“Gotto close the beach, call the mayor”

“You’ve got a bigger problem than that, Martin. You’ve still got a hell of a fish out there” – Chief Martin Brody (Roy Schneider)

Teamed with shark expert Hooper and shark hunter Quint, Police Chief Brody must track down and destroy a monster shark terrorizing a summer resort town.

MILESTONES OF THE JOURNEY

This brilliantly crafted scarefest exploits the most primal of man’s fears – what lurks beneath the water’s dark surface. Martin Brody takes two successive Journeys. He begins with the need to close the beaches and protect Amity from a Special World inhabited by a monster shark. But Brody butts heads with the mayor and Amity’s businesses which cannot survive without summer tourist dollars. Their consistent Refusal of the Call dooms Brody’s Journey. When this Journey fails, and Brody’s personal world is threatened, he must face his greatest fear and accept a second, higher Journey: to enter the waters and hunt down the beast. Brody’s second Journey, the hunt is reminiscent of the fearless vampire hunters tracking down Count Dracula, with Chief Brody as ‘apprentice hunter’ Jonathan Harker and Quint, the mythic Van Helsing of shark hunters.

During his Journeys, Brody juggles thre important Mentors. He unmasks the first, Mayor Vaughn, as a false Mentor, a Threshold Guardian more protective of tourist dollars than tourist lives. The two ‘true’ Mentors, shark hunter Quint and shark expert Matt Hooper, become rivals on the hunt. At polar opposites, Quint uses brawn and cunning, while Hooper relies on expensive gadgetry. Each Mentor pushes his Gifts/Tools while denouncing the other’s in a bid to be the true Hero of the Journey. Although the team finally works together in the end, both Hooper and Quint fail the Journey; yet Brody uses the gifts of both Mentors to finally destroy the monster.

THE JOURNEY

Amity’s new Chief of Police, Martin Brody, recently relocated with his wife and two sons from New York. Brody’s job is to protect this island township and its beaches, his OUTER PROBLEM. He prefers the small town problems of AMity, where one man can make a difference, his INNER PROBLEM. Brody may never be able to fit into the ORDINARY WORLD of this island community – he hates the water for fear of drowning.

Many Journeys begin with two distinct CALLS TO ADVENTURE. One strikes the society or ORDINARY WORLD as a whole. A second CALL is directed at the Hero. The initial CALL in Jaws is one of the most terrifying moments in cinema. A young woman’s moonlight swim is shockingly interrupted by the unseen SHADOW. It yanks and drags Chrissie, finally pulling her to her death beneath the surface of this SPECIAL WORLD.

The following morning Chief Martin Brody receives a SUCCESSION OF CALLS. While investigating the beach, Brody answers Deputy Hendricks’ choked whistle and finds Chrissie’s remains. The Medical Inspector confirms a shark attack. This second CALL forces Brody to close the beaches, barring entrance to the SPECIAL WORLD. However, Mayor Vaughn (a SHAPESHIFTING MENTOR) cautions Brody’s quick actions and prompts the Medical Inspector to recant his conclusions. Instead of giving our HERO a swift kick into the adventure, this MEETING WITH THE MENTOR stalls Brody, swaying him to REFUSE THE CALL.

Brody remains uneasy and watches the beach. He witnesses the horrifying death of young Alex Kintner, which pushes Brody THROUGH THE THRESHOLD of his first Journey. But Amity’s townspeople must be pushed as well. Brody tries to take control of the community meeting announcing the closure of the beaches, but Mayor Vaughn snatches the Hero’s mask from Brody and assures his people that the beaches will be closed for only 24 hours. The meeting also introduces one of Brody’s future MENTORS. Making a spine-jarring entrance, Quint, the salty shark hunter, offers himself as MENTOR and “LONER” HERO. He promises to kill the shark but it’ll cost more than Mrs Kintner $3.000 bounty. Vaughn brushes this MENTOR off with sacharine assurance that the conuncil will take his offer under advisement (a REFUSAL).

The TEST PHASE in full force, Brody deals with the jammed docks, as fishermen pack the waters fighting for the bounty. During this melee, Brody meets his second MENTOR, oceanographer and shark specialist Matt Hooper. Hooper examines the ramains of Chrissie, confirming Brody’s initial fear that death was indeed caused by a large predator shark.

Later, Hooper warns Brody that the enormous tiger shark caught by fishermen may not be the predator, the bite radius is too small. They’ll have to open the shark’s slow-working digestive tract to make sure. Mayor Vaughn REFUSES this TEST, protecting his town from the possible sight of the Kintner boy’s remains spilling onto the dock.

That night, Brody and Hooper APPROACH THE INMOST CAVE. They cut open the shark’s carcass, confirming tha their Rogue Shark still roams the SPECIAL WORLD. Brody wants to call the mayor, and close the beach. But his MENTOR warns him of a HIGHER CALL: there’s is a hell of a big fish out there.

Hooper forces Brody (drunk enough to pass this MENTOR’S TEST) to face his fear of the water and the two patrol the shark’s SPECIAL WORLD where they discover Ben Gardner’s wrecked fishing boat. Hooper dives into the water leaving Brody alone on the boat. During this ORDEAL, Hooper discovers the large tooth of a Great White lodged in a hole in the hull, but he loses this REWARD at the sight of Gardner’s corpse.

REWARDED with the awareness of what they are up against, Brody and Hooper plead for Mayor Vaughn to close the beaches. Without the shartk tooth as proof, Vaughn won’t be swayed, denying the danger to his town. Brody can patrol the beaches but they will reamin open for the Fourth of July, the ROAD BACK of Brody’s First Journey.

The Fourth of July tourists pack the beaches and begin to test the waters. After two kids play a practical joke with a fake shark fin, a FALSE ORDEAL, the Shark enters the pond,” and threatens Brody’s eldest son. A fisherman is killed, Brody’s son is pulled from the waters alive, his RESURRECTION.

Brody looks out at the water. He has earned the ELIXIR of his First Journey, the awarness that he must face his greatest fear (the water) and finally accept the Higher Journey in store for him. He forces Vaughn to hire Quint, a second ELIXIR.

To enter his new Journey, Brody denounces one Mentor, the Mayor, and teams with two RIVAL MENTORS, Quint and Hooper. During the MEETING WITH THE MENTOR in Quint’s lair, Quint TESTS Hooper of his worthiness, trying to strip down his RIVAL MENTOR. The clash of the MENTORS continues at dawn as the sharkhunters board Quint’s boat, initiating the THRESHOLD SEQUENCE> ARmed with harpoon and rope Quint ridicules Hooper’s high-tech equipment (devaluing these MENTOR GIFTS). We watch through the bony jaws of one of Quint’s trophies, as the Orca heads out to sea. This final image of the THRESHOLD SEQUENCE foreshadows Orca’s eventual destruction.

Completely unfamiliar with this SPECIAL WORLD as shark hunter, Brody becomes a HERO TRAINEE, serving now as CHIEF of “Chumming.” In addition to teaching Brody the RULES OF THE SPECIAL WORLD, the TEST PHASE must bring the two MENTORS in alliance or the HERO TEAM will fail.

In a rich moment weaving exposition, character and foreshadowing, Brody accidentally topples Hooper’s air tanks. Hooper warns Brody that the tanks could blow up. Quick to criticize Hooperś techno-gadgets, Quint jokes that the shark might eat the tanks (Brody will use these two lessons to finally kill the Shark).

THe Shark finally rears its gnashing maw at Brody. This first encounter with the SHADOW begins to band the Shark Hunters together. Quint, the hunter, readies his harpoon while Hooper, the scientist, prepares a tracking device. Both stubbornly focus on using their own tools, yet finally get the shot off, barely passing the TEST. The shark escapes a second harpoon as the day ends.

That night, the three APPROACH THE INMOST CAVE. They drink. The MENTORS compare scars from past battles, finally earning each other’s respect. The HERO TEAM may pull together after all. Quint tells the horrifying story of the sinking of the Indianapolis and the slaughter of the crew by tiger sharks. Since sharks prefer to feed at night, his tale is a bitter reminder of their vulnerability as the three sit “in the belly” of Quint’s boat, reliving the ORDEAL of Quint’s tale of death. THe three hunters finally unite in song, but the Shark makes it clear that the battle has only begun. It disrupts the moment, pounding the boat’s hull. Brody faces his greatest fear as ‘death’ waits on the other side of the leaking hull (the ORDEAL). Pistol in hand, he rises, moves to the main deck and stares petrified into the darkness.

The next morning, the three work together as a team, the first REWARD of their ORDEAL. They shoot the Shark with a second barrel and fasten the ropes to Orca’s cleats. Quint wants to drag his REWARD inland but the Shark drags its REWARD further out into its own world. The cleats rip free, and the hunters chase the Shark, shooting a third harpoon. The Shark submerges, befuddling both MENTORS (neither has faced this challenge, raising the stakes).

And then the Shark chases them! The ROAD BACK begins. Quint leads the shark iland, trying to out-race the monster, straining the engine’s bearings. Quint won’t back down. The engine explodes, leaving the shark hunters stranded at sea.

Admitting the failure of his tools, Quint finally acknowledges his RIVAL MENTOR, asking Hooper what he can do with his techno-gadgets. Hooper suggests his anti-shark cage. Echoing his ORDEAL confronting Ben Gardners’ corpse. Hooper re-enters the SPECIAL WORLD armed with a harpoon of strychnine. His tools also fail, and he narrowly escapes the SHADOW’S jaws.

The Shark now enters its hunter’s world, rising from the water and smashing upon the Orca’s stern. Brody and Quint scramble to keep from slipping into the deadly jawas. Quint loses the battle (with the help of a MENTOR’S GIFT turned lethal) and slides to his death.

In the final RESURRECTION SEQUENCE, Brody, alone, surrounded by death, is trapped in the cabin of the sinking boat. Brody uses the lessons he learned from both MENTORS (with a bit of improvisation). He shoves one of Hooper’s air tanks into the Shark’s bloody jaws and scrambles out of the cabin.

Armed with a rifle, Brody climbs the mast, symbolically claiming Quint’s position in the Crow’s nest. But as Brody’s mast sinks, the Shark swims at him. Brody fires several shots before striking the air tank, blowing the shark into a rain of chum, Brody’s RESURRECTION.

Moments later, Hooper surfaces alive. The two share a moment of sorrow that Quint wasn’t as fortunate. Soon, they swim back to shore with the ELIXIR of their lives, and the tale of their success. They have saved the town from the beast. Brody returns with an additional, personal ELIXIR, he has conquered his fear of the water.