"Don't wait for me!"
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Matthew "Matt" Hooper is a oceanographer with a fascination for sharks, hired by APD chief Martin Brody during the infamous "Amity Incident" of July 1974.
Hooper was one of three men aboard the vessel ORCA as a part of the plan to catch and kill the predatory Great White Shark that had staked a claim off Amity Island.
Jaws (film)
Hooper was first alluded to during a town hall meeting to discuss the safety precautions that would be implemented following the death of Alex Kintner. Chief Brody informed the attendees that one of the next steps will be to bring in an expert, Hooper, from the Oceanographic Institute on the mainland. Hooper arrived the next morning and began to search for Brody. Unaware that Hooper was the expert he called in, Brody enlisted Hooper's help in preventing a group of fishers from overloading their boat. Upon formally introducing themselves, Hooper requested to see the remains of Chrissie Watkins, whom the coroner had ruled to be the victim of a "probable boating accident". After examining Chrissie's remains, however, Hooper concluded that her injuries had to have been caused by a shark, and a very large one at that.
Upon returning to the docks, Hooper and Brody found that the fishers had indeed caught a shark, though Hooper was skeptical that it was the same one to kill Chrissie, due to its comparatively smaller bite radius. He recommended to Brody that the shark's stomach be cut open, as most sharks have incredibly slow digestive tracts and any human remains from the past day would be easily identifiable. While Mayor Larry Vaughn objected to the idea, he and Brody regardless returned later that night and discovered no human remains within the shark's stomach. Hooper then convinced Brody to go out and look for the shark with him, as Hooper deduced that the shark was a night feeder and would be the easiest to track right then. Once in the shark's estimated territory, the two came across the destroyed boat of Ben Gardner, a local fisherman. Diving down to assess the damages to the hull, Hooper found a large shark tooth, as well as the waterlogged corpse of Ben Gardner, causing him to drop the tooth.
The next morning, Hooper and Brody met with Mayor Vaughn, and Hooper informed him that the beaches needed to be closed due to the shark. However, Mayor Vaughn refused, and Hooper decided to stay on Amity and join the group of volunteers set to watch for sharks on the 4th of July, rather than leaving to board the research vessel Aurora as he had originally planned. During the 4th of July celebration, Hooper was stationed on his boat to watch the water for sharks. He had communication with Chief Brody via handheld transceiver.
After the death of the shark's fourth victim on the 4th of July, and Mayor Vaughn's authorization for Brody to hire Quint, Hooper volunteered to help Quint catch the shark. He served primarily as the vessel's helmsman, due to his background in seamanship. Hopper and Quint quickly formed an antagonistic relationship, as they had very different methods and both believed themselves to be the true expert. On several occasions, Hooper openly questioned Quint's judgement, and attempted to use his own technologies to take down the shark. However, the two later bonded over their scars and Quint's story about his experiences with the sinking of the U.S.S. Indianapolis in WWII. After this, the two put aside their differences and begin to value each other's input much more, with Quint even asking Hooper what the devices he brought on board could do.
After the failing of the ORCA's engines, Hooper suggested that he go down in his anti-shark cage as a last-ditch effort to kill the shark. His plan was to inject the shark with strychnine nitrate, a highly toxic poison. However, soon after the cage was dropped, the shark attacked, causing Hooper to lose the spear containing the poison. Due to the damage the shark had done to the cage, Hooper was able to swim out and successfully hide at the sea floor, returning to the surface only after Brody had finally managed to kill the shark.
Hooper never appeared again in the series, however he was mentioned in Jaws 2 to be aboard the Aurora research vessel, and thus was not able to help Brody out with the second Amity incident.
Trivia
- He is one of two survivors of the catastrophic boating accident during the 'First Amity Incident' wherein the fishing boat ORCA was reported missing due to a shark attack.
- Off screen, Hooper went on to be featured on a 1975 cover of National Geographic, and eventually won the America's cup in 1976.
- Spielberg has said during interviews he considered directing the sequel (JAWS 2), however Universal decided not to wait for his schedule to clear. Richard Dreyfuss was then ironically working on Spielberg's Close Encounters of The Third Kind. Had Spielberg directed Jaws 2 it's likely Dreyfuss would have appeared again.
- In the novel, Hooper is killed by the shark when he is in the anti-shark cage, however this was changed for the film adaptation.
- The relationship between Brody and Hooper in the film is one of genuine respect, with Brody showing admiration for Hooper's knowledge of marine biology, specifically sharks. However, the relationship between the two in the novel is noticeably opposite: Hooper is a returning resident of Amity Island who knew Brody's wife, Helen, in high school and is still attracted to her, to the point of them both having an affair. Their cavorting behind Brody's back creates great tension between Hooper and Brody.
- Richard Dreyfuss would go on to cameo in the 2010 film Piranha 3D as Matt Boyd in reference to his role in Jaws.
- Spielberg's first choice for the role of Hooper was Jon Voight, though he turned it down.
- Joel Grey, Kevin Kline, Timothy Bottoms, Jan-Michael Vincent and Jeff Bridges were also considered for the role.