It’s undeniable: Jaws changed everything. 50 years ago, the release of Steven Spielberg’s summer shark thriller had people queuing round the block f
It’s undeniable: Jaws changed everything. 50 years ago, the release of Steven Spielberg’s summer shark thriller had people queuing round the block for screenings; the literal first ‘blockbuster’. And as well as being beloved by film fans all these decades later, it inspired legions of up-to-date filmmakers too – you’d struggle to find anyone working today who hasn’t been influenced in some way by Jaws. So, to celebrate the astonishing five-decade legacy of the film in the June 2025 issue, Empire put the call out to Hollywood legends and contemporary greats, who provided insights into what makes the film so special – the shark, the surefire direction, the screenplay, the sensational performances, and much more.
Inside the issue, director Leigh Whannell – behind The Invisible Man, Wolf Man and Upgrade – pays tribute to Spielberg’s masterful directing. “Jaws is a B-movie made with A-level craft. It had no right to be that good,” he says. He took inspiration from the film while making The Invisible Man. “I said, ‘If we do our jobs correctly, we’re going to do for empty rooms what Jaws did for the water’,” Whannell recalls. It helps that Spielberg was working from a potential-packed screenplay. “It’s a superb script,” says screenwriter David Koepp, who worked with Spielberg on Jurassic Park. “It’s a miracle of structure, of character, of suspense.”
Meanwhile, Simon Pegg pays tribute to Roy Scheider’s Chief Brody, whose familial relationships in the film “makes him a real everyman, not a Superman,” he says. “He’s not a supercop.” Ian Shaw speaks about his father Robert’s performance as grizzled sea-dog Quint – and says he sees much of his father in the character. “He had a toughness, and a wildness,” he tells Empire. “But what you really do notice is the humour, the cheeky singing, the playfulness. That was all Robert.” Quint, too, gets one of the film’s most iconic scenes: his haunting USS Indianapolis monologue. “The reason that scene is so important and works so well is because your imagination takes over, but you need a really good actor to pull it off,” says legendary filmmaker John Milius, who worked on the speech. “Luckily, we had Robert Shaw.”
The film’s greatest star, though, remains the shark itself, aka Bruce. And the sheer terror it evokes is elevated tenfold by John Williams’ legendary score. “These two notes, E and F, are so close together, they sort of clash,” master composer Hans Zimmer explains to Empire, breaking down that da-dum… da-dum… theme. “Williams and Spielberg describe the shark as this relentless machine, and in the rhythm of the theme there’s this wonderful sense of the pistons of a machine going.”
All of this is just scratching the surface – inside Empire’s Jaws At 50 issue, you’ll find full tributes to all these iconic facets of Jaws, and many more besides, speaking to Hollywood legends about the incredible legacy of Spielberg’s ultimate masterpiece.
Find a copy on newsstands from Thursday 10 April, or order yours online here now.
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