Jaws (film)/Characters

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Martin Brody

"You're gonna need a bigger boat."

Amity's police chief who moved to the island with his family to get away from the dangers of living in New York. He hates water, and to his dismay he has to deal with one of its toothier inhabitants up-close-and-personal...twice.

Played by Roy Scheider

Tropes exhibited by Brody include:

Matt Hooper

"Mr. Vaughn, what we are dealing with here is a perfect engine, an eating machine."

Shark-fascinated marine biologist who was called to Amity island to help with the shark problem. He starts of as a white-collared college kid foil to Quint's blue collar gruffiness, but they come to an understanding with each other.

Played by Richard Dreyfuss

Tropes exhibited by Hooper include:

Sam Quint

"Farewell and adieu to you fair Spanish ladies~"

Seaman with a bone to pick with all sharks, due to traumatizing events in World War II. He is hired to hunt down the shark with Brody and Hooper giving him assistance.

Played by: Robert Shaw

Tropes exhibited by Quint include:

Ellen Brody

"I just want to know one thing; when do I get to become an islander?"

Martin's loving wife, who offers emotional support to him when things are looking down. After he died, she was forced to deal with a killer shark that was specifically targeting members of her family in the fourth film.

Played by: Lorraine Gary

Tropes exhibited by Ellen Brody include:

Michael Brody

"White sharks are dangerous. I know 'em. My father, my brother, myself. They're murderers."

Oldest son in the Brody family. Becomes the main focus of third and fourth film.

Played by: Chris Rebello (first film), Mrak Gruner (2), Dennis Quaid (3) and Lance Guest (The Revenge)

Tropes exhibited by Michael Brody include:

Sean Brody

Michael's younger brother. He spends most of the time following his brother and is ultimately killed in the first minutes of The Revenge.

Played by: Jay Mello (first film), Marc Gilpin (2), John Putch (3) and Mitchell Anderson (The Revenge)

Tropes exhibited by Sean Brody include:

The Sharks

The ones with the eponymous jaws. After the first shark swam into the waters of Amity Island, all members of the Brody family have found themselves confronting them in increasingly convoluted ways.

Tropes exhibited by the sharks include:
  • Big Bads
  • Dirty Coward: Initially the shark was one by chance. Many of the victims prior to the Orca hunting it, were often singled out individuals. Chrissie was all alone, because her date was passed out on the shore. Alex and Pippin were singled out one at a time when there was plenty of other humans to munch on in the beach that day. It even goes to the estuary simply because there were fewer people there than the main beach. The Rower being the last single victim. However it becomes subverted when the Orca starts hunting the shark. The shark dropping all tactics and intending to kill all three of them. Succeeding only with Quint.
  • Everything's Even Worse with Sharks
  • Hollywood Voodoo: The novelization of the fourth film revealed that shark in it is actually a spirit animal of a scorned Voodoo priest. This turn of events gave us the Voodoo Shark.
  • Immune to Bullets
  • It Can Think: They don't call the fourth film The Revenge for nothing.
    • The first movie's shark was no slouch in the intelligence department either. When the Orca begins hunting it down, it surprises Brody with a jump scare. Then later at night, when the trio is singing it slams into the hull, leaking salt water into the engine and somehow even manages to cause a power outage leaving them in the dark. When Hooper tries to hunt it with the cage and spear, it fakes him out making him think he's going for a frontal attack, only to sneak up and hit the cage from behind.
  • It's Personal: The fourth film's shark.
  • Leitmotif: DUN-DUN.
  • Made of Explodium: The fourth shark, for some reason.
  • Noisy Nature: The third and fourth sharks roar for some reason.
  • Production Nickname: Bruce for the first shark. Spielberg himself called it Great White Turd due to its breakdowns.
  • Super-Persistent Predator
  • Two-Faced: The second shark after half of its face is burned.
  • Would Hurt a Child: These sharks don't discriminate. They eat everything.

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