Script To Screen: “Jaws”

It’s the movie that forever changed the business, the first true blockbuster of the modern era: Jaws (1975), screenplay by Peter Benchley and Carl Gottlieb, novel by Benchley.

IMDb plot summary: When a gigantic great white shark begins to menace the small island community of Amity, a police chief, a marine scientist and grizzled fisherman set out to stop it.

The scene: One of the most memorable opening incidents in movie history.

EXT. BEACH – NIGHT – SHARK'S POINT OF VIEW – RISING OUT OF THE WATER, LOOKING ATIt is a pleasant, moonlit, windless night in mid-June. We
see a long straight stretch of white beach. Behind the low
dunes are the dark shapes of large expensive houses. Hear a
number of voices singing. It sounds like an eastern
university's alma mater, no longer distorted.EXT. BEACH – NIGHT – ANOTHER ANGLEAround a blazing bonfire, a group of young men and women,
beer cans (or maybe a keg) in evidence, as well as the bota
Spanish leather wine-bag much in favor by beach and ski-bum
types.The group is swapping sentimental alma maters, weepily singing
eastern Ivy League anthems -– Dartmouth, Cornell, Harvard,
Penn, etc. Two young people break away from the others. They
are Tom Cassidy and Chrissie. Behind them, there is
considerable necking activity; Tom and Chrissie are more
serious.TOMMakes a clumsy attempt at snaring Chrissie, cups her from
behind. She squirms playfully out of his grasp. We discover
he's not especially sober. TOM
Hey! Hey hey! I'm with you, right?EXT. ANOTHER PART OF THE BEACH – NIGHTTom and Chrissie are separated from the others, silhouetted
against the fire, she pauses and looks at the ocean, he is
plodding along in the sand, winded.Chrissie runs down the slope of the dune towards the water,
leaving Tom reeling atop the dune. As she runs, she is
shedding her clothes. Tom is trying to trail her by her
clothes, like Hansel following bread crumbs through the woods.But Chrissie is way ahead of him. CHRISSIE
C'mon!She runs headlong into the inviting sea, plunges cleanly
into the water with a light "Whoops!" as the cold water sweeps
over her.Behind all this, we continue to hear the sentimental, beery
chorus of alma maters.Then we see it -- a gentle bulge in the water, a ripple that
passes her a dozen feet away. A pressure wave lifts her up,
then eases her down again, like a smooth, sudden swell. CHRISSIE
Tommy? Don't dunk me...She looks around for him, finds him still on the beach, his
feet tangled in his pants, which have dropped around his
ankles. She starts to swim back in to him.EXT. CHRISSIE IN THE WATERHer expression freezes. The water-bulge is racing towards
her. The first bump jolts her upright, out of the water to
her hips. She reaches under water to touch her leg. Whatever
she feels makes her open her mouth to scream, but she is
slammed again, hard, whipped into an arc of about eight feet,
up and down, submerging her down to her open mouth, choking
off any scream she might try to make. Another jolt to her
body, driving her under so that only her hair swirls on the
surface. Then it too is sucked below in a final and terrible
jerking motion. HOLD on the eddies and swirls until we're
sure it's all over.EXT. CLOSE ON TOM ON BEACHIn his shorts, laughing to himself, turning in slow stoned
circles, held prisoner by his windbreaker which seems to
have him in an armlock, as he struggles to free his arm from
a tight sleeve. As he turns, we hear the alma maters in the
background, from the fire.

Here is the scene from the movie:

There’s a lot more dialogue in the film version than the script, presumably largely improvised on set. Interesting to note in an earlier draft, there was no scripted dialogue in this scene. Also, compare the shark attack scene from an earlier draft to the one attributed to the final draft, excerpted above:

Her expression freezes. The water-lump is racing for her. It bolts her upright, out of the water to her hips, then slams her hard, whipping her in an upward arc of eight feet before she is jerked down to her open mouth. Another jolt to her floating hair. One hand claws the air, fingers trying to breathe, then it, too, is sucked below in a final and terrible jerking motion. HOLD on the churning froth of a baby whirlpool until we are sure it is over.

Close, but less in the way of description. Compared to the movie version which has a bunch more action and lots of poor Chrissie’s screams and pleas for help — again probably improvised on set — Spielberg upped the action, taking what is detailed in one paragraph into an entire minute of the unseen shark’s attack.

There’s also an additional cut to Tommy on the beach during the middle of the shark attack, which adds to the tension — Why doesn’t he hear her?!!! — and contributes some dramatic irony.

By the way, the alternate title of the script: “Stillness in the Water”.

Do you remember the first time you saw Jaws?

One of the best things you can do to learn the craft of screenwriting is to read the script while watching the movie. After all a screenplay is a blueprint to make a movie and it’s that magic of what happens between printed page and final print that can inform how you approach writing scenes. That is the purpose of Script to Screen, a weekly series on GITS where we analyze a memorable movie scene and the script pages that inspired it.

For more Script to Screen posts, go here.