Let’s all take a moment to say thank you to Jaws, the 1975 summer blockbuster adapted from Peter Benchley’s novel of the same name. Jaws walked so everyone’s favorite modern-day creature features — Thrash, Anaconda, Lake Placid — could run. With theme music (dun-dun … dun-dun) as iconic as the titular behemoth, it’s unsurprising that monster-movie lovers return again and again to the franchise launched by Steven Spielberg. And now that summer’s right around the corner, there’s no better time to revisit the halcyon days of Amity Island — just beware of the great white shark lurking in the shallows. 

Jaws

When the half-eaten remains of a young woman wash up on shore, Police Chief Martin Brody (Roy Scheider) wants to shut down Amity Island’s beaches to be safe. But Mayor Vaughn (Murray Hamilton) writes it off as a boating accident and insists beaches remain open for an extremely busy tourist season. After more people start getting attacked in the water, Brody recruits oceanographer Matt Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss) and grizzled shark hunter Quint (Robert Shaw) to help him destroy the great white that’s terrorizing the town. The 1975 Spielberg (Jurassic Park) film, which won three Oscars, also stars Lorraine Gary, Carl Gottlieb, Jeffrey Kramer, Susan Backlinie, Jonathan Filley, and Ted Grossman.

Jaws

2h 4m   PG

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Jaws 2

Four years after the explosive ending of the first movie, Brody’s paranoia finally catches up with him. He sees evidence of shark attacks wherever he looks, and after one false flag too many, Brody is fired from his position as chief of police. But Brody knows the signs better than anyone on Amity Island, and when his sons sneak out to go sailing and scuba diving against his orders, he races to save them from the new threat that’s lurking in the shallows. Scheider, Gary, Hamilton, and Kramer return for Jaws 2, which is directed by Jeannot Szwarc (Supergirl); it also stars Joseph Mascolo, Colin Wilcox Paxton, Ann Dusenberry, Mark Gruner, Barry Coe, and Susan French.

Jaws 2

1h 56m   PG

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Jaws 3

Mike Brody (Dennis Quaid), son of retired Police Chief Martin Brody, is all grown up and just as obsessed with the ocean as his father is. The chief engineer at SeaWorld Orlando is busy ensuring the smooth opening of a new lagoon exhibit, complete with underwater tunnels for aquatic animals to move between habitats. But one day, the underwater gates get stuck open, and a baby great white slips into the lagoon, terrorizing guests and attacking employees. Though the baby shark is captured, the attacks only increase in fervor, and Mike realizes the baby shark’s mother — a far more dangerous threat — is searching for her child. Directed by Joe Alves, Jaws 3 also stars Bess Armstrong, Simon MacCorkindale, Louis Gossett Jr., John Putch, Lea Thompson, P.H. Moriarty, Dan Blasko, Liz Morris, and Lisa Maurer.

Jaws 3

1h 38m   PG

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