Roy Scheider , Richard Dreyfuss , and Robert Shaw all gave iconic performances inJaws(1975 ) , but the movie ’s most memorable quality might be the 25 - foot - farsighted Orcinus orca shark . For most of the shark panorama , Steven Spielberg either filmed around the creature or used afamously temperamentalanimatronic Pisces the Fishes who was nickname Bruce after the film director ’s attorney . For the cage - diving tantrum , however , Spielberg did something different . That sequence features the flick ’s only footage of an literal great snowy , and capturing it almost turned venomous .
Near the end ofJaws , Dreyfuss ’s Matt Hooper dons a wetsuit and enters a shark John Cage in an effort to lethally inject the shark that ’s been terrorizing Amity Island . To film tenacious shots of the scene , underwater diver and nature documentarians Valerie and Ron Taylor filmed a dead body doubled cage - dive with existent shark . Valerie toldInside Hookthat to make the 15- and 16 - foot sharks in South Australia , where they were filming , seem bigger , they used a small boat , a scale - down John Cage , and a " very short histrion . "
The actor was n’t an experienced diver , however , and he was nervous about being submerged in shark - infested waters . His fears turned out to be rather prescient . At one point , a 16 - pes great white got caught in the boat winch link to the coop and ruin the cheat while thrash about to break away . Fortunately , the worker was n’t in the cage when this happened . If he had been , the incident would have no doubt been fateful , according to Valerie Taylor .
The import was a airless call for the crew , but it made for some great footage . To viewers who did n’t know considerably , the trapped shark appeared to be violently attacking the cage . Realizing what they had , the film producer changed the hand to let in the dramatic crack in the film . Originally , Hooper wasmeant to diein this scene . But because the real shark motion picture was miss an role player , they had Hooper escape the cage at the last minute and survive .
A close encounter with a valet - eater was n’t the only mishap on the set ofJaws . Here aremore factsyou should know about the original megahit .
[ h / tInside Hook ]
