Every part of the Jaws franchise features a new great white terrorizing the movie’s heroes, and here’s how each of them met their demise. The success of Steven Spielberg’s Jaws made a sequel inevitable, and the series somewhat legitimized the idea of producing sequels in Hollywood. Before Jaws, with the exception of occasional franchises like the James Bond series or Airport, sequels were rare. “Jaws 2” became another major hit, although it did not receive the same accolades as the original.
Spielberg turned down Jaws 2 partly out of fear of returning to the water-after the agonizing production of the first installment—and because he felt the sequels were a “cheap trick.” He also turned down “Jaws 3D,” and while he’s polite enough not to openly criticize sequels, he’s reportedly made it clear that he never wants his original film to be packaged in a box set with “Jaws” sequels. The shark from the first movie—nicknamed “Bruce” after Spielberg’s lawyer—was very, very dead by the end credits, which required a new big white for Jaws 2.
Unlike slashers like Halloween, where Michael Myers seems unkillable, sharks in the Jaws saga are very mortal. In each walk, it was necessary to be a little creative about how the characters dealt with them, so here is every shark death in the Jaws movie series.
Every shark death in the Jaws franchise
Jaws (1975) – Explosion of a compressed air cylinder
By the finale of “Jaws”, “Bruce” destroyed Hooper’s shark cage (Richard Dreyfus) and almost ate its inhabitant, smashed a killer whale and ate Robert Shaw’s quint. Chief Brody (Roy Scheider) is the last person to swim, and he manages to throw a pressurized oxygen tank into the shark’s gaping mouth. When the boat sinks and Bruce starts attacking Brody for the last time, the desperate Chief shoots the beast with a rifle, hoping to hit the tank. At the last moment, he stumbles upon gold, and the shark shatters into pieces.
Jaws 2 (1978) – Electric Cable
Unlike the original, Big White Brody and Jaws 2 don’t face each other until the finale. By this point, a group of stranded teenagers are trying to get to a small island on their wrecked boats. Brody’s son Sean is among the youngsters, but the shark attacks again, and hope seems lost when Brody, who has not returned to Jaws 3D, also crashes his ship. Hooked on an underwater cable and remembering an earlier story about sharks attracted by noise, the Chief hits the cable to lure a hungry predator. He rushes to Brody when he holds the cable, and the Chief jumps back when the shark bites and is terribly fried by electricity.
Jaws 3D (1982) – Grenade Explosion
The shark in Jaws 3D is the largest in the series, its length is 35 feet. Trapped in SeaWorld with her child, who was captured by the staff, but who died in captivity, she gets out and starts eating tourists. Oceanographer Fitzroys (Simon McCorkindale) is swallowed alive by the beast and crushed in his mouth when he tries to pull the pin out of his grenade.
Later in Jaws 3D, whose canonical status is complicated, hero Mike Brody (Dennis Quaid) notices Fitzroy’s body and a grenade still stuck in the shark’s mouth as it attacks the underwater control room. After several furious hook strikes, Mike unhooks the grenade, and as a result of the explosion, the shark disappears in a cloud of blood and entrails.
Jaws: Revenge (1987) – Impaled / Explosion
How the shark will die in “Jaws: Revenge”, depends on the version that the audience is watching. In the original American theatrical release, the characters, consisting of Ellen Brody (Lorraine Gary) and her son Mike (Lance Guest), electrocute the creature with a homemade device. This causes him to rise out of the water before Ellen crashes into the side of the broken bow of the boat. This causes the shark to bleed and die, destroying the Neptune Madness boat in its death throes.
Critics perceived the film “Jaws: Revenge”, in the original plan of which megalodon appeared, as it is known, were bad, so Universal quickly reshot the ending so that the audience’s favorite character Jake (Mario Van Peebles) survived for foreign viewers. They also filmed the death of a shark, where it inexplicably explodes after a collision with a boat.
