Jaws is one of the most iconic summer movies of all time. Directed by Stephen Spielberg, the movie depicts a small town going through a vicious series of shark attacks, and despite this, struggling with whether or not to close down the beach – due to the primal urges of capitalism. While the movie’s depiction of Great Whites* was ultimately harmful, the movie quickly became a classic. In 1990, following the success of Jaws, Universal Studios opened an attraction that (much like the mechanical shark created for the film) gave the theme park a lot of problems.
The final iteration of the ride, in Universal Orlando, was a boat tour through the tour of Amity. The tour was led by a “Skipper” and they started by explaining that you are going to see all of the places where the shark attacked people during the summer the movie takes place. The Skipper then goes on to explain how Police Chief Martin Brody (played by Roy Schneider in the 1975 movie) defeated the shark, and that’s when the boat pulls up beside a shipwreck. A shark fin travels toward the boat and disappears underwater. The Skipper announces it’s under the boat, and quickly radios in for help. The boat moves into a boat house that’s blown a fuse and has no power. In the dark, you see the Shark breach the water toward the boat for the first time. You escape the boathouse by the skin of your teeth and head toward the gas deck where the Skipper has to pause to put out a fire in your way. Once you clear the gas dock, you pass a high voltage barge, where the shark bites a wire and is electrocuted.
Despite how popular the ride was, in 2012, it was closed to make room for the Diagon Alley section of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. This unfortunate shutdown was a long time coming. To understand why, you need to understand the bleak history of Jaws: The Ride.
In March of 1987, it was announced that Stephen Spielberg had signed on as a creative consultant for Universal Studios Orlando. At this time, Universal was in a battle against Disney, who had just announced their plans for a Hollywood pavilion. Having themed itself around Hollywood earlier, Universal took this as a challenge to expand their own park, and took elements from their previous Hollywood tour to turn into full-fledged attractions. Those elements included Jaws and King Kong.
The idea for the Jaws ride was a water-based attraction using animatronics. Universal spent $53 million dollars (adjusted for inflation) on their first version of the ride. The original ride included two elements that were removed in the final iteration of the ride: the shark swimming up, biting the boat, and spinning it around, and the shark blowing up in the final scene – similar to how the original Jaws ends. The original version of the ride was fantastic in theory, but it hardly ever worked.
That’s right: Universal spent $53 million on a ride that usually didn’t work.
In the summer of 1990, as patrons arrived to the park, they were told that Jaws wasn’t working, even if it was, so they could avoid disappointment later on.
The problems ranged from drag in the water caused by the sudden speed of the sharks, to the fact that some of the sharks had actual shark teeth in their mouths that caused damage to the ride vehicles. The pyrotechnics also rarely worked, resulting in a fairly boring experience.
A man also once fell out of the boat during this version of the ride, and had to be pulled out of the water. He was, in fact, near one of the sharks (you know, the ones with real shark teeth). Luckily, he was pulled back into the boat before he could be harmed.
After an attempted refurbishment failed, Universal decided that the best plan was to scrap the ride as it was and try again.
It’s worth noting that the original shark in the movie also had operational problems, sinking the first time it was thrown into the ocean, and then having its motor eroded by salt water. The issues with the shark, lovingly named Bruce, led to Spielberg shooting as many scenes as he could without showing the shark and inducing terror in a new way. Whether they knew it or not, Universal was following in these footsteps as they set out to remake Jaws: The Ride.
The new version worked much better than the old one, but it replaced the ending sequence and scrapped the shark biting the boat altogether. This version opened in the spring of 1993 and had a much smoother opening and cost significantly less – at only $40 million.
For a while, the ride worked well. However, patrons complained about the fire in the final explosion being hot enough that it singed their skin. Eventually, the fire would be reduced in a refurbishment, but it’s possible that this was because they were spending $2 million dollars a year on petroleum to run both the boats and the explosion. Universal was also forced to change how they disposed of the petroleum during their bi-yearly drain of the lagoon because they were leaking out of the ride and into stormwater ponds. Yeah, they went through all the trouble to improve the ride and didn’t bother making sure it was environmentally sound. They were forced to choose a new, more environmentally friendly hydraulic fluid that was made by Mobil. Of course, this couldn’t be as easy as making a switch. Kongfrontation, the King Kong ride in the park was sponsored by Texaco, who had made the previous hydraulic fluid used.
In 2001, another version of the ride opened in Universal Studios Japan.
In 2005, the ride was closed from January to December. The closure was due to raised gas prices in the wake of the 2004 hurricane season.
This was the beginning of the end.
They began only operating the ride on busy days. Despite their yearly refurbishments since 2007, when the ride was open daily again, they announced its closure in December of 2011.
Bruce bit his last boat on January 2, 2012. The Amity section of the park was replaced with Diagon Alley.
While the ride didn’t focus on the same moral implications of capitalism as the movie (the entire film centered around the lives being lost by the shark while the town itself was reluctant to close the beach to tourists and lose the income), fans still enjoyed the thrill of being attacked by a shark in the– mostly– safe confines of a ride vehicle.
Don’t be too disappointed by its closing, though, because the ride is still operating in Japan.
Oh, and if you’re wondering why Universal is still using this ride in their advertisement for Universal Orlando: Me too! Don’t get my hopes up like that, guys!
*After Jaws came to theaters, the amount of sharks on the east coast decreased by 50% according to the BBC article on Jaws’s misinterpretation of the great white
Sources:
Jaws: How Universal’s Shark Ride Turned into a Real-Life Disaster
We’ll Be Shark Bait in Ten Minutes! A Brief History of Jaws, the Ride
Extinct Attractions: Jaws: The Ride
How Malfunctioning Sharks Transformed the Movie Business
Defunctland: The History of Jaws: The ride | Youtube
How ‘Jaws’ Misrepresented the Great White
