Jaws 3-D

Jaws 3-D (a.k.a. Jaws 3) is a 1983 horror movie and the second sequel to the 1975 classic Jaws.

There was a revived interest in 3-D film in the 1980s, with a handful of other movies (e.g. Friday the 13th Part 3 and Amityville 3-D) being released. The film tried to maximise the potential of the technology: the opening credits and the shark's final approach to the control tower being notable examples.

The 3-D effect does not transfer to television broadcasts, VHS and DVD, when the alternative title Jaws 3 is used.

Taglines:

The third dimension is terror.
A deadly new attraction.
Reaching new depths of terror.

Contents

1 Plot
2 Production history
3 Trivia
4 External links

Plot

[Spoiler warningSpoiler warning]: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The oldest son from the first two Jaws films, Michael Brody (played by Dennis Quaid) now works for SeaWorld in Florida, which is preparing for the launch of its new "Undersea Kingdom," a set of beautiful tunnels where people can "View the wonders of the deep without ever getting wet." The film opens with a baby great white following prey . . . a team of waterskiers, among them Kelly (Lea Thompson). Their boat stalls, in which we expect an attack, but then the boat's driver gets it going again and the chase is on, straight into the constantly defective gates at Sea World. This calls for the mechanical team to repair them, again, having been knocked off the track.

Michael Brody is the chief engineer, but he's spending all of his time with senior biologist Kaye Morgan, his live-in lover. Kaye and her assistants, Dan and Liz, wonder why her dolphin friends are acting so afraid of leaving their pen. We soon discover why. As Sean, Michael's brother and an aspiring cowboy in Colorado arrives to visit his brother, he reveals a deep fear about the water caused by Jaws 2, which Kelly, after meeting Michael, Sean, and Kaye in a bar, tries to dispel with aquatic misbehavior in the lagoon.

Meanwhile, Mr. Overman, one of the mechanics who likes to get too much overtime and leaves his lover, barmaid Charlene worried and offended, dives into the water at dusk to repair the gates, only to become a shark's dinner. The next day, Charlene throws Overman's bags at Michael and demands he find Overman, so, Michael and Kaye go down in a submarine to check the water. They decide to go into a piece of scenery, the Spanish galleon, only to be practically begged by Kaye's two dolphins to stay away from the place. Perplexed, Michael and Kaye continue the search, leaving the submarine, only to be assaulted by a great white. The dolphins respond to Kaye's waving hands, and allow Michael and Kaye to ride them back to the dolphin pen. Kaye's dolphin loses her, and we see her preparing to become a shark's lunch, when the dolphin returns and saves her.

At once, Calvin and Fitz Royce are called in, and decide what to do. The baby Great White Shark is captured and nursed to partial health by Kaye and Liz, and when it wakes up, oddly enough, it does not attack either woman. But behind Kaye's back, Calvin orders it exhibited as being the first Great White in captivity. Like any captive great white, the fish commits suicide in mere days, and there is nothing Kaye or Dan can do to save it, not even leading it around the tank.

Meanwhile, Kelly forces Sean to join her on the bumper boats, not granting any creedence to his fear of the sea. But, at the underwater tunnel, a girl is terrified when she sees a hideous corpse bob up to a window, and a man cruelly pushes her to the window. Michael reveals that it is Overman. Kaye reveals that these bites came from a shark with a mouth a yard across. That means the shark's mother, however, has also breached the gates of the park, but she can't convince Calvin of this fact until the shark herself shows up at the window of their underwater cafe. Then, the shark exacts her revenge, first by causing a leak that nearly drowns everyone in the underwater tunnel (leaving one very brave, capable girl guide who manages to keep order and calm in this critical situation,) the shark then turns her attention to everyone on the beach. She fails to capture the waterskiers, but she does kill the crew of a raft, and she then, by chance, attacks Kelly but, in an error in the plot, does not actually kill her.

Fitz Royce leads the shark into the filtration pipes where the water from the ocean is brought into the lagoon, hoping to trap her inside. She follows, but in a fatal error by park manager Calvin Bouchard, the technicians, his nephew and a girl who the Michael in the ending suggests is named Lisa, ask him if he's certain, and that they should just blow up the pipe, Calvin (played by Louis Gossett, Jr.) is biligerent. Shutting down the pipe neutralizes the water pressure, which gives the shark incredible moving power, and leaves Fitz Royce helpless but to drift right into her mouth when his lifeline rope snaps. He prepares a grenade, but he is crushed to death and cannot use it.

Unaware of this, Michael has gone down to repair the underwater tunnel so the technicians can restore air pressure and drain the water, with Kaye to watch his back. He welds the repair piece, but, with no pressure in the pipe to restrain her, the shark attacks. Kaye sees the shark, but can't get Michael to pay attention at first, until the shark is far too close. Death is certain at this point, except for the two dolphins again. They protect Kaye by assaulting the shark, not enough to kill her, but enough to distract, so Michael and Kaye can get back to the control room with Calvin and the technicians. But, the shark follows them and smashes through the plexiglass. She kills Calvin's nephew, but does not eat him. Calvin rescues the unconscious Lisa. Kaye beats the shark over the head, forcing her to open her mouth, while Mike grabs a pole to try and capture the grenade, which he finally does, blowing the shark and the control room to bits.

Michael and Kaye appear on the surface, while jaws appear under the water. One dolphin shows up, worrying Kaye, until the second dolphin, who had refused to do any tricks the whole movie, surprises her with a signature jump.

Production history

David Brown and Richard Zanuck, the producers for the first two films, originally pitched this idea as a spoof, named National Lampoons: Jaws 3, People 0. As suggested by Matty Simmons and John Hughes it was an off the wall comedy about a movie studio trying to make Jaws 3. It opened with author Peter Benchley being eaten in his pool by a shark, a very naked movie starlet Bo Derek, shark costumed aliens, and all around National Lampoonacy. It also had director Joe Dante attached to it.

It was Steven Spielberg who actually crushed the idea of a Jaws comedy. Once Spielberg got wind of the movie he threatened to walk from Universal. Likewise when David Brown and Richard Zanuck found out that their Jaws comedy was halted they left.

Trivia

Film editor Verna Fields was responsible for introducing Joe Alves to Alan Landsburg as a possible director for Jaws 3.
At one point Jaws 3 was titled Jaws '81.
Joe Alves was responsible for suggesting that the film be a 3-D feature. It worked as it got him the job.
This film features the largest of the four Jaws sharks. The shark in Jaws 3-D was 35 ft, Whereas the previous and succeeding sharks in the other four films, measured at about 25 ft. This is more like Benchely's novel, where the shark is, according to Hooper, "bordering on Megalodon size."
There has been confusion over which year the film took place. In the previous movie, Jaws 2, the Brody brothers were teenagers, but here, they are fully-grown adults.
This film was referenced in the 1989 film Back to the Future Part II. In the movie, Marty McFly arrives in Hill Valley in the year 2015. He sees a movie theatre that is playing a Jaws movie. The shark from the poster leaps out at him, "eating" him. The shark disappears, revealing it to be a 3-D model. He gets up off the ground, shrugs, and says "The shark still looks fake." This movie also features Lea Thompson.

External links

The Jaws films

Jaws (1975) | Jaws 2 (1978) | Jaws 3-D (1983) | (1987) | Jaws Unleashed (Video Game)

See also: Orca (1977) | Great White (1980) | Deep Blue Sea (1999) | Open Water (2003)

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