10 Horror Reveals Nobody Was Ready For

9. Wait, Chief Brody Is Dead?! - Jaws: The Revenge

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Universal Pictures

Having been the central protagonist of the first two Jaws movies, many were a little surprised to see Roy Scheider's Martin Brody not featured in Jaws 3-D. But while Chief Brody's absence in that threequel was one thing, franchise fans weren't ready for the reveal in Jaws: The Revenge that Brody was dead!

Not even was it just the death of Brody that took audiences back, but even worse is that it happened in between movies and was merely referenced by a few lines of dialogue in that fourth Jaws picture.

As Lorraine Gary's Ellen Brody explains in Jaws: The Revenge, Chief Brody technically died of a heart attack - although she believes it was the pressure put on her husband's heart by his shark encounters that was the real cause of death.

In truth, actor Roy Scheider ruled himself out of a role in Jaws: The Revenge unless his character was killed off in the film's opening moments. Instead, Brody's youngest son Sean faces that fate when he's devoured by a great white shark in the first act.

Still, using a throwaway line to reveal to the audience that Chief Brody was dead was something many weren't ready for. Then again, that was just one of the many, many disappointing elements of Jaws: The Revenge.

Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.