MovieChat Forums > Jaws (1975) Discussion > The mystery of Ben Gardner...

The mystery of Ben Gardner...


We see Hooper and Brody approach Ben Gardner's boat, which is drifting in the darkness. A search light is shone over the boat briefly showing some damage to the boat in the form of splintered wood. Ok.
Then Hooper dives under the boat to examine the submerged portion of the hull. He finds a hole in the bottom of the boat and a shark's tooth imbedded in the wood.
Ben Gardner's head, sans one eye ( I can't remember for sure which eye), rolls out of the hole and sinks into the depths.
Here's the mystery: How did Ben Gardner die? I cannot think of an even remotely probable shark attack scenario where the victim is operating a boat and somehow his head is the only thing left of him and it is inside the boat.
Here's a few possible scenarios to demonstrate:
Gardner is lying down in his boat at the exact moment when the shark punches a hole through the bottom of the boat, bites off his head, then spits the head back into the boat, presumably all in one motion.
Scenario 2: Gardner is leaning out over the water, the shark lunges up, bites off his head, then immediately or at some point thereafter, regurgitates Gardner's head back into the boat.
Scenario 3: Gardner is knocked out of his boat and as he is pulling himself up the side of the boat to escape, when the shark bites him such that his entire body is taken except his head (which must have been above the level of the side of the boat because it then rolls into the boat).
It is just really hard to come up with a scenario where Gardner is decapitated or his entire body is taken by the shark and yet his head remains inside the vessel.

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Interesting, you're absolutely right...What's not a mystery, however, is the fact that that scene* ranks as one of the top two shocking jump scares of my entire film viewing history! The other is the end of the first 'Friday The 13th' movie...







*Not really surprising since I saw it in the theater when it came out, so I would have been all of eight years old!

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I saw this in a theater when it first came out and all the jump scares got me. It was actually the first movie I ever took a date to - I think my GFs fingernails are still stuck in my arm.

But later that summer I saw it again when my family was on vacation. There was a drive-in across the road from our motel that was showing Jaws. My brother and I went over and climbed a sand dune so we could watch over the fence, but we had no sound. It was like watching a slow underwater nature show without the music. When the head rolled out it looked silly but we could hear the shrieks from everyone in their cars. It was pretty interesting to see how much that sound track added to the movie.

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Ben Gardner's head, sans one eye ( I can't remember for sure which eye), rolls out of the hole and sinks into the depths.

No. His head is not detached from the rest of his body. Hooper drops his light, his knife and the all important tooth and they sink but not the head. And that pretty much blows the shit out of the rest of your post.

How did Ben Gardner die?

It's not clear. Certainly as a result of the shark chomping a hole in the boat.

Heart attack? Drowning?

I wonder what happened to the other guy on Ben's boat.

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Jaws just ate Ben’s eye?

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No, I don't think so. And I don't think it really matters. The jump scare is more effective with the missing eyeball. It's not important how it happened.

If you really need an answer, ask Steven Spielberg.

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Which parts of Ben do you think Jaws ate?

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None.

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How did he die then?

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I said in my original post, it's not clear.

I also wondered and I still wonder, what happened to the other guy on his boat?

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Ben and his friend are dead and their boat destroyed while Jaws is terrorising the otherwise safe area and you don’t think they were killed by the shark??

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Obviously the shark had something to do with it but what, exactly, is not revealed.

I'd say the other guy got eaten whole like most of the other victims and Ben died of fright.

Ben's corpse is pretty much intact in the film. Are we supposed to believe the shark chomped Ben through the relatively small hole and he died?

The whole sequence is only included for the jump scare.

In the book Brodie and Hooper find the boat but there's no trace of Ben. That being the case you know the shark got him. But no Ben, no jump scare.

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Did Ben’s eye pop out from fright as well?

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No. The shark very delicately plucked it out with one of his shot glass sized teeth.

Go troll someone else, idiot.

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You’ve changed your tune, before you said Jaws didn’t eat Ben’s eye…

https://moviechat.org/tt0073195/Jaws/65d944e4cad4104c3caa5a83/The-mystery-of-Ben-Gardner?reply=667d4b8f01478a4b69785051

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I'm guessing that Bruce bit Gardner in half when he attacked the boat, taking his lower half with him and leaving the head in the boat.

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Honestly, this might be the most likely scenario.

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A similar scenario is another Spielberg film, The Lost World, where the T-Rex escapes from the hold of a cargo ship. When they check on the crew in the steering deck, everyone's in small pieces even though there's no damage to the deck's roof or walls, so htf did it get in?

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Now that this was bumped, I feel like rewatching this 70s classic

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I rewatch it every July 4th, so it's about time for me too.

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I always thought his body was still in the boat.

The shark probably attacked the boat and Ben had a heart attack and died. Something swam through the hole in the boat and ate his eye.

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There was no shark attack. Gardner commited suicide.

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