Steven Spielberg’s Jaws is a masterpiece of suspense and horror, but one particularly chilling scene was left on the cutting room floor—and for good reason. The 1975 blockbuster, which catapulted Spielberg to fame and terrified generations of beachgoers, almost featured a much more graphic death for young Alex Kintner, the boy who falls victim to the great white shark early in the film.
While the theatrical cut of Jaws leaves much of Alex’s tragic fate to the imagination, a deleted scene reveals a far more gruesome version of his demise. In this alternate take, the shark lunges from the water, clamping its massive jaws around the boy and his raft in a bloody spectacle. Reports suggest the scene included graphic imagery of Alex being bitten in half, with blood spilling into the ocean.
Two main reasons drove Spielberg to exclude the graphic footage. First, the director believed the scene was too shocking, even for a movie already packed with terrifying moments. Second, Spielberg wanted to keep the full appearance of the shark a secret until later in the film, gradually building suspense. This decision helped make the eventual reveal of the shark all the more impactful.
Although no footage of the deleted scene has surfaced, a rare behind-the-scenes photograph released in 2018 offers a glimpse of what could have been. The black-and-white image shows the shark inches away from devouring Alex, an unsettling visual that has sparked widespread discussion among fans.
Would It Have Made Jaws Better?
It’s hard to say if showing Alex’s death in such graphic detail would have improved Jaws. Spielberg’s approach to suspense relies heavily on what the audience doesn’t see, allowing imaginations to run wild. The theatrical version of Alex’s death, where the attack is implied rather than explicitly shown, remains one of the film’s most haunting moments.
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Including the deleted scene might have risked desensitizing viewers early in the story or even alienating some audiences altogether. A more graphic portrayal could also have resulted in a harsher age rating, potentially limiting the film’s reach and cultural impact.
Other Films with Deleted Dark Moments
Jaws isn’t the only film to leave a disturbing scene on the cutting room floor. In The Fly (1986), David Cronenberg removed a sequence where a teleported baboon and cat merge into a grotesque hybrid. Similarly, The Butterfly Effect (2004) cut its original ending, in which Ashton Kutcher’s character ends his life as a fetus by strangling himself with his umbilical cord.
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Even in modern horror, directors sometimes pull back. In Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (2019), a scene showing the scarecrow Harold skinning farmers alive was scrapped for being too gruesome.
Spielberg’s choice to omit the graphic death of Alex Kintner reflects his masterful understanding of tension and pacing. By trusting the audience’s imagination, he cemented Jaws as a cinematic classic, proving sometimes, what’s unseen is far scarier than what’s shown.
