02/25/2026
Robert Shaw and one of the greatest monologues ever in the history of cinematography:
"Japanese submarine slammed two torpedoes into her side, Chief. We was cominā back from the island of Tinian to Leyte. Weād just delivered the bomb. The Hiroshima bomb. Eleven hundred men went into the water. Vessel went down in 12 minutes.
Didnāt see the first shark for about a half-hour. Tiger. 13-footer. You know how you know that in the water, Chief? You can tell by lookinā from the dorsal to the tail. What we didnāt know, was that our bomb mission was so secret, no distress signal had been sent. They didnāt even list us overdue for a week. Very first light, Chief, sharks come cruisinā by, so we formed ourselves into tight groups. It was sorta like you see in the calendars, you know the infantry squares in the old calendars like the Battle of Waterloo and the idea was the shark come to the nearest man, that man he starts poundinā and hollerinā and sometimes that shark he go awayā¦ but sometimes he wouldnāt go away.
Sometimes that shark looks right at ya. Right into your eyes. And the thing about a shark is heās got lifeless eyes. Black eyes. Like a dollās eyes. When he comes at ya, he doesnāt even seem to be livināā¦ ātil he bites ya, and those black eyes roll over white and thenā¦ ah then you hear that terrible high-pitched screaminā. The ocean turns red, and despite all your poundinā and your hollerinā those sharks come in andā¦ they rip you to pieces.
You know by the end of that first dawn, lost a hundred men. I donāt know how many sharks there were, maybe a thousand. I do know how many men, they averaged six an hour. Thursday morninā, Chief, I bumped into a friend of mine, Herbie Robinson from Cleveland. Baseball player. Bosonās mate. I thought he was asleep. I reached over to wake him up. He bobbed up, down in the water, he was like a kinda top. Upended. Well, heād been bitten in half below the waist.
At noon on the fifth day, a Lockheed Ventura swung in low and he spotted us, a young pilot, lot younger than Mr. Hooper here, anyway he spotted us and a few hours later a big olā fat PBY come down and started to pick us up. You know that was the time I was most frightened. Waitinā for my turn. Iāll never put on a lifejacket again. So, eleven hundred men went into the water. 316 men come out, the sharks took the rest, June the 29th, 1945.
Anyway, we delivered the bomb."
