Jaws 2 is a 1978 American horror thriller film The plot concerns Police Chief Martin Brody suspecting another great white shark is terrorizing the fictional seaside resort community of Amity Island, following a series of incidents and disappearances, and his suspicions are eventually proven true.
Like the production of the original film, the production of Jaws 2 was troubled. The first director for the film, John D. Hancock, proved to be unsuitable for an action film and was replaced by Szwarc. Scheider agreed to reprise his role only to settle a contractual issue with Universal Pictures, was unhappy during production and had several heated exchanges with Szwarc.
The film was released on June 16, 1978, to mixed reviews. While the performances of Scheider, Gary and Hamilton, the special effects, and John Williams' musical score were praised, it received criticism for essentially duplicating the formula of the first film. However, in retrospect, the film is generally regarded as the best of the three Jaws sequels. It was briefly the highest-grossing sequel in history until Rocky II was released in 1979. The film's tagline, "Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water..." has become one of the most famous in film history and has been parodied and homaged several times. It was followed by Jaws 3-D in 1983.
Plot
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Four years after the killing of the great white shark, a new hotel opens on Amity Island, while another great white shark kills two scuba divers photographing the wreckage of the Orca. Their camera, which took pictures during the attack, is later recovered by Deputy Jeff Hendricks. The next day the shark kills Terri, a water skier, before attacking Diane Hetfield, the pilot of the boat, who attempts self-defense by using a gas tank and flare gun, but the boat explodes, killing her and severely burning the shark's face.
An orca carcass is found on the beach. Police Chief Martin Brody believes that a shark is responsible. He then finds floating debris from the destroyed speedboat and Diane's burnt remains. Brody attempts to contact oceanographer Matt Hooper for help, but he is away on a research expedition in Antarctica. When Brody raises his concerns, Mayor Larry Vaughn urges him not to press the issue, concerned about Brody's mental state and worried about jeopardizing the island's tourism and new development plans. Concerned for his family's safety, Brody forbids his 17-year-old son Mike from going out on the water.
The following day, Brody watches the beach from an observation tower and causes a panic after mistaking a school of bluefish for a shark and shooting at it. His fears are confirmed, however, when photos from the diver's camera are processed, and one of them shows a closeup of the shark's face. When he presents the photo evidence to the Amity Town Council, developer Len Peterson dismisses his concerns, and the council votes to remove Brody as police chief, with Vaughn the only member not voting against him.
The next morning, Mike defies his father's orders by going sailing with his friends. He reluctantly brings his 9-year-old brother Sean, who catches him trying to sneak out, to keep him from tattling on him to their parents. Marge, another teen, takes Sean with her, and they head out on six boats, going past a team of divers led by instructor Tom Andrews. Shortly after submerging, Andrews encounters the shark in a kelp forest. Panicking, he rushes to the surface, causing a bends attack and an embolism. Later, the shark hits the boat of teenage couple Eddie Marchand and Tina Wilcox, who are separated from the main group, and mauls Eddie to death.
Brody and his wife Ellen witness Tom's evacuation by ambulance and hear that the other divers suspect that something scared him. Hendricks, who has taken over as Brody's replacement, tells them that Mike went sailing with his friends, so Brody and Ellen commandeer the police boat, aided by Hendricks, to rescue them. They come across Tina's boat, where she tearfully confirms the shark's presence. Brody hails a passing boat to take Hendricks, Ellen, and Tina back to shore while he continues searching for the other kids. Back on the mainland, Ellen berates Peterson for having Brody fired and for ignoring the shark threat.
Meanwhile, the shark attacks the group's boats, causing most of them to capsize or crash. Mike is knocked unconscious and falls in the water. The only pair whose boat is still seaworthy retrieve Mike and leave the others to take him ashore; Sean and the others remain adrift upon the wreckage. A Harbor Patrol helicopter that Brody contacted earlier arrives to tow them to Cable Junction, a small rocky island nearby which houses an electrical relay station that supplies power to Amity. However, the shark surfaces and latches onto the chopper's pontoons, capsizing it and drowning the pilot. The shark knocks Sean into the water, and Marge is eaten while saving him.
Brody finds Mike, who informs him of the situation before Brody sends him to safety. Brody finds the others at Cable Junction. The cheering and jumping that greet him attracts the shark, which attacks, causing Brody to crash the police boat on the rocks. Using an inflatable raft, he taps an underwater power cable with an oar to lure the shark toward him. The shark bites the cable and is electrocuted. Brody and the other survivors gather on Cable Junction to await rescue.
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Cast
Production
Development and writing
Universal wanted a sequel to Jaws early into the success of the original film. Brown said that Spielberg did not want to direct the sequel because he felt that he had done the "definitive shark movie". The director later added that his decision was influenced by the problems the Jaws production faced – "I would have done the sequel if I hadn't had such a horrible time at sea on the first film."
Despite Spielberg's rejection, the studio went ahead with plans to make the sequel, leading to an arduous 18-month pre-production process. Howard Sackler, who had contributed to the first film's script but chose not to be credited, was charged with writing the first draft. He originally proposed a prequel based on the sinking of the USS Indianapolis, the story relayed by Quint in the first film. Although Universal president Sidney Sheinberg thought Sackler's treatment for the film was intriguing, he rejected the idea. On Sackler's recommendation, theatre and film director John D. Hancock was chosen to helm the picture.
Hancock began filming in June 1977. However, after nearly a month of filming, Universal and MCA executives disliked the dark, subtle tone that the film was taking and wanted a more lighthearted and action-oriented story. Additionally, Hancock ran into trouble with Sheinberg, who suggested to Hancock and Tristan that his (Sheinberg's) wife, actress Lorraine Gary (Ellen Brody), "should go out on a boat and help to rescue the kids." When told of the idea, Zanuck replied, "Over my dead body." The next draft of the film's screenplay was turned in with Gary not going out to sea. Hancock says that this, and his later firing of another actress who turned out to be a Universal executive's girlfriend, contributed to his own dismissal from the film.
Hancock began to feel the pressure of directing his first epic adventure film "with only three film credits, and all small-scale dramas". The producers were unhappy with his material, and on a Saturday evening in June 1977, after a meeting with the producers and Universal executives, the director was fired. He and his wife Dorothy Tristan left for Rome and production was shut down for a few weeks. The couple had been involved in the film for eighteen months. Hancock blamed his departure on the mechanical shark, telling a newspaper that it still could not swim or bite after a year and a half: "You get a couple of shots, and [the shark] breaks." Echoing the first film's production, Carl Gottlieb was enlisted to further revise the script, adding humor and reducing some of the violence. Gottlieb wrote on location at Fort Walton Beach, Florida. It cost the producers more money to hire Gottlieb to do the rewrite than it would have if they had hired him in the first place. Production designer Joe Alves (who would direct Jaws 3-D) and Verna Fields (who had been promoted to vice-president at Universal after her acclaimed editing on the first film) proposed that they co-direct it. The request was declined by the Directors Guild of America, partly because they would not allow a DGA member to be replaced by someone who was not one of its members, and partly because they, in the wake of events on the set of The Outlaw Josey Wales, had instituted a ban on any cast or crew members taking over as director during a film's production. The reins were eventually handed to Jeannot Szwarc, best known for the film Bug and whom Alves knew from working on the TV series Night Gallery. Szwarc recommenced production by filming the complicated water skiing scene, giving Gottlieb some time to complete the script.
Three new mechanical sharks were constructed for the film. The first was the "platform shark", also referred to as the "luxurious shark". Special mechanical effects supervisor Robert Mattey and Roy Arbogast used the same body mold used for the shark in the first film. The other shark props used were a fin and a full shark, both of which could be pulled by boats. "Cable Junction", the island shown in the film's climax, was actually a floating barge covered with fiber-glass rocks. This was created in order to enable the shark platform to be positioned to it as close as possible (a real island would have hindered this due to the upward slope of the seabed making the shark platform visible). Like the first film, footage of real sharks filmed by Australian divers Ron and Valerie Taylor was used for movement shots that could not be convincingly achieved using the mechanical sharks. Many of these photos appeared in Ray Loynd's Jaws 2 Log, which documented the film's production, similar to the Jaws Log, a best-selling book written by Carl Gottlieb covering production of the first film.
Location
Martha's Vineyard was again used as the location for the town scenes and Emerald Coast was included on this film. Although some residents guarded their privacy, many islanders welcomed the money that the company was bringing. Shortly after the production arrived in June 1977, local newspaper the Grapevine wrote:
Many residents enjoyed being cast as extras. Some people, however, were less pleased by the film crew's presence and refused to cooperate. Only one drugstore allowed its windows to be boarded up for the moody look that Hancock wanted. "Universal Go Home" T-shirts began appearing on the streets in mid-June 1977.
thumb|right|The majority of filming was at [[Navarre Beach, Florida|Navarre Beach in Florida]]
When Szwarc took over, the majority of the film was shot at Navarre Beach in Florida, because the weather was warm and the water was deep enough for the shark platform. The company was at this location from August 1 until December 22, 1977. Boats and parts for their maintenance were purchased from local businesses. One proprietor said that he sold "Universal approximately $400,000 worth of boats and equipment".
On one occasion, the Cable Junction Island set, which was built on a barge, broke loose from its anchorage and had to be rescued. Szwarc was contacted one night and told that his island was drifting towards Cuba.
The interior shots of the teen hang-out where they play pinball were filmed in the original location of the Hog's Breath Saloon on Okaloosa Island. This restaurant later relocated to Destin, Florida as its original building was susceptible to hurricane damage. Scheider was contracted to Universal at the time for a three-picture deal, but the studio offered to forgive his failure to fulfill his contractual obligation if he agreed to appear in Jaws 2. The actor heavily resisted the film, claiming that there was nothing new to create and that people would be watching the film to see the shark, not him. The Star newspaper reported that Scheider received $500,000 for 12 weeks’ work, plus $35,000 for each additional week that the schedule ran over. Scheider is quoted in Ray Loynd's book The Jaws 2 Log, saying, "When Conan Doyle wrote the first Sherlock Holmes and everyone screamed for more, I don’t think he felt like a professional hack. I see nothing wrong with bringing back a story that gives people a terrific time".
The atmosphere was tense on the set, and Scheider often argued with Szwarc. On one occasion, Scheider complained (in front of extras) that Szwarc was wasting time with technical issues and the extras while ignoring the principal actors. A meeting was called with the two, David Brown and Verna Fields, in which Scheider and Szwarc were encouraged to settle their differences. The discussion became heated and a physical fight broke out, which Brown and Fields broke up.
Richard Dreyfuss, who played Matt Hooper in Jaws, said he chose not to return in Jaws 2 because Spielberg was not directing.
Many extras were recruited from Gulf Breeze High School. The students were paid $3 per hour, well above the minimum wage at the time ($2.30/hr), and reveled in being able to miss classes. Casting director Shari Rhodes requested members of the Gulf Breeze band perform as the Amity High School Band, seen in an early scene in the film showing the opening of the Holiday Inn Amity Shores "Amity Scholarship Fund Benefit". "The GBHS band consisted of approximately 100 members, and band director John Henley chose 28 student musicians, including the band's section known as Henley's Honkers." Universal scheduled their involvement for mid-afternoons to prevent their missing too much time in school. Universal made a contribution of $3,500 to the school and the band for their part in the film. Several other GBHS students were hired as stand-ins or doubles for the teenage actors to appear in the water scenes and to maintain and sail the boats.