Is ‘Jaws’ Based On A True Story?

The oh-so-famous Shark Week may have come and gone, but Steven Spielberg’s classic movie, Jaws, is always on our minds.

Jaws was the highest-grossing film of all time (until the release of Star Wars just two years later), and it’s no wonder. With its tense plotline and excellent performances, Jaws is a classic that helped create the modern blockbuster.

The action kicks off with a young woman who gets attacked by a shark while skinny-dipping in one of the most touristy parts of New England, Amity Island. Throughout the must-see movie, a police chief named Martin Brody (Roy Scheider) tries to shut down all of the beaches in the area after the devastating incident. However, he is overruled by the town’s mayor, Larry Vaughn (Murray Hamilton), due to his fear of losing revenue from tourists. Because of this, Brody teams up with a Marine biologist named Matt Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss) and a professional shark hunter named Quint (Robert Shaw) to capture the man-eating creature themselves, all in a perilous attempt to ensure the safety of those around them, ultimately making for a chilling story that is sure to leave you on the edge of your seat.

Though it premiered back in 1975, Jaws has instilled multiple generations with galeophobia (the irrational fear of sharks), leaving viewers with one simple question that they hope will ease their distress: Jaws is not based on a true story… right?

After a great deal of internet sleuthing, the Decider team discovered a thing or two surrounding the history of Jaws that might just send chills down the spines of shark haters everywhere.

Is Jaws Based On A True Story?

Jaws is based on the novel of the same name by Peter Benchley, which was published just one year prior to the release of the Steven Spielberg classic.

Benchley wrote this book due to his keen interest in sharks and their complicated relationship with mankind, telling the story of three men and their journey to terminate a great white shark that infiltrates a beach town in The Hamptons, ultimately putting both residents and tourists in danger. Benchley claims to have written Jaws after learning about the adventures of a professional shark hunter named Frank Mundus, which was confirmed by the BBC. They note that while Benchley did avidly follow the adventures of Mundus, the writer took things a step further in a newer introduction to Jaws (the novel), saying, “Did sharks…stay in one area, killing and killing again? Darn right.  Remember the shark that went up a New Jersey river in 1916 and killed four people? Time and again, I confidently assured interviewers that every single incident described in Jaws…had actually happened.”

In an interview Travel Channel says was with People Magazine, though no such interview currently exists online, Benchley reportedly said that he read an item in a newspaper in 1964 that inspired the story. In the paper, he read of a fisherman who harpooned a 4,500-pound great white shark off Long Island and wondered what would happen if it attacked people.

Slightly more verifiable, though still no longer available on the internet, is an interview that Benchley did with the London Daily Express mere days before he passed away at age 65. In it, as quoted by the New York Times, Benchley said flatly that, “‘Jaws’ was entirely a fiction.”

That doesn’t mean shark attacks are fiction, though! There were a number of shark attacks that plagued the Jersey Shore in 1916, as Benchley noted earlier.

The infamous Jersey Shore shark attacks of 1916 were a series of incidents that occurred between July 1st and July 12th, killing four people and injuring one all within the New England area. Just like we see in Jaws, these incidents caused panic in the town, leading to numerous shark hunts due to the mass hysteria among residents and tourists alike.

While Jaws is fiction, as Benchley noted, it can be confirmed that the iconic film has aspects of truth riddled throughout its two-hour running time. Chilling! We might have even developed galeophobia ourselves!

Born and raised in Orange County, California, Melanie Rooten is a graduate of the University of Oklahoma. Melanie has a true passion for all things pop culture, and she tends to spend her free time going to concerts and music festivals, binging her favorite TV shows, spending time with her friends and family and cheering on the Oklahoma Sooners (of course). You can connect with her on Twitter (@MelanieRooten) to see all of her recent articles.