Section 5 Summary
The next shot shows the Orca leaving the harbor through the frame of a huge jaw bone in the window of Quint’s quarters. Aboard the ship, Quint continues to shout and sing with glee. We then cut to a shot of bloody water as Brody, with the ship now out at sea, creates a long chum line. Quint tells a story of catching a shark by firing two barrels into it: large flotation devices attached to rope that are meant to tire the fish and keep it near the surface. Brody accidentally loosens a series of pressurized air tanks, angering Hooper, who tied them down. Hooper yells that Brody pulled the wrong knot loose and that the tanks can explode if mishandled. Quint questions the need for the tanks but jokes that maybe the great white could eat them. In a genuine moment, Quint says that Brody can just ask him which line to pull next time to avoid accidents.
The scene fades to Quint showing Brody how to tie a bowline knot. Quint watches intently as his fishing reel slowly begins to turn, his line tightening. He immediately straps himself in to his chair, lifts the rod into his hands, and fastens it to the straps. Just as Brody celebrates tying the knot correctly, Quint’s reel begins spinning wildly as his line is pulled out. Quint hollers for Brody to get behind him and for Hooper to put the boat in reverse. He has Brody pour water on his reel as the rod begins to swing to the side. Next, Quint has Hooper put the boat in neutral, and for a moment things are calm. Quint attempts to reel the line in. A particular yank on his rod tells him that the shark is under the boat, and that the shark is smart. Hooper tells Quint to let it go, that what he’s hooked isn’t a shark and that they’re wasting time. Quint doesn’t listen.
Quint scales the side of the boat to retrieve a large hook. Brody and Hooper, who together have taken over tending to the rod, are thrown back as the line suddenly snaps. Quint reprimands Hooper for thinking he’d hooked something trivial, as the fish bit straight through the tough line. Hooper stands by his opinion, and Quint shoves past him into the cabin, accusing him of not being able to admit when he’s wrong. Hooper makes mocking faces at Quint as Brody comes into the cabin as well. Quint orders Hooper to bring the boat to full throttle, and Hooper mockingly shouts pirate banter as he does so. Quint tells Brody that he intends to pull the shark to the surface and stab at him.
Later, Quint watches the waters from the crow’s nest and orders Brody to resume the chum line. As Brody laments having to throw chum in the water, the shark’s enormous head appears suddenly above the surface, alarming him. He backs slowly into the cabin and tells Quint, “You’re going to need a bigger boat.” The two watch the shark’s fin rapidly approach. The ominous music signaling the shark’s presence returns. The shark swims just past the vessel, and we see its full length for the first time. Hooper estimates it aloud at 20 feet, but Quint thinks 25, and a weight of 3 tons. He runs into the cabin to assemble a harpoon gun as the shark circles the boat.
Brody and Hooper scale the side of the Orca to the bow, nearly slipping as they go. Quint hears a call over the radio that Ellen is on the line for her husband. Hooper tries to get Brody to stand at the very front of the boat so he can photograph him in the foreground with the shark in the background for scaling purposes, but Brody refuses. Quint tells Ellen that all is well, that her husband is busy fishing for stripers, and quickly says goodbye.
He joins the other two out on the bow with his harpoon gun and has them attach a barrel to his line. Quint takes aim and shouts for Hooper to tie the barrel more quickly. The suspension builds as the shark charges the boat. Hooper finishes tying the barrel in the nick of time and Quint fires a harpoon directly into the shark’s back. The barrel flies into the water as the shark pulls it away. Hooper takes the wheel and has the ship follow the barrel as Quint wonders aloud how long it’ll take for the barrel to tire the shark. Triumphant music ensues as the boat chases the shark, but dies away when the shark seemingly effortlessly pulls the barrel beneath the surface and disappears. Quint watches the sunset from the bow tip, seeming undeterred. He says they’ll stay out overnight now that the shark has a barrel on it.
Inside the cabin that night, Brody tends to his head wound, sustained when the fishing line snapped. Quint says it won’t be permanent and shows him something that is: one of his teeth is fake. He and Hooper go back and forth showing off various scars, Hooper’s from a moray eel and bull shark, Quint’s from various drunken escapades and one on his leg from a thresher shark. They drink to each other’s leg scars, chuckling. Hooper jokes that his biggest scar is on his chest from where a woman broke his heart, and the three all laugh heartily. Brody inquires about an unidentified scar on Quint’s arm, which Quint says is from a tattoo removal. Hooper goes into a fit of laughter about the tattoo saying “Mother,” but stops as Quint begins telling the story of his being aboard the USS Indianapolis, a ship sunk by Japanese torpedoes after delivering materials for Little Boy, the Hiroshima bomb. The entire ship and crew went into the water and the majority of the sailors were consumed by sharks with “lifeless eyes” over a period of four days before anyone discovered their whereabouts. Brody and Hooper are stunned into silence by his story. Quint breaks it by beginning to sing “Show Me the Way to Go Home,” which Hooper picks up after a moment, as does Brody, so that all three are singing happily along.
We cut to a shot of the boat from the water, where the resurfaced barrel is approaching, blinking with a device that Hooper attached to its side before letting it out. The three men’s jovial singing is interrupted by a series of crashes against the side of the boat that split the wood and leak water in. The crashes come louder and faster as the whole boat shakes, items fall from their shelves, and Brody is knocked to the floor, where the water is rising quickly. A dropped lantern causes a momentary fire, which Quint has Brody put out. The lights go dark in the cabin and the three take to the deck. Quint fires multiple rifle shots at the barrel, hoping to strike the shark, but to no avail. Brody goes to his bag and grabs a pistol of his own, seeming panicked. Quint begins singing again as the shark seems to have disappeared.
Night turns to day as Quint and Hooper attempt to fix the engine after the influx of water damaged it. They are interrupted by the arrival of the barrel once again, which Brody brings to their attention from the wheel. It doesn’t appear to be attached to the shark anymore. Hooper retrieves the barrel line with a long hook, and as he and Quint lean over the edge to roll it up, the shark’s head resurfaces, scaring them. The rope slips from Hooper’s hands as the shark swims away. Brody runs to the radio to signal the coast guard of their whereabouts, but Quint comes in and destroys it with a bat, infuriating Brody. Their attention returns to the shark as he charges the boat again, and Hooper readies another barrel, which Quint fires into the back of the beast. For several minutes, they chase the shark as it swims away with the barrel in tow. When they catch up to it, Hooper turns hard to port and Quint fires another barrel hook into the shark’s back. As it rounds the side of the boat, Brody strikes it several times with shots from his handgun.
The shark pulls the two barrels down below the surface with it, and for a moment it seems they’ve lost it, but after a moment the barrels resurface. Brody suggests they lead the shark into shore instead of letting it lead them out to sea. They bring the barrels in with the long hooks again and tie them down to the stern’s cleats. Brody accidentally pulls the rope across Hooper’s legs, pinning him to the side of the boat. They work quickly to free him. As the shark pulls on the barrels, the entire boat lists to the right, knocking Hooper and Brody down. The pressurized air tanks shift dangerously, and Brody moves to secure them. The boat slowly begins pulling the shark as they head for shore. Quint jokes that he knows a taxidermy man who’ll have a heart attack when he sees it.
Hooper realizes that the cleats are coming loose from the stern, and the men watch as the shark's head appears in the distance. It appears to be chewing through the barrel ropes. Quint fires another barrel line into the shark’s jaw and tries to untie the others from the cleats. We see the shark swimming underwater with the line stuck in its jaw, and when it’s far enough away, the third barrel comes flying from the front of the boat to the rear and out onto the water, breaking a window and nearly striking Brody in the head. With the lines too tight to remove from the cleats, the shark begins towing the boat. Water gushes into the engine. Quint retrieves a large blade from the cabin and severs the ropes, freeing the boat from the shark’s grasp and sending the tied barrels into the water, which disappear but quickly resurface. Quint insists that the shark can’t keep three barrels below the water, but in a moment they disappear beneath the vessel again, stunning him.
The men wait in silence until a strike to one side of the boat causes the whole thing to list. They see the enormous shark come to the surface off the port side. Quint steers the ship inland toward shallow waters as the shark chases them. The engine begins to smoke and Hooper tries to stop Quint from overburdening it, but Quint violently shoves him off, seeming happy to. Black smoke billows from the engine as Quint begins singing. The engine makes a loud noise and fills the cabin with smoke. Hooper attempts to fix it, but a violent explosion destroys it. Quint douses it with a fire extinguisher. He grabs life jackets for Hooper and Brody; the ship is filled with water and slowly begins to sink.
Quint asks Hooper what the equipment he brought can do. Hooper says with a clear shot he could inject the shark with a poison. He would need to get into the water in his shark-proof cage and inject it into its mouth. Brody doubts the feasibility of this, but Hooper asks if he has a better idea. Together, the men assemble the cage. Hooper prepares the poison and dons an air tank on his back. He climbs into the cage and Brody lowers him slowly into the water.
We follow Hooper under, where the water is dark and quiet. The suspenseful music returns as he spots the shark in the distance with the three barrels in tow. Brody and Quint also see the barrels from the deck. The shark swims past Hooper and for a moment the music dies and all is deathly quiet. Hooper removes the protective cork from the poison needle. The shark then rams the cage suddenly from behind, frightening Hooper so much that he drops the weapon and it falls to the sea floor. The shark attacks again and Hooper screams through his mask. The shark’s blows begin tearing the cage apart. When it gets its head inside the cage, Hooper stabs it in the head several times, drawing blood but not impeding the animal. He manages to flee the cage and hide on the sea floor as the shark rips the remains of the cage to shreds.
Up on deck, Brody and Quint struggle to lift the cage up, believing Hooper to still be in it. The boat tilts again as the shark’s grasp on the cage yanks on the pulley, finally causing it to snap and collapse. The shark then abandons its attack on the cage. Quint reattaches the pulley to a hook on the ship and cranks the cage’s empty remains out of the water. When he sees Hooper isn’t in it, Brody drops it back into the water. The shark breaches suddenly out of the water and onto the back of the boat, crushing the stern and lifting the boat’s bow dangerously upward. Brody and Quint flee to the cabin, where they hold on to whatever they can as the shark literally begins eating the back of the boat. When an air tanks rolls over Quint’s hand, he slips and begins sliding out the cabin door. He grabs Brody’s hand, but slips from his grasp and slides screaming into the beast’s mouth. Over several grueling seconds, the shark eats Quint alive as blood squirts from his torso and mouth. He is dragged below the surface, leaving Brody alone on the now half-submerged vessel.
As the Orca sinks, the shark crashes through the cabin windows and lunges at Brody, who strikes the shark’s head with the pressured air tank and then tosses it into its mouth. The shark retreats and the boat begins to capsize. Brody climbs atop it as the suspenseful music resumes for a final time. He loads a rifle, grabs a harpoon, and ascends the boat’s mast. The shark appears just underneath him, and he stabs it several times with the harpoon. The weapon lodges in the shark’s thick hide and slips from Brody’s hands. The shark swims out and doubles back to charge at Brody, who readies himself with the rifle to shoot the tank still in its mouth. He fires five shots as it approaches, some of which strike the shark but miss the tank. The sixth shot, however, hits the tank, causing a massive explosion that obliterates the shark in a bloody cloud of water and flesh. Brody hollers victoriously as pieces of the shark rain down, and we watch as its corpse sinks slowly into the deep water, a barely recognizable mess of blood and bits.
Hooper resurfaces in his scuba gear and finds Brody, who is now descending into the water as the mast sinks with the rest of the boat. They reunite, and Hooper asks about Quint. Brody shakes his head and says, “no.” Together, the men tie two barrels to a piece of wood as a makeshift flotation device and hold it as they kick their way back to shore, Brody remarking that the tide will be with them as they go.
Section 5 Analysis
Early into Section 5, we get two excellent moments of foreshadowing. The first comes as we watch the Orca leave the harbor via a shot framed by a large jaw bone in Quint’s harbor shack. As the boat is literally going to be eaten by a shark later on, this moment feels appropriately chilling. Next, when Brody mishandles the oxygen canisters aboard the boat, Hooper warns that they could explode, and Quint quips that the shark might eat them. Both of these lines directly reference the shark’s ultimate fate, in which it does indeed eat one of the tanks and blows up shortly after.
For much of the film before the Orca's departure from shore, Spielberg makes use of long, steady shots, like the one previously discussed in which Martin and Ellen say goodbye. Once we’re out on the Orca, however, these types of shots are by and large a thing of the past. The vast remainder of the film features quick, hand-held shots that emphasize the intimacy of being aboard a small vessel, and of the excitement, uncertainly, and fear associated with hunting a great and terrible predator.
Quint and Hooper locking horns continuously during the shark hunt demonstrates how the two act as foils for one another. Quint is the old and old-fashioned islander, gruff, grizzled and dirty, while Hooper is the young, uptight rich boy with alleged “city hands.” The two fight and mock each other constantly. At the same time, however, their differences often complement one another: Quint’s methods of attaching barrels to the shark work wonders for helping them track it, and Hooper’s cage and poison needle are an excellent potential way of killing it in the water. That both their actions have merit and aid in bringing down the shark serves the larger message that no man is an island in this story (excuse the pun).
As with many other points in the film, Spielberg is able to represent the shark for us without actually showing it to us through the floating barrels lodged in its back. Like the broken piece of dock chasing the fisherman or the iconic music recurring, the barrels serve to give us all the shark we need until the right moment to put it on full display.
Quint’s story about the USS Indianapolis is arguably one of the most stirring and memorable scenes in cinematic history. Robert Shaw played a big role in its composition; the version of the monologue we hear in the film is his own adaptation based on what the screenwriters originally gave him. The day they filmed the scene, Shaw had real whiskey in his cup at the table and was intoxicated as he gave the speech. After continued mistakes and wrong line deliveries, he apologized to Spielberg and asked for a second shot at filming the scene. The next day, he filmed the scene again sober, and the final version features clips from both days, such that his intoxication level changes several times over the course of the storytelling.
Quint’s behavior grows more erratic and nonsensical as the film reaches its climax: first, he destroys his own radio as Brody attempts to call the Coast Guard for help killing the shark. Next, he intentionally overburdens the boat's engine, causing it to explode. His actions indicate that he wants to face the shark head-on without anyone’s help. This creates an allusion to the obsessive and self-destructive behaviors of Captain Ahab in Moby-Dick, whose own relentless pursuit of a great sea creature leads to erratic behaviors and, eventually, his death.
Finally, the film’s climax features the completion of a journey for Chief Brody: for much of the film, and indeed the majority of the shark hunt aboard the Orca, he has been entirely helpless, at the mercy of the shark’s almost taunting attacks or Quint and Hooper’s far superior maritime knowledge. He’s been the one who's new to town, afraid of water, and knows little about sharks. His iconic line, “You’re going to need a bigger boat,” even separates him from Quint with the way he avoids using the pronoun “we” (the form in which people so often misquote it). The fact that the climax of the shark battle features him alone, out on the water with nothing but a rifle and a prayer, demonstrates how he’s finally taken control of his ability to make a difference, faced his fears, and shed his helplessness for power and victory.
