Mako: The Jaws of Death - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts

[discussimdb]

Fan of Mako: The Jaws of Death or just want to share your movie knowledge? This topic is dedicated to all trivia and questions related to Mako: The Jaws of Death

[cassandra]

William Grefé wrote the story for this film prior to Jaws (1975), but couldn't get anyone to finance his movie until after Jaws (1975) was a huge hit at the box office.

[cassandra]

William Grefé paid three hundred dollars for the van that Richard Jaeckel drives in the film. Grefe subsequently sold said van after the movie wrapped.

[tamara]

The Arriflex camera that was going to be used on the first day of shooting was accidentally destroyed, so director William Grefé had to make do with another lesser quality camera. A boat that was also needed for use on the first day of shooting, which got stuck on a sandbar at low tide for approximately four hours. In addition, star Richard Jaeckel cut the back of his head and had to be sent to the hospital to get his head wound stitched up on the same exact day. Fortunately, Jaeckel insisted on still working despite requiring stitches for the gash on his head.

[riley]

The film goes by several names, MAKO: THE JAWS OF DEATH or THE JAWS OF DEATH and even KILLER JAWS, but in the opening credits the title appears as MAKO JAWS OF DEATH, without the colon. MAKO is written larger with JAWS OF DEATH under in a slightly smaller font. Oddly enough, this title, that's actually in the film itself, is not listed as one of the titles.

[wallace]

John Davis Chandler was originally supposed to be killed by Richard Jaeckel while swimming underwater. However, Chandler didn't like being underwater, so William Grefé switched it so Harold Sakata got killed by Jaeckel while underwater instead.

[chris]

Two shark's tooth medallions were made for use in this film.

[christina]

According to numerous interviews with director William Grefé, star Richard Jaeckel only flubbed one single line of dialogue throughout the shooting of the whole picture.

[addison]

The shark that attacks and kills Jennifer Bishop in the water tank was supposed to be dead. Fortunately, all of the shark's teeth had been removed prior to the shark being put in the water tank and coming back to life, so it wasn't able to pierce Bishop's skin when it bites her leg.

[duane]

Henry Silva was originally approached to play the lead role, but had to turn the offer down because he didn't know how to swim.