Jaws quotes

View Quote Harry: It's cold. We know all about you, Chief. You don't go in the water at all, do you?
Brody: That's some bad hat, Harry.

View Quote Brody: We're gonna put on the summer, the extra summer deputies as soon as possible. And then we're gonna try and use shark spotters on the beach.
Motel Owner: Are we going to close the beaches?
Brody: [after a long pause] Yes, we are. [There is loud grumbling in the audience.] We're also planning to bring in some experts from the Oceanographic Institute on the mainland.
Vaughn: Only 24 hours.
Brody: I didn't agree to that.

View Quote [Brody is reading about sharks, when his wife startles him]
Ellen: Oh, you scared me.
Brody: People don't even know how old sharks are, I mean, if they live two - three thousand years...They don't know.
Ellen: Why don't you put that away? Wanna get drunk and fool around?
Brody: Oh yeah.

View Quote Ellen: My husband tells me you're in sharks.
Hooper: Yeah, I love them, I love them. When I was twelve years old, my father got me this boat and I went fishing off of Cape Cod. And I hooked a scup. And as I was reeling it in, I hooked a four and a half-foot baby thresher shark who proceeded to eat my boat. Ha, ha. He ate my oar, hooks, and uh, my seat cushions, he turned an inboard into an outboard. Scared me to death. And I swam back to shore. And when I was on the beach, I turned around and I actually saw my boat being taken apart. And ever since then, why yes, I have been studying sharks. I plan to go to the Institute tomorrow and tell them that you still have a shark problem here.
Brody: Why would have to tell them that?
Hooper: Sorry.
Ellen: Excuse me, but what are you talking about? Didn't they catch the shark this afternoon? It was on the Cape station news.
Hooper: They caught a shark, not the shark. Not the shark that killed Chrissie Watkins and probably not the shark that killed the little boy, which I wanted to prove today by cutting the shark open -- but you, you may want to let that breath for... nothing, nothing. You know uh, you're going to be the only rational man left on this island after I leave tomorrow.
Ellen: Where are you going?
Hooper: I'm going on the Aurora.
Ellen: The Aurora? What is that?
Hooper: It's a floating asylum for uh, shark uh, pure research. Eighteen months at sea.
Ellen: Martin hates boats. Martin hates water. Martin - Martin sits in his car when we go on the ferry to the mainland. I guess it's a childhood thing. It's a - there's a clinical name for it, isn't there?
Brody: Drowning! Isn't it true that most people are attacked by sharks in three feet of water and about ten feet from the beach.
Hooper: Yes, that's true.
Brody: Now this shark that, that swims alone...
Hooper: A rogue.
Brody: Rogue, yeah, now this guy, he - he keeps swimming around in a place where the feeding is good until the food supply is gone, right?
Hooper: That's the theory...A theory I happen to believe.
Brody: Then why don't we have one more drink and go down and cut that shark open.
Ellen: Martin? Can you do that?
Brody: I can do anything. I'm the chief of police.

View Quote Hooper: [during their autopsy of the shark] Ah. Just like I thought... He came up with the Gulf Stream - from southern waters.
[He pulls a Louisiana license plate from the shark. Brody examines it]
Brody: He didn't eat a car, did he?
Hooper: No. Tiger shark's like a swimming garbage can - it'll eat anything. Someone probably threw that in a river. [moves back from the shark] That's it.

View Quote Brody: We've got to close the beach. Call the mayor.
Hooper: You've got a bigger problem than that, Martin. You've still got a hell of a fish out there with a mouth about this big [gesturing].
Brody: How do we confirm that by morning?
Hooper: If he is a rogue, and there's any truth to territoriality at all, we've got a good chance of spotting him between Cape Scott and South Beach.
Brody: Where are ya going?
Hooper: I'm gonna find him right now. He's a night feeder.
Brody: On the water?
Hooper: Well, if we're lookin' for a shark, we're not going to find him on the land.
Brody: Yeah, but I'm not drunk enough to go out on the boat.
Hooper: Yes, you are.
Brody: No, I'm not.
Hooper: Yes, you are.
Brody: I can't do that.
Hooper: Yes, you can.

View Quote Brody: It doesn't make any sense when you pay a guy like you to watch sharks.
Hooper: Well, uh, it doesn't make much sense for a guy who hates the water to live on an island either.
Brody: It's only an island if you look at it from the water.
Hooper: That makes a lot of sense.

View Quote Vaughn: Any special questions?
Denherder: Uh, is that $3000 bounty on the shark in cash or check?
[the townspeople laugh]
Mrs. Taft: I don't think that's funny. I don't think that's funny at all, I'm sorry.

View Quote Hooper: Sure. Gentlemen, gentlemen?! The officer asked me to tell you that you're overloading that boat.
Fishermen: Ah, get outta here! You ain't going there, what do you care? Hold on there.
Hooper: Well then, can you tell me if there's a good restaurant or hotel on the island?
Fisherman: Yeah ya walk straight ahead! Ha ha!
Hooper: Ha ha they're all gonna die.

View Quote Brody: What are you doing? These are your people out there.
Hendricks: Those aren't my people. Did you see all the license plates out in the parking lot? Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Jersey... I'm all by myself out there.

View Quote Quint: I'm not talkin' about pleasure boatin' or day sailin'. I'm talkin' about workin' for a livin'. I'm talkin' about sharkin'.
Hooper: Well I'm not talkin' about hookin' some poor dog fish or sand shark. I'm talkin' about findin' a Great White.
Quint: You've got city boy hands, Hooper. You been countin' money all your life.
Hooper: I don't need this working-class-hero crap.
Quint: Maybe I should go alone.

View Quote Quint: [seeing Hooper's equipment] What are you? Some kind of half-assed astronaut? [examining the shark cage] Jesus H Christ, when I was a boy, every little squirt wanted to be a harpooner or a sword fisherman. What d'ya have there - a portable shower or a monkey cage?
Hooper: Anti-shark cage.
Quint: Anti-shark cage. You go inside the cage? Cage goes in the water? You go in the water? Shark's in the water? Our shark? [singing] 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.

View Quote Hooper: [as Brody sends the air tanks flying] Dammit, Martin! This is compressed air!
Brody: Well, what the hell kind of a knot was that?
Hooper: You pulled the wrong one. You screw around with these tanks, and they're gonna blow up!
Quint: Yeah, that's real fine expensive gear you brought out here, Mr. Hooper. 'Course I don't know what that bastard shark's gonna do with it, might eat it I suppose. Seen one eat a rockin' chair one time. Hey chieffy, next time you just ask me which line to pull, right?

View Quote Hooper: [trying to get the fishing line secure] It may be a marlin or a tuna... but it's definitely a game fish.
[Hooper pulls as the lines snaps and he crashes his head into the wall]
Quint: [picking up the line] Gamin' fish eh? Marlin? Stingray? Bit through this piano wire? Don't you tell me my business again! Now you get up on the bridge...
Hooper: Quint, that doesn't prove a damn thing!
Quint: Well it proves one thing Mr. Hooper. It proves that you wealthy college boys don't have the education enough to admit when you're wrong.
[Quint enters the cabin as Hooper makes faces at him]
Brody: [following Quint inside the boat] What's the point? Hooks and lines...
Quint: [slams on the roof at Hooper] Hooper! 12 minutes south south east now, full throttle!
Hooper: [Mocking Pirate Voice] Aye, aye, sir! AYE JIMBOY ARAGHHH!
Quint: [to Brody] See what I do Chief is I trick 'em up to the surface. And jab at 'em. I ain't gonna haul 'em up like a lot of catfish.
[slams on the roof]
Quint: Hooper, full throttle!
Hooper: [Pirate voice] I don't have to take this abuse much longer!

View Quote Hooper: [motioning to Brody to get closer to the barrels] Come on Martin! Move, move, move!
Brody: I'm not going out there!
Hooper: Beyond the edge of the barrels, go to the end of the barrels! Further out!
Brody: What?
Hooper: Go further out!
Brody: What for?
Hooper: Will you go to the end of the pulpit please? Please just go to the end of the pulpit!
Brody: What for?
Hooper: I need something in the foreground to give it some scale!
Brody: Foreground my ass!