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You know the thing about a shark, he's got...lifeless eyes, black eyes, like a doll's eye. When he comes at ya, doesn't seem to be living. Until he bites ya and those black eyes roll over white. And then, ah then you hear that terrible high pitch screaming and the ocean turns red and spite of all the pounding and the hollering they all come in and rip you to pieces. You know by the end of that first dawn, lost a hundred men! I don't know how many sharks, maybe a thousand! I don't know how many men, they averaged 6 an hour.
~ Quint describing the shark.

Bruce (a.k.a. Jaws) is the titular main antagonist of the 1974 novel Jaws by Peter Benchley and the 1975 summer blockbuster film of the same name. He is nominated in AFI's 100 Years... 100 Heroes and Villains, 100 Heroes & Villains - American Film Institute, IGN's top 100 Villains.

He is a 25 foot, 6,000 pound great white shark that fed on Amity Island swimmers throughout the entire Jaws (1975) movie.

Origin[]

Jaws (1975)[]

Bruce is a 25 foot, 3 plus ton great white shark that plays a similar role to his novel counterpart in the 1975 movie. At the start of the movie, Bruce is lurking through the Amity Island waters then attacks and eats a skinny dipping Chrissie Watkins.

JawsBW

He attacks a young boy (Alex Kintner) a few days later, making Chief of Police Brody to do something about it. Bruce goes on to eat Ben Gardner as Mrs. Kintner (Alex's mother) places a $3,000 bounty on Bruce. On the fourth of July weekend, Bruce enters a nearby estuary and kills a boater. Finally Brody with shark hunter Quint and oceanographer Matt Hooper go off to kill the shark. Like the novel, the first attempts to kill Bruce simply fail, but Quint is killed by Bruce and Hooper barely survives the shark by hiding among rocks on the ocean floor after trying to kill the shark in the shark cage.

Brody manages to kill Bruce by shoving an air tank into its mouth and shooting the tank making it blow up killing Bruce in the process.

Victims[]

  • Chrissie Watkins
  • Pippit (dog)
  • Alex Kintner
  • Ben Gardner
  • Estuary man
  • Captain Quint

Powers and Abilities[]

Ampullae of Lorenzini[]

The Ampullae of Lorenzini are special sensing organs called electroreceptors, forming a network of jelly-filled pores. They are mostly discussed as being found in cartilaginous fish (sharks, rays, and chimaeras); however, they are also reported to be found in Chondrostei such as reedfish and sturgeon. Lungfish have also been reported to have them. Teleosts have re-evolved a different type of electroreceptors. They were first described by Stefano Lorenzini in 1678.

Lateral Line[]

The lateral line is a system of sense organs found in aquatic vertebrates, used to detect movement and vibration in the surrounding water. The sensory ability is achieved via modified epithelial cells, known as hair cells, which respond to displacement caused by motion and transduce these signals into electrical impulses via excitatory synapses. Lateral lines serve an important role in schooling behavior, predation, and orientation. For example, fish can use their lateral line system to follow the vortices produced by fleeing prey. Lateral lines are usually visible as faint lines running lengthwise down each side, from the vicinity of the gill covers to the base of the tail. In some species, the receptive organs of the lateral line have been modified to function as electroreceptors, which are organs used to detect electrical impulses, and as such, these systems remain closely linked. Most amphibian larvae and some fully aquatic adult amphibians possess mechanosensitive systems comparable to the lateral line.

Strength[]

Jaws-Brody

Bruce was able to take down the Orca with ease, but how about the three barrels he was able to take and keep underwater? It took 1200 lbs of force to just submerge the barrels. The average estimated shark would not be able to hold the barrels under water, though it could temporarily submerge them. However Bruce keeps them underwater with ease and for a long period of time.

Bruce was also able to pierce holes in the side of the Orca with ease. The top speed of a great white shark is still a mystery, as it was always known to be 25 mph but it has recently been known as 35 mph, which is quite a difference in the water, so how hard would a 6,000+ pound great white shark swimming at 35 miles per hour hit?

How hard can Bruce really hit?[]

Aerial Shot

Momentum = Mass x velocity   6000 pounds = 2721.56 Kg  35 mph = 15.65 m/s  That means the shark can generate 42592 Kg m/s. To stop the shark, one must apply an opposite but equal force to the shark.  Kinetic energy = 1/2 mass x velocity x velocity  KE = 1/2 x 2721.56 Kg x 15.65 m/s x 15.65 m/sec.= 333,285.63 Joules.   Joules is a unit of kinetic energy, It is also the same as one watt-sec. That means the shark can generate an energy equivalent of 333 kilowatts for 1 sec if it collides into an object.

(Cal-King; yahoo.answers)

The 333,285 joules is equal to around 122 tons of force.

Bite Force[]

New studies have estimated at a 21 foot great white shark possessing a bite force of 4,000 psi (17,790 newtons) and it is unsure if Bruce has a stronger bite force while it is very likely.

Durability[]

Three barrels

Bruce has taken bullets and has shown no pain from them. He has also been able keep 3 barrels underwater, which would have been 1200 lbs of force to just submerge the barrels. The average estimated shark would not be able to hold the barrels under water, though it could temporarily submerge them. However Bruce keeps them underwater with ease and for a long period of time.

Hunting Techniques[]

Bite and Spit[]

The Bite and Spit strategy proposed by McCosker may well characterize the normal predatory behavior of White Sharks when attacking particularly huge and powerful pinnipeds. The technique is executed by biting the victim, then leaving it to bleed out and eventually die. After the victim has died the White Shark would come back and consume the victim.

Grab and Hold[]

Estuary Attack

The Grab and Hold strategy is when a White Shark grabs hold of a victim, drag them down to the bottom, and swim along the bottom with them in their mouth. They continue with the biting, causing mortal damage, and drowning the at the same time.

Bump and Bite[]

The White Shark circles and bumps the victim before biting. Great whites are known to do this on occasion, referred to as a "test bite", in which the great white is attempting to identify what is being bitten. Repeated bites are not uncommon, depending on the reaction of the victim (thrashing or panicking may lead the shark to believe the victim is prey), and can be severe or fatal. Bump-and-bite attacks are not believed to be the result of mistaken identity.

Sneak Attack[]

Chrissie's demise

Chrissie's demise.

The victim will not usually see the shark, and may sustain multiple deep bites. This kind of attack is often carried out with the intention of preying upon the victim. Sneak attacks are the most fatal kind of attacks and are not believed to be the result of mistaken identity.

Breach[]

Breaching is when the White Shark rockets itself out of the water catching prey.

  • Polaris - whereby the attacking shark performs a swift, vertical rush from the bottom of the ocean’s floor towards its prey. The shark will camouflage itself by staying close to the ocean floor as it acquires its target, and will accelerate strongly to the surface using its caudal fin to help propel itself out the water, with or without a seal in its mouth. The “Polaris” breach does not always result in the Great White Shark clearing the water completely, but is extremely spectacular to watch as the shark bursts from the water like a rocket.
    Jaws Breach
  • Aerial - which results in the shark exploding completely out of the water, with its entire body becoming airborne. These are the most spectacular breaches to witness and often results in the shark completing a 360° flip of horizontal turn in the air due to the momentum reached.
  • Surface - which is considered the least spectacular of all the breaches. With the surface breach, the Great White Shark breaches itself out of the water in an attempt to capture its prey but fails to clear the water. During this breach you will normally only see the upper part of the sharks body as it surfaces the water.

Gallery[]

Videos[]

Trivia[]

  • Bruce is the only animal character (in fact, the only villain not portrayed by a human) to occupy any slot in the Villains' half of "AFI's 100 Years... Heroes and Villains".
    • Jaws is ranked #55 on AFI's 100 Greatest American Films Of All Time.
  • Jaws (1975) is ranked #18 on Entertainment Weekly's top 100 Movies of all time.
  • There were three mechanical "Bruce's" made for the film.
  • Artist Roger Kastel drew the original Jaws poster.
  • In the novel It, Bruce is one of the disguises of IT/Pennywise.
  • In The Lego Batman Movie, Bruce appears as one of the numerous Phantom Zone Criminals who teams up with The Joker to defeat Batman and destroy Gotham City.
  • Jaws (1975) is ranked #44 on Rotten Tomatoes' top 200 Essential Movies To Watch Now
  • The Shark appears in numerous episodes of Family Guy.
    • In the episode, The Father, the Son and the Holy Fonz, he stars in Jaws V: Fire Island.
    • In a DVD exclusive scene in Play It Again, Brian, he eyes Lois and Brian Griffin after they tell Peterthere are no sharks in Martha's Vineyard.
    • In Brian Griffin's House of Payne, Jaws appears in Peter's television series Big Jaws, where he and the other humans team up to fight the antagonist Big Jaws.
    • He is voiced by Mike Henry (who played one of Peter's best friends Cleveland Brown) in all appearances. He is one of the many anthropomorphic creatures that uses the voice of Bruce, the very flamboyant Southern gay man who was also voiced by Mike Henry. Interestingly, "Bruce" was the name given to the mechanical shark prop used in the making of the film.

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See Also
Jaws Monsters | Jurassic Park Monsters

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