Past Brody's back to the electronics

 

Beep, chatter, blip.

 

UNDERWATER SEQUENCE - HOOPER

 

Hooper descends in a froth of bubbles. Warily he turns a

full circle with his hotlight. At first we see nothing out

of place about the Flicka except that it is lying so low in

the water. But as Hooper travels the bottom looking for

damage, he comes across a jagged hole two-thirds of the way

forward.

 

The hole is about the size of a basketball, and the wood

around it has been bashed and splintered. Hooper explores

the hole with his hands, then takes the knife from its sheath

and begins to dig at something. Whatever it is comes free in

his hand. As he studies his find, his light wanders upward,

pointing directly into the dark hole. Hooper looks up...

 

CLOSE - HOLE

 

Ben Gardner's dead face stares out through the hole in the

Flicka, eyes and mouth gaping in frozen horror, his skin

pinched like a prune.

 

CLOSE - HOOPER

 

bumps his head in trying to get away, seems to yell through

escaping bubbles. We hear the gasping shout as a bubbling

roar in the ears. His mask fills with water as he flails for

the surface. Miscalculating, he bumps into the hull of his

own boat, shocked, dismayed, his system jangling with

adrenaline shock, his hands open, and the object he pried

loose from the hull drifts down and out, falling into the

eternity of the ocean bottom. He finally bursts through the

surface.

 

END OF UNDERWATER SEQUENCE

 

THE BOAT, HOOPER EMERGING FROM THE WATER

 

He is gasping for breath, his whole body vibrating with

urgency. The salt water in his lungs combines with the

adrenaline in his blood to deprive him of speech.

 

BRODY

You all right?

 

HOOPER

A White! A Great White, I found a

tooth buried in the hull. He must've

attacked... I knew it... Gardner's

dead in there. I didn't see the

mate...

 

BRODY

No shark did that to a boat!

 

Hooper, despite his shock and surprise, is strangely elated,

almost giddy with the wonder of his discovery.

 

HOOPER

Jesus Christ! A Great White! Who'd

believe it! We're not talking about

a shark, we're talking about a Shark!

 

Brody sinks weakly into a chair. Brody huddles in the stern,

Hooper kicks the engine in with a roar, and still a-shiver

with excitement, turns the boat and its grim tow back to

port.

 

EXT. ISLAND HIGHWAY - THE BILLBOARD - DAY

 

Next to the "Amity Welcomes You" billboard is a group of

selectmen, Vaughn, Meadows, Hendricks, and another deputy

standing by with paint and brushes. Brody's wagon is there,

along with a few other cars. Busy late afternoon traffic is

starting to pile up as early weekenders and curiosity seekers

slow down to see what's happening.

 

Behind the billboard, Brody and Hooper have gotten Vaughn to

one side. They are making a closely reasoned presentation to

him.

 

BRODY

There is a kind of shark called a

Great White Shark that every expert

in the world agrees is a maneater.

 

HOOPER

You're situation here suggests that

a Great White has staked out a claim

in the waters around Amity Island,

and that he will continue to feed

here as long as there is food in the

water.

 

BRODY

There's no limits to where he can

strike, and we've had three attacks

and two deaths in the past few days.

It happened like this before, in

1916, when a Great White killed five

swimmers at Jones Beach, in Long

Island.

 

HOOPER

A shark's attack is stimulated by

the kind of splashing and activity

that occurs whenever humans go

swimming -- you can't avoid it!

 

BRODY

A 4th of July beach is like ringing

a dinner bell, for Chrissake!

 

HOOPER

I just pulled a shark tooth the size

of a shot glass out of the hull of a

wrecked boat out there.

 

BRODY

We towed Ben Gardner's boat in, Larry;

he was dead and his boat was all

chewed up.

 

VAUGHN

Is that tooth here? Did anyone see

it?

 

HOOPER

I don't have it.

 

BRODY

He lost it on the way up.

 

VAUGHN

What kind of a shark did you say it

was?

 

HOOPER

Carcaradon carcharias. A Great White.

 

VAUGHN

Well, I'm not going to commit economic

suicide on that flimsy evidence. We

depend on the summer people for our

lives, and if our beaches are closed,

then we're all finished.

 

BRODY

We have got to close the beaches. We

have got to get someone to kill the

shark, we need non-corrosive mesh

netting, we need scientific support...

It's gonna cost money just to keep

the nuts out and save what we have.

 

VAUGHN

I don't thing either of you is

familiar with our problems...

 

HOOPER

I'm familiar with the fact that you

are going to ignore this thing until

it swims up and bites you on the

ass! There are only two ways to solve

this thing: you can kill it, or you

can cut off its food supply...

 

BRODY

That means closing the beaches.

 

VAUGHN

Come here, I want to show you

something.

 

He leads Brody around to the front of the billboard, on which

we see that some pranksters have painted a huge shark fin in

the water behind the swimmer, so she looks now like a frantic

bather fleeing a pursuing monster.

 

VAUGHN

Sick vandalism! Brody, that's a

deliberate mutilation of a public

service message! I want those little

paint-happy bastards caught and hung

up by their baby Buster Browns!

 

HOOPER

(who has followed

them around)

That's it! I'm standing here arguing

with a guy who can't wait to be a

hot lunch. Goodbye.

 

BRODY

Wait a minute! I need you.

 

HOOPER

Out there is a Perfect Engine, an

Eating Machine that is a miracle of

evolution -- it swims and eats and

that's all. Look at that! Those

proportions are correct.

(indicates fin)

I know sharks.

 

VAUGHN

You'd love to prove that. Getting

your name in the National Geographic.

 

BRODY

Larry, we can re-open the beaches in

August.

 

VAUGHN

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, the beaches

stay open this weekend.

 

INT. FERRY BOAT - DAY

 

Two cavernous iron doors. Then a crack of vertical light as

six burly crewmen muscle them apart. The Amity ferry landing

is approaching, people in colorful outfits waiting dockside

for the first filled-to-capacity shuttle of the summer season

and --

 

Bach's Little Fugue is the musical accompaniment to this

wholly visual montage of disembarkation. The next two minutes

should be treated like a "short film" taking into account

all of the colors, episodes, faces and behavior of a variety

of Americans who colonize Eastern resort communities for the

ninety-day season.

 

Intercut with this montage is Brody's home, where Ellen,

Hooper and Brody are in sweaty, gritty all-out effort to

enlist some support. Elements in this montage include:

 

A. A train of cars trundling down the ramp, bumper to bumper.

 

B. Young Beautiful People from Princeton, Yale, NYU, wearing

knapsacks, toting luggage, babies riding in papoose rigs,

energized children, senior citizens holding hands on the

pedestrian ramp, a few wheelchairs.

 

C. Hooper, bent over the phone: "I know it's a long weekend,

could you get me his home phone number?

 

D. Sidewalk vendors hawking "Shark Killed" souvenirs, big

photo "Personality Posters" of the dead tiger shark hung on

the dock.

 

E. Brody: "You're acting senior officer? Where's Chief Petty

Officer Feldman? Where's the Coast Guard Executive Officer?"

 

F. Souvenir stands selling Genuine Sharks Teeth from The

Amity Killer Shark, Captured This Week.

 

G. Amity Cab Company, small blue Toyotas lined up with their

college student drivers like a bomber wing.

 

H. Hooper: "Well then, operator, could you try him in the

dining room?"

 

I. Brody: "All I get is a recording. Is there some other

number I could try...?"

 

J. Station wagons with pale winter faces pressed anxiously

to the window. Cadillacs with Rear Admirals at the helm,

their wives with blue hair remembering the way from years

before.

 

K. Hooper: "When did he check out? Did he leave another

phone number?"

 

L. Brody: "How can I reach him in Chambers if he's not in

Chambers?"

 

M. Little Karate Hands breaking picket fences.

 

N. Some local delinquents about 10 or 12 years old, towing

behind their bicycles a little dead sand shark with signs:

"Amity Monster Shark." "Killed Here." 5 Cents a Hit." Etc.

 

Then six blonde and tanned Coney Island meatballs descend

the ramp. They all wear Men's Club Lifeguard patches and

matching collegiate windbreakers. They scour the landing,

looking for someone to save.

 

The boat is empty. Everybody heading inland, anticipating

the best Fourth of July ever. Already there is debris on the

docks and the cleaning crew works away at it.

 

INSIDE THE FERRY

 

As Bach's Little Fugue ends, the six burly crewmen lean their

combined weight against the Cathedral doors, closing out the

light and locking in the trade. The doors latch shut with a

resounding clang!