces himself, pole extended through the bars,

breathing faster, straining his eyes into the gloom and...

we see that the shark attacking from behind him.

The cage is sent careening. Hooper grabs the bars for dear

life. The shark has grabbed the steel struts in its brutal

jaws, shaking the cage relentlessly from side to side, bending

the bars like clothes hangers. Hooper can't turn the pointed

end of the pole around, his body jammed as far away from the

non-rational attacker as possible.

Hooper is trapped.

The shark withdraws to get some running room then charges

again. The bleeding snout thrust deeper into the yawing bars,

the jaws snapping and twisting, two feet from Hooper's torso,

the tail thrusting it forward. Hooper drops the strychnine

pole between the bars and it tumbles slowly toward rapture

depth.

All the shark needs is one more good thrust before separating

Hooper at the waistline. Through frantic bubbles Hooper

fumbles with the overhead hatch cover, kicking up and out of

the cage. The shark backpedals with its tail, but the broad

head won't shake loose.

Hooper rushes downwards, after the strychnine pole.

ANGLE - SHARK

The shark twists free of the cage and arrows downward after

Hooper.

Hooper nearly recovers the pole. Again it slips from his

frightened grasp and this time disappears into a narrow abyss.

Hooper turns and looks up.

The Great White is lunging at him, twenty feet above.

SURFACE:

One of the barrel ropes snakes around the cage rope and pulls

taut.

HOOPER - DEEP

Turning to meet the monster which -- though held back for a

moment by the snarled rope -- now surges forward.

SURFACE - BRODY AND QUINT

The Orca is listing dangerously aft, the ginpole bent almost

to the breaking point. Brody is in a frenzy trying to haul

up the cage. Quint attaches the end of Brody's rope to a

hand-winch. The ginpole is splitting.

QUINT:

Let go of it!

The pole gives way, the rope whipping down on the gunwale...

the pulling of the tonnage below is tipping the Orca, dragging

it, but Quint won't give up the winch. Brody hauls on the

rope barehanded.

UNDERWATER - HOOPER

maneuvering downward, away from the jaws... Suddenly the

crazed shark veers upward for the surface.

SURFACE - QUINT

The winch is working faster now, Quint demonically winding

it in. The crushed cage bangs against the hull then breaks

water.

Brody is horrified. The cage is empty!

QUINT:

(a horrible scream)

He's comin' up -- !

BRODY:

He's taken him!

MASTER ANGLE:

The shark breaks water right beside the Orca, rising with a

great whooshing noise. It rises vertically, towering overhead,

blocking out the sun. The pectoral fins seem to reach forward.

The shark, in all of its monstrous glory, falls onto the

stern of the boat with a shattering crash, narrowly missing

Quint and Brody. It drives the stern underwater, the ocean

pours in over the transom. The jaws snap from side to side.

Brody flounders backwards away from it.

CLOSE - BRODY

He is clinging to the mast for dear life, as the ship begins

to tilt to stern, and everything starts to break loose around

him.

NIGHTMARE ANGLE - DECK OF THE ORCA

The giant jaws are snapping irresistibly at everything: great

chunks of wood torn out of the deck and superstructure.

Deck chair, irons, rope, gear, beercans, bottles, Brody's

bag, all are food for the insatiable maw blindly churning

away.

Quint is clinging next to a rack of lances: he is enraged at

this ultimate violation of his territory. He snatches up a

lance and hurls himself at the shark with a wordless bellow.

The great head weaves side to side, the deck is at a

treacherous incline, slippery with blood and seawater. Quint's

footing falters and slips, he stumbles at the Mouth of Hell,

the big teeth seize him and snap.

Quint's roar of rage and pain is choked off as his body is

clamped between the grinding, sawing teeth, and his head and

legs suddenly contort as the shark's teeth meet across his

torso. Blood gushes onto the deck. The remnants of his body

tumble from the shark's mouth.

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