1. Chrissie's Death/Quint's Monologue - Jaws (1975)
Jaws, of course, is the number one pick here. It's so good that not just one scene from Jaws is the #1 pick, but two scenes that tie for the top spot. In the beginning of the film, we see a young girl leave a party to go skinny-dipping in the ocean. For whatever reason, she's doing this alone, but she's not by herself for long. Her body begins to thrash violently in one of the most memorable deaths in movie history. Later, three men are on a boat in an attempt to find and kill the shark that has decimated the town's spirits and ruined everyone's summer. While the boat rocks gently, Robert Shaw's Quint gruffly tells the story of the sinking of the USS Indianapolis. In a monologue so great it rivals the St. Crispin's Day speech from Henry V, Quint recounts the aftermath of the sinking of the ship. They faced sharks, 13 foot tiger sharks, with eyes so dead they looked "like a doll's eyes." It's an iconic moment which makes the shark seem so scary that after watching Jaws, most people are afraid to even get into a bathtub. And the number of bathtub shark attacks is incredibly low, so that's saying something.
Did I miss a great water-related scene? Leave a comment below and let me know!