Int. Brody house - night - dining room

 

Brody and Ellen, Sean and Michael, have all finished dinner.

 

Brody's plate is untouched, a virgin meatloaf. His glass, on

the other hand, is well used, with the remnants of a stiff

scotch and ice. He is staring across the table at the

youngest, Sean, who makes a face at him. He makes a face

back.

 

They play this game together for a few minutes.

 

BRODY

C'mere and give Daddy a kiss.

 

SEAN

Why?

 

BRODY

Because he needs it.

 

Sean gives Daddy the kiss. Brody shoos him and Michael off

to bed. Ellen, who is feeling progressively more left out

with each passing moment, gets up abruptly and clears a few

dishes. Brody is not letting her into his world for the

moment, and it shows. There's a knock at the door.

 

HOOPER (O.S.)

Martin Brody residence?

 

Ellen opens the door for him.

 

HOOPER

Hi. I'm Matt Hooper. If your husband

is here, I'd like to talk to him.

 

ELLEN

So would I. Come on in.

 

Hooper enters. He's carrying a couple of bottles of wine

which he picked up in town. He sits down near Brody.

 

ELLEN

Would you like something? Some coffee?

 

HOOPER

(seeing Brody's plate)

Is anyone having this...?

 

He starts in on it, as soon as someone has indicated "go

ahead."

 

HOOPER

Dynamite!

(to Brody)

How was your day...?

 

BRODY

Swell.

 

They exchange a long look that evolves into a slightly

desperate, but shared laughter.

 

HOOPER

(producing wine)

Here... one red, one white.

 

They laugh some more. Ellen is again left out of it.

 

HOOPER

(boning his fish)

Ummm. Really good.

 

Brody begins stripping the foil off the wine, screwing in a

corkscrew, etc.

 

ELLEN

My husband tells me you're in sharks.

 

HOOPER

I wouldn't put it that way. But I

love sharks.

 

ELLEN

You love sharks?

 

HOOPER

I do.

(he tells a story

about his boyhood

and a shark)

But you've still got a problem here,

there's a shark just off the island

somewhere.

 

BRODY

How come you have to tell them that?

 

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.

Big difference. I could've proved it

this afternoon, by cutting that one

open and examining his stomach

contents. Also, his bite was too

small.

 

Brody has the cork out of the wine. Pop.

 

HOOPER

I was lucky to find that in town --

it's an estate bottled vintage year...

 

Brody takes the fine wine, and pours it into his drink glass

filling the tumbler to the top with ice cubes, diluted scotch,

and the wine.

 

HOOPER

(as Brody pours)

We ought to let it breathe...

Whatever.

 

BRODY

Let's all have a drink.

 

He extends the bottle to Hooper, who politely accepts a token

sip. He takes some for himself, and offers some to Ellen.

 

BRODY

You too, sweetheart...

 

ELLEN

Thank you.

 

HOOPER

(toasting)

Here's to your husband, the only

other rational man on the island.

Day after tomorrow, I'll be gone,

and he'll be the only one.

 

ELLEN

You're leaving?

 

HOOPER

Going out on the 'Aurora.'

 

ELLEN

Is that a boat?

 

HOOPER

Is it! The best-funded research

expedition to ever study the shark...

around the world in 18 months.

 

ELLEN

Like those Cousteau specials on

television? I think it's for the

kids, but I love them.

 

HOOPER

Better than Cousteau, or Compagno

with computers, telemetry, Defense

Department funding...

 

ELLEN

I saw a show with sea otters, and a

big turtle... Mikey loved it. Made

me promise to get him one. Will you

live on the boat?

 

HOOPER

Yep.

 

ELLEN

Martin hates boats. Hates the water.

On the ferry to the mainland, he

sits in the car the whole way over.

He's got this childhood thing, there's

a clinical word for it.

 

BRODY

Drowning. Lemme ask you something.

Is it true most attacks take place

in three feet of water, around 10

feet from the beach?

 

HOOPER

Yeah. Like the kid on your beach.

I wish I could've examined that shark

they caught...

 

BRODY

Something else. Do most attacks go

unreported?

 

HOOPER

About half of them. A lot of 'missing

swimmers' are really shark victims.

 

BRODY

There's a kind of a lone shark,

called, uh...

 

HOOPER

Rogue?

 

BRODY

Yeah. Rogue. Picks out an area where

there's food and hangs out there as

long as the food supply lasts?

 

HOOPER

It's called Territoriality. It's a

theory.

 

BRODY

And before 1900, when people first

starting swimming for recreation,

before public bathing and resorts,

there were very few shark attacks,

cause sharks didn't know what they

were missing?

 

HOOPER

You could say that.

 

Brody digests all this; confirmation of facts he has gleaned

in his newly acquired knowledge of the shark species.

 

There is a long pause.

 

BRODY

Why don't we have one more drink,

you and I, and then we go down and

cut open that old shark and see for

sure what's inside him, or not.

 

ELLEN

Can you do that?

 

BRODY

I am Chief of Police. I can do

anything I want.

(to Hooper)

You want to come?

 

HOOPER

I'm flattered you should ask.

 

He gets up and they both start out. Ellen watches them go.

 

INT. BOAT SHED - NIGHT

 

Dark, spooky shed, with shadows of boats and strange

silhouettes of boat parts and scaffolding. At one end, the

large, symmetrical bulk of the shark's carcass lies on a

tarp. A single dark figure is bending over the dead shark.

 

The large double doors at one end of the shed squeak open,

and the Shadowy Figure moves abruptly away from the shark.

 

The new entrants move into the shed. It is Hooper and Brody

and they are continuing the conversation begun in the car on

the way over.

 

As the Shadowy Figure moves silently into a vantage point

against one wall, he passes through the light from a window;

it is Quint, and we only see him long enough to recognize

him as he backs against the wall.

 

HOOPER

...And it was Dartmouth Winter

weekend, and she was Homecoming Queen,

and I was her date; then she got

into the fact that her family had

more money than my family, and she

was right -- her great-grandfather

was in mining, and my ancestors were

Yankee shipbuilders. So we broke up

and I went home with some beatnik

from Sarah Lawrence.

 

BRODY

What stinks so bad?

 

HOOPER

Our friend, the shark.

 

They bend over the shape like 18th century graverobbers.

 

HOOPER

We always had a summer place on the

water -- Newport, the Vineyard, so I

figured I'd major in something I

knew about. Oceanography, marine

biology. It was that, or design racing

yachts like my older brother. Hmmm.

He we go. Up the old alimentary canal.

Hold the light.

 

We hear a slurp and a squish as Hooper produces a big knife

and dips into the shark with a major incision.

 

HOOPER

We open the abdominal cavity and

check the digestive tract. Simple.

(he attends to his

work)

 

From his vantage point, Quint watches, unseen by the two

men.

 

Brody is holding the light, fighting the gag reflex,

fascinated by the bizarre ritual.

 

BRODY

What's that?

 

HOOPER

Half a flounder. Hmmm... a burlap

bag... a paint can... aha!

 

BRODY

What? What?!

 

HOOPER

Just as I thought. He drifted up

here with the Gulf Stream, from

southern waters.

 

BRODY

How can you tell?

 

HOOPER

(showing it)

Florida license plate.

 

BRODY

He ate a car?

 

HOOPER

(laughs)

No, but Tiger sharks are the garbage

cans of the ocean. They eat anything.

But this one didn't eat any people.

There's nothing here...

 

He kicks the remains around below camera.

 

HOOPER

...Nothing.

 

BRODY

What do we do?

 

HOOPER

If you're looking for a shark, you

don't look on land. You go out and

chum for him.

 

BRODY

Chum?

 

HOOPER

Only one sure way to find him --

offer him a little something to eat.

Chum -- blood, waste meat, fish,

anything. They can sense it miles

away. If he's out there, we might be

able to get a closer look at him.

(checks his watch)

It's a good time, too. They're night

feeders...