Oscar winners /        Benchley, Peter Gottlieb, Carl JAWS (1975) When a gigantic great white shark begins to menace the small island community of Amity, a police chief, a marine scientist and grizzled fisherman set out to stop it.  Print Movie Script  Share Movie Script  Add to Favorites  Post Comment This moviescript available in following formats: Web version PDF Benchley, Peter. JAWS View entire text • Table of contents JAWS OVER BLACK Sounds of the innerspaces rushing forward. Then a splinter of blue light in the center of the picture. It breaks wide, showing the top and bottom a silhouetted curtain of razor sharp teeth suggesting that we are inside of a tremendous gullet, looking out at the onrushing undersea world at night. HEAR a symphony of underwater sounds: landslide, metabolic sounds, the rare and secret noises that certain undersea species share with each other. Also, the hint of familiar music, twisted and distorted by the depths. CUT TO: EXT. BEACH – NIGHT – SHARK’S POINT OF VIEW – RISING OUT OF THE WATER, LOOKING AT It is a pleasant, moonlit, windless night in mid-June. We see a long straight stretch of white beach. Behind the low dunes are the dark shapes of large expensive houses. Hear a number of voices singing. It sounds like an eastern university’s alma mater, no longer distorted. EXT. BEACH – NIGHT – ANOTHER ANGLE Around a blazing bonfire, a group of young men and women, beer cans (or maybe a keg) in evidence, as well as the bota Spanish leather wine-bag much in favor by beach and ski-bum types. The group is swapping sentimental alma maters, weepily singing eastern Ivy League anthems -– Dartmouth, Cornell, Harvard, Penn, etc. Two young people break away from the others. They are Tom Cassidy and Chrissie. Behind them, there is considerable necking activity; Tom and Chrissie are more serious. TOM Makes a clumsy attempt at snaring Chrissie, cups her from behind. She squirms playfully out of his grasp. We discover he’s not especially sober. TOM Hey! Hey hey! I’m with you, right? EXT. ANOTHER PART OF THE BEACH – NIGHT Tom and Chrissie are separated from the others, silhouetted against the fire, she pauses and looks at the ocean, he is plodding along in the sand, winded. Chrissie runs down the slope of the dune towards the water, leaving Tom reeling atop the dune. As she runs, she is shedding her clothes. Tom is trying to trail her by her clothes, like Hansel following bread crumbs through the woods. But Chrissie is way ahead of him. CHRISSIE C’mon! She runs headlong into the inviting sea, plunges cleanly into the water with a light "Whoops!" as the cold water sweeps over her. Behind all this, we continue to hear the sentimental, beery chorus of alma maters. Then we see it -- a gentle bulge in the water, a ripple that passes her a dozen feet away. A pressure wave lifts her up, then eases her down again, like a smooth, sudden swell. CHRISSIE Tommy? Don’t dunk me... She looks around for him, finds him still on the beach, his feet tangled in his pants, which have dropped around his ankles. She starts to swim back in to him. EXT. CHRISSIE IN THE WATER Her expression freezes. The water-bulge is racing towards her. The first bump jolts her upright, out of the water to her hips. She reaches under water to touch her leg. Whatever she feels makes her open her mouth to scream, but she is slammed again, hard, whipped into an arc of about eight feet, up and down, submerging her down to her open mouth, choking off any scream she might try to make. Another jolt to her body, driving her under so that only her hair swirls on the surface. Then it too is sucked below in a final and terrible jerking motion. HOLD on the eddies and swirls until we’re sure it’s all over. EXT. CLOSE ON TOM ON BEACH In his shorts, laughing to himself, turning in slow stoned circles, held prisoner by his windbreaker which seems to have him in an armlock, as he struggles to free his arm from a tight sleeve. As he turns, we hear the alma maters in the background, from the fire. INT. BRODY HOUSE - BEDROOM - EARLY MORNING A shaft of morning sun blasts through the crack between the bottom of the shade and the windowsill, falling across the heads of the sleeping couple on the bed. It catches Martin Brody right across the eyes, bringing him up from sleep. The job is completed by the clock radio, which clicks on with local fisherman’s report and weather. RADIO ANNOUNCER (V.O.) Hayes Landing reports conditions good, with stripers and jacks. The Coast Guard has no storm warning from Block Island to Cape Hatteras; a light chop with freshening winds, continued clear and mild... (etc.) Ellen Brody burrows her head under the covers, avoiding morning for a few precious minutes more. BRODY How come the sun didn’t used to shine in here? ELLEN ’cause when we bought the house it was Autumn. This is summer. Feed the dogs. We hear the scampering toenails of two cocker spaniels scrabbling around the foot of the bed. Brody swings out of bed, wearing shorts, socks, and tee shirt. BRODY Right. ELLEN Do you see the kids? BRODY Probably out in the back yard. ELLEN In Amity, you say ’Yahd.’ (she gives it the Boston sound) BRODY The kids are in the yahd, playing near the cah. How’s that sound? ELLEN Like you’re from N’Yawk. (gives it Brooklyn sound) BRODY Give me 30 years, I’ll get it. He leads the dogs out of the bedroom and down to the kitchen. INT. BRODY KITCHEN - MORNING Brody enters, sets down some dog food, goes to make coffee, starts to fill kettle to boil water, the cold water rushes through and out the burnt-out bottom of the kettle. BRODY Did you burn another kettle? Y’know you’re a fire hazard? This is the third one! ELLEN (O.S.) I never hear the whistle. BRODY Feed the dogs. Ellen Brody, a tall, attractive blonde woman, enters from upstairs. She’s still slightly sleepy, not what you’d call an "Instant-On" person. Mornings are not her best time. ELLEN You want to go through those? (she indicates bag of clothes) I’m taking them to the Thrift Shop. It’s Marcia Vaughn’s pet charity. Pick out what you want to keep -- it’s mostly your city clothes. BRODY (looking through bag, remembering) I used to wear this to the Garden. Garbage strikes. Dog shit. Muggers. (he puts it all behind) Ship it. ELLEN Don’t be silly -– You’re going to make summer better for them... Before Brody can answer, Michael, his oldest boy, enters, holding his hand. There is bright new blood on it, but he is sensibly unconcerned. It’s a normal childhood scrape. MICHAEL Cut my hand. Hit by a vampire. BRODY On the swing? I told you not to play near there until I sanded it down. (to Ellen) See what your son did? ELLEN Go upstairs and bring Mommy a band- aid. Michael goes on out and upstairs. Ellen fumbles in her pocket and produces Brody’s new glasses, which she holds out to him. ELLEN Don’t forget these. BRODY Oh, yeah. (he puts them on) How do I look? Older, huh? ELLEN I think they make you look sexy. Brody reacts to this, and bends to kiss her lightly. Then more seriously. BRODY Sexy, hm? What was I before? ELLEN Older, sillier. BRODY (as he goes to make coffee, he fumbles with the new glasses) I don’t want to depend on these things, y’know -– sometimes you can weaken your eyes. He looks out the window to the view beyond, discovering some new wonder in the fresh sunlit morning. BRODY’S POINT OF VIEW – OUTSIDE THE HOUSE Sean, the younger child, is happily romping in the summer air, enjoying the very air he breathes. BRODY Let’s see... The phone rings. INT. BRODY KITCHEN – DAY Brody answers one of two phones on the wall. BRODY Brody... yeah, what’s up... mmm... Well, what do they usually do, float or wash up? Really?... okay, I’ll meet both of you at the beach in (checks watch) ...20 minutes, okay? Okay. (hangs up) First goddamn weekend of the summer. Michael reenters in bathing trunks, with a towel on his shoulder, his hand washed, holding a band-aid ready for application. Ellen takes it, and bandages the finger with care and affection. ELLEN There. (to Brody) What was that? Michael heads toward the beach. BRODY (struggling to get his shirt on over his glasses) The office. He gets his shirt on with Ellen’s help. She flicks imaginary dust from the badge on his chest. ELLEN Be careful. BRODY Here? You gotta be kiddin’. He gives her a light kiss, starts to go, with his cup. BRODY Love ya. ELLEN (kissing him back) Hey Chief. Bring my cup back. At the door, he takes a windbreaker off a peg and goes on out. We can see the Amity Police shoulder patch as he goes to a van parked outside. EXT. ISLAND HIGHWAY - MORNING Martin Brody’s Country Squire police wagon rushes past, taking the view to an enormous billboard depicting a typical summer day in Amity. A beautiful model splashes in the gold surf, languishing in a Solarcaine sun. AMITY WELCOMES YOU is written above her flailing arms. EXT. AMITY BEACH - DAY Three small figures in the landscape, walking the beach. The surf is rough and there is sea-floor debris strewn about from the receding tide. CLOSER ANGLE Deputy Hendricks is searching the shore about one hundred yards down wind. Meanwhile, Brody, in his casual police attire, and Tom Cassidy, still in the clothing we saw him in last night, walk down the beach. Brody fingers the missing girl’s shoes, purse and clothes. In the daylight, Cassidy misconducts himself, wavering between inflated maturity and tear-blown adolescence. BRODY Christine what? CASSIDY Worthingsly... Worthington -- no one ever died on me before. BRODY You picked her up on the ferry. CASSIDY I didn’t know her. BRODY And nobody else saw her in the water? CASSIDY Somebody could’ve -- I was sort of passed out. BRODY Think she might’ve run out on you? CASSIDY Oh, no, sir. I’ve never had a woman do that. I’m sure she drowned. BRODY You from around here? CASSIDY No. Cambridge. Harvard. My family’s in Tuxedo, New York, though. BRODY You here for the summer? CASSIDY Some friends and me took a house. BRODY (genuinely curious) What d’you pay for a place just for the summer? CASSIDY A thousand apiece, something like that. There’s five of us. And we each kick in a hundred a week for beer and cleaning, stuff like that. BRODY Pretty stiff. A shrill whistle makes them turn. Hendricks is fifty yards away, on his knees. He blows again, a feeble report this time. BRODY Maybe that’s your girl. Brody runs toward Hendricks, Cassidy hesitates, then follows with: CASSIDY (pathetically) You can’t make me look -- ! MASTER ANGLE - THE SAND DUNE A skein of seaweed garnishes the base of this isolated dune. The booming waves and fizzing surf make dialogue inaudible. Deputy Hendricks on hands and knees, looking white as a sheet. Brody tells Cassidy to wait at the foot of the dune, and ventures up. Hendricks stops him with a wave-off, saying something at the same time. Brody nods understanding and steps up cautiously and looks down. He adjusts his glasses, trying to make sense of what he is looking at. Whatever he sees has a marked effect on his entire physique. Kicking out with his foot, Brody sends dozens of angry horseshoe crabs into an escape frenzy and they boil over the top of the dune and down its slopes. Cassidy takes a few uneasy steps backwards when Brody waves him over. He shakes his head. An awkward moment. Then Cassidy shuffles forward and up the few remaining feet, his eyes looking everywhere but down. Brody says something else and Cassidy shakes his head again, eyes out at sea. Brody puts his hand gently around the quaking man’s shoulder. Nodding, he starts to look down, an inch at a time. He looks. He, too, can’t make out what it is at first. Then he understands. The jolt that assaults Cassidy is not unexpected. He falls backward in a sitting position as though shot. Nods yes -- it’s her. Brody turns and slides off the dune, stumbling close. Hear his breathing. He looks around, envisioning the week ahead of him.... QUICK SHARP CUT Chrissie’s remains, incomplete from the chest down, horribly bitten. (NOTE: See Hooper’s dialog in Sc. 91 for complete description of corpse.) INT. BRODY’S OFFICE - DAY Brody walks through the door and enters his office, holding a fizzing glass of Alka-Seltzer. Polly, his sixty-one year old secretary follows close on his heels with her shorthand pad of messages and reminders. In the outer office, Hendricks and Cassidy slump into chairs, sipping from fizzing dixie cups. Brody dips into file drawers for the appropriate forms. He gently turns on Polly, who is behind him. BRODY If this is going to work, you’ve got to keep current stuff out here, and put ’closed’ files in there. The ’Pendings’ stay on my desk, okay? Brody slips behind his typewriter, putting paper in the machine with the effortless ease of years of practice. He’s obviously no stranger to paperwork. He touch types, hardly ever looking down, checking his notes and listening with one ear to Polly. He is affected by what he’s seen, but there’s work to be done. POLLY This is in no order of importance, Chief: There’s a meeting on the Amity Town Council on Aging this Monday night, Bentoncourt Hall. The Fire Inspector wants you to go over the fireworks site with him before he catches the one o’clock ferry. Mainly, you have a batch of calls about that new Karate school. CLOSE - ACCIDENT REPORT Brody has just typed the girl’s name. He skips the space for Cause-of-Death, and just under it types the Next-of-Kin information he has collected from her wallet. POLLY Searle’s Rent-a-Bike, the Rainy Ale, Tisberry’s Hardware... they say it’s those nine-year-olds from the school practicing karate on all those nice picket fences. The phone rings and Polly picks it up. POLLY It’s the Coroner. Somebody pass away in the night? Brody nestles the phone between ear and collar, listening, as he turns to the typewriter. BRODY Jesus, Santos. INSERT - ACCIDENT REPORT Cause-of-Death line rolls into place. The hammers punch out: SHARK ATTACK. BRODY leans forward, staring at what he just wrote. Polly cocks her head and removes the phone from his ear. POLLY What’s the matter? Brody takes a breath. A new resolve comes over him. BRODY Polly, I want to know what water recreation is on for today. POLLY Right this minute? Brody gets up and moves hastily toward the door. BRODY’S OUTER OFFICE Cassidy and Hendricks look up as Brody enters. BRODY (To Hendricks) Where’d you hide the ’Beach Closed’ signs? HENDRICKS We never had any. What’s the problem? A local merchant comes through the door. LOCAL MERCHANT Glad I caught you. There’s a city truck with New Hampshire plates parked right in front of my... Brody pushes past him and out the door. EXT. AMITY MAIN STREET – DAY In the busy center of a town preparing for the big Fourth of July weekend, Brody wends his way around sidewalk activity, purpose and haste in each stride. As he turns a corner a little man in a white smock emerges from the Funeral Parlor. This is Carl Santos, Amity’s part-time coroner. Santos looks both ways before crossing Colonial Drive. Brody passes Keisel’s Bicycle Rental, navigating an awkward course through an odd assortment of Schwinns that line the sidewalk in front of a demolished white picket fence. Keisel intercepts Brody on the run. KEISEL (he stares at Brody’s face) Wait-a-minute. (stares some more) Glasses, right? Brody nods yes, and starts to move away, but Keisel holds on to him. KEISEL Look at those fences! Little guys about eight to ten years old. And look at this! He holds up bicycle. The bicycle’s spokes are bent and broken from some sort of blows. KEISEL They did that with their bare hands. BRODY Call me later in the day, okay, Harry? ANGLE - AMITY GAZETTE NEWSPAPER OFFICE - PORCH Santos emerges with Ben Meadows, the stylish, late-thirties editor of the Amity Gazette. Together they cut a beeline for the other side of the street. ANGLE - AMITY STREET Past taverns and chowder shacks, past bleacher construction and July Fourth posters, Brody enters Hardware and Sporting Goods... so overstocked that beach umbrellas, aluminum deck chairs, and rainbow beach towels splash a surplus of color from the display window to the sidewalk. INT. HARDWARE STORE – DAY The store proprietor is busy at work on an inventory list with a mainland delivery man. LYNWOOD Stuff’s no good to me in August when the Pilgrims come in June... (to Brody) Go on and help yourself to whatever you need, Chief. Can you work the register? EXT. HARDWARE STORE AND STREET - DAY Brody emerges with enough poster-board, wooden stakes, nails, paint, and brushes to close every beach on the island. He starts back the way he came when Hendricks shoots up the street in the patrol jeep. He stops fast enough to call attention, leans out the window. HENDRICKS Polly told me to tell you there’s a scout troop in Avril Bay doing the mile swim for their Merit Badges. I couldn’t call them in, there’s no phone out there. BRODY (hands him the sign material) Get out of there – take these back to the office and make up some ’Beach Closed’ signs, and let Polly do the printing. HENDRICKS What’s the matter with my printing? EXT. VAUGHN’S REALTY – DAY Revealing Larry Vaughn, the Mayor of Amity, exchanging anxieties with Ben Meadows and Coroner Santos and two other city Selectmen. They come out in a group, reach the sunlight, and squint down the street as Brody careens around the corner and out of sight. Deputy Hendricks, laden with his arts and crafts, passes them on the street front. 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. Vaughn indicates the beach where the Scouts are flopping out onto the sand, exhausted, glad to be finished. BRODY I can’t work in a vacuum. Why don’t you make Hendricks Chief? His family’s been here since the Puritans -- half this island are his cousins. VAUGHN Martin, we hired the best man we could find. All ad lib agreement. VAUGHN We need someone who isn’t prejudiced by old feuds or family ties, someone who can referee things. MEADOWS You have our complete support. VAUGHN Now then. We’ve got a vandalism problem we ought to talk about... The others surround Brody as Vaughn leads the way back to the cars, ad libbing their problem with the little karate choppers. Hendricks puts the signs back into the trunk of Vaughn’s Cadillac. Vaughn waves casually to the Scouts and swimmers who are vigorously toweling off in the background. EXT. AMITY STREET - DAY In front of Amity’s only Music Store, a battered old pick-up truck pulls in to the curb. Quint and his mate cross silently heading into the music store. INT. AMITY MUSIC STORE - DAY A gently tinkling bell tolls Quint’s entrance. Inside the store, a ten-year-old boy is being shown a clarinet. He is playing a mellow low tone, and running "Ode to Joy." Quint looms past him like Neptune rising from the deep, and lets his hand drop on the counter with a slap that sounds like a club on flesh. The Shopkeeper abandons the little boy and meets Quint. SHOPKEEPER Hello, Mr. Quint. QUINT Four spools of Number 12 piano wire, Okay? I ordered them. SHOPKEEPER (finding them under the counter) Yessir, right here. What do those fish do, eat this stuff? QUINT They choke on it. Without waiting for it to be wrapped, he picks up the gleaming wire in his gnarled fist, and drops a bill on the counter. SHOPKEEPER Bye now. No answer from Quint, who stops and sings along with the boy. The little kid’s music degenerates into a series of awkward squeaks and blurps, as Quint stares at him. Quint continues out the door, threading his way through the people in the street like some great fish. As he gets up into the cab of his pick-up, its door swings open so we can see a crude stylized shark decorating its side. It slams behind him as Quint gets in and drives away. EXT. AMITY BEACH - DAY A plump jelly-bowl of a woman plunges into the ocean. There’s enough there to satisfy the most gluttonous shark. Buoyant, joyful, she splashes away in abandon. From her, we pan off to reveal other cheerful bathers enjoying that last uncluttered weekend before the season starts in earnest. ANGLE ON THE WATERLINE A Man and his dog are romping at the water’s edge. The Man is throwing a stick out into the surf, the dog, a happy retriever, is bounding into the waves after it. TWO YOUNG PEOPLE ON THE BEACH A Girl and her Boyfriend leave their blanket and run for the water, playing tag, chasing each other, having a wonderful time. ANGLE ON BIRTHDAY PARTY ON THE SAND - MARTIN AND ELLEN BRODY He is sitting stiffly in a beach chair, scanning the beach with careful, cautious looks, eyeballing everything that’s going on. Around their particular blanket and umbrella are a number of adults and their kids, the youngsters gathered to celebrate Michael’s birthday. Ellen is dishing out ice cream and cake from a cooler chest to the raucous 10-year-olds. Michael’s hand is still bandaged. MAX TAFT (an adult) Looks like another big season. Gets worse every year. MRS. TAFT And none of them from the Island. Just a lot of bother. Brody (and we) hear a shrill scream from the water. He stretches to look past the group, to see what’s happening out there. BRODY’S POINT OF VIEW - THE WATER The young lady is disappearing under the water, pulled under the waves by some force. She is shrieking. She pops right up again riding the shoulders of her boyfriend, who pulled her under. She’s laughing hysterically. Brody is unamused. THE ADULTS BRODY (to Taft) What? TAFT Present company excepted, but off- islanders are a pain in the butt. Pardon my French. Ellen captures Sean, and holds him playfully, an example. ELLEN What about this kid? What if he were born here. That make him an islander? TAFT Just ’cause a cat has kittens in an oven, it don’t make them muffins. SEAN I’m not a muffin! I’m a boy! Brody rumples his hair and sets him off to play. ANGLE ON ANOTHER SMALL BOY, PLAYING ALONE It’s Alex Kintner, and his mother, nearby, reading a novel. Alex is towing a funny rubber raft, and headed for the water. MRS. KINTNER Alex! Alex Kintner! Where do you think you’re going? ALEX Water. Just once more, please? MRS. KINTNER Let me see your fingers -- He holds out his hands. MRS. KINTNER They’re beginning to prune. 10 minutes more. Alex starts for the ocean. Behind him, Michael and his gang are also heading for the inviting waves. Brody is watching them go, his spine rigid with tension. MAN AND HIS DOG As Alex and the boys hit the water, we see the man throwing his stick into the waves, his dog swimming strongly after it. BRODY’S POINT OF VIEW Out beyond the kids and the dog, the Fat Lady is bobbing around, out way too far, isolated from the other swimmers. UNDERWATER VIEW - EXT. - DAY A fish’s-eye view of the bathers: lots of little kicking legs, rafts with tasty arms dangling in the blue, slowing circling, favoring one raft (little Alex’s). The Kintner boy’s legs and arms are kicking and paddling, producing bizarre underwater vibrations of more than passing interest. Dog goes by, dog-paddling along. ON THE BEACH Brody is half-rising, looking out over the water. The Fat Lady is not where he remembered her. He scans the water anxiously. ELLEN Do you want the boys to come in? Honey, if you’re worried... A Black Object swims across the water. It’s the dog, breasting against the surf. ANGLE ON THE WATER - BRODY’S POINT OF VIEW It’s the Fat Lady, floating, relaxing. A black object swims up to her. It’s not the dog. It rears up out of the water. It’s a man in a black bathing cap. They exchange distant pleasantries, he strokes away. ANOTHER ANGLE - WATER Alex Kintner, paddling around, making boat sounds, tooting, going "vroom, vroom." ANGLE ON THE BOY AND GIRL They kiss, embrace, kiss again. Strong stuff. They sink beneath the waves, knotted in an embrace. ANGLE ON MICHAEL BRODY AND HIS FRIENDS He’s trying to salvage a soggy piece of birthday cake, holding it above the water, paddling with his other hand. The bandage has come part way loose, and his cut is trailing in the water. BRODY AND ELLEN ON THE BEACH Ellen is rubbing suntan oil on his back, and he is allowing himself to relax part way. His eyes still nervously scan the beach in a constant surveillance. Mr. Keisel is coming out of the water, toweling off vigorously, exclaiming to himself. BRODY (to Keisel) How’s the water? KEISEL Too cold. I’m going in again Labor Day. Hope we get this weather next weekend. ELLEN You’re very tight, y’know? (digs in) Right there. BRODY Ow. (he sees something) He’s gotta be more careful in the water... ANGLE ON THE GANG PLAYING IN THE WATER Michael has just been drenched. He splashes back. A big waterfight ensues, the boys splashing and chopping at the water, shouting battle cries and karate whoops. Alex is paddling around near them, but not involved with them. ALONG THE WATERLINE ON THE BEACH The Man with the Dog is whistling into the ocean, looking for his dog. DOG MAN Buster! Hey, Buster! Here boy! (whistles) He continues to ad lib calling his dog, but there’s no answer, no dog in the water. THE WATERFRONT A huge splash explodes in the water near the gang, an eruption of foam and spray that stops everyone cold for a moment. They stop to see who was responsible. A KID (MATHEW) Hey, no fair splashing in the eyes! Before anyone can answer, another kid (P.J.) renews the battle, whooping a karate cry, and slashing at the water with his hand like a little kung-fu warrior, advancing through the waves. CLOSE ON MATHEW, SPLASHING BACK He hits the water, which sprays up suspiciously pink. He stares at it, surprised. CLOSE ON P.J. His hands are dripping deep pink, the red matting his hair, running into his eyes. He looks down. The boys are surrounded with a deep pink slick, their little bodies ringed by a spreading stain of blood. ANGLE ON SHORE, A TOURIST AND HIS WIFE He’s pointing frantically out to sea. TOURIST Something in the water. Right there! Didn’t anyone see it? WOMAN There’s blood in the water. ANGLE ON BRODY He leaps to his feet, nearly knocking Ellen over, and starts for the water. ELLEN What is it...? Brody is pelting towards the water. He kicks sand over an annoyed Mrs. Kintner, who looks up, just in time to hear Brody’s bellow. BRODY Michael! Sean! Out of the water. Everybody out of the water! Michael! Get out! His urgency communicates itself to the others. Ellen snatches Sean up from where he’s been playing in the sand. Other parents are calling their kids, hysteria mounting. People rush into the water, dragging their children and families bodily out of the ocean. The first kids coming out of the surf are frantically trying to wash the sticky blood off their bodies. The sight of the red sends the beach into a full panic. CLOSE ON BRODY He rushes into the water, up to his ankles, and suddenly stops, unable to move into deeper water. He is urging Michael out, holding his hands out to his son, who is slogging through the surf towards his dad. He stands there immobilized by the water, nervously helping people out of it onto the beach. ANGLE ON MICHAEL As he emerges from the water, Alex Kintner’s raft washes in behind him, ripped in half, the water pink, the foam spreading the stain onto the sand as the wave breaks. ANGLE ON MRS. KINTNER Her voice rising into panic and hysteria with each unanswered cry. MRS. KINTNER Alex! Alex? Alex...! EXT - THE COUNTY COURTHOUSE AND COUNTY OFFICES - DAY We are looking at the closed double white front doors of the building, through which we can hear a rolling boil of agitated conversation. After a beat, they open to reveal Mrs. Kintner, looking as though she has been visited by the wrath of God; in effect, she has. Her eyes are puffy and swollen from weeping, her clothing is put on and fastened awkwardly, her gait is not normal. As she walks toward us, Quint enters with his back to us, they pass without notice; Mrs. Kintner moving out of sight, Quint leading us through the doors into the town hall. INT. COUNTY COURTHOUSE - DAY A crowd of angry men and women throng the central hallway, their voices a babble of confusion. Many of them are gathered around a roughly lettered notice that has been posted on the town’s official bulletin board. It reads. "A $3000 BOUNTY TO THE MAN OR MEN WHO CATCH AND KILL THE SHARK THAT KILLED ALEX M. KINTNER ON SUNDAY, JUNE 29, ON THE AMITY TOWN BEACH." Vaughn and Brody are on the outskirts of the crowd, which includes Meadows, some selectmen, and others. BRODY Look, I’ve got to talk to her. This isn’t a contest we want the whole country entering. MEADOWS I agree. If she’s going to advertise, I wouldn’t recommend out-of-town papers. Amity people could take care of this. BRODY I’m responsible for public safety around here... VAUGHN Then go out tomorrow and make sure no one gets hurt. (addressing the crowd) Everybody, could I have your attention? Since this affects all of us, I suggest we move into council chambers, where there’s more room... There is a flurry and a bustle as everyone rearranges themselves and makes their way into the Amity Selectmen’s Council Chambers. INT. COUNCIL CHAMBER - DAY The crowd is thronging into the large room. Already in the room is a solitary figure, standing all the way in the rear, watching everyone as they enter. Against the back wall is a large blackboard used for town business during meetings. VAUGHN Well, here we all are; anyone have any special questions? DENHERDER Is that $3000 bounty on the shark in cash or check? (laughter from all) VAUGHN That’s private business between you brave fishermen and Mrs. Kintner. (to Brody) -- Chief -- BRODY (stepping in) I’d like to tell you what we’re doing so far. These are some of the steps I’ve taken as Chief of Police... MEADOWS (leading the direction of the discussion) What’s going on with the beaches, Chief? All react. BRODY I’ll get to that in a minute. First, I plan to start our seasonal summer help early, and to use shark spotters on beaches open to the sea. I’d like cooperation from local fishermen, and I’ve also contacted the Oceanographic Institute over on the mainland. VAUGHN (Interrupting -- sotto voice to Brody) No need to involve outsiders in our business, Martin. WOMAN Are you going to close the beaches? BRODY Larry and I have also decided to close the beaches for a short time. Pandemonium. A collective nerve has been touched. VAUGHN Only 24 hours! BRODY I didn’t agree to that! MRS. TAFT That official business could take all summer! MR. KEISEL Maybe it’s better to close. Two opinions have been expressed, and the crowd takes sides vociferously, ad libbing assent or dissent depending on the point of view held forth. THOSE IN FAVOR MR. WISEMAN We should make sure there is no danger. MR. HASSETT I didn’t raise my kids to be some fish’s lunch! THOSE OPPOSED MRS. TAFT The motel is all I own -- you pull the plug on this town and I go down the drain with it. MR. POSNER Nobody’s seen a shark. MR. POLK We’ll lose business, we lose taxes, we lose our shirts! ANGLE ON QUINT, THE MAN IN THE BACK OF THE ROOM He has just run his large, coarse fingernails over the blackboard. He is a large, rough man, a professional fisherman marked by daily physical toil, About 45 or 50, it’s hard to tell where the scars leave off and the wrinkles begin. There is a bit of the showman in him, as well as a bit of killer- whale. QUINT (after taking a deep breath) You all know me. You know what I do for a living. I’ll go out and get this bird for you. He’s a bad one and it’s not like goin’ down the pond chasing blue-gills and tommy- cods. This is a fish that can swallow a man whole. A little shakin’, a little tenderizing and down ya’ go. (a look to Vaughn) You gotta get this fellow and get him quick. If you do, it’ll bring a lot of tourist business just to see him and you’ve got your business back on a paying basis. (beat) A shark of that size is no pleasure and I value my neck at a hell of a lot more’n 3,000 bucks. (a deadly look) I’ll find him for three. But I’ll kill him for ten. Crowd reaction. QUINT (he rises up) The bastard is costing you more’n that every day. Do you wanna stay alive and annee up the ten or play it cheap and be on welfare next winter. (a final moment) I’m gonna kill this thing... just a matter of whether I do it now -- or at the end of summer. VAUGHN Thank you very much, Mr. Quint, the Selectmen will take your offer under advisement INT. BRODY’S STUDY AT HOME - SUNSET A riffly blur, color alternating with black and white. The dizziness stops on a book page showing a black and white rendering of eight species of shark. The banner at the top of the page reads: THE KNOWN AND REPUTED MANEATERS. The riffling begins again, stops on a grizzly photograph of scar tissue on six former shark victims. Riffling -- stop. Photograph of five Ichthyologists posing on wooden stools, framed by the enormous jaws of a prehistoric shark from the family Carcharodon charcharias. BRODY his reading glasses reflecting a stack of twelve library books, all on the subject of sharks and shark attacks. The door opens and Ellen enters, quietly, in respect for Brody’s mood. ELLEN Can you stand something to eat? BRODY Love a cup of tea. With lemon. Ellen walks past Brody to the window and looks out the window which overlooks the south bay. It is the hour of dusk. ELLEN Mikey loves his birthday present. BRODY Where is he? ELLEN (with a slight laugh) He’s sitting in it. Brody gets up, concerned, and joins her at the window. ELLEN Honey. He has it tied up to the jetty with a double-knot. BRODY’S POINT OF VIEW Michael is sitting in the boat, but two of his young school chums are in the water, swimming around it. Brody opens the window and calls down: BRODY Son! -- Out of the water now! MICHAEL My boat’s neat, dad! BRODY (turning to Ellen) I want him out of the ocean. ELLEN It’s three feet deep, Martin BRODY (angry now) Michael! Come inside! ELLEN It’s his birthday present, and you closed the beach, Honey. I told him not to go in the water after what happened yesterday. I don’t believe he’ll ever do it again. BRODY I told him not to go out until he memorized the handbook and the safety safety regulations, until he was sure of himself... Ellen’s eyes drift down to the open book, which is displaying a reproduction of the famous painting "The Gulf Stream," showing a black fisherman in a small dinghy similar to Michael’s being assaulted by the jaws of three man-eating sharks, circling his boat. ELLEN You heard your father! Out right now! SUNSET ON THE BEACH Hendricks and another deputy are assisting Brody. Silhouettes of townspeople look on like mourners at a funeral. In the background some workmen are taking down the shutters from a quaint summer cottage. They pause to watch the declining moments of the day. Three Selectmen also stand watching. One of them seems to be whispering bounty news to three youngish men on a nearby dune. Sounds: Surf and hammering. CUT TO: EXT. OCEAN AND PIER - NIGHT Selectman Denherder and his buddy, Charlie, a professional angler, row towards a tumble-down jetty that leads fifty feet out into the black water. DENHERDER You wanna call it a night after here? CHARLIE It’s only two-thirty. What, are you tired? DENHERDER Yeah, Charlie, I got my second wind three nibbles back. Denherder hefts a bloodstained laundry bag from the wheelbarrow, revealing about a hundred feet of coiled dog chain and a large patched inner tube. Charlie takes out a monster hook and together they push the wheelbarrow onto the rickety pier that is only about five feet across. DENHERDER (reaching into the bag) Leg of lamb this time? CHARLIE Screw lamb -- let’s shoot the sirloin! DENHERDER (a hyena laugh) We’re blowin’ half the bounty on bait -- The splintered pier sways to and fro as the men reach the end and start to work. Charlie baits the hook with a massive chunk of sirloin while Denherder secures the loose end of chain to a skinny piling. Charlie then fastens the inner tube to the chain five feet from the end of the hook. DENHERDER One more after this, then I’m going home. CHARLIE Set? Denherder tugs the chain against the piling to prove that it is. Charlie heaves the bait. Splash! The inner tube follows and both men eagerly watch as it floats seaward, the chain playing out from the wheelbarrow. CHARLIE Tide’s taking it right out. Charlie lights his pipe and sits back against a piling. He turns on his transistor radio and loops one end around a fractured board. Denherder paces, bored to death. DENHERDER You do this all the time, right, Charlie? CHARLIE Twenty years. DENHERDER I can’t believe that people pay money to go fishing. This is really dumb. This isn’t even relaxing... it’s just boring. CLOSE - CHAIN IN WHEELBARROW Suddenly zipping out, faster and faster, as both men straighten. Denherder is goggle-eyed. DENHERDER Hey! What’s this? The chain is coming out so fast that it begins to drag the wheelbarrow to the end of the jetty. A section of chain tangles around the handle and flips the entire machine into the air. Both men watch dumbfounded as the inner tube, racing out to sea in a wake of white water, suddenly dips under. CHARLIE Look at him take it! DENHERDER Do I set the goddam hook? CHARLIE Let him do it! Go-go-go-go-go! It is then that the chain whips taut against the narrow pilings. CLOSE - PILING A lineup of five decrepit 2 x 4 inch pilings SNAP with a resounding CRACK. ANGLE - JETTY The end of the jetty is yanked loose. Denherder is flipped like a chip over the side and into the cold night water, where he manages to snag hold of a splintered timber. DENHERDER’S POINT OF VIEW The severed section of jetty, a joined platform of footboards, is being dragged seaward with Charlie sitting dazed on top of it, his lit pipe still going. DENHERDER CHARLIE! JUMP! Charlie rolls into the water, sputters, turns to watch the flotilla of wood draw away. CLOSE - CHARLIE looking seaward. CHARLIE’S POINT OF VIEW The end of the jetty makes a 180-degree turn and heads back in his direction. CHARLIE Holy Jesus Christ! Denherder steps up on the broken-off piling just to be out of the water. DENHERDER Get the hell out! Charlie! Swim! Charlie, inhaling terror, trying to slog to shore. The jetty is getting closer. Suddenly, an enormous black fin breaks water like a periscope, making course corrections as it comes for Charlie. Denherder jumps from piling to piling, almost losing his balance on his way to help Charlie. Charlie has reached the last pylon toward open sea, and his hands clamber for a hold. But -- INSERT - CHARLIE’S HANDS The algae is too slippery, and his fingers keep sliding back. That’s when the fin behind him seems to reach up to the sky and Charlie manages, with Denherder’s desperate help, to make it safely to shore. The remains of the pier float belly- up in the inlet. CLOSE ON THE HARBORMASTER OF AMITY - DAY He is sitting on a little canvas folding chair, eating a bowl of Cheerios with milk and sugar, watching a panorama of ineptitude and greed unfold before his old seaman’s eyes. The Amity Pier area is a minor madhouse: out-of-state cars elbow local vehicles for parking space at the foot of the dock, and a parade of bounty-hunting townspeople, islanders, off-islanders, tourist, and others shout and push their way onto the crowded pier, each carrying some bizarre or appropriate tool for the real or imagined capture of an unarmed shark of indeterminate size. Rods and reels, drop lines, crossbows, slingshots, harpoons, shotguns, rifles, nets and tridents; every fishing supply store and sporting goods house within a hundred miles has been cannibalized to equip this weird array. ANGLE ON BRODY AND HENDRICKS ARRIVING ON THE SCENE Not having room to bring their police vehicle anywhere near this mess, they are proceeding on foot into the confusion. HENDRICKS ...So then Denherder and Charlie sat there trying to catch their breath, and figuring out how to explain to Charlie’s wife what happened to her freezer full of meat. BRODY That wasn’t funny. Some of the locals greet Hendricks with occasional nods of recognition, or an ad libbed "Hi, Lenny," or "Hey, Lenny." HENDRICKS Mrs. Kintner must’ve put her ad in Field and Stream. BRODY Looks more like the readers of the National Enquirer. ANGLE ON BOAT RENTAL - PIER An argument is in progress between and Out-of-Towner and the Boat Rental Man. OUT-OF-TOWNER You’re charging me double the usual rent! I didn’t come up here all the way from New Rochelle to be gouged by some Yankee Cracker! BOAT RENTAL MAN Prices go up June First every year. You want a nice cheap, leaky boat, you go down to the Hamptons. (he sees Brody) Right, Chief? ANGLE LOOKING OUT TO SEA Making its way through the channel towards the dock is a sleek, expensive runabout with the name "Fascinatin’ Rhythm" on the stern. It’s professionally handled, and rumbles in as it coasts in towards the dock area. Some other boats clear the way for it, zig-zagging in the harbor, causing an annoying chop. CLOSE ON BOAT Matt Hooper, a bearded, bespectacled young man with an intent look, is maneuvering the vessel peering through his windscreen at the ragtag collection of seafaring loonies all around him. BACK TO DOCKSIDE Hendricks is mediating the argument between the two men, and we can hear a plaintive "But Lenny," from the local as Brody sees something that makes him move towards the other side of the dock. We see him cross to a little boat built for two or three that is settling low in the water as a seventh man climbs in with his gear. BRODY Hey! You know how many men that’s supposed to hold? MAN IN BOAT (WALTER) Whatever’s safe, right? BRODY What you got ain’t safe. You take some guys off or you don’t go out. BEN GARDNER AND HIS BOAT, FLICKA Matt Hooper is gliding into the dockside, and Ben throws him a line to help make fast as he moors. It’s a small island of courtesy in an otherwise discourteous mob. Hooper nods politely as he ties his boat up and steps onto the dock. HOOPER Hello. GARDNER Hello, back. He’s standing near where Brody is finishing after his encounter with the chummers. Brody approaches Ben Gardner. BRODY You going out too, Ben? GARDNER Might give it a try. That three thousand bounty beats working for a living. (yells to his Mate) We ready? The Mate nods "Yes" and starts to prepare to get under way. Ben and his Mate move away from the dock, headed towards the channel and the open sea leaving Felix and Pratt to scamper around the dock looking for another ride. ANOTHER DOCK AREA, CLOSE BY A particularly awkward moment between a small sailboat and a couple of powerboats. The sailboat is trying to hoist sail to make it away from the pier under sail, a real yachtsman’s conceit, since Hornblower himself probably couldn’t navigate through this mess. Brody, a landlubber for sure, is trying to direct traffic to untangle this new mess. BRODY Just back up! No, the other way! Cut it to your left! Your other left! The big boat, your front end is out way too far. Little boat, stay still! Amidst all this, we can hear the angry shouts of the entangled crews. SKIPPER 1 (THE SAILBOAT) Dammit, a vessel under sail has the right of way! SKIPPER 2 (MOTORBOAT) You schmuck, you ain’t under sail, you’re goddam drifting! HOOPER (stepping in to help) Ahoy, sail! You got an oar? Well, scull it out! SAILBOAT SKIPPER Tell that stinkpotter to belay! MOTORBOAT SKIPPER Tell that ragsetter I’m going to poke him in the snoot! HOOPER Just cast off in turn and make for the channel, OK? BRODY Thanks. Brody starts back towards the shore, Hooper is by his side. HOOPER Excuse me, I wonder if you could tell me... Before he can finish, Brody spots something on shore that moves him to shout to his deputy. HOOPER (noticing something) Is that dynamite? Brody looks, and stops by a boat that’s about to cast off. He holds out his hand. BRODY If that’s dynamite, give it here, or don’t leave port. MAN Aw, c’mon, it’s just fireworks. Sharks like fireworks, it attracts them. BRODY Hand it over. The man passes Brody a cigar box filled with dynamite sticks. Brody tucks the dynamite under his arm, and continues down the pier. Hooper is still with him. All around them are two distinctly different breeds; the quiet pros, like Ben Gardner, in well-worn, comfortable clothes, with efficient, sensible gear, and the amateur crazies, with all manner of weapons and impractical, silly tourist clothing. INT. DOCK SHED - DAY Brody is on the phone, talking to his office, trying to get Hendricks’ attention. He throws a handful of washers at the window. HOOPER There’s a fantail launch out there that won’t make it beyond the breakwater. BRODY You’re tellin’ me. I swear, this town has gone crazy. HOOPER Officer, I wonder if you could tell me where I could find Chief Brody? BRODY Who are you? HOOPER Hooper, Matt Hooper. From the Oceanographic Institute. (holds out his hand) EXTERIOR - OCEAN - DAY Ben Gardner’s boat is in the lead with Gardner’s shouting derisive comments at the crowd headed out from land. The armada is spread out and moving in a ragged circle, fifteen boats in all. One man heaves cherry bombs into the water. A smaller boat going in the opposite direction offers us Barwood, forking spaghetti leftovers into the ocean while his friend pours out a bottle of ketchup. A speedboat chugs by, one of the occupants reading instructions aloud from a book entitled "Sharks - East Coast, Vol. I." boatload of impoverished scallop fishermen throw a net overboard, full of gaps and split ends. The professionals look professional, but the landlubbers out for the $3000 make it impossible for everybody. Collisions are barely averted. THE RUBE GOLDBERG ERROR The Out-of-Towner in a small boat is bent over in a life and death struggle, his rod in a tight arc. His buddy leaps across to lend a hand. Twenty yards away in another boat the same struggle ensues. This time it’s the overloaded boat with the poor scallop fishermen. Shouts of I’M ON! DIG IN! STRIKE! Then a tangle of tackle springs from the water. They have hooked each other. Joy turns to swearing. Arnold Felix stands up to applaud the mishap, while his buddy Pratt takes careful aim with his Remington 1100 12-gauge and blasts at the tackle as if it were a clay pigeon. The tangle explodes -- Both the Out-of-Towners and the Scallop Fisherman falls over backward -- ANGLE - HARRY’S BOAT Three men are aboard, one holding a rod which holds a fast arc. A few yards off stern we see a triangular dorsal fin crossing back and forth, struggling, jerking, the mighty tail threshing. One man is screaming success, the other two slapping the angler on the back. CLOSE - PRATT AND FELIX They spot it and sour. PRATT Well, get over there! He ain’t caught it yet! The owner of Pratt’s boat throws it forward and Pratt removes a .45 automatic from the holster of his belt. He tests it, firing once in the air. As they near the scene of the struggle, eleven other boats begin converging, until -- HARRY’S BOAT Everyone wants to get into the act. They are attacking the threshing beast with all they’ve got. Pratt uses his automatic, another blasts point blank with a shotgun. There are occasional water ricochets and the bounty hunters duck from time to time as bullets skip by. Finally, the shark stops threshing. FELIX AND PRATT Their boat has moved close to the shark, closer than Harry’s. PRATT (exultant) Hand me that pole! Quick! One of his party in the over-filled boat grabs a gaff and leans out to grab the moribund shark. But Harry won’t give up the line, still reeling in. HARRY Beat it! I hooked him! PRATT How’s the family, Harry? (to the man with gaff) Go on and do it! MAN WITH GAFF We split down the middle? Pratt nods reluctantly. The man swings, lodges the gaff and hauls the shark up onto the gunwale. A paroxysm of cheers from the surrounding boats. Smoke flares are fired into the air. HARRY (a tug-of-war) Let go my shark! It is a ten-foot tiger, and what a mess -- splattered with bullet punctures, gashes, bleeding from several orifices. But it is not dead -- it kicks back to life and threatens to capsize the boat. Pratt panics and fires six times with his .45. The bullets pierce the shark’s head, pass through, and split the fiberglass hull through which a flood of water rises. Everybody stands up as the boat slips beneath them. INT. MORGUE - DAY The Amity Morgue is also the Amity Funeral Home, a Victorian house that normally serves as the community’s mortuary. The Coroner, a professional small-town GP, is standing by as Hooper is speaking into a sophisticated cassette recorder with a headpiece that leaves his hands free for measurement with a calibrator or calipers. BRODY Let’s show Mr. Hooper our accident. With a shrug, the Coroner slides open the drawer. CLOSE ON HOOPER He is looking down as the drawer slides past him, still matter- of-fact, turning on his recorder. HOOPER Victim One, identified as Christine Watkins, female Caucasian... The sheet has just been lifted, and Hooper stares down at the lump on the slab. He stops, turns off his recorder as emotions wage war with his senses. Rationality wins, and he turns on the recorder again. HOOPER ...height and weight may only be estimated from partial remains. Torso severed in mid-thorax, eviscerated with no major organs remaining. May I have a drink of water? Right arm severed above the elbow with massive tissue loss from upper musculature. Portions of denuded bone remaining. (tense, to Brody) -- did you notify the coast guard? BRODY No, it was local jurisdiction. HOOPER Left arm, head, shoulders, sternum and portions of ribcage intact. (to Brody) Please don’t smoke. With minor post- mortem lacerations and abrasions. Bite marks indicate typical non-frenzy feeding pattern of large squali, possibly carchaninus lonimanus, or isurus glaucas. Gross tissue loss and post-mortem erosion of bite surfaces prevent detailed analysis; however, teeth and jaws of the attacking squali must be considered above average for these waters. (to Brody again) -- Did you go out in a boat and look around? BRODY No, we just checked the beach... HOOPER (turns off the recorder) It wasn’t an ’accident,’ it wasn’t a boat propeller, or a coral reef, or Jack the Ripper. It was a shark. It was a shark. EXT. DOCK AREA - DAY We open close on ugly, open shark’s jaws, still oozing blood and gore. As the shark is hoisted up into the air on a gin- pole hoist dockside, Meadows is seen passing with his secretary and a photographer from the Amity Gazette. A crowd of returning fishermen from the Armada and townspeople are gathering around the fish as it is hoisted tail-up into the classic sports fisherman’s trophy shot. MEADOWS Ginny, get this out on the state wire to AP and UPI in Boston and New York. Have one of them pick it up for the national and call Dave Axelrod in New York and tell him this is from me and he owes me one... let’s get a picture. As he and the photographer turn to mob, we see Hooper and Brody arriving from the morgue. Hooper immediately heads towards the shark, while Brody pauses and we see a look of relief and delight cross his features. HOOPER Well, if one man can catch a fish in 50 days, then I guess 50 of these bozos can catch a fish in one day -- beginner’s luck. BRODY (crossing to men around shark) You did it! Did Ben Gardner catch this? Men ad lib "No, I caught it..." "I hooked him," etc. MEADOWS Okay, everybody, I want to get a picture for the paper -- could everyone clear out of the way? He continues to call directions and move people out of the way to set up his shot. Hooper is measuring the shark. MEADOWS Could you get out of the shot, young man? HOOPER Who, me? Okay... (he drifts off) The men (Felix, Pratt, et al) get Brody to join them in the shot. The whole town and the Armada fishermen all line up in a classic "high school" graduating class shot with the victorious fishermen kneeling in front, and the rest of the Armada and Townspeople arranged behind them. Hendricks hold up the "Beach Closed" sign in ironic victory. ANGLE SHOWING VAUGHN APPROACHING THE DOCK Brody spots the Mayor coming towards the dock, and detaches himself from the group to join him. BRODY Larry, if you’d see these clowns leave, you’d never believe they’d come back with anything. But they got him! VAUGHN That’s good. That’s real good. Ben Meadows getting pictures for the paper. BRODY Sure he is. HOOPER AND THE FISHERMEN The men who landed the monster are in a tight cluster, debating something with Hooper, who is dwarfed by the big beer bellies and ham-fisted hands all around him. It’s probable we don’t even see him. The Men ad lib "What kind of shark is this?" "It’s a shark like in the movies they got sharks." "It’s a man-eater, for sure." "I bet it’s a record-breaker," etc. HOOPER (O.S.) It’s a tiger shark. Very rare in these waters, and definitely a maneater. Hooper enters the circle, and picks up where he left off, measuring the shark’s teeth. Others watch him. Charlie and Denherder walk over to the shark. Charlie punches it. BRODY AND VAUGHN They are walking down to the shark together. VAUGHN Who’s that young man? BRODY Matt Hooper, the specialist they send down from the Oceanographic Institute. VAUGHN (speaking to everyone) I think we all owe a debt of gratitude to these men for catching this monster. Brody and Vaughn are by now near the circle of fishermen, who are surrounding Hooper, raising their voices at him. PRATT Whadya mean, ’Bite Radius?’ What’s that? GAFFER Teeth are teeth, right? HOOPER I didn’t say this wasn’t the shark, I just said I wasn’t sure this was the one... BRODY What d’ya mean? HOOPER There are hundreds of different kinds of sharks; makos, blues, hammerheads, white-tips... any one of them could’ve attacked. Look -- shark digestion is slow. We could open this one up, and find whatever he’s been eating is still inside. VAUGHN That’s disgusting! This is the largest, meanest, most vicious shark ever landed off Amity Island, and a known maneater! HOOPER Let’s just cut him open and see what’s inside... BRODY Why not, Larry? We could get a positive confirmation that way. VAUGHN Be reasonable, boys -- this isn’t the time or the place to do some kind of half-assed autopsy on a fish. Ben... (to Meadows) do you have all the pictures you need? MEADOWS Plenty. HOOPER Wait a minute... Felix, Pratt and the others ad lib disagreement. "You’re not gonna cut up my trophy," etc. VAUGHN (seeing something offstage, with low intensity) I am not going to stand here and watch this fish cut open and see some kid fall out on the dock. Besides... (he indicates off) We see Mrs. Kintner approaching, dressed in black. VAUGHN (to Brody) Chief, I’ll take responsibility for this. Boys, cut this ugly sonofabitch down before he stinks up the whole island. Harve, tomorrow you and Carl take him out and dump him right in the drink. MRS. KINTNER JOINS THE GROUP She seeks out Brody, and stops in front of him. MRS. KINTNER Chief Brody? He nods, she slaps him full across the face. There is an embarrassed silence. Some people leave, following a trend that began with the first mention of cutting open the shark. MRS. KINTNER My Alex was a beautiful little boy and you killed him. Did you know that? You knew there was a shark out there. You knew a girl got killed here last week. I just found that out. But you knew. You knew it was dangerous, but you let people go swimming anyway. You knew all those things, and still my boy is dead now and there’s nothing you can do about that. My boy is dead. I wanted you to know that. She stops, unable to continue. Her father takes her arm and leads her away. Pratt, Harry and the others trail off after her. During the rest of the scene, the camera tightens in on Brody to the exclusion of the others. VAUGHN I’m sorry, Martin. She’s in a sick, terrible state. HOOPER Look, maybe this is the wrong time to pursue this, but I’m not sure... Before Hooper can finish, Brody’s shoulders slump and he goes slack. BRODY (almost to himself) She’s right. VAUGHN Let’s all get out of here, this place stinks. BRODY I’m going home. He turns and leaves abruptly, surrendering the dock to Vaughn and Hooper, who eye each other with mutual dis-admiration. INT. BRODY HOUSE - NIGHT - DINING ROOM Brody and Ellen, Sean and Michael, have all finished dinner. Brody’s plate is untouched, a virgin meatloaf. His glass, on the other hand, is well used, with the remnants of a stiff scotch and ice. He is staring across the table at the youngest, Sean, who makes a face at him. He makes a face back. They play this game together for a few minutes. BRODY C’mere and give Daddy a kiss. SEAN Why? BRODY Because he needs it. Sean gives Daddy the kiss. Brody shoos him and Michael off to bed. Ellen, who is feeling progressively more left out with each passing moment, gets up abruptly and clears a few dishes. Brody is not letting her into his world for the moment, and it shows. There’s a knock at the door. HOOPER (O.S.) Martin Brody residence? Ellen opens the door for him. HOOPER Hi. I’m Matt Hooper. If your husband is here, I’d like to talk to him. ELLEN So would I. Come on in. Hooper enters. He’s carrying a couple of bottles of wine which he picked up in town. He sits down near Brody. ELLEN Would you like something? Some coffee? HOOPER (seeing Brody’s plate) Is anyone having this...? He starts in on it, as soon as someone has indicated "go ahead." HOOPER Dynamite! (to Brody) How was your day...? BRODY Swell. They exchange a long look that evolves into a slightly desperate, but shared laughter. HOOPER (producing wine) Here... one red, one white. They laugh some more. Ellen is again left out of it. HOOPER (boning his fish) Ummm. Really good. Brody begins stripping the foil off the wine, screwing in a corkscrew, etc. ELLEN My husband tells me you’re in sharks. HOOPER I wouldn’t put it that way. But I love sharks. ELLEN You love sharks? HOOPER I do. (he tells a story about his boyhood and a shark) But you’ve still got a problem here, there’s a shark just off the island somewhere. BRODY How come you have to tell them that? ELLEN Excuse me, but what are you talking about? Didn’t they catch the shark this afternoon? It was on the Cape station news. HOOPER They caught a shark, not the shark. Big difference. I could’ve proved it this afternoon, by cutting that one open and examining his stomach contents. Also, his bite was too small. Brody has the cork out of the wine. Pop. HOOPER I was lucky to find that in town -- it’s an estate bottled vintage year... Brody takes the fine wine, and pours it into his drink glass filling the tumbler to the top with ice cubes, diluted scotch, and the wine. HOOPER (as Brody pours) We ought to let it breathe... Whatever. BRODY Let’s all have a drink. He extends the bottle to Hooper, who politely accepts a token sip. He takes some for himself, and offers some to Ellen. BRODY You too, sweetheart... ELLEN Thank you. HOOPER (toasting) Here’s to your husband, the only other rational man on the island. Day after tomorrow, I’ll be gone, and he’ll be the only one. ELLEN You’re leaving? HOOPER Going out on the ’Aurora.’ ELLEN Is that a boat? HOOPER Is it! The best-funded research expedition to ever study the shark... around the world in 18 months. ELLEN Like those Cousteau specials on television? I think it’s for the kids, but I love them. HOOPER Better than Cousteau, or Compagno with computers, telemetry, Defense Department funding... ELLEN I saw a show with sea otters, and a big turtle... Mikey loved it. Made me promise to get him one. Will you live on the boat? HOOPER Yep. ELLEN Martin hates boats. Hates the water. On the ferry to the mainland, he sits in the car the whole way over. He’s got this childhood thing, there’s a clinical word for it. BRODY Drowning. Lemme ask you something. Is it true most attacks take place in three feet of water, around 10 feet from the beach? HOOPER Yeah. Like the kid on your beach. I wish I could’ve examined that shark they caught... BRODY Something else. Do most attacks go unreported? HOOPER About half of them. A lot of ’missing swimmers’ are really shark victims. BRODY There’s a kind of a lone shark, called, uh... HOOPER Rogue? BRODY Yeah. Rogue. Picks out an area where there’s food and hangs out there as long as the food supply lasts? HOOPER It’s called Territoriality. It’s a theory. BRODY And before 1900, when people first starting swimming for recreation, before public bathing and resorts, there were very few shark attacks, cause sharks didn’t know what they were missing? HOOPER You could say that. Brody digests all this; confirmation of facts he has gleaned in his newly acquired knowledge of the shark species. There is a long pause. BRODY Why don’t we have one more drink, you and I, and then we go down and cut open that old shark and see for sure what’s inside him, or not. ELLEN Can you do that? BRODY I am Chief of Police. I can do anything I want. (to Hooper) You want to come? HOOPER I’m flattered you should ask. He gets up and they both start out. Ellen watches them go. INT. BOAT SHED - NIGHT Dark, spooky shed, with shadows of boats and strange silhouettes of boat parts and scaffolding. At one end, the large, symmetrical bulk of the shark’s carcass lies on a tarp. A single dark figure is bending over the dead shark. The large double doors at one end of the shed squeak open, and the Shadowy Figure moves abruptly away from the shark. The new entrants move into the shed. It is Hooper and Brody and they are continuing the conversation begun in the car on the way over. As the Shadowy Figure moves silently into a vantage point against one wall, he passes through the light from a window; it is Quint, and we only see him long enough to recognize him as he backs against the wall. HOOPER ...And it was Dartmouth Winter weekend, and she was Homecoming Queen, and I was her date; then she got into the fact that her family had more money than my family, and she was right -- her great-grandfather was in mining, and my ancestors were Yankee shipbuilders. So we broke up and I went home with some beatnik from Sarah Lawrence. BRODY What stinks so bad? HOOPER Our friend, the shark. They bend over the shape like 18th century graverobbers. HOOPER We always had a summer place on the water -- Newport, the Vineyard, so I figured I’d major in something I knew about. Oceanography, marine biology. It was that, or design racing yachts like my older brother. Hmmm. He we go. Up the old alimentary canal. Hold the light. We hear a slurp and a squish as Hooper produces a big knife and dips into the shark with a major incision. HOOPER We open the abdominal cavity and check the digestive tract. Simple. (he attends to his work) From his vantage point, Quint watches, unseen by the two men. Brody is holding the light, fighting the gag reflex, fascinated by the bizarre ritual. BRODY What’s that? HOOPER Half a flounder. Hmmm... a burlap bag... a paint can... aha! BRODY What? What?! HOOPER Just as I thought. He drifted up here with the Gulf Stream, from southern waters. BRODY How can you tell? HOOPER (showing it) Florida license plate. BRODY He ate a car? HOOPER (laughs) No, but Tiger sharks are the garbage cans of the ocean. They eat anything. But this one didn’t eat any people. There’s nothing here... He kicks the remains around below camera. HOOPER ...Nothing. BRODY What do we do? HOOPER If you’re looking for a shark, you don’t look on land. You go out and chum for him. BRODY Chum? HOOPER Only one sure way to find him -- offer him a little something to eat. Chum -- blood, waste meat, fish, anything. They can sense it miles away. If he’s out there, we might be able to get a closer look at him. (checks his watch) It’s a good time, too. They’re night feeders... EXT. ABOARD HOOPER’S BOAT - NIGHT (TANK) We see Brody, looking sick and nervous, holding on anxiously as the "Fascinatin’ Rhythm" moves slowly ahead trolling at night. His glasses are already flecked with the white salt of dried seawater. He is wearing a life-preserver. Hooper is at the wheel, a chart spread in front of him, his eyes scanning the sea restlessly, checking the dials and gauges in front of him as well as the electronic depth-finding and "fish-finder" gear mounted in the cockpit. A green glow shines from the instruments on his face. Two closed-circuit TV cameras mounted below the hull flash their pictures onto monitors in the dash. In the aisle between the seats is a large container filled with unpleasant-looking bait; Hooper is long-lining for signs of shark, and chumming. HOOPER (indicating distant flashing beacon) That’s the Cape Light -- we’re on the stretch where he’s feeding, if he’s still here. Brody, bored, tired, and slightly queasy, is trying to concentrate on anything but the motion of the boat. He stares at the sophisticated electronics displays. BRODY What is all this stuff? HOOPER (ticking them off) Depth-finder, fathometer, sonar, closed-circuit TV -- fore and aft -- RDF, single side band... (points to themselves) And two loose nuts behind the wheel. BRODY Can you tell from that if a big man- eater is around? HOOPER Sometimes. (indicates display) Look here -- something big, probably a school of mackerel clumped together. And staying right with us. INSERT - ELECTRONICS SCREEN It’s blipping and peeping. CLOSE ON THE TWO MEN BRODY Where’d you get all this? HOOPER I Bought it. Both sets of grandparents set up trust funds for me; stocks went up, so I don’t have to touch my principal. BRODY You’re at the Institute full time? Or do you have a job? HOOPER (a nerve has been touched) It is a job. I’m not fooling around like some amateur. It’s my life! BRODY We gotta get back soon... WIDE ON THE "FASCINATIN’ RHYTHM" AS IT SWINGS AROUND The two men looking very small and vulnerable in the open sea, the low-hanging mist obscuring their visibility in the night. CLOSE ON BRODY He hears something, his eyes widen. It is the "bump-thump" of something scraping the hull. BRODY Hey! Hooper looks up and cuts the wheel hard, as the same time dropping the engines into neutral, and then reverse. The sudden change throws Brody to his knees. BRODY What the hell? ANGLE FROM HOOPER’S BOAT: GARDNER’S BOAT "FLICKA" AWASH AND FLOATING DEAD IN THE SEA It’s what they’ve just run into -- flooded to the gunwales, loose debris floating around, a tangle of lines and gear looking like floating garbage in the cockpit. Hooper’s light sweeps across it. BRODY That’s Ben Gardner’s boat! It’s the Flicka! Ben? Ben! Hooper cuts his engines and drifts in; he scampers out to the bow of his boat and makes a line fast to the Flicka. INSIDE THE COCKPIT OF HOOPER’S BOAT The electronic display is showing increased activity, but only Brody, who is clinging to a support for dear life, can see the blips and hear the chatter. Hooper is leaning out to look at the Flicka. THE TWO BOATS Hooper is examining the Flicka, tying a towline to it. INSERT HIS POINT OF VIEW The light picks its way across the ruined boat. The rail where a cleat once was is broadly scarred down to the raw timber, and the heady cleat has been torn bodily out of the hull, ripped out screws and all. HOOPER’S BOAT Something he has seen moves Hooper. BRODY What happened? HOOPER I want to check something. Hold my feet. He sticks his head over the side, into the black water. BRODY Don’t they have lifejackets or something? An extra boat? HOOPER (surfacing) They must’ve hit something. INSERT, ELECTRONICS DISPLAY Blip, chatter, blip, chatter. BRODY AND HOOPER Hooper moves to get a better look, the boat rocks in the swell and from his movement, Brody clutches the rail in a death-grip. Hooper goes below decks, getting into his wet suit, buckling on a weighted belt, holding a mask and hot flashlight. HOOPER He didn’t have a dinghy aboard. I’m going down to take a look at his hull. BRODY Why don’t we just tow it in? HOOPER (hyperventilating) We will. There’s something I’ve got to find out. BRODY Be careful, for chrissake. Hooper takes a last few breaths, orients himself, takes a long, hard look at the quiet, open ocean, and falls into the sea. CLOSE ON BRODY He is studying the surface, trying to follow Hooper’s movements. Brody is forcing himself to stay at the edge of the boat by sheer willpower and grim determination. Brody is fascinated by the sea like a bird facing a cobra. He is very much alone. He grasps a flashlight or boathook as a fragile defense against the unknown. PAST BRODY’S BACK TO THE ELECTRONICS Beep, chatter, blip. UNDERWATER SEQUENCE - HOOPER Hooper descends in a froth of bubbles. Warily he turns a full circle with his hotlight. At first we see nothing out of place about the Flicka except that it is lying so low in the water. But as Hooper travels the bottom looking for damage, he comes across a jagged hole two-thirds of the way forward. The hole is about the size of a basketball, and the wood around it has been bashed and splintered. Hooper explores the hole with his hands, then takes the knife from its sheath and begins to dig at something. Whatever it is comes free in his hand. As he studies his find, his light wanders upward, pointing directly into the dark hole. Hooper looks up... CLOSE - HOLE Ben Gardner’s dead face stares out through the hole in the Flicka, eyes and mouth gaping in frozen horror, his skin pinched like a prune. CLOSE - HOOPER bumps his head in trying to get away, seems to yell through escaping bubbles. We hear the gasping shout as a bubbling roar in the ears. His mask fills with water as he flails for the surface. Miscalculating, he bumps into the hull of his own boat, shocked, dismayed, his system jangling with adrenaline shock, his hands open, and the object he pried loose from the hull drifts down and out, falling into the eternity of the ocean bottom. He finally bursts through the surface. 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. BRODY Wait a minute! I need you. HOOPER Out there is a Perfect Engine, an Eating Machine that is a miracle of evolution -- it swims and eats and that’s all. Look at that! Those proportions are correct. (indicates fin) I know sharks. VAUGHN You’d love to prove that. Getting your name in the National Geographic. BRODY Larry, we can re-open the beaches in August. VAUGHN August! Tomorrow is the 4th of July, and we are going to open for business. It’s going to be our best summer in years. If you’re so concerned about the beaches, you two, you do whatever you have to to keep them safe, but with you or without you, the beaches stay open this weekend. INT. FERRY BOAT - DAY Two cavernous iron doors. Then a crack of vertical light as six burly crewmen muscle them apart. The Amity ferry landing is approaching, people in colorful outfits waiting dockside for the first filled-to-capacity shuttle of the summer season and -- Bach’s Little Fugue is the musical accompaniment to this wholly visual montage of disembarkation. The next two minutes should be treated like a "short film" taking into account all of the colors, episodes, faces and behavior of a variety of Americans who colonize Eastern resort communities for the ninety-day season. Intercut with this montage is Brody’s home, where Ellen, Hooper and Brody are in sweaty, gritty all-out effort to enlist some support. Elements in this montage include: A. A train of cars trundling down the ramp, bumper to bumper. B. Young Beautiful People from Princeton, Yale, NYU, wearing knapsacks, toting luggage, babies riding in papoose rigs, energized children, senior citizens holding hands on the pedestrian ramp, a few wheelchairs. C. Hooper, bent over the phone: "I know it’s a long weekend, could you get me his home phone number? D. Sidewalk vendors hawking "Shark Killed" souvenirs, big photo "Personality Posters" of the dead tiger shark hung on the dock. E. Brody: "You’re acting senior officer? Where’s Chief Petty Officer Feldman? Where’s the Coast Guard Executive Officer?" F. Souvenir stands selling Genuine Sharks Teeth from The Amity Killer Shark, Captured This Week. G. Amity Cab Company, small blue Toyotas lined up with their college student drivers like a bomber wing. H. Hooper: "Well then, operator, could you try him in the dining room?" I. Brody: "All I get is a recording. Is there some other number I could try...?" J. Station wagons with pale winter faces pressed anxiously to the window. Cadillacs with Rear Admirals at the helm, their wives with blue hair remembering the way from years before. K. Hooper: "When did he check out? Did he leave another phone number?" L. Brody: "How can I reach him in Chambers if he’s not in Chambers?" M. Little Karate Hands breaking picket fences. N. Some local delinquents about 10 or 12 years old, towing behind their bicycles a little dead sand shark with signs: "Amity Monster Shark." "Killed Here." 5 Cents a Hit." Etc. Then six blonde and tanned Coney Island meatballs descend the ramp. They all wear Men’s Club Lifeguard patches and matching collegiate windbreakers. They scour the landing, looking for someone to save. The boat is empty. Everybody heading inland, anticipating the best Fourth of July ever. Already there is debris on the docks and the cleaning crew works away at it. INSIDE THE FERRY As Bach’s Little Fugue ends, the six burly crewmen lean their combined weight against the Cathedral doors, closing out the light and locking in the trade. The doors latch shut with a resounding clang! ANGLE ON BRODY, NERVOUSLY WATCHING THE BEACH He is studying everything, trying to make sure he has it covered as well as possible. He almost doesn’t hear the approaching roar of a small helicopter until it settles down behind him, and a Flying Officer gets out, starched, pressed fatigues, a flawless fatigue baseball cap, and slick dark aviator’s sunglasses. The Steve Canyon of Amity. He presents Brody with a clipboard. OFFICER Martin Brody? (Brody nods) I’ll need your signature here... here... and here. BRODY What is this? OFFICER Authorization for direct payment of flight expenses not directly connected to a normal mission of this command. (Brody doesn’t understand) You pay for the gas. Brody signs. The Officer shakes his head as Brody makes an error. BRODY I signed on the wrong line... OFFICER Just erase your signature and initial your erasure. Brody complies, shaking his head. The Officer snaps him a salute, jogs lightly back to his idling copter, buckles in, and gives Brody a "thumbs up" as he lifts off in a flurry of sand and ice-cream wrappers. EXT. BEACH PARKING LOT - EARLY MORNING And this is it -- the Dawn Patrol, the only forces that the frantic phone calling produced. Hendricks, and the regular summer extra deputies. The lifeguards. Half a dozen state troopers. Some deputies from neighboring towns, and a Coast Guard ensign with a handful of regulars in work dungarees. Some of Hooper’s friends from the institute. Brody and Hooper, badly in need of sleep, are watching the crew straggle in. Already the first of the holiday beach- goers are piling out of their cars in a brightly colored cascade of beach balls, umbrellas, blankets, portable bar-b- ques, radios, sun visors, reflectors, rafts, balls, tubes, and newspapers. Hooper watches one such group: A Family of Ten getting out of a camper-van. He watches in dismay as the family bumbles onto the beach for a day of fun in the sun. Brody addresses his troops, such as they are. BRODY I want to thank you guys from local agencies for cooperating, and I hope we won’t actually be needing your services. But I’m glad to have you here. The Men ad lib responses: "Happy to do it," "Any time," "When’s lunch?" "I hate holidays," etc. ENSIGN I want to get our lines and repellent out, so we better shove off. He nods to his men, who head for some Boston Whalers (or similar boat with surf-riding capability) and push off into the surf to patrol the swimming areas. BRODY (a last caution) We’re all on one channel, so let’s keep radio traffic to a minimum, okay? Everyone kind of nods acknowledgment. HOOPER I hope we get some more help. BRODY I wish it would rain... EXT. BEACH - AMUSEMENT AREA - CLOSE OF SHARK MACHINE In a shed near the bandstand, a half-dozen pinball and arcade machines sucking quarters from holiday beach-goers. A mechanical shark traverses the screen, is hit with an electric harpoon and red "blood" blossoms from its side, indicating a hit. Sounds of electronic gadgetry, people having fun. Meadows is there writing it all up for the paper. A move away from the screen of this particular machine reveals the arcade, the parking lot, and, finally, the beginnings of the panorama of the beach that July 4th has created. EXT. SOUTH BEACH - THE FOURTH OF JULY four foot surfer’s swell curls and crashes on shore, riderless. The broad sandy beach is a mosaic of summer color as one thousand vacationers practice fun in the sun, but not in the water. Hot dog stands and ice cream vendors are everywhere. ANGLE - LIFEGUARD STATIONS A half-dozen lookout lofts. As many handsome lifeguards with Walkie-Talkies strapped to their trunks and loud-hailers at arm’s reach. Bored, two of the hot dogs train their binoculars on some local color. ANGLE ON TV MOBILE UNIT A TV Mobile Unit Van is setting up: cables snaking to cameras, a camera with a big sports zoom sitting on the platform atop the truck, a spiffy announcer-type in a blazer with his station’s call letters on the pocket. Inside the darkened control room, we can see the pale blue squares of monitors in a mosaic against one wall, facing the switcher. AT SEA Hooper is methodically patrolling in his boat. Tactically flanking a three-hundred-yard apron of black repellent are four small watch-boats. A tiny pleasure boat darts around the repellent line. Farther out, crossing back and forth, are patrol boats. To top it all off, a Coast Guard helicopter hovers and patrols three hundred feet above. INT. TELEVISION MOBILE UNIT At least eight monitors, reflecting the outputs of three cameras and two tape machines, as well as line, preview, and effects monitors. MONITOR: CAMERA 1: Holding on a group of happy citizen-bathers as they unpack their gear, wave to camera, run into the water. MONITOR: CAMERA 2: The Repellent Line, set in place by Coast Guardsmen in small boats, setting out floats, dumping repellent into the ocean. MONITOR: CAMERA 3: Close on the Bandstand, where Amity’s band is playing lilting patriotic airs. After we’ve seen this activity, we can take a look at what’s going on: the preparation of the tape segment for the six o’clock news. TV DIRECTOR Put 1 on the line. In five. 4. 3. 2. 1. Roll. On the "Tape 1" and "Line" monitors, we see Vaughn being interviewed by the Announcer in the blazer. ANNOUNCER ...and with me is the Mayor of Amity, Lawrence Vaughn. Mr. Vaughn, how about those rumors? VAUGHN How about them indeed. I’m pleased and happy to repeat the news that we have, in fact, caught and killed a large predator that supposedly injured some bathers here. As you can see, it’s a beautiful day, the beaches are open, and the folks here are having a wonderful time. Amity, y’know, means ’Friendship.’ MONITOR: CAMERA 1: As Vaughn speaks to us on the monitors, the monitor for Camera 1 pans over to show a Sightseeing Bus pull up in the parking area, and a horde of media vultures spilling out, carrying cameras with long lenses and tripods, telescopes, sunshades and parasols, all the equipment of the curious and none of the equipment of the holiday bather or swimmer. TAPE 1 AND LINE MONITORS: Close on the Announcer, Vaughn out of the picture. ANNOUNCER Also here today is a Marine Biologist and Research Fellow from the Oceanographic Institute, Matthew Hooper. Mr. Hooper, what’ve you heard? HOOPER What I’ve heard and what I’ve seen are two different things. I believe there is a large Great White Shark -- Carcharodon Cacharias - in the waters off this very beach, that he has killed and that he will kill again... Hooper’s voice fades off as someone at the mixer panel dials his mike off, and brings up the Announcer’s lavalier. ANNOUNCER (moving into center frame) And there you have it -- two different opinions, by men of good will. The holiday crowd here at Amity seems to be making up its own mind... The camera pans off him to a happy family headed for the beach. MONITOR: CAMERA 3: Zooms in on the puffing face of the tuba player. MONITOR: CAMERA 2: Brody and the Announcer. MONITOR: TAPE 1 and LINE: Back on the Announcer, his lips moving, but his sound turned off. We hear, instead, the sound from Monitor Camera 2, Brody and the same Announcer. BRODY I’m sorry, I just don’t have the time. TV DIRECTOR Recue the machines. 2, pan off the Chief and show me some tits and ass. 1, get me some cute kids. 3... see if you got a shot at the water. MONITORS: CAMERAS 1, 2 and 3: The cameras seek out the appropriate activity as the Director calls for it. ASSISTANT DIRECTOR (holds up stopwatch) Mayor, 43 seconds, Biologist 45 seconds. That’s equal time, right? DIRECTOR Right. (he presses "Talkback" button to his announcer) Jerry, come on in and look at this. (to his headset) Roll 2. In five, 4. 3. 2. 1. TAPE 2 - MONITOR: Starts showing us the assembled interview segment we’ve just seen, starting with the Announcer’s opening remarks. ANNOUNCER (V.O. MONITOR) Amity Island is famed for its clear air and white sand beaches. But a cloud appeared... His voice is dialed under as the Announcer himself appears in the control room to watch himself on the monitors. ANNOUNCER (LIVE) Look at that shine on my nose. It’s a beacon. DIRECTOR Close enough for remote. As Vaughn begins his spiel again, the other monitors show us the action on the beach. VAUGHN (V.O.) ...I’m pleased and happy... DIRECTOR Think we ought to stick around? ANNOUNCER What else you got? ASSISTANT DIRECTOR Teachers’ strike downtown. CAMERAMAN’S VOICE (O.S.) Christenson, this is Al. Union says time for Engineering Five. DIRECTOR That’s five minutes, guys. Coffee. ANGLE ON THE BEACH Vaughn is in his shirtsleeves, having slipped out of his jacket. He mops his brow, and surveys the beachfront. At this moment, there’s nobody swimming. He approaches a familiar Selectman, nods hello, and squats beside him on the sand. VAUGHN Why don’t you get in the water? SELECTMAN I don’t want to wash off my suntan lotion. I’ll get a burn... VAUGHN (some urgency) Nobody’s going in! On an adjoining blanket, a spirited Ruth Gordon type is sitting, watching brightly as her manservant, a polished Eric Harrison type, prepares some tea from a thermos. WOMAN Is there nobody going in? What a shame. Arthur, should I be going in? ARTHUR (THE BUTLER) (pouring tea) If you’d like. He puts down the tea service, and leads her towards the water. At the edge of the sea, she stops, and he walks in. ARTHUR (as he enters the waves) It’s very nice. Not too cold... Quite refreshing... Very pleasant.... He ducks his head under for a final look around. His dripping head rises triumphantly from the surf. ARTHUR No sharks, m’lady. She starts into the water, he takes her parasol, escorting her the rest of the way into the ocean. WOMAN This is marvelous! Arthur, I want to come back to this very spot. Will you make a note of where we are? WIDE - ON THE BEACH Encouraged by the sight of the Woman and Arthur, and Vaughn’s quiet urgings, people begin to wander into the surf, a few at first, and then a rush, as people plunge in and begin enjoying the pleasures of ocean bathing. The Selectman goes in, his family follows, Vaughn watches it all, beaming. BOAT #7 Hendricks is on the radio while a Coast Guard spotter works the sonar. HENDRICKS Anything? Thought I saw a shadow. Over. Pan to the water. UNDERWATER As before, 400 pairs of enticing, yummy swimmers’ legs, kicking like animated hors d’oeuvres. INT. HELICOPTER - AERIAL VIEW A breathtaking view. The copter spotter looks down with naked eye and binoculars. COPTER SPOTTER Nothing from up here, Daisy. Over. CLOSE - HENDRICKS HENDRICKS (into walkie-talkie) False alarm. Must be this glare. ANGLE - BEACH - CLOSE ON BRODY He is walking down the beach, threading his way through the happy hordes. Meadows nods "hello." VOICES Who’s scared to go in! I was in! Up to your knees, yeah -- So come with me -- I’ll go again. MEADOWS Beautiful day, Chief! A group of youngsters playing with Michael Brody’s dinghy. They are hauling it toward the surf. BRODY Hey Mikey -- ! Michael turns as Brody trots toward him. BRODY You’re not going to the ocean with that, are you son? MICHAEL I’m all checked out for light surf and look at it. BRODY Do me this favor just once. Use the ponds. MICHAEL Dad, the ponds are for old ladies. BRODY Just a favor for your old man. MICHAEL (confused) Sure, Dad. TV CREW - NEAR WATER TV cameramen are packing up their gear. For them it’s a wrap REPELLENT LINE - COUNTY POLICEMAN Suddenly his Walkie-Talkie fizzes, and the Copter Spotter’s voice overloads the speaker. COPTER SPOTTER Copter to Daisy! Red Four, Red Four! BOAT #7 - HENDRICKS Guns are up, heads turning everywhere. HENDRICKS (into walkie-talkie) Where -- ? COPTER SPOTTER Went under your -- There! The Coast Guard sonar operator spots it and pales. A slick black dorsal fin is slicing a wake toward the swimming area. SONAR OPERATOR Jesus Christ -- Shark! BEACH - BRODY Rigid and choked, he almost breaks the "send" button trying to transmit. BRODY Everybody out! Out of the water, please -- leave the water, please -- A lifeguard in a loft behind him begins blowing on his whistle. CLOSE - BRODY shouting hysterically. BRODY No whistles! No whistles! THE BEACH Dozens of bathers halfway out of the water, turn to see. More whistles, and they start toward shore. We hear panicky voices ad-libbing; "Shark," "Look Out," etc. The loudhailers sounding more urgent now, and a contagious dread seizes one person after another. Entire groups of people begin pulling toward shore, some of them obviously trying to control a growing hysteria in others. BOATS #6 AND #7 are converging, heading toward the repellent line as if tracking an underwater shadow. The fin is beyond the repellent cordons and heading into the crowds. HOOPER’S BOAT Caught on the other end of the line, he is wheeling in a broad, hot-dogger’s circle turn, headed back. THE WATER - BATHERS