Jaws Page #5

VAUGHN:

What have you got there, Lenny?

HENDRICKS:

We had a shark attack at South Chop

this morning, Mayor. Fatal. Gotta

batten down the beach.

Vaughn and group exchange horrified looks, but we get the

impression it is not in response to the shark-attack news.

VAUGHN:

Who've you told this to, Lenny?

HENDRICKS:

I just found out about it -- but

there's a bunch of Boy Scouts in the

water a coupla miles down the coast

from where we found the girl. Avril

Bay, thereabouts. Chief went to dry

them off.

VAUGHN:

(to Meadows)

Take my car, okay?

(to Hendricks)

You come with us, Lenny.

HENDRICKS:

I've got all these signs here...

VAUGHN:

C'mon, it'll give us time to think

about what they're going to say.

They all crowd into a Cadillac El Dorado with Vaughn Realty

signs on the doors.

EXT. AVRIL BAY - DAY

A flotilla of twenty exhausted Boy Scouts round a buoy that

marks the official course. A rowboat with Scoutmaster using

a bullhorn keeps pace, and urges the boys on.

SCOUTMASTER:

(bullhorn effect)

Let's go, Robbie. You too, Hofner.

Boyle, keep your head up. Alberts,

keep kicking...

(etc., ad lib)

EXT. ON THE BEACH AT AVRIL BAY - DAY

Two older Seascouts look on with stop watches and clipboards,

while some Parents shade their eyes from the sun, watching

their offspring. Brody pulls up in the Amity Police jeep,

and starts toward the people. Behind him, Vaughn's Cadillac

pulls up and skids to a stop. In it are Vaughn, Meadows, the

Doctor, maybe a Selectman, and Hendricks, with his arms still

full of sign material. Vaughn intercepts Brody, the others

circle around him, effectively slowing his progress through

the sand to the scouts.

VAUGHN:

Martin!

(he catches up with

him)

Are you going to shut down the beach

on your own authority?

BRODY:

Do I need any more authority?

MEADOWS:

Technically, you need the instruction

of a civic ordinance, or a special

meeting of the town selectmen...

VAUGHN:

(the good guy)

That's just going by the book. We're

just a little anxious that you're

rushing into something serious here.

This is your first summer.

BRODY:

Now tell me something I don't know.

VAUGHN:

All I'm saying is that Amity is a

summer town -- we need summer dollars,

and if they can't swim here, they'll

use the beaches at Cape Cod, or Long

Island.

BRODY:

So we should set out a smorgasbord?

MEADOWS:

We're not even sure what it was.

BRODY:

What else could've done that?

VAUGHN:

(to Doctor)

Boat propeller?

DOCTOR:

I think, possibly... sure. A boating

accident.

VAUGHN:

Some weekend tramp accidentally goes

swimming too far, she's a little

drunk, a fishing boat comes along --

MEADOWS:

Remember when Fred Ganz went

scalloping in his BVD's? He was going

to swim to New Bedford, he said.

The men all laugh, ad lib their remembrances of this

foolishness.

MEADOWS:

...and Bill Mayhew almost caught him

in his net...?

BRODY:

(interrupting the

merriment)

Doctor, you're the one who told me

what it was!

DOCTOR:

I was wrong. We'll have to amend the

report.

MEADOWS:

We never had that kind of trouble

here.

VAUGHN:

I don't think you can appreciate the

gut reaction people have to these

things.

BRODY:

I was only reacting to what I was

told.

Brody looks out to the water where the scouts are rounding

another buoy on the home stretch.

VAUGHN:

(taking Brody aside)

It's all psychological, anyway. You

yell 'Barracuda' and everyone says

'huh'. You yell 'Shark' and we've

got a panic on our hands. I think we

all agree we don't need a panic this

close to the 4th of July.

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