Jaws 2, 1978 (Roy Scheider) MCA/Universal
“Sharks don’t take things personally, Mr. Brody.”
“Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the water … ” That tagline was considered the most readily identifiable in all of movie history. There are others. “This time, it’s personal.” “Be afraid. Be very afraid.” “In space, no one can hear you scream.” There’s a poster for Jaws 2 (not the traditional theatrical poster with the water skier and the big shark breaking water) that hints at the size of the shark based on a sharp fin breaking choppy water under a peaceful, orange-drenched sunset. It’s a beautiful artistic rendering. I’d love to have a framed version of that poster.
Jaws 2 brings back everyone from the first movie with the exception of Richard Dreyfuss (who was busy shooting Close Encounters of the Third Kind with Spielberg) and Robert Shaw (whose character died in the first movie, and who would die two months after Jaws 2 was released). After a couple of eventless summers, another great white shark returns to Amity to terrorize swimmers. A couple of scuba diving morons take pictures of Quint’s sunken Orca and before they are gobbled up whole by the beastie, the waterproof camera goes off and takes a few shots of a shadowy, shark-shaped figure with a black eye (like a doll’s eye!) and what appears to be a set of jagged teeth, but it’s probably not a shark so don’t worry about it.
Meanwhile, a killer whale is beached with an enormous bite mark on its head. Chief Martin Brody (Roy Scheider) begins to suspect another killer shark out there and wouldn’t you know it? The town doesn’t believe him! They even fire him after an incident at the beach where he fires his gun at the water when he sees a suspicious shadow that turns out to be a school of fish. He drinks his problems away for a little while, but he has kids that want to go out on a boat because they’re stupid, basically, and for about ten minutes, Jaws 2 becomes a summer teen sex comedy (complete with Keith Gordon and Donna Wilkes!), and wouldn’t you know it? The shark knows that these are Chief Brody’s kids! This is turning into a conspiracy.
In the final third of the movie, we’ve pretty much forgotten the Amity politics subplot and gone into a straight rescue mission. After the shark forces down a helicopter (yes, forces down a helicopter), Brody arrives, grabs a power cable, and shoves it in the shark’s mouth. I remember Spielberg had a rule that went along the lines of, “If I have them for two hours, they’ll believe anything.” Of course, it has to be plausible, but Jeannot Szwarc (replacing the fired John D. Hancock) couldn’t make this ending fly if he strapped a rocket to it. It’s a ridiculous ending but it’s fitting for a sequel about a killer shark, and the box office returns would ensure another sequel.
