JAWS (ride)

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Jaws is a slow-moving boat ride at Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida based upon the film Jaws. It simulates a shark attack in Amity Harbor. The boats rocks back and forth and riders are splashed with water. There are no big drops like Islands of Adventure's Dudley Do-Right's Ripsaw Falls.

1 Ride premise
2 Original version
3 Trivia
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] Ride premise

After the shark attacks portrayed in the 1975 film Jaws, the tourism industry of Amity Island, Massachusetts had almost died out. Years later some wealthy tourists asked an old seaman named Jake Grundy to take them out to see the places where the shark attacks occurred. Grundy has made a business out of that: Captain Jake's Amity Boat Tours. Due to the popularity of Captain Jake's, the town decided to change its philosophy of denying the sharks attacks happened to embracing the shark attacks. Now, Amity is Shark City with a booming tourist economy.

Tourists entering the ride will be taking one of Captain Jake's Amity Boat Tours out to see the sights from the film Jaws. The boats are piloted by one of Captain Jake's skippers, and all are protected by an army surplus 40 mm grenade launchers. However, Jake is confident that you'll never need to use the grenade launchers because the last great white shark anyone has seen was in 1974. What could possibly go wrong? Suddenly, as the boat rounds the lighthouse, the tour guide hears a distress call from Gorden as you hear his screams over the radio then static is only heard after the screams. The tour guide contacts the base to figure out what is going on with Gorden and seconds later, they start to pick up his distress signal.

You, the tour guide, and the other passengers see what appears to be the remains of Gorden's tour boat. Suddenly, you see a dorsal fin rising out of the water and starting to heading your way.... It was the dorsal fin of a great white shark! Its dorsal fin sinks below the water as the shark goes under the boat. The tour guide pulls out the grenade launcher and shoots a grenade at the shark, but it misses and the tour guide shoots another grenade, but again, the grenade misses. The tour guide turns the boat towards the Quint's boathouse where it is dark. The tour guide turns on his flashlight and sees if anyone is in the dark. Suddenly, some boats collapse in the water and Jaws is trying to break through the wall. The tour guide struggles to get out but the engine won't drop into gear. Seconds later, he manages to get the boat moving again and the shark tries to attack on the right side of the boat but he came up short! The tour guide contacts the base to get help and they say they will be here in 10 minutes. He thinks that all of them are shark bait in 10 minutes. Suddenly, you see the shark trying to attack again. The tour guide shoots a grenade but the grenade lands and detonates on Bridewell's gas dock which catches on fire. A ring of fire surrounds the boat and the tour guide gets the boat moving towards the flames....which magically subsides. The tour guide decides to unload in the old fishing dock where you and the other passengers will be safe. The shark tries to attack again but bites into a wire and gets electrocuted. Its corpse lets one final scare before sinking into the water never resurfaceing again. You, the tour guide and the other passengers finally manages to get there safely.

[edit] Original version

When the ride originally opened, it was very different than what it is today. The script was not as well planned, and starting in the boathouse the ride had a different ending. Jaws attacked inside of the boathouse (a shark appeared snapping it's jaws along the right side of the boat) and there was no gas station, where there is an explosion today, Jaws would bite onto the front of the boat and pull the boat a few feet. The skipper shot a grenade into his mouth and he swam underneath of the boat. Bubbles would form and finally a bloody explosion would surface. The dock wasn't there and the ride was over.

Various other details were changed from the original version.

[edit] Trivia

There are over 20 'business facádes' on Amity Island.

Throughout the streets of Amity you will see red, white and blue triangles hanging from the light poles, the year says '76, which is still a mystery - the ride takes place in present day, but the JAWS attacks took place in 1974. Sources say the triangles were left from the 1993 version, which took place two years after the attacks.

Steven's Cannery is named after Steven Spielberg who directed the original film.

Throughout the queue and attraction you will see shoes of JAWS employees who have left throughout the years.

There is over 1,140 feet of track used in the attraction.

Amity Harbor holds approximately 5 million gallons of water.

Amity 3 is one of the only remaining parts of the original 1993 JAWS attraction. Although the body structure has changed a bit.

Amity 3 is dunked into the water and pulled back to its normal "sinking" position over 800 times a day, the diesel from the boats cause the canopy to be discolored.