Jaws: 9 Easters Eggs You Never Noticed
We're gonna need a bigger trivia section.
Jaws turned forty in 2015 and the original blockbuster is as intense, exciting and influential as it ever was. The shark doesn't even look that fake. The film, of course, is more than just a film; it basically invented the summer movie season and made entire generations afraid of going for a swim in the sea. Or in some extreme cases, even taking a bath.
It’s well known that the movie had a troubled shoot, and trivia like the animatronic shark not working properly or it being dubbed Bruce after Spielberg's lawyer are common knowledge to even casual Jaws buffs. There are, however, plenty of not so well know facts about the film that have slipped through the cracks - little Easter eggs hidden in plain sight that even the most eagle eyed fan may not have picked up on.
Be it a sneaky cameo or a call-back to another Steven Spielberg movie, there are lots of surprises layered into Jaws that the attentive viewer can find if they pay close attention. Or they could just save themselves some time and read this countdown instead, which compiles nine of the best Jaws Easter Eggs into one handy bite sized list. It's a big bite radius, but still.
9. Quint's Boat Is Aptly Named
The great white shark is one of the most feared animals on the planet, with no natural predators to speak of. Well, except for one: the killer whale, an animal that's basically the schoolyard bully of the ocean. So it’s no coincidence that Quint dubbed his vessel The Orca, after the only animal capable of taking down a great white.
What it says that the shark ends up destroying the boat is left up to the viewer to decide.
It’s interesting to note that after the success of Jaws a wave of rip-offs followed, with one of the most blatant being the Richard Harris movie Orca: The Killer Whale. Not to be bested, the makers of Jaws 2 took a playful jab at that film with a scene featuring the chewed up body of an Orca Whale being found on a beach, the victim of a “greater” predator.