10 Unexpected Reasons Behind Awesome Horror Movie Moments

10. Hooper Survived Due To An On-Set Accident - Jaws

In both the script for Jaws and Peter Benchley's original novel, the character of Matt Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss) is killed when the shark destroys the shark cage he's "safely" contained within before promptly devouring him.

But in the final cut of the movie this was changed, with Hooper scarcely escaping the situation and revealing himself to have survived to a relieved Martin Brody (Roy Scheider).

The reason for this? While footage of Hooper in the shark cage was being shot - achieved by filming a dwarf actor in the shark cage to make the real shark look even bigger - one of the sharks attacked the cage, tearing it up.

Thankfully the dwarf actor wasn't in the cage at the time, but Spielberg was so stunned by the footage that he was determined to use it in the final movie.

And because the footage clearly showed the shark destroying the cage without Hooper inside it, Spielberg decided to change Hooper's fate, ensuring he could use the material without any blatant continuity issues.

Production executive Bill Gilmore seemingly put it best: "The shark down in Australia [where the shark footage was shot] rewrote the script and saved Dreyfuss' character."