10 Fascinating Behind The Scenes Facts About Jaws
1. The Mechanical Shark
Finally, the infamous mechanical shark. You may know him as Bruce; you may know him as the Great White Turd or simply as Jaws. But this animatronic was hardly anything like the real thing. In fact, the downfall of this shark proved to be saltwater. As the prop designer soon discovered, saltwater is detrimental to the mechanics of a robotic shark. After the first day of shooting with the shark, it soon started acting up, making it very difficult to capture what Spielberg had in mind.
One major moment that the shark malfunctioned was when fellow filmmaker George Lucas was visiting the set and his friend Spielberg. What started as a harmless prank ended with Lucas getting his head stuck in the shark's mouth while investigating the piece of equipment. The mouth proceeded to stay closed despite attempts to open it again, and Lucas was stuck in the mouth longer than planned.
He did eventually make his way out of the shark and went on to create one of the highest-grossing film franchises ever in the shape of Star Wars. Some may say that this was payback for Spielberg's prank.