Take a Bite Out Of This: Behind the Scenes Facts About Jaws

The Orca Sank In Real Life

Photo Credit: Universal Studios

During filming, one huge roadblock that Spielberg faced was when the ship “The Orca” sank in real life, not just the movie. It began sinking with Robert Shaw, Richard Dreyfuss, and Roy Scheider still on board. More importantly, the ship also held numerous cameras and a lot of precious film.

Seeing the boat sink, there was a mad dash to get the actors and especially the equipment off of the boat. One of the cameras was submerged, but they were still able to save the film that was inside. This was just one of the endless issues that Spielberg had to overcome to complete the movie.