Chief Martin Brody I can do anything, I'm the chief of police.
Played by Roy Scheider 
Jaws (1975) · 71 quotes
Jaws (1975) · 71 quotes
2nd most-quoted character in Jaws (1975): in 29 of its 71 quotes
Most scenes with: Matt Hooper (15), Quint (5), Ellen (4)
"Slow ahead." I can go slow ahead. Come on down here and chum some of this shit. [the shark suddenly appears, causing Brody to recoil in shock] You're gonna need a bigger boat.
Note: the bolded line is ranked #35 in the American Film Institute's list of the top 100 movie quotations in American cinema.
More lines from Chief Martin Brody
4 quotes Chief Martin Brody Chief Martin Brody [to his son]
Come here. Give us a kiss...'Cause I need it.
Chief Martin Brody I'm tellin' ya, the crime rate in New York will kill ya. There's so many problems, you never feel like you're accomplishing anything. Violence, rip-offs, muggings. The kids can't leave the house. You gotta walk 'em to school. But in Amity, one man can make a difference. In twenty-five years, there's never been a shooting or a murder in this town.
Chief Martin Brody Smile, you son of a bitch.
Scenes with Chief Martin Brody
24 scenes
You see the kids?
Brody [looking out the window]
They must be in the back yard.
In Amity, you say 'Yaad.' [she gives it the Boston sound]
Brody They're in the yaad, not to faa from the caa. How's that sound?
Like you're from N'Yawk. [gives it a Brooklyn sound]
Brody Take this stuff back to the office and get to work on those signs. "Beaches Closed - No Swimming. By the Order of the Amity PD". And let Polly do the printing.
Hendricks What's the matter with my printing?
Vaughn
We're really a little anxious that you're, ah, you're rushing into something serious here. It's your first summer, you know.
Brody What does that mean?
Vaughn
I'm only trying to say that Amity is a summer town. We need summer dollars. If people can't swim here, they'll be glad to swim in the beaches of Cape Cod, the Hamptons, Long Island.
Brody That doesn't mean we have to serve them up a smorgasbord.
Mayor's Assistant
We've never had that kind of trouble in these waters.
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.
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.
Only 24 hours.
Brody I didn't agree to that.
Brody People don't even know how old sharks are, I mean, if they live two - three thousand years...They don't know.
Why don't you put that away? Wanna get drunk and fool around?
Brody Oh yeah.
Martin, it's his birthday tomorrow.
Brody I don't want him on the ocean.
He's not on the ocean. He is in a boat. He's not gonna go in the water. I don't think he'll ever go in the water again after what happened yesterday.
Brody Now don't say that. You know I don't want that. I just want him to read the boating regulations, make sure he understands before he takes it out..
[While Brody is talking, Ellen glances into the shark book with an illustration of a shark biting the side of a rowboat.]
Michael! Did you hear your father? Out of the water now! NOW!
My husband tells me you're in sharks.
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?
Sorry.
Excuse me, but what are you talking about? Didn't they catch the shark this afternoon? It was on the Cape station news.
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.
Where are you going?
I'm going on the Aurora.
The Aurora? What is that?
It's a floating asylum for uh, shark uh, pure research. Eighteen months at sea.
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.
Yes, that's true.
Brody Now this shark that, that swims alone...
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?
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.
Martin? Can you do that?
Brody I can do anything. I'm the chief of police.
[during their autopsy of the shark]
Ah. Just like I thought... He came up with the Gulf Stream - from southern waters.
Brody [He pulls a Louisiana license plate from the shark. Brody examines it]
He didn't eat a car, did he?
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.
Brody We've got to 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 with a mouth about this big [gesturing].
Brody How do we confirm that by morning?
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?
I'm gonna find him right now. He's a night feeder.
Brody On the water?
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.
Yes, you are.
Brody No, I'm not.
Yes, you are.
Brody I can't do that.
Yes, you can.
Brody It doesn't make any sense when you pay a guy like you to watch sharks.
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.
That makes a lot of sense.
Brody This is a Great White, Larry, a big one. And any shark expert in the world'll tell ya it's a killer. It's a man-eater.
Look, the situation is that apparently, a Great White Shark has staked a claim in the waters off Amity Island, and he's going to continue to feed here as long as there is food in the water.
Brody And there's no limit to what he's gonna do. I mean, we've already had three incidents. Two people killed inside of a week, and it's gonna happen again. It happened before. The Jersey beach. [He points at Hooper]...1916 - there were five people chewed up in the surf -
- in one week.
Brody Tell him about the swimmers.
A shark is attracted to the exact kind of splashing and activity that occurs whenever human beings go in swimming. You cannot avoid it.
Brody You open the beaches on the 4th of July, it's like ringing the dinner bell for Christ's sakes.
Look, Mr. Vaughn. Mr. Vaughn, I pulled a tooth the size of a shot glass out of the wrecked hull of a boat out there, and it was the tooth of a Great White.
Brody It was Ben Gardner's boat. It was all chewed up. I helped tow it in. You should have seen it.
Where, where is that tooth? Did you see it, Brody?...[To Hooper] And what did you say the name of this shark is?
Carcaradon carcharias. A Great White.
But you don't have the tooth. Look, we depend on the summer people here for our very lives.
You are not going to have a summer unless you deal with this problem.
And if you close those beaches, we're finished.
Brody We're not only gonna have to close the beach, we're gonna have to hire somebody to kill the shark...
I don't think either one of you are familiar with our problems.
I think that I am familiar with the fact that you are going to ignore this particular problem until it swims up and bites you on the ass...There are two ways to deal with this problem: you're either going to kill this animal or you're gonna cut off its food supply.
Brody Larry, we have to close the beaches!
[Pointing at graffiti showing a dialogue balloon with the words "Help!! SHARK" coming from the mouth of the swimmer on a surfboard]
Look at that. Sick vandalism! This is a deliberate mutilation of a public service message. Now I want those little paint-happy bastards caught and hung up by their Buster Browns!
I'm not gonna waste my time arguing with a man who's lining up to be a hot lunch...Mr. Vaughn, what we are dealing with here is a perfect engine - uh, an eating machine. It's really a miracle of evolution. All this machine does is swim and eat and make little sharks, and that's all! Now why don't you take a long, close look at this sign. Those proportions are correct.
Love to prove that, wouldn't ya? Get your name into the National Geographic.
Brody [Hooper walks away chuckling]
Larry, we can re-open the beaches in August.
August! Tomorrow is the 4th of July, and we are going to open for business. It's going to be our best summer in years. If you're so concerned about the beaches, you two, you do whatever you have to to keep them safe, but with you or without you, those beaches will be open for this weekend.
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.
Brody Well, what the hell kind of a knot was that?
You pulled the wrong one. You screw around with these tanks, and they're gonna blow up!
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?
[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] [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...
Quint, that doesn't prove a damn thing!
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.
Brody [Quint enters the cabin as Hooper makes faces at him] [following Quint inside the boat]
What's the point? Hooks and lines...
[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.
Brody I'm not going out there!
Beyond the edge of the barrels, go to the end of the barrels! Further out!
Brody What?
Go further out!
Brody What for?
Will you go to the end of the pulpit please? Please just go to the end of the pulpit!
Brody What for?
I need something in the foreground to give it some scale!
Brody Foreground my ass!
Brody [pointing at Quint's tattoo scar]
What's that one?
Oh, that's a tattoo. I got that removed.
Let me guess. Mother! [laughs]
Hooper, that's the U.S.S. Indianapolis.
Brody What happened?
Japanese submarine slammed two torpedoes into our side, Chief. We was comin' back from the island of Tinian to Leyte. We'd just delivered the bomb. The Hiroshima bomb. Eleven hundred men went into the water. Vessel went down in 12 minutes. Didn't see the first shark for about a half-hour. Tiger. 13-footer. You know how you know that in the water, Chief? You can tell by lookin' from the dorsal to the tail. What we didn't know, was that our bomb mission was so secret, no distress signal had been sent. They didn't even list us overdue for a week. Very first light, Chief, sharks come cruisin' by, so we formed ourselves into tight groups. It was sorta like you see in the calendars, you know the infantry squares in the old calendars like the Battle of Waterloo and the idea was the shark come to the nearest man, that man he starts poundin' and hollerin' and sometimes that shark he go away... but sometimes he wouldn't go away. Sometimes that shark looks right at ya. Right into your eyes. And the thing about a shark is he's got lifeless eyes. Black eyes. Like a doll's eyes. When he comes at ya, he doesn't even seem to be livin'... 'til he bites ya, and those black eyes roll over white and then... ah then you hear that terrible high-pitched screamin'. The ocean turns red, and despite all your poundin' and your hollerin' those sharks come in and... they rip you to pieces. You know by the end of that first dawn, lost a hundred men. I don't know how many sharks there were, maybe a thousand. I do know how many men, they averaged six an hour. Thursday mornin', Chief, I bumped into a friend of mine, Herbie Robinson from Cleveland. Baseball player. Boatswain's mate. I thought he was asleep. I reached over to wake him up. He bobbed up, down in the water, he was like a kinda top. Upended. Well, he'd been bitten in half below the waist. At noon on the fifth day, a Lockheed Ventura swung in low and he spotted us, a young pilot, lot younger than Mr. Hooper here, anyway he spotted us and a few hours later a big ol' fat PBY come down and started to pick us up. You know that was the time I was most frightened. Waitin' for my turn. I'll never put on a lifejacket again. So, eleven hundred men went into the water. 316 men come out, the sharks took the rest, June the 29th, 1945. Anyway, we delivered the bomb.
Brody [after Quint smashed the radio]
That's great! That's just great! Now where the hell are we, huh? You're certifiable, Quint, do you know that?!
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Boys! Oh boys? I think he's come back for his noon feeding!
Hooper, what exactly can you do with these things of yours?
Well, I think I can pump around 20 cc's of strychnine nitrate into him, that is if I can get close enough.
Get this little needle through his skin?
No, I can't do that. But, if I can get him close enough to this cage, I think that I can get him in the mouth or the eye...
Brody That shark will tear that cage to pieces!
YOU GOT ANY BETTER SUGGESTIONS?
Brody What day is this?
Wednesday...No, it's Tuesday, I think.
Brody Think the tide's with us?
Just keep kicking.
Brody Y'know, I used to hate the water....
I can't imagine why.
Chief Brody [Martin and the Medical Examiner walk Matt Hooper into the morgue]
Why don't we show Mr. Hooper our accident?
[Martin gets the remains out of a locker while Hooper reads aloud the paper report]
Uh, victim's name is Christine Watkins, female caucasian...probable boating accident. The height and weight of the victim can only be estimated from the partial remains. [uncovers the tray of the remains, panting in nausea and shock] The torso has been severed in mid-thorax. There are no major organs remaining. May I have a glass of water please?
Medical Examiner Sure.
Right arm has been severed with massive tissue loss in the upper musculature. Thank you very much. [sips his water] Partially denuded bone remaining. [to inspector] This was no boating accident. [to Brody] Did you notify the Coast Guard about this?
Chief Brody No. It was only local jurisdiction.
The left arm, head, shoulder, sternum, and portions of the rib cage are intact. [to Brody, who he notices is about to light a cigarette] Do not smoke in here! Thank you very much. [holds up a severed arm] This is what happens. It indicates the non-frenzy feeding of a large squalus, possibly longimonus, or Isurus Glaucus. Now, the enormous amount of tissue loss prevents any detailed analysis. However the attacking squalus must be considerably larger than any normal squalus found in these waters. Did you get on a boat and check these waters?
Chief Brody No.
[to Inspector]
Well, this is not a boating accident! It wasn't any propeller, it wasn't any coral reef, and it wasn't Jack the Ripper! It was a shark.
Martin, there's all kinds of sharks in the water, you know? Hammerheads, whitetips, blues, makos, and the possibility that these bozos caught the exact shark that-
Chief Brody Oh, there's no other shark like this in these waters!
Martin, Martin, it's a hundred to one. A hundred to one. Now, I'm not saying it's not the shark. It probably is, Martin, it probably is! It's a man-eater, it's extremely rare for these waters. But the fact is, the bite radius on this animal is different than the wounds on the victim. I just- I wanna be sure. You wanna be sure, we all wanna be sure, okay? Now, what I wanna do is very simple; the digestive system on this animal is very, very slow. Let's cut it open, whatever it's eaten in the past 24 hours is bound to still be in there, and then we'll be sure.
Chief Brody ...Well, I guess it would be the only way to confirm it, huh?
Look, fellas, let's be reasonable. This is not the time or the place, to perform some half-assed autopsy on a fish. And I am not going to stand here and see that thing cut open, and see that little Kintner boy spill out all over the dock!
[he and Martin have just taken the recently caught tiger shark to a boathouse for an autopsy]
We start in the alimentary canal, and open the digestive tract. [stomach fluid pours out as Hooper cuts the shark open, and throws out 2 dead fish and a can] Ah! Just like I thought.
Chief Brody What?
Came up in the Gulf stream, from southern waters. [throws out a Louisiana license plate; Chief Brody picks it up and examines it]
Chief Brody He didn't eat a car, did he?
No. [laughs] Tiger shark's like a garbage can, it'll eat anything. Someone probably threw that in the river. [slides over to Chief Brody] Hoo, that's it.
Chief Brody [now knowing the crisis hasn't been resolved yet]
I've got to close the beach, call the mayor.
You've got a bigger problem than that, Martin. You still got a hell of a fish out there, with a mouth about this big. [gestures with his hands demonstrating the width of a big mouth]
Chief Brody [pulls Larry aside]
You got a pen, Larry?
A pen?
Chief Brody Yeah, a pen! You know. 'Cause you're gonna do what you do best: you're gonna sign this voucher so I can hire a contractor.
I don't think I can do that without-
Chief Brody I'm gonna hire Quint to kill the shark!
Chief Brody August? What are you talking about? Larry, summer's over. You're the mayor of "Shark City!" These people think you want the beaches open!
I was-I was acting-in the town's best interest-
Chief Brody That's right! You were! You were acting in the town's best interest, and that's why you're gonna do the right thing! That's why you're gonna sign this, and we're gonna pay that guy what he wants!
Martin...Martin, my kids were on that beach, too.
Chief Brody Sign it, Larry.
[Larry signs it, and Martin walks out]
