Martin Brody (Film)

Martin Brody is a fictional character and the protagonist of the film Jaws and its sequel, Jaws 2. He was the Chief of Police on Amity Island, New England, and the husband of Ellen Brody, as well as the father of Michael and Sean Brody.

He is played by Roy Scheider in both the first and second film.

Life before Amity
Little was known about Martin prior to the first movie. What was known, was that prior to being Chief in Amity, he served as an officer in New York City. However, the crime rate in the city became so overwhelming and disillusioning for him that he and his family moved to the more peaceful town of Amity, where he believed one man could make a difference. He was also known to have a severe phobia of water, vaguely based off a near-drowning incident he experienced as a child.

Boating Accident
In late June 1975, after waking up in the morning with his wife Ellen and his kids Sean and Michael; Martin was called in to investigate the possible disappearance of Chrissie Watkins. After interviewing Tom Cassidy, Martin along with his Deputy Leonard Hendricks, discover Chrissie's remains washed up on the shore covered in crabs. Brody, Hendricks and Cassidy were later seen in the former's office, while the latter two drank alka seltzer to cope with the carnage they saw. The secretary, Polly, arrives in the office to report on other incidents while Brody was typing up his report. The medical examiner calls Brody, telling him that the cause of death was most likely a shark attack. He leaves the office asking Hendricks where they put the "Beach Closed" signs, to which Hendricks replied that they never had any. Brody leaves the office demanding Polly to let him know of any recent water activities happening on the beach as soon as possible. He then goes to the store to get the supplies for the sign, when Hendricks tells him a bunch of boy scouts are in the water doing their mile swim for their merit badges. Brody hands him the supplies for the signs and tells him to let Polly do the printing. When Brody takes the ferry to tell the scoutmaster and the scouts to stop swimming, he is intercepted by Mayor Larry Vaughn with his selectmen, Hendricks and the medical examiner in tow. Vaughn mentions that because Amity is a summer town that needs summer dollars, the panic from the claim of a shark attack would cause tourists to flee to other beaches. Both Vaughn and the examiner dismiss the earlier claim, saying that the cause of death was caused by a boat propeller. Brody reluctantly goes along with the claim.

The Demise of Alex Kitner
Although Brody goes along with Vaughn's claim and the beaches stay open, Martin finds it difficult to relax in the sun as the thought of the idea of a shark attack causes him to nearly panic over two false alarms. One where he witnesses an approaching shape, that turns out to be an old man with a diving cap and the other being a scream that turns out to be a woman and her boyfriend wrestling in the water. Despite that, he allows his children to go swimming. As the kids are playing Brody notices a child on a yellow raft struggling and screaming in the water before he's pulled under with nothing but blood left behind. In a panic, Martin rallys the other parents to get the kids out of the water. The only one missing is Alex Kitner, much to the shock of his mother. However Brody along with the Amity public, can no longer deny a shark now haunts the water.

Town Meeting
In the ensuing turmoil result of Alex's death, Mrs Kitner puts word out of a $3000 dollar bounty for whoever captures and kills the shark that's responsible, causing a frenzy of fishermen to come in both local and outside to race for the bounty. A meeting is held in regards to whether or not the beaches will be closed as the result of the incident. Brody informs the townspeople, that not only will the beaches be closed, but they are sending for shark spotters and experts from the oceanographic institute in order to find the shark. The Mayor however veto in and says the beaches are only going to be closed for 24 hours, much to Brody's disbelief and objections. The meeting is interrupted by Quint a fisherman and self-declared shark hunter. He offers to find the shark for $3000 but to catch and kill it for $10,000, an offer which is half-heatedly taken under advisement. The beaches are closed and Brody starts reading up on research regarding sharks. Ellen tries to talk him out of obsessing over it, showing him the boat he got Michael for his birthday. Martin is initially panicked and demands Michael to get out. Ellen assures him he's safe, however after reading the book Martin was earlier reading, specifically a page that has a rendering of a shark attacking and destroying a boat Ellen gets just as panicked and demands Michael get out of the boat.

Meeting Hooper
The next morning, while trying to control the frenzy for shark hunting, Martin and Hendricks talk about an incident involving two people trying to fish for the shark using a roast as bait, which Brody finds unfunny. A young man arrives, trying to get Brody's attention while Brody keeps brushing him off, telling him to help him stop the frenzy from going too out of control, while narrowly stopping a man from dynamite fishing. The man tries, but to no avail, going back to Brody asking him how to find "Chief Brody", to which, Martin responds that he's the chief. The man then introduces himself as Matt Hooper, the marine biologist Brody contacted before. Hooper requests that they examine the remains of the first victim. Brody, Hooper and the medical examiner head to the morgue, with the examiner taking out what's left of Chrissie. Much to Hooper's disgust, horror and anger, he concludes to Brody that only a shark is responsible. Later on a shark is captured and killed by the local fishermen, much to Brody's initial joy and gratitude. Upon examination, Hooper concludes that the shark they caputured was a tiger shark. At first, the public officially confirms that this is the shark that killed Alex and Chrissie. However Hooper is skeptical demanding Vaughn to let him autopsy the shark to be sure, trying to persuade Brody to agree citing the bite radius as the reason; the bite on the tiger shark is different from that of the wounds on Chrissie. Mayor Vaughn who cites fear of seeing the remains of Alex Kitner spill out onto the dock in public. However before Martin could make any decision, Mrs. Kitner arrives and slaps Martin in the face for his part in covering up Chrissie's death, believing that had he kept the beaches closed, Alex would have been alive. Mayor Vaughn tells him not to blame himself, but Martin insists it is his own fault.

Shark Autopsy
Later that night, a drunk and depressed Martin is having a father-son moment with Sean while Ellen watches. Hooper shows up bearing two bottles of wine and sitting with the family talking amongst most things why Hooper was into sharks and whether or not Martin should help him autopsy the tiger shark. Martin who has helped himself to a tall glass of the red wine Hooper offered, accepts the offer and helps him. They find out through an out of state license plate that this shark came from southern waters, but most importantly there were no remains of Chrissie or Alex inside the stomach. Much to his reluctance, Martin goes out on the boat with Hooper to search for the shark. He laments his reason for moving to amity. They stumble upon a half sunk boat belonging to Ben Gardner and Hooper puts on swim gear to investigate. It wasn't until Hooper resurfaced that Brody became aware of the knowledge that Ben Garner's corpse was found inside the boat along with a lost tooth, belonging to a great white shark. However their warnings are ignored by Mayor Vaughn, due to both lack of evidence and being more preoccupied by vandalism of the town's sign. Instead he demands them to do compromise by patrolling the waters.

Attack on the Fourth of July
While the tourists come flooding in, Brody and Hooper scramble to do what they can to keep the beaches safe. Brody catches Michael trying to set sail into the ocean, but he persuades him into taking the boat to the etsuary. Ellen later let's him know that she's looking after Sean, ensuring him that both kids are safe. After a false alarm involving two kids with a cardboard fin, the real shark enters the etsuary and knocks Michael's boat over, narrowly missing him as it snatches up a local rower instead, leaving the victim's leg behind. However the events put him in shock causing his friends to drag him back to shore. Enraged, Martin confronts Vaughn and demands he sign a contract to hire Quint. After some reluctance, Vaughn signs.

The Charter
After getting the contract signed, Brody and Hooper approach Quint while he's in the middle of of boiling the jaws of freshly caught sharks. Quint lists his demands to Brody while offering him homemade liquor. Tensions rise between Hooper and Quint, due to the latter's disdain for rich city people. However Quint agrees to let him aboard "for ballast." Martin says his goodbyes to Ellen, but their moment is killed when Quint rudely breaks them up. When Ellen asks Martin what to tell the kids he simply says "Tell 'em I'm going fishing."

Brody, Hooper and Quint Set sail no sooner with Quint assigning Brody to the chum line to bait the shark, while Quint waits with his fishing rod. When Brody goes to get a chum marker, he accidentally pulls the wrong knot letting two tanks of compressed oxygen fall over. Hooper angrily berates him for almost blowing them up and Quint tells Brody to next time ask him what line to pull. While they wait, Quint teaches Brody how to tie a bowline. Brody fails at first, but by the time he gets it right, something snags the fishing line, prompting Quint to tell Brody to water the line so it doesn't snap from stress. Whatever caught it goes under the boat. Quint thinks it's the shark, but Hooper thinks it's just a big fish. When they try to get the line it snaps. Quint reveals that only a shark could do that, because the wire he used for the line's wire trace is piano Wire, which no other game fish could break if they tried. Martin, frustrated asks Quint the point of the fishing line, to which Quint explains he uses it to trick the sharks into the surface, giving them a better kill advantage. Quint makes Brody start the chum line again, much to his disgust, while Hooper drives. While throwing the chum, the shark finally emerges scaring Brody who slowly backs up into the cabin and tells Quint "You're gonna need a bigger boat." Quint, Brody and Hooper stop to get a good look at the shark, which Hooper guesses is a 20 footer. Quint corrects him by saying it's 25 feet and weighs 3 tons. While Quint puts his speargun together, Brody and Hooper argue about whether or not Brody should go to the end of the pupilt for scale so he can take photos. Martin tries to get back to the Cabin instead, only to find himself going back on the bow when Quint approaches with the Speargun. He orders Hooper to tie a barrel to his spear line, but instead Hooper opts to stall him so he could put a tracker on the barrel with it, missing the chance for a clear headshot. This in turn causes Quint to shoot the spear into the Shark's fin dragging the barrel with it. The shark goes under with the barrel and Brody's demand for a bigger boat falls on deaf ears.

Scars
When Brody checks on the cut inflicted on his forehead from the fishing line, Quint assures him that it won't be permenant while he and Hooper compare scars from fights and shark related injuries. Brody himself mentally debates whether or not his appendix scar would compete with them, before covering it up. He later asks Quint about one specific scar on his arm, to which Quint responds, that it's a removed tattoo from his days of serving the USS Indianapolis. Then and there, he revealed that his reason for hunting sharks was due to the trauma of that event, specifically watching his friend get bisected by a tiger shark. The trio change the subject by singing "Show Me The Way To Go Home"  but are interrupted when the shark rams their boat, poking a hole into it and shaking the ship up. Brody tries to radio for help, only for Quint to intentionally set the cabin on fire to get him away from the radio. In an act of desperation, Quint tries to shoot the shark with his rifle, but to no avail. The shark flees, just as Brody was about to pull out his own gun.

Day 2
While Quint and Hooper make repairs, Brody spots the barrel. Hooper and Quint try to reel in the rope, only for the shark to pop out and pull it away, cutting Quint's hands. Brody tries to make a call for help, only for Quint to smash the radio up with a baseball bat. Brody loses it and starts smashing the pieces up further, calling Quint a certifiable maniac. Before they could settle their argument, Hooper warns them of the shark approaching. Quint fires another barrel while Martin prepares his pistol. Hooper gives chase as Quint prepares to fire more. Brody empties his pistol at The Shark only managing to hit it once, exclaiming that even with two barrels it's going under water again. The barrels surface again while Quint moves the ship further out to sea. He orders Brody and Hooper to grab poles to reel the Barrels in, in an attempt to tie the ropes to the stern and dragging the shark back, nearly crushing Hooper's legs in the process. The shark begins to drag the boat out and causing the cleats to loosen. The shark then starts eating its way through the ropes attempting to drag the boat with it. Quint shoots a third barrel into the shark's lower Jaw causing the Barrel to knock Brody's glasses off. The trio struggle to untie the boat, as the shark continues to tow it causing water to leak into the engine. Quint attempts to cut the lines with a machete, only for the ropes to break clean off the cleats. Brody tries to pump the water out but the shark keeps nudging the boat. Quint tries to drive the boat into shallow waters to drown it, but when he over uses the throttle in combination with the earlier sea water damage, the engine finally dies, stranding them.

Last Stand
Hooper suggests using the shark cage to get close enough to the shark and stab him with a hypodermic spear so so that he may inject poison into it. Brody objects at first believing the shark to be big enough to tear the cage apart, but both he and Quint comply anyway. They lower Hooper in and observe from above. When it looked like the cage was in danger and the holdings begin falling apart, Brody and Quint try to reel it back up, only to find the cage destroyed and Hooper missing and presumed dead. The shark leaps out of the water and lands on the stern tipping the boat over and causing Quint to fall in. The shark then brutally kills quint and drags him down, devouring him. Brody, now all alone, hides in the cabin only for the shark to surprise attack him. Brody fends him off with one of the scuba tanks before lodging it in his mouth. As the ship sinks Brody is perched onto the mast with a spear and Quint's rifle. He jabs the shark with the spear to fend it off and after missing a couple of times, fires a shot into the tank, blowing up the shark for good. While he celebrates, Hooper resurfaces alive and they both paddle to shore using the remaining barrels as flotation.