I avoided the Jaws sequels for many years before I finally succumbed to the inevitable franchise marathon that lies in wait for all horror completists. Admittedly, my mindset was somewhat condemning from the start. And, as we all know, it is never a good idea to sit down to watch a movie you’ve already decided has no business existing in the first place.
Jaws (1975) is a perfect animal. A tightly knit character study constructed around a vicious force of nature. A microcosm for the issues that arise between the greater bureaucratic system we all find ourselves in and the individuals that system is in place to serve and protect. It’s a movie that, in my eyes, ended with a period, not an ellipses— and that was that.
Still, there were three more. And, as though it were the law of the genre, I felt it was my duty to give them a watch.
Jaws 2 (1978) ultimately left me feeling conflicted upon first viewing. On the one hand, it felt very much like the first half of Jaws dragged out to feature-length. It lacked the heart and charisma of the first, most notably in the absence of characters (or even proxies) like Hooper and Quint.
Then again, it had a rollicking score by John Williams, a moving elaboration on what he had done with the first film that carried the movie to great heights in places. Plus, hidden behind the moniker and reputation of the first, was a straight forward teen slasher film, confined to ravaged boats and jammed into the film’s final act. And boy was it fun.
Time passed and my attitude shifted. My mind opened up to the possibility that, yes, I am allowed to like a sequel to one of my favorite films of all time. That, indeed, it does not have to match its predecessor in terms of quality. Sure, it owes its existence to the former’s success, but that should be celebrated, not condemned.
My newfound love for Jaws 2 was a turning point in my horror watching career, an important step in defining what kind of fan I was going to be. It’s better to look for the good, I decided, than zero in on the bad.
Jaws 2 is a film that can go either way, when considered in those terms. There are plenty of sequences that drag, plenty of effects that seem schlocky, and plenty of characters that are shockingly underdeveloped considering the film’s runtime. But, then again, there are some truly stand out moments of tension and over-the-top excitement. And who on Earth doesn’t want to see a slasher where the killer is a giant shark?
Nowhere is this film’s ability to have fun and strut-its-stuff more apparent than in its final act. More specifically, when the shark takes down a helicopter. It’s when the stranded teenagers are at their most relieved, moments away from being towed away from their watery Hell, that the shark strikes and shows what it is truly capable of.
The script details a slightly elongated interaction with the pilot, offering more character development to the teenagers and providing some build-up to the inevitable attack. It’s a technical write-up, offering shooting direction and a level of specificity that visually maps out the scene. Onscreen, the scene is tightened up a bit, cutting to the action almost immediately and depicting a sequence that plays as more viscerally interesting than the script’s more story-based approach might have offered.
It’s a silly, bombastic, awe-inducing scene that sets the stage for what’s to come and serves as a punctuating moment that separates it from the original.
THE SCENE
The helicopter lands on the water and the pilot emerges. He tells the stranded teenagers he will give them a tow and asks if they could throw him a line. They do and he catches it. He reenters the helicopter and starts the engine. The blades begin to turn and the machine lifts from the water. Suddenly, the shark emerges and bites down on one of the pontoons. The pilot struggles to get the helicopter airborne, but the pull from the shark is too great. The blades are pulled into the water and break apart, sending sharp debris flying at the stranded teenagers and further decimating their already damaged vessels. The helicopter completely overturns and the shark makes its way to the kids.
THE SCRIPT
Excerpt taken from the script ‘JAWS 2’ written by Carl Gottlieb and Howard Sackler.
THE SCREEN
A panorama of open ocean; a quick fly-by to orient us: First, Cable Junction, then, a mile or so ahead, the raft.
The scene opens with a steady cam shot inside of the helicopter’s cockpit. The pilot surveys the ocean, coming upon Cable Junction and annotates something on a map lying open his lap. A wide shot of the helicopter soaring over the ocean dissolves to the makeshift raft and the pilot’s voice begins to sound, communicating their position to the coast guard.
The film makes economical choices in bringing the page to life. In the script, the teenagers on the raft, fiddling with their sails and talking amongst one another, see the helicopter coming. They hear the helicopter approaching and wave it down. It’s a small addendum, but one that drags out the scene and does nothing to inspire tension.
As it is onscreen, the scene feels more methodical. Told through a series of wide shots, the helicopter comes upon the raft and lands. The helicopter is shown in the center of the frame in these shots, hovering closer to the water as a shining beacon, while the group of kids cheer in the background. The focus is less on characters and more on the collective, lending to the set piece the actions are building toward.
The pilot emerges from the helicopter onscreen just as he does on the page, asking if everyone is okay. In the script, it’s the kids who drive the conversation. They ask if they can get a tow or even physically climb into the helicopter itself. There is some back and forth attempts at communication as well as a concerted effort to warn the pilot of the murderous shark.
The other Kids all chime in, adding their ad-lib shouts describing what happened, calling for help, etc. It’s all a noisy jumble, the Pilot ignores it, trying to do his job.
Again, the film simplifies this interaction. The pilot explicitly tells the group what he intends to do: tow the raft to Cable Junction where help will arrive. Excised are the desperate pleas to be taken into the helicopter and terrified cries of a shark. Instead, the kids are relieved and excited, clearly feeling as though they are in the clear. Again, they operate as one whole, certain that they have eluded the danger they were previously in. This alteration makes what happens next all the more startling and impactful.
The shots grow tighter as the pilot reenters the helicopter and begins to start the rotors. Blades spin in close-ups while keys and knobs are turned in subsequent shots. No score accompanies this, mounting a building silence that plays counterintuitively to the triumph the action onscreen should represent.
In the script:
WIDE ON THE RAFT AND CHOPPER
In the f.g. [foreground], the fin rises, and starts for the scene. Follow it.
CLOSE ON THE CHOPPER
as it starts to lift, inexplicably. The Pilot reacts as;
THE SHARK
attacks one of the pontoons, biting down on it, clamping great scarred jaws onto the bulbous floats.
Onscreen there is no fin. Rather, the camera stays with the pilot until the shark is emerging monstrously from the ocean’s surface in the background through his window. He doesn’t even see the creature until it’s already clamped down on the pontoon and pulling the helicopter toward the ocean’s watery depths.
The shark’s dead-eyed visage is as surprising as it is terrifying due to the efficiency of the scene and the certainty that economy provided both the viewer and the characters alike. The following shots intercut between mediums and close-ups of the pilot as he tries desperately to wrangle control of the machine and the shark as it clamps down on the big, yellow leg of the helicopter.
The shots take on a sense of speed and immediacy, reflected in the script by way of frequent sentence breaks. There’s even a scene heading titled QUICK CUTS which details specific shots to cut between during the chaotic moment (Med. shot, copter shaking”, “Med. closeup Pilot in buffeting cockpit, etc.).
The remaining action takes several more scene breaks to accomplish on the page what the screen does in seconds. While the frame continues to intercut the terrified teenagers with the flailing helicopter, the action is expedited. Still, what is mentioned in writing does feel appropriately realized in the resulting visuals.
ANGLE ON THE COPTER
as it tilts. Then, the unspeakable — the blades touch the water and explode. Chunks of murderous steel break off the shattered blades and whistle through the air like projectiles.
A quick shot of the blades touching the water and breaking apart followed by a shot of the clear blue sky overcome with sharp, flying debris ushers the scene toward its imminent conclusion. Along with the sinking helicopter, the shots of the screaming group are now intercut with the further decimation of their battered, makeshift vessel. What remains of their sails are torn to shreds by the flying metal and their one chance at escape flips quietly over in the water.
The screenplay dedicates some time to the fate of the pilot who, under the water attempts to escape. The words plot his demise with great intensity:
ANGLE ON THE PILOT — UNDERWATER
as grim death batters at his fragile bubble. Screaming. The bubble cracks. Water floods, teeth snap at the slippery plastic, the Pilot fumbles for oxygen as the Shark veers off into the murk.
Ultimately, the scene ends with the dismayed group of teenagers staring desperately at the overturned helicopter as something in the water moves toward them, gaining speed. Their Hell is far from over and is, very likely, only just begun.
THE BLOODY CONCLUSION
“Steven Spielberg would have none of it,” Producer Dan Brown said on the documentary The Making of Jaws 2 found on the Jaws 2 Blu-ray disc, “sequels really weren’t in vogue at that time.”
I’m no stranger to having a built-in aversion to sequel-ising a classic. Especially when said classic feels complete. But, there’s something to be said about keeping an unclouded mind toward the movies, letting go of expectation and being open to embracing what’s playing out before you.
Sure, no one should have to work to like a movie. But, isn’t it more fun to enjoy something than to hate it? Jaws 2 retreads some ground. It takes a bit too long to get where it’s going. Its characters are, well, befitting of the teen slasher archetypes they would eventually resemble.
And, at the same time, it’s a film that features an extended sequence set at sea where a handful of teenagers are being stalked by a killer, picked off one by one and forced to work together to put a stop to it all. Oh, and that killer is a murderous shark. And rarely during the picture’s runtime is the sort of insanity this concept embodies more fully on display than the scene where the shark takes on a helicopter.
In the making-of documentary mentioned earlier, director Jeannot Szwarc talks about the life-sized replica of the helicopter the art department created for the sequence. It took days to get the shot right, with the weight and size of the replica causing a multitude of issues. Couple that with the many shark apparatuses and underwater platforms being towed by various moving boats and it’s clear that a lot of work went into giving audiences their “Jaws eats a helicopter” scene.
I think, when it comes to the movies, particularly sequels, cynical attitudes are often born out of perceived cynicism when it comes to their creation. If I head into Jaws 2 believing that a bunch of suits made it for the sole reason of cashing in on a better movie’s name, then, odds are, I won’t like Jaws 2 very much.
But, if I can let that go, whether it’s true or not, and watch the movie for what it is— for what the filmmakers made it into— then, maybe I can find something unexpected. Maybe I can cut through the stuff I don’t want (like a rehashed Amity Island political volley) and find the sort of content I crave (like a shark slasher movie).
In the end, it took a few watches, but I’ve made peace with Jaws 2. Hell, I kinda love it. It may not be Jaws, but that’s okay— there’s more than enough room for both. After all, the shark doesn’t eat any helicopters in the first one.
JAWS 2 was written by Carl Gottlieb and Howard Sackler & Directed by Jeannot Szwarc
