Jaws 3 was not a big hit back in 1983. Yet at the same time, it posted the second-biggest opening weekend numbers of that year, right between fellow threequels Return of the Jedi and Superman III. So clearly there was still some manner of market for more giant sharks; maybe it was just the movie’s slapdash quality that ultimately landed it at #15 for the year. Universal evidently decided to test this theory by making an even schlockier, more slapdash follow-up, rushed into production in late 1986 to make a summer 1987 release date (a really hurry-up-and-wait situation considering it had already been over three years since the previous film). Since its release, Jaws: The Revenge has become shorthand for the creative nadir of sequels. Now that it’s on Peacock with the rest of the series, viewers can decide whether to heed those warnings or get back in the water one more time.
The Gist: Jaws 3 is soft-retconned out in this Brody-centric sequel, which finds Ellen Brody (Lorraine Gary) still living on Amity, mourning the death of her husband (from a heart-not-shark, attack). Younger son Sean Brody is working for the police like his dad — until he’s attacked and killed by a great white shark. A grieving-even-more Ellen joins older son Michael (Lance Guest) in the Bahamas, where he’s working as a marine biologist, and on the way she meets pilot Hoagie (Michael Caine), a potential love interest. But the giant shark who killed her son appears to have followed her from the coast of New England down to the warm waters of the Bahamas, intent on revenge for… ? It’s unclear. The shark has already eaten her son. What’s his problem with Ellen? Shouldn’t she be the one who wants revenge? Or is this supposed to be a relative of the original shark from Jaws? Also, why was this movie being rush-released for the summer set at Christmas? Many things to ponder.
What Will It Remind You Of?: Any movie you’ve ever watched where you thought, “boy, this is a terrible knockoff of Jaws.”
Performance Worth Watching: It would be a stretch to say that the legendary Michael Caine is good in this film, but it’s “worth watching” in the sense that you can get closure on a Caine quote so famous it feels apocryphal about cashing his paycheck for this film in order to buy a house. But no, it’s true; one version that Caine recounted on a talk show goes like this: “Someone said to me, ‘I saw that Jaws 4. It stinks.’ I said, ‘I haven’t seen it, but I’ve seen the house it bought my mother, and it’s marvelous.” Caine, ever the good working actor, even missed out on accepting his Academy Award for Hannah and Her Sisters in person to continue filming Jaws: The Revenge, which was on a tight schedule. So while his performance might seem below-par for such a great actor, considering that at any given moment in this movie, he’s acting like he doesn’t want to be somewhere else entirely.
Sex and Skin: How dare you? Ellen Brody is a grieving widow! The nerve!
Memorable Dialogue: Once again, the tagline outstrips anything in the actual movie: “This time, it’s personal” joins “just when you thought it was safe to get back in the water” in the pantheon of poster tags that are more famous and lasting than the movies they’re advertising.
Our Take: Look, expectations are not sky-high by the time you’ve descended from Jaws, a near-perfect movie, to its third sequel produced 12 years later with one original cast member weathering a personal vendetta from a shark. But Jaws: The Revenge does have an opportunity to be, if not the best, at least the loopiest and most off-reservation of the Jaws pictures. It is that, but mostly by default; apparently some much wilder ideas (including the shark somehow hypnotizing a child from a distance and luring her into the water!) were cut out in an attempt to salvage this mercenary wreck of a fourquel. What’s left, to be clear, makes no more sense than that, but it’s also often incoherent on a technical level; the confrontations with the shark often feel like they’re missing key shots, and its menace often amounts to aggressive nudging. It’s not suspense by suggestion so much by omission. Director Joseph Sargent made the terrific original Taking of Pelham One Two Three the year before the original Jaws came out, but was mostly doing TV movies by the time Jaws: The Revenge came his way, and it shows; even on the level of raw creature-feature body count, The Revenge is pretty tame. The shark eats all of two people in the whole thing, and it’s not because of slowly built-up suspense. It’s just a boring and inept movie.
Our Verdict: We should all be thankful for Jaws: The Revenge killing off this series once and for all; it’s the rare blockbuster franchise that has never been revived after its initial run. That gratitude should not extend to actually watching it, however. You can safely SKIP IT.
Jesse Hassenger (@rockmarooned) is a writer living in Brooklyn podcasting at www.sportsalcohol.com. He’s a regular contributor to The A.V. Club, Polygon, and The Week, among others.