Close - chain in wheelbarrow

 

Suddenly zipping out, faster and faster, as both men

straighten.

 

Denherder is goggle-eyed.

 

DENHERDER

Hey! What's this?

 

The chain is coming out so fast that it begins to drag the

wheelbarrow to the end of the jetty. A section of chain

tangles around the handle and flips the entire machine into

the air. Both men watch dumbfounded as the inner tube, racing

out to sea in a wake of white water, suddenly dips under.

 

CHARLIE

Look at him take it!

 

DENHERDER

Do I set the goddam hook?

 

CHARLIE

Let him do it! Go-go-go-go-go!

 

It is then that the chain whips taut against the narrow

pilings.

 

CLOSE - PILING

 

A lineup of five decrepit 2 x 4 inch pilings SNAP with a

resounding CRACK.

 

ANGLE - JETTY

 

The end of the jetty is yanked loose. Denherder is flipped

like a chip over the side and into the cold night water,

where he manages to snag hold of a splintered timber.

 

DENHERDER'S POINT OF VIEW

 

The severed section of jetty, a joined platform of footboards,

is being dragged seaward with Charlie sitting dazed on top

of it, his lit pipe still going.

 

DENHERDER

CHARLIE! JUMP!

 

Charlie rolls into the water, sputters, turns to watch the

flotilla of wood draw away.

 

CLOSE - CHARLIE

 

looking seaward.

 

CHARLIE'S POINT OF VIEW

 

The end of the jetty makes a 180-degree turn and heads back

in his direction.

 

CHARLIE

Holy Jesus Christ!

 

Denherder steps up on the broken-off piling just to be out

of the water.

 

DENHERDER

Get the hell out! Charlie! Swim!

 

Charlie, inhaling terror, trying to slog to shore. The jetty

is getting closer. Suddenly, an enormous black fin breaks

water like a periscope, making course corrections as it comes

for Charlie.

 

Denherder jumps from piling to piling, almost losing his

balance on his way to help Charlie. Charlie has reached the

last pylon toward open sea, and his hands clamber for a hold.

But --

 

INSERT - CHARLIE'S HANDS

 

The algae is too slippery, and his fingers keep sliding back.

 

That's when the fin behind him seems to reach up to the sky

and Charlie manages, with Denherder's desperate help, to

make it safely to shore. The remains of the pier float belly-

up in the inlet.

 

CLOSE ON THE HARBORMASTER OF AMITY - DAY

 

He is sitting on a little canvas folding chair, eating a

bowl of Cheerios with milk and sugar, watching a panorama of

ineptitude and greed unfold before his old seaman's eyes.

 

The Amity Pier area is a minor madhouse: out-of-state cars

elbow local vehicles for parking space at the foot of the

dock, and a parade of bounty-hunting townspeople, islanders,

off-islanders, tourist, and others shout and push their way

onto the crowded pier, each carrying some bizarre or

appropriate tool for the real or imagined capture of an

unarmed shark of indeterminate size.

 

Rods and reels, drop lines, crossbows, slingshots, harpoons,

shotguns, rifles, nets and tridents; every fishing supply

store and sporting goods house within a hundred miles has

been cannibalized to equip this weird array.

 

ANGLE ON BRODY AND HENDRICKS ARRIVING ON THE SCENE

 

Not having room to bring their police vehicle anywhere near

this mess, they are proceeding on foot into the confusion.

 

HENDRICKS

...So then Denherder and Charlie sat

there trying to catch their breath,

and figuring out how to explain to

Charlie's wife what happened to her

freezer full of meat.

 

BRODY

That wasn't funny.

 

Some of the locals greet Hendricks with occasional nods of

recognition, or an ad libbed "Hi, Lenny," or "Hey, Lenny."

 

HENDRICKS

Mrs. Kintner must've put her ad in

Field and Stream.

 

BRODY

Looks more like the readers of the

National Enquirer.

 

ANGLE ON BOAT RENTAL - PIER

 

An argument is in progress between and Out-of-Towner and the

Boat Rental Man.

 

OUT-OF-TOWNER

You're charging me double the usual

rent! I didn't come up here all the

way from New Rochelle to be gouged

by some Yankee Cracker!

 

BOAT RENTAL MAN

Prices go up June First every year.

You want a nice cheap, leaky boat,

you go down to the Hamptons.

(he sees Brody)

Right, Chief?

 

ANGLE LOOKING OUT TO SEA

 

Making its way through the channel towards the dock is a

sleek, expensive runabout with the name "Fascinatin' Rhythm"

on the stern. It's professionally handled, and rumbles in as

it coasts in towards the dock area. Some other boats clear

the way for it, zig-zagging in the harbor, causing an annoying

chop.

 

CLOSE ON BOAT

 

Matt Hooper, a bearded, bespectacled young man with an intent

look, is maneuvering the vessel peering through his windscreen

at the ragtag collection of seafaring loonies all around

him.

 

BACK TO DOCKSIDE

 

Hendricks is mediating the argument between the two men, and

we can hear a plaintive "But Lenny," from the local as Brody

sees something that makes him move towards the other side of

the dock. We see him cross to a little boat built for two or

three that is settling low in the water as a seventh man

climbs in with his gear.

 

BRODY

Hey! You know how many men that's

supposed to hold?

 

MAN IN BOAT (WALTER)

Whatever's safe, right?

 

BRODY

What you got ain't safe. You take

some guys off or you don't go out.