Movie Review – Jaws 3-D (1983)
“THE THIRD DIMENSION IS TERROR.”
The early 1980s saw a brief revival of the 3-D movie craze that started back in the 1950s. A few classic horror film franchises such as Jaws, Friday the 13th and Amityville each had a horror film created with 3-D effects to give the audience a truly terrifying experience.
Creatively titled Jaws 3-D, the third film in the Jaws franchise was shot with 3-D effects to create a new experience in the movie theater. Jaws 3-D was something that people could only experience in the movie theater as the technology at home did not allow for the 3-D effects. When this movie was later sold on VHS, it was simply titled as Jaws 3. It’s the same film but without the 3-D effects.
Jaws 3-D is the only Jaws film not to have at least some scenes on Amity Island. This film takes place entirely at SeaWorld down on the Florida coast (note – In reality, the only SeaWorld in Florida is located in Orlando, about 50 miles from the coast.) Jaws 3-D features a grown Michael Brody working as a marine engineer in the SeaWorld park. The supersized great white shark enters the park and wrecks havoc, even trapping park guests in an underwater structure at one point. Jaws 3-D was directed by Joe Alves and stars Dennis Quaid, Bess Armstrong, Louis Gossett, Jr., and Lea Thompson.
Jaws 3-D (1983) – (c) Universal Pictures
Jaws 3-D begins with shots of a water-skiing acrobatic team practicing their routine out in the ocean. Unfortunately, the water-skiers attract the attention of a massive great white shark. The shark follows the skiers as they return to the lagoon at the Florida SeaWorld theme park. The gates close on the shark, but the shark forces its way through them, damaging the gates in the process.
Jaws 3-D (1983) – (c) Universal Pictures
Next we meet Michael Brody (Dennis Quaid), now a marine engineer on contract with SeaWorld. His latest project, a massive underwater observation area called “The Undersea Kingdom” is about to open in the park. His girlfriend, Dr. Kathryn “Kay” Morgan (Bess Armstrong), is a marine biologist in the park and very protective of two dolphins in particular. They go to the front of the park and meet with Sean Brody (John Putch), Michael’s little brother on vacation in Florida from his home in Colorado. It seems that the shark incidents from ’75 and ’78 have scared him as far away from the oceans as possible.
That afternoon, one of the underwater maintenance workers named Shelby Overman dives into the lagoon to repair the massive gates. He manages to repair the gates, but as he’s finishing the great white shark attacks and kills him, leaving one of the man’s arms floating in the water.
Jaws 3-D (1983) – (c) Universal Pictures
That night, Kay and the Brody brothers head to a local bar where Sean Brody meets Kelly Bukowski (Lea Thompson), a water skier and performer in the SeaWorld park. Kelly and Sean sneak back into the park and make their way to the lagoon. Kelly manages to convince Sean to swim in the water, something that Sean hasn’t done for a long time because of his fear of sharks. He finally enters the water as Michael and Kay sneak onto the beach and pose as security guards, giving Michael and Kay a quick scare.
Elsewhere in the massive SeaWorld lagoon, two men use an inflatable raft and silently cross the water. They stop and one of the men goes diving for some coral. The goal is to steal some coral and then re-sell it. The diver never returns to the surface, and when the other man checks on his friend, he’s suddenly pulled underneath the water. The boat then deflates, eliminating the obvious evidence of their intrusion in the park.
The next day Kay meets Philip FitzRoyce (Simon MacCorkindale), an English biologist and skilled hunter. He tries to make some moves on Kay but she deflects his attempts. Kay talks to Michael as a girl approaches them and tells Michael of Overman’s disappearance. The woman thinks that Overman is out cheating with another woman, but Michael tells her that he never showed up at work today.
Jaws 3-D (1983) – (c) Universal Pictures
Michael Brody and Kay don their scuba gear and use a submersible called VENTURE 1 to explore the lagoon and search for Overman. They’re initially escorted by two dolphins before they descend deeper and explore the lagoon’s floor. They pass by parts of “The Undersea Kingdom” and head to a sunken Spanish galleon ship. The dolphins try to keep them out of the shipwreck and it’s quickly discovered why. A fifteen-foot great white shark is there and tries to attack Michael and Kay. The two divers grab onto the dolphins and hitch a quick ride back to the surface (without suffering an embolism).
SeaWorld park manager Calvin Bouchard (Louis Gossett, Jr.) disbelieves the report of a great white shark in his park’s lagoon. FitzRoyce, however, is more optimistic. As a hunter, he tries to fill Bouchard’s head with the idea of trapping and killing the fearsome shark, catching it all on camera and selling it to one of the networks. The attention and money would help give a boost to SeaWorld. Kay is on the opposite end of the argument as she convinces Bouchard to instead catch the shark and keep it in a holding tank, becoming the first aquarium in the world to have a captive great white shark. Such an attraction would continually draw guests to the park. Bouchard is sold on the idea of catching and containing the shark.
Jaws 3-D (1983) – (c) Universal Pictures
That night, FitzRoyce and Kay use scuba gear and successfully tranquilize the great white shark. The great white shark is transferred to a recovery tank, and Kay successfully “wakes” the shark. Everybody is impressed as the great white shark swims around the recovery tank. Kay warns them that they need to keep it there for a little while and not startle or traumatize the shark.
Jaws 3-D (1983) – (c) Universal Pictures
The next day “The Undersea Kingdom” officially opens to the SeaWorld visitors. Water skiers and dancers entertain the crowds while others head to the new underwater viewing area. As the visitors have fun, Calvin Bouchard orders for the great white shark to be moved into a new tank and available for the visitors to see. Kay learns of this and quickly goes to the tank holding the shark only to see the great white shark begin to die. She enters the tank and tries to help the shark, but it’s no use. The only great white shark in captivity has died.
Jaws 3-D (1983) – (c) Universal Pictures
Meanwhile, Kelly convinces Sean Brody to go on the bumper boats. Take note that nobody is required to wear a life jacket and the bumper boats apparently operate over deep water. Down in “The Undersea Kingdom,” Overman’s corpse drifts up to a window and scares some visitors.
Michael and Kay analyze Overman’s corpse and make a startling discovery. His body has bite marks from a much bigger shark than the great white that they had in captivity. The bite marks on his body would mean that his attacker would have a body length about 35 feet long.
Jaws 3-D (1983) – (c) Universal Pictures
They rush to Calvin Bouchard as he’s eating lunch in the underwater restaurant to tell him news about the unknown shark in SeaWorld’s lagoon. He’s skeptical when Kay tells him that that Overman was killed in the lagoon, the great white shark was caught in the lagoon, and the great white’s mother is still in the lagoon. All doubt is erased when a MASSIVE great white shark slowly swims past the viewing windows in the underwater restaurant.
Michael Brody hauls ass to the water-skiing show and tries to get the skiers out of the water. Some of the skiers spot the shark and they fall into the water, but the boats turn around and grab them before the shark can attack. The shark then decides to visit the bumper boat area and knock over Sean and Kelly’s boat. Kelly is grabbed by the massive shark, but she survives the attack with only a minor leg wound. Sean rides with her to the hospital.
Jaws 3-D (1983) – (c) Universal Pictures
Down in “The Undersea Kingdom,” Calvin Bouchard makes an announcement asking for the guests to follow the tour guides back to the surface. One of the children spots the great white shark and the shark attacks the glass tunnel, breaking part of it and springing a leak. The watertight doors close and many people are trapped underwater.
Unfortunately, the maintenance workers have to build a patch to cover the spot on the underwater tube damaged by the shark. This apparently takes a couple of hours, though the people underwater don’t look like they run out of fresh air or have any hypothermia problems. Before Michael Brody can make the dive and repair the tube, they need to get the shark out of the area. That’s where FitzRoyce comes into play.
Jaws 3-D (1983) – (c) Universal Pictures
FitzRoyce convinces Calvin Bouchard that he’ll be able to draw the shark back into the filtration pipe where it’s been hiding for the past few days, and they can trap it in there. He plans on using himself as live bait. Unfortunately for him, his plan works a little too well and FitzRoyce gets eaten by the shark. There’s footage of him from inside the shark’s mouth as the other scuba diver locks the shark in the filtration pipe.
Once the shark is captured, Michael and Kay are able to dive down to “The Undersea Kingdom” and repair the underwater tunnel. Michael is successful, and positive air pressure forces out the water and allows the watertight doors to open and for the people to escape.
Jaws 3-D (1983) – (c) Universal Pictures
But all is not well. The great white shark breaks free from the filtration tank and swims to Michael and Kay. Just before it can attack, the two dolphins arrive and distract the shark. This allows for the divers to escape into a lockout chamber and make their way to Calvin in the control room.
Jaws 3-D (1983) – (c) Universal Pictures
Everybody watches in horror as the shark swims up to the control room and breaks the glass window, flooding the room. Calvin rescues a technician and they escape the room, but the shark drags away the other technician. The shark quickly comes back and tries to enter the room, but it’s too big. Michael and Kay see that the lifeless FitzRoyce is still in the shark’s mouth, and in his hand is a grenade. They make a rod and Michael Brody is able to snag the pin and activate the explosive. The grenade detonates inside the shark’s mouth, killing the shark and leaving behind the beast’s shark jaws.
Jaws 3-D ends with Michael and Kay swimming to the surface and reuniting with the two dolphins who saved their life.
FINAL THOUGHTS
So is Jaws 3-D any good?
Jaws 3-D is one of those films that had so much potential but failed so miserably.
I love the concept of this film with the massive shark attacking a theme park. I’d be thrilled if this film was re-made today with a better plot and updated special effects. This movie could be on the scale of 1993′s Jurassic Park if it’s done correctly.
The cast for Jaws 3-D is pretty good. Dennis Quaid and Louis Gossett, Jr. do a fine job as expected, and it’s interesting seeing Lea Thompson in one of her first movies. No problems there.
As far as the plot of Jaws 3-D, that’s where we run into most of the problems with this film.
First of all, it would have been better if neither Michael or Sean Brody was part of this film. This one takes place in Florida, not Amity Island. Having a massive great white shark attack Michael’s work location implies that the shark was hunting him personally, something that the marine biologist in Jaws 2 told us would not happen. Sharks don’t talk to each other, and they don’t pass down grudges to later generations. They just swim and hunt on their own.
Jaws 3-D would have been fine with completely new characters. Considering the film’s location and the fact that none of the actors from the first two films appeared in this one, and it’s clear that the Brody boys should not have been included this time. It would have been better with new characters entirely.
Second, those SeaWorld workers in Jaws 3-D are some of the most unprofessional theme park workers I’ve ever seen. From Michael Brody’s excessive panicking when the shark tries to attack the water skiers to Calvin Bouchard’s extremely lame PA announcement asking people to leave “The Undersea Kingdom,” the workers just plain suck.
Third, it’s hard to believe that a shark as large as the BIG shark could swim along virtually undetected in the SeaWorld lagoon. Somebody would have seen it either in person or on camera at some point. Plus, it probably would have been eating the water skiers earlier in the film, too.
Speaking of the shark, it stinks that we really don’t see the main shark in Jaws 3-D until an hour into the 90 minute film. Even after that point we only see glimpses of the shark until the epic conclusion. For a Jaws film, there’s very little shark action or killing this time around. It’s very lame the way that Overman’s body was not eaten by the shark or that Kelly only received a minor leg wound after being bitten by a 35-foot long killing machine. That shark should have easily bitten off her entire leg.
Throw in the 80s style (and cringe worthy) “special effects” and there you go. I’m sure that Jaws 3-D was a fun 3-D experience back in the early 1980s when 3-D films, both in theme parks and movie theaters, were still rare experiences for most people. But with today’s advances in computer animation and three-dimensional effects, most 3-D films from the early 1980s and beyond are painfully outdated.
The cheesy 3-D effects in Jaws 3-D are merely a reflection of the trend and technology from that time period, and it’s not a flaw with the film itself. It’s merely one of many reasons why Jaws 3-D deserves a quality remake.
Jaws 3-D (1983) – movie trailer
I want to like Jaws 3-D. I really do. There are some really good concepts with this film, and if it was done correctly with today’s technology, this could be a really awesome and terrifying experience. Sadly, the opposite occurred, and Jaws 3-D has too many problems and distractions.
Kathryn Morgan – “Overman was killed inside the park. The baby was caught inside the park. Its mother is inside the park.”
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[people trying to evacuate from “The Undersea Kingdom”]
little girl – “Daddy, daddy! Look at the fish!” [she points again] “Look!”
little girl’s father – [turns back and looks] “Holy shit!”