Jaws (1975) - Quotes

Taglines: [from re-release trailer] It was seen by 67 million people. It took two years to make. It was shown in 40 countries, in 17 different languages. Nominated for 18 awards... If you forgot what terror is like, the original Jaws is back.

Taglines: [from TV spot] There is a creature alive today who has survived millions of years of evolution, without change, without passion and without logic. It lives to kill - a mindless eating machine. It will attack and devour anything. It is as if God created the Devil, and gave him Jaws.

Taglines: [from TV spot] None of man's fantasies of evil can compare with the reality of Jaws.

Taglines: When beaches open this summer, you will be taken by Jaws.

Taglines: The terrifying motion picture from the terrifying No. 1 best seller.

Taglines: You'll never go in the water again!

Taglines: See it before you go swimming.

Taglines: Do you like fish? Well, he likes you too...

Taglines: She was the first.

Taglines: Don't go in the water.

Chief Brody: [swimming back to shore] Hey, what day is this?

Hooper: It's Wednesday...eh, it's Tuesday, I think.

Chief Brody: Think the tide is with us?

Hooper: Keep kickin'.

Chief Brody: I used to hate the water.

Hooper: I can't imagine why.

Chief Brody: [pointing at Quint's tattoo scar] What's that one?

Quint: What?

Chief Brody: That one, there, on your arm.

Quint: Oh, that's a tattoo. I got that removed.

Hooper: [laughs] No, Don't tell me. Don't tell me. Mother!

Quint: [[w:USS Indianapolis (CA-35)|U.S.S. ''Indianapolis''] Mr. Hooper, that's the ].

Hooper: [his face drops] You were on the Indianapolis?

Chief Brody: What happened?

Quint: [[w:Little Boy|Hiroshima bomb; [w:tiger shark|tiger; [w:infantry square|old squares; [w:Battle of Waterloo|Battle of Waterloo; smiles and lifts his cup] Japanese submarine slammed two torpedoes into our side, Chief. We was comin back from the island of Tinian to Leyte - just delivered the bomb, the ]. Eleven hundred men went into the water. Vessel went down in 12 minutes. Didn't see the first shark for about half an hour. A ], thirteen footer - you know how you know that when you're in the water, Chief? You tell by lookin from the dorsal to the tail. What we didn't know was our bomb mission had been so secret, no distress signal had been sent. They didn't even list us overdue for a week. Very first light, Chief, sharks come cruisin'. So we formed ourselves into tight groups. You know, it was kinda like ] in the battle like that you see in the calendar named The ]. And the idea was, the shark comes to the nearest man and he starts poundin and hollerin and screamin'. Sometimes the shark go away... Sometimes he wouldn't go away. Sometimes that shark, he looks right into ya, right into your eyes. Y'know, the thing about a shark, he's got lifeless eyes, black eyes, like a doll's eyes. When he comes after ya, he doesn't seem to be livin until he bites ya, and those black eyes roll over white, and then... aww, then you hear that terrible, high-pitched screamin', the ocean turns red, and in spite of all the poundin and the hollerin', they all come in and... rip ya to pieces. You know, by the end of that first dawn, we lost a hundred men. I don't know how many sharks, maybe a thousand. I don't know how many men. They averaged six an hour. On Thursday morning, Chief, I bumped into a friend of mine, Herbie Robinson from Cleveland. Baseball player. Boatswain's mate. I thought he was asleep. I reached over to wake him up. Bobbed up, down in the water just like a kinda top. Upended. Well, he'd been bitten in half below the waist. Noon the fifth day, Mr. Hooper, a Lockheed Ventura saw us. He swung in low and he saw us. He was a young pilot, a lot younger than Mr. Hooper. Anyway, he saw us and he come in low and three hours later, a big fat PBY comes down and start to pick us up. You know, that was the time I was most frightened - waitin for my turn. I'll never put on a life jacket again. So, eleven hundred men went in the water, three hundred and sixteen men come out, and the sharks took the rest, June the 29th, 1945. Anyway, we delivered the bomb.

Quint: [seeing Hooper's equipment; examining the shark cage] What are you? Some kind of half-assed astronaut? Jesus H. Christ, when I was a boy, every little squirt wanted to be a harpooner or a sword fisherman. What d'ya have there - a portable shower or a monkey cage?

Hooper: Anti-shark cage.

Quint: [singing] Anti-shark cage. You go inside the cage? Cage goes in the water? You go in the water? Shark's in the water? Our shark? "Farewell and adieu to you, fair Spanish ladies. Farewell and adieu, you ladies of Spain. For we've received orders for to sail back to Boston. And so nevermore shall we see you again.

Quint: I'm not talkin about pleasure boatin or day sailin'. I'm talkin about workin for a livin'. I'm talkin about sharkin'.

Hooper: Well I'm not talkin about hookin some poor dogfish or sand shark. I'm talkin about findin a Great White.

Quint: [stares at Hooper; gives Hooper some rope] Porkers? Ya talkin about Porkers, Mr. Hooper? Tie me a sheep shank.

Hooper: [ties the knot expertly; tosses rope back to Quint] I haven't had to pass basic seamanship in a long time. You didn't say how short you wanted it.

Quint: [grabs Hooper's wrists and looks at his hands and examines them; contemptuously] Gimme your hands... Dogfish? You've got city boy hands, Hooper. You been countin money all your life.

Hooper: [pulls away] All right, hey, I don't need this! I don't need this working-class-hero crap!

Quint: Maybe I should go alone.

Mayor Vaughn: I'm sorry, I'm truly sorry.

Chief Brody: [pulls Larry aside] You got a pen, Larry?

Mayor Vaughn: A pen?

Chief Brody: Yeah, a pen! You know. Cause you're gonna do what you do best: you're gonna sign this voucher so I can hire a contractor.

Mayor Vaughn: I don't think I can do that without-

Chief Brody: I'm gonna hire Quint to kill the shark!

Mayor Vaughn: [nods, and starts to think] August, August...

Chief Brody: August? What are you talking about? Larry, summer's over. You're the mayor of "Shark City!" These people think you want the beaches open!

Mayor Vaughn: I was-I was acting-in the town's best interest-

Chief Brody: That's right! You were! You were acting in the town's best interest, and that's why you're gonna do the right thing! That's why you're gonna sign this, and we're gonna pay that guy what he wants!

Mayor Vaughn: Martin...Martin, my kids were on that beach, too.

Chief Brody: Sign it, Larry.

Hooper: [refers to billboard graffiti] Mr. Vaughn, what we are dealing with here is a perfect engine, an eating machine. It's really a miracle of evolution. All this machine does is swim and eat and make little sharks, and that's all. Now, why don't you take a long, close look at this sign. Those proportions are correct.

Mayor Vaughn: Love to prove that, wouldn't ya? Get your name into the National Geographic.

Chief Brody: This is a great white, Larry. A big one. Any shark expert in the world will tell you it's a killer, it's a man-eater!

Hooper: Look, the situation is that apparently a great white shark has staked a claim in the waters off Amity island. And he is going to continue to feed here as long as there is food in the water.

Chief Brody: And there's no limit of what he's going to do. I mean we've already had three incidents. Two people were killed in a week and it's gonna happen again. It happened before, The Jersey Beach, 1916. Five people were killed.

Hooper: In one week.

Chief Brody: Tell him about the swimmers!

Hooper: A shark is attracted to the exact kind of splashing and activity that occurs whenever human beings go swimming. You cannot avoid it.

Chief Brody: You open the beaches on the Fourth of July is like ringing the dinner bell for Christ's sake!

Hooper: Look Mr. Vaughn, I pulled a tooth the size of a shot glass out of the wrecked hull of a boat out there and it was the tooth of a great white.

Chief Brody: It was Ben Gardner's boat, it was all chewed up. I helped tow it in, you should've seen it!

Mayor Vaughn: Where is that tooth? Did you see it, Brody?

Chief Brody: No, I didn't see it. He dropped it on the way in.

Hooper: I had an accident.

Mayor Vaughn: And what did you say the name of this shark is?

Hooper: It's a Carcharodon carcharias. It's a great white.

Mayor Vaughn: And you don't have the tooth? Look, we depend on the summer people here for our very lives-

Hooper: You're not gonna have a summer unless you deal with this problem!

Chief Brody: We're not only going to have to close the beach, we're going to have to hire somebody to kill the shark! I mean we're going to have to tell the Coast Guard!

Hooper: Mr. Vaughn, you'll have to contact the Shark Research Panel. You'll have to ring this entire harbor!

Mayor Vaughn: I don't think either one of you are familiar with our problems!

Hooper: I think that I am familiar with the fact that you are going to ignore this particular problem until it swims up and bites you IN THE ASS! Now wait a second, wait a second. There are two ways to deal with this problem: you either kill this animal, or you're gonna cut off his food supply!

Hooper: [he and Martin have just taken the recently caught tiger shark to a boathouse for an autopsy; stomach fluid pours out as Hooper cuts the shark open, and throws out 2 dead fish and a can] We start in the alimentary canal, and open the digestive tract. Ah! Just like I thought.

Chief Brody: What?

Hooper: [throws out a Louisiana license plate; Chief Brody picks it up and examines it] Came up in the Gulf stream, from southern waters.

Chief Brody: He didn't eat a car, did he?

Hooper: [laughs; slides over to Chief Brody] No. Tiger shark's like a garbage can, it'll eat anything. Someone probably threw that in the river. Hoo, that's it.

Chief Brody: [now knowing the crisis hasn't been resolved yet] I've got to close the beach, call the mayor.

Hooper: [gestures with his hands demonstrating the width of a big mouth] You've got a bigger problem than that, Martin. You still got a hell of a fish out there, with a mouth about this big.

Ellen: Martin hates boats. Martin hates water. Martin - Martin sits in his car when we go on the ferry to the mainland. I guess it's a childhood thing. It's a - there's a clinical name for it, isn't there?

Chief Brody: Drowning! Isn't it true that most people are attacked by sharks in three feet of water and about ten feet from the beach.

Hooper: Yes, that's true.

Chief Brody: And that...and that before people started to swim for recreation - I mean before sharks knew what they were missing - that a lot of these attacks weren't reported?

Hooper: That's right.

Chief Brody: Now this shark that, that swims alone...

Hooper: A rogue.

Chief Brody: Rogue, yeah, now this guy, he - he keeps swimming around in a place where the feeding is good until the food supply is gone, right?

Hooper: It's called "territoriality". It's just a theory that I happen to...agree with.

Chief Brody: Then why don't we have one more drink and go down and cut that shark open.

Ellen: Martin? Can you do that?

Chief Brody: I can do anything, I'm the chief of police.

Mrs. Kintner: Chief Brody?

Chief Brody: Yes?

Mrs. Kintner: [slaps Brody and sobs; walks away] I just found out, that a girl got killed here last week, and you knew it! You knew there was a shark out there! You knew it was dangerous! But you let people go swimming anyway? You knew all those things! But still my boy is dead now. And there's nothing you can do about it. My boy is dead. I wanted you to know that.

Mayor Vaughn: I'm sorry, Martin. She's wrong.

Chief Brody: [heartbroken] No, she's not.

Hooper: Martin, there's all kinds of sharks in the water, you know? Hammerheads, whitetips, blues, makos, and the possibility that these bozos caught the exact shark that-

Chief Brody: Oh, there's no other shark like this in these waters!

Hooper: Martin, Martin, it's a hundred to one. A hundred to one. Now, I'm not saying it's not the shark. It probably is, Martin, it probably is! It's a man-eater, it's extremely rare for these waters. But the fact is, the bite radius on this animal is different than the wounds on the victim. I just- I wanna be sure. You wanna be sure, we all wanna be sure, okay? Now, what I wanna do is very simple; the digestive system on this animal is very, very slow. Let's cut it open, whatever it's eaten in the past 24 hours is bound to still be in there, and then we'll be sure.

Chief Brody: ...Well, I guess it would be the only way to confirm it, huh?

Mayor Vaughn: Look, fellas, let's be reasonable. This is not the time or the place, to perform some half-assed autopsy on a fish. And I am not going to stand here and see that thing cut open, and see that little Kintner boy spill out all over the dock!

Chief Brody: Why don't we show Mr. Hooper our accident?

Hooper: [uncovers the tray of the remains, panting in nausea and shock] Uh, victim's name is Christine Watkins, female caucasian...probable boating accident. The height and weight of the victim can only be estimated from the partial remains. The torso has been severed in mid-thorax. There are no major organs remaining. May I have a glass of water please?

Medical Examiner: Sure.

Hooper: [sips his water; to inspector; to Brody] Right arm has been severed with massive tissue loss in the upper musculature. Thank you very much. Partially denuded bone remaining. This was no boating accident. Did you notify the Coast Guard about this?

Chief Brody: No. It was only local jurisdiction.

Hooper: [to Brody, who he notices is about to light a cigarette; holds up a severed arm] The left arm, head, shoulder, sternum, and portions of the rib cage are intact. Do not smoke in here! Thank you very much. This is what happens. It indicates the non-frenzy feeding of a large squalus, possibly longimonus, or Isurus Glaucus. Now, the enormous amount of tissue loss prevents any detailed analysis. However the attacking squalus must be considerably larger than any normal squalus found in these waters. Did you get on a boat and check these waters?

Chief Brody: No.

Hooper: [to Inspector] Well, this is not a boating accident! It wasn't any propeller, it wasn't any coral reef, and it wasn't Jack the Ripper! It was a shark.

Mayor Vaughn: We're really a little anxious that you're, uh, you're rushing into something serious here. It's your first summer, you know.

Chief Brody: What does that mean?

Mayor Vaughn: I'm only trying to say that Amity is a summer town. We need summer dollars. If people can't swim here, they'll be glad to swim in the beaches of Cape Cod, the Hamptons, Long Island.

Chief Brody: That doesn't mean we have to serve them up as smorgasbord.

Harry Meadows: We've never had that kind of trouble in these waters.

Mayor Larry Vaughn: I don't think you appreciate the gut reaction people have to these things...Martin, It's all psychological. You yell Barracuda, everybody says Huh? What? You yell Shark, we've got a panic on our hands on the Fourth of July.

Quint: Here lies the body of Mary Lee; died at the age of a hundred and three. For fifteen years she kept her virginity; not a bad record for this vicinity.

Quint: Y'all know me. Know how I earn a livin'. I'll catch this bird for you, but it ain't gonna be easy. Bad fish! Not like going down to the pond and chasing bluegills and tommycods. This shark, swallow ya whole. Little shakin', little tenderizin', down you go. And we gotta do it quick, that'll bring back the tourists, that'll put all your businesses on a payin basis. But it's not gonna be pleasant! I value my neck a lot more than three thousand bucks, chief. I'll find him for three, but I'll catch him, and kill him, for ten. But you've gotta make up your minds. If you want to stay alive, then ante up. If you want to play it cheap, be on welfare the whole winter. I don't want no volunteers, I don't want no mates, there's too many captains on this island. $10,000 for me by myself. For that you get the head, the tail, the whole damn thing.

Matt Hooper: [the shark crashes into the boat killing the power] It ate the light.

Matt Hooper: [about Mayor Vaughn] I'm not going to waste my time arguing with a man who's lining up to be a hot lunch.

Police Chief Martin Brody: [aiming an M1 Garand; shoots the air tank in the shark's mouth; causing the shark to explode] Smile, you son of a...!

Police Chief Martin Brody: [[w:AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movie Quotes|American Film Institute's list of the top 100 movie quotations] *Note: the bolded line is ranked #35 in the ] in American cinema.

Police Chief Martin Brody: [the shark suddenly appears, causing Brody to recoil in shock] Slow ahead." I can go slow ahead. Come on down here and chum some of this shit. You're gonna need a bigger boat.