10 Movie Heroes Who Fell For The Same S**t In The Sequel
4. Brody Gets Jerked Around By The Mayor - Jaws 2
Though the "villain" of the original Jaws is of course the man-eating shark, many might consider the true antagonist to be Mayor Larry Vaughn (Murray Hamilton), who refuses to listen to Chief Brody's (Roy Scheider) demands to close Amity Island's beach, for fear of destroying the town's precious summer economy.
In Jaws 2, Brody believes another shark is terrorising the town and again brings his concerns to Vaughn, who in addition to inexplicably being re-elected, unsurprisingly dismisses Brody's claims out of concern for tourism.
Though Vaughn ultimately does come to believe Brody, it's basically too late as the rest of the Amity Town Council votes against him.
Brody's dealings with Vaughn in the first film were really proof enough that he wasn't worth the hassle, simply wasting a ton of time and energy that could've been spent on, you know, hunting the shark.
Sure, Brody needed Vaughn's sign-off to hire Quint (Robert Shaw) in the original film, but by the time a second attack took place, he should've known that Vaughn couldn't be relied upon to put safety ahead of commercial interests.
You were better off going it alone, Brody, who apparently needed two separate catastrophes to learn a most obvious lesson: politicians can't be trusted.