10 Insulting Ways Characters Were Killed Off Between Horror Movies
7. Brody's Fatal Heartattack - Jaws: The Revenge
Steven Spielberg’s Jaws is widely hailed as one of the greatest films of all time – horror or otherwise – and a huge part of its appeal is main character Martin Brody.
The police chief of Amity Island, Brody’s dry wit, love for his family, and determination to save his town makes him endearing and respectable. He even gets to deliver two of cinema’s most quotable lines – “You’re gonna need a bigger boat” and “Smile, you son of a bitch” – before taking down the titular shark.
Actor Roy Scheider did a stellar job reprising his role in 1978’s serviceable Jaws 2, too, meaning that Brody shines in both the original movie and its direct sequel. With barely an acknowledgment of him in 1983’s gimmicky Jaws 3D, his reputation is left unscathed within the initial trilogy.
Enter 1987’s Jaws: The Revenge, whose bonkers premise – a great white shark seeks retribution against Brody’s wife, Ellen, in the Bahamas – and boring execution results in a dumpster fire of a film.
Why is it going after Ellen instead of Martin? Because Martin Brody died of a heart attack caused by his fear of sharks between Jaws 3D and Jaws: The Revenge!
It’s a shockingly ironic but regressive fate for one of horror’s greatest heroes.