"Jaws" the movie is one of pop culture's most iconic movies of all time, next to its contemporaries like "Star Wars" and "Alien." It was so popular that it made beachgoers afraid of going into the water, causing a significant decline in beach attendance in 1975, per Cleveland.com.
With its success being that influential and significant, anything related to the making of the movie is valuable and worth a lot. One of these is Bruce the Shark.
But what or who exactly is Bruce? and What role did he play in the movie?
Bruce the Shark - A Brief History
Bruce the Shark is the movie's main antagonist, with its name originating from Steven Spielberg's lawyer, Bruce Raynor, a name that was also given to the original animatronic serving as the movie's antagonist, per the Jaws Wiki.
The animatronic shark is 25 feet long, according to AP News. As such, should Bruce ever come to life, it would have weighed 4.9 tons in real life, higher than what one of the character's estimates was.
Bruce is not a single animatronic, however; just like in the movie and book wherein there was a recurring group of overgrown Great White Sharks thought to be closely genetically related, there are also different versions of Bruce that are used in various shots. Some of these versions were designed to be towed behind a barge to simulate swimming, while others are designed to be used with a mechanical platform and arm for hero shots.
Another version of Bruce was destroyed by a compressed air tank, which was seen in the film.
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However, there is one other version of Bruce that survived well into the 2020s. This version of Bruce, which was christened by serious fans of the film as "Junkyard Bruce," was a hollow, static copy of Bruce the Shark. It was eventually discovered in a junkyard years after the first movie was released, per NPR.
Junkyard Bruce was not one of three Bruces featured in the movie, but a fiberglass clone made from the mold to create the three Bruces seen in the film. He was once a part of Universal Studios as a tourist attraction, but once it showed signs of wear and tear due to aging in 1990, he was thrown into a junkyard and would remain there for two decades.
Junkyard Bruce's Ultimate Fate
Junkyard Bruce was eventually found in a junkyard and was restored to its previous splendor. Special effects and makeup artist Greg Nicotero volunteered to get Bruce the treatment he deserves for getting him in special effects.
Junkyard Bruce was disassembled and restored piece by piece in the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, where it received detailed modeling and dental care to help tourists see its 116 teeth.
However, getting the animatronic shark inside the museum proved to be a challenge, with workers removing two panels of glass three stories up to get the behemoth of an animatronic shark inside the building.
The once junkyard shark now has a row of razor-sheep teeth and a hauntingly deep, fleshy gullet similar to what you can find in a Great White.
Tourists can now see the former junkyard shark at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures.
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