Steven Spielberg shares his original “bad idea” for the opening scene of JAWS

When Steven Spielberg started to develop Jaws, while developing the storyboards, had initially envisioned a very different opening for the film. During an interview with Vanity Fair, the director shared his original vision for the opening scene of Jaws, calling it a bad idea and saying it’s the kind of thing that belonged in a B-movie. He said:

“One of my bad ideas was to start the film with the camera inside the shark’s throat, shooting at the teeth with the mouth open. And I shot a sample and decided it was a terrible, gimmicky idea that belonged in a B-movie. ‘I threw away.

It’s funny, because I recently watched it The Meg 2: The Trench, and this was a scene from that movie! We were watching from inside the giant shark’s mouth as it ate a group of people, and it was so much fun to watch! Of course, it may not have worked with Jawsbut it worked The Mega 2!

The opening scene used in Jaws it was a perfect setup to heighten fear. Speaking about that opening scene, Spielberg said:

“I thought it would be very scary not to show it at all. If the shark had come out of the water, it would have been spectacular but there would have been nothing primal: it would have been just another monstrous moment that we all had already seen in other films. I wanted the jerky movement of the first victim to stimulate our imaginations of what was happening below. I felt it was stronger than showing the snout or even a taste of the fin.

It certainly was effective! As a kid, that scene scared the shit out of me. As for how it was achieved, actress Susan Backline, who played the attack’s first victim, Chrissie, was attached to a harness so she could be pulled back and forth to simulate the attack. Spielberg said:

He had a harness. There were two eye loops and wires leading to two poles on the beach. Five crew members were on one side and five crew members on the other, and they basically dragged Susan. There was a ribbon hanging from the wire and when she got to one of the posts, they had to stop pulling and the other team took over and pulled the other way. What you didn’t want to happen was both teams shooting at the same time.

“For added security, it had the ability to quickly release the cable if something went wrong. It had to be perfectly choreographed to give the impression that her shark was pulling her violently to the right and then immediately violently to the left.

Spielberg was the one who actually pulled it when the shark first attacked. I’ve included the opening scenes for you to watch below. I’d like to see the original test footage Spielberg shot for his first opening or even the storyboard artwork, but I couldn’t find it. Maybe someday.