by: Dr. Boogie
Hey, remember that movie about a killer shark? I'm sorry, remember THE movie about a killer shark? Of course you do. Hell, it made being afraid of sharks chic!
Almost as memorable as the shark itself was Quint, the obsessed fisherman who was out to get him. He was tough as nails, and as grizzled a fisherman as you could get. He was loaded with enough scars and nutty stories to make even the longest giant shark stakeouts go by in a flash. Even his introduction was harsh:
SCREEEEEEEEEEEECH
And he did that with such stubby fingernails.
Anyway, several shark attacks later, Quint heads out to bring down the shark with the help of police chief Martin Brody (Roy Scheider) and annoying, nasally-voiced marine biologist Martin Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss). After comparing scars and having the size of his boat called into question, Quint finally believes he has the shark right where he wants it. Unfortunately, the opposite is true.
With the Orca's motor disabled and the annoying ichthyologist out of the picture, the title character tosses himself onto the back of the boat, hoping to gulp down Brody and Quint. Brody manages to dive inside the cabin, Quint almost...
Quint makes a grab for the table, but gets his fingers squashed by a rolling scuba tank. He tries to grab Brody's hand, but it's hard to get a good grip when you only have one good hand left. He slides down the inclined deck and into the jaws of Jaws.
For a little while, it looks like Quint might actually be able to kick his way off of the shark's snout and over to the safety of the...
Oh wait, nevermind. The shark bites down on Quint's lower half, and Quint screams like a little girl. Even more brutal that Quint's screaming, however, is the awful crunching sound of Jaws biting into him.
The shark shakes Quint back and forth. To his credit, Quint doesn't go down without a fight. Even with a giant shark biting him in half, he still has the presence of mind to grab his machete and start stabbing it in the face. But this shark has been swimming around for an entire day with a bunch of harpoons impaled in its back. A little nick on the cheek isn't going to ruin his meal.
"Farewell and adieu to you, fair Spanish ladies. Farewell and adieu, you ladies of Spain. For we've received orders for to sail back to Boston. And so nevermore shall we see you again." Goodbye, Quint. You really should've thought about getting a bigger boat.
On the upshot, the same scuba tank that smashed Quint's hand winds up being the very thing needed to take the shark out for good. When coupled with a rifle, that is.
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Oh, and she also played Spock's wife in "Amok Time".
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Reader Comments
I knew all about it as a kid and it made for a traumatizing episode. Still, I look at Ms Martel now and think "hmmm, my kind of babe", and not so much "ARGH ARGH ARGH". How times change.
Thanks for the superb Quint mutilation gifs, too.
And saturn, in the game that was Quint's nephew (or some other relative) on the Orca II, not Quint himself. And I'll be honest; while I recognize that as being a poor-quality game packed to the gills with glitches and bugs, I still enjoyed it. There's not a lot of games out there where you can be a giant shark that eats people in a variety of ways, and that one does that quite well.
"He and Brody's wife have an affair." and "He dies." (Said of Hooper.) My mother read the book as well as saw the movie. Obviously, they left stuff out.
Also, I love this, too, if you don't mind a plug for youtube fave:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZgMJ-WFzPg (Num num num)
And yeah, Beardy. By Peter Benchley.
I think Jaws has to be a top 5 horror movie. It stands the test of time, and unlike many horror movies, there's a great deal of plausibility in the flick. Plus, the book was very loosely based on the 1917(or there abouts) events off the Jersey shore, where a shark(s) devoured like 11 people in a few days time. I didn't care for the book, it seemed to deal more with classism and the rivalry between Brody and Hooper, than the actual man-eating shark on the loose. One of the few cases where the movie was better than book, like Forest Gump.
Mojo: While I don't think that's the best scene of the movie, it's certainly one of the best opening scenes out there (in my world, it's tied with Leon for best opening period); you're quite right in how it sets the mood. As for the Jersey beach attacks, the events there were actually the same as the movie (same number killed, same order; girl swimming, a dog, a boy, a man's leg, and then another man). Might need to double-check that but I'm sure it's right. Never read the book so I've got no comment on that.
Someday I will learn how to quote. Someday...
*thinks about how to get this back on topic* Ummm. Yeah, got nothing at the moment *flees*