Some films become classics. Others become legends for entirely different reasons.
Released in 1987, Jaws: The Revenge occupies a peculiar place within one of cinema’s most recognizable franchises. Arriving more than a decade after Steven Spielberg’s original reshaped popular filmmaking, the fourth entry moved away from suspense rooted in uncertainty and embraced something stranger, more melodramatic, and at times openly implausible. Its premise, centered on the idea of a great white shark seemingly pursuing the Brody family across the Atlantic out of personal vengeance, has become one of the most discussed and frequently parodied concepts in franchise cinema.
The film’s reputation has remained inseparable from its more unusual choices. Continuity with previous entries is often inconsistent, several special effects draw attention to their mechanical nature, and certain creative decisions, including the now infamous moments in which the shark appears to roar, have long become part of the conversation surrounding the production.
Yet reducing Jaws: The Revenge to its reputation alone overlooks the fact that the film is trying to do something noticeably different within the series. Rather than repeating the structure of the earlier entries, this fourth installment shifts its attention away from procedural suspense and toward a more personal story centered on grief, trauma, family, and emotional recovery. In doing so, it abandons much of the rugged, ensemble-driven energy associated with the franchise and embraces a warmer, more intimate atmosphere.
Directed by Joseph Sargent, the film reflects that change in focus through both its setting and its cast. Lorraine Gary returns to reprise her role as Ellen Brody and, for the first time in the series, becomes the emotional center of the narrative rather than a supporting presence. She is joined by Lance Guest as Michael Brody, now an adult marine biologist living in the Bahamas, and Mario Van Peebles as his energetic and charismatic colleague Jake. The addition of Michael Caine as Hoagie Newcombe brings a relaxed charm and warmth that further separates the film from the tension-driven identity of its predecessors. Combined with its sunlit Caribbean locations and atmospheric underwater photography, the film often feels less interested in recreating Jaws than in becoming something closer to a strange family drama interrupted by moments of giant-shark spectacle.
That change in identity extends naturally into the music.
With John Williams absent from the series, composer Michael Small inherited one of the most recognizable musical ideas in film history and faced the challenge of deciding how much of it should remain. Rather than attempting a direct imitation of Williams’ approach, Small reinterpreted familiar material while introducing new ideas of his own, emphasizing atmosphere, obsession, intimacy, and unease over straightforward suspense. The score ultimately became one of the film’s strongest and most distinctive elements, helping give shape and emotional continuity to a sequel that often seemed determined to chart its own course.
That approach becomes clear immediately in the opening moments of the score. “Main Title” returns to John Williams’ iconic material but subtly transforms its character through Michael Small’s own orchestral treatment. The familiar rhythmic pulse remains recognizable, yet the arrangement feels heavier and more aggressive, reinforced by unusual textural effects that give the shark’s presence a harsher, almost monstrous quality. Small also incorporates one of Williams’ less frequently discussed ideas, recalling the sense of awe associated with the shark’s first full appearance in the original film and placing it alongside the famous two-note motif. Rather than functioning as a simple quotation, the cue establishes from the outset that this score will exist in dialogue with the earlier films while speaking in its own voice.
What follows reveals that Jaws: The Revenge is ultimately less concerned with the mechanics of suspense than with emotional perspective. Much of Small’s original writing centers on Ellen Brody and her growing inability to separate memory, fear, and reality. “Flight to the Bahamas” introduces one of the score’s principal ideas: a delicate ascending family theme carried by woodwinds and warm orchestral colors that reflects both connection and vulnerability. Variations of this material continue throughout “Father and Daughter,” becoming an emotional thread that quietly anchors the album and gives unusual weight to moments of intimacy rarely emphasized in the previous sequels.
Opposing that warmth is one of Small’s most distinctive inventions: a repetitive, shimmering bells figure introduced in “Ellen’s Dream” and developed throughout the score as a musical expression of obsession and psychological unease. Unlike Williams’ shark motif, which traditionally represented movement and imminent attack, this new idea often suggests anticipation, fixation, and the sense that the threat has already entered the characters’ minds before physically appearing. Combined with organ textures, suspended harmonies, and uneasy orchestral colors, the effect gives the score a strangely phantasmagoric quality that becomes central to its identity.
That balance between emotional writing and unease becomes especially effective across the score’s underwater material, where Small gradually transforms fascination into danger. “Scuba Diving” begins by briefly recalling the warmth and openness introduced earlier in the album before moving beneath the surface into music that combines curiosity with quiet discomfort. Hints of Williams’ two-note motif emerge cautiously beneath the orchestral textures and are accompanied by the score’s recurring growl-like effects, creating the impression that something threatening exists just beyond view. Even before the shark fully enters the scene, the cue suggests that awe and anxiety are beginning to occupy the same space.
From there, the score moves decisively into suspense and action. “Tagging the Shark” marks the first major confrontation with the shark and introduces a darker tone through the persistent shimmering figure associated with Ellen’s growing fixation, now combined with organ textures and more forceful statements of the inherited shark material. That atmosphere reaches its fullest expression in “Underwater Pursuit,” one of the score’s strongest set pieces. Here, Small alternates aggressive action writing with passages of restraint, most notably in the eerie piano writing that accompanies Michael’s attempt to remain hidden inside the sunken ship while the shark silently circles nearby.
The cue’s closing moments are particularly effective as the family theme returns in a darker form while blending with the shimmering figure. The combination transforms what had originally been a theme of warmth and connection into something increasingly fragile and unsettled, suggesting that the score’s true conflict is not simply surviving the shark, but resisting the fear and obsession that gradually begin to overwhelm the Brody family itself.
That emotional transformation continues throughout the score’s second half as Small gradually moves the music away from passive anxiety and toward action shaped by character. “Moray Eel” briefly revisits the uneasy underwater atmosphere established earlier, while “Ellen Goes Out to Sea” marks one of the score’s most important turning points. The cue opens with forceful action writing and emphatic returns of Williams’ familiar material during the banana boat attack, but once the immediate danger passes, the music changes direction. As Ellen decides to leave shore and confront the shark herself, Small allows her thematic material to emerge with greater confidence and scale. Rather than simply increasing tension, the cue transforms determination into the story’s driving force.
The extended finale, presented here through “Finding the Shark,” “Face to Face,” and “Revenge and Finale,” brings those ideas together. Williams’ famous motif returns in force as the confrontation reaches its climax, but Small frames it through his own dramatic sensibilities, combining propulsive rhythms, broad orchestral gestures, and moments of surprisingly reflective writing after the battle concludes. Rather than ending in triumph, the score closes with release and reconciliation, returning to the thematic material first introduced in “Flight to the Bahamas,” allowing the story to conclude not as a victory over the shark, but as Ellen’s return to peace after carrying the weight of the past for far too long.
Bookending the experience, “End Credits” revisits Small’s arrangement of Williams’ material one final time, closing the album in much the same spirit in which it began: respectful of the musical identity inherited from the earlier films while ultimately reshaping it into something more intimate and emotionally driven.
Unlike the earlier entries in the series, Jaws: The Revenge had an unusually elusive release history. Contemporary promotional material for the film advertised an original soundtrack album through MCA Records, creating the expectation that Michael Small’s score would become commercially available alongside the film’s release. Yet no such album ultimately appeared, leaving the music unavailable in any official form for decades and turning it into one of the more curious absences among major studio scores of the period. In 2000, a promotional edition finally surfaced, reportedly assembled from a copy of an abandoned album master. Although significant at the time for making the score available at all, the release presented only around twenty-eight minutes of music, omitted portions of the film recording, included material not ultimately used on screen, and circulated with noticeably limited audio quality.
A more complete restoration finally arrived in February 2015 through Intrada Records. Produced from surviving stereo elements prepared for the film, the release presented Michael Small’s score substantially complete, alongside additional material and source cues, allowing listeners to experience the work with far greater continuity and fidelity than had previously been possible. For many listeners, it was the first opportunity to appreciate how much of the film’s emotional identity had always depended on its music.
This new edition follows a different philosophy. Rather than aiming for exhaustive completeness, Renovatio Records returns to the dramatic structure of the film and assembles a focused chronological presentation designed to highlight the score’s emotional progression and internal cohesion as an album experience. Running a bit over 33 minutes, the program emphasizes the central relationship between Williams’ inherited thematic material and Small’s original writing while preserving the momentum and shape of the narrative.
Long overshadowed by both its predecessor and the reputation of the film it accompanies, Jaws: The Revenge remains an unexpectedly compelling entry within the series’ musical history. Michael Small approached impossible expectations by neither rejecting nor imitating what came before. Instead, he reshaped familiar ideas into something quieter, stranger, and more emotionally driven. Whatever one thinks of the film itself, the score stands as one of its most enduring achievements and a reminder that even unlikely sequels can still leave behind music worth rediscovering.
Track listing:
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Track Title |
Cue Title |
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1. Main Title |
Main Title (Edited) |
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2. Flight to the Bahamas |
Run - Funeral Flight to the Bahamas (Edited) Ellen Flies Plane (Edited) |
|
3. Father and Daughter |
Peek-A-Boo |
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4. Scuba Diving |
Ellen Plays with Lea (Edited) Tagging the Conchs |
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5. Ellen’s Dream |
Jaws the Revenge Ellen’s Dream |
|
6. Tagging the Shark |
Shark Attacks Jake In Sled (Edited) Shark Takes Bait |
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7. Underwater Pursuit |
Picking Up Signal Michael Attacked By Shark (Edited) |
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8. Moray Eel |
Moray Eel |
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9. Ellen Goes Out to Sea |
Banana Boat (Original Ending) Ellen Goes Out to Sea |
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10. Finding the Shark |
Michael Runs For Help Plane Buzzes Shark |
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11. Face to Face |
Is Hoagie Dead? (Edited) Killing of Jake Alright Mr.
Fish (Edited) |
|
12. Revenge and Finale |
Shocked Shark (Edited) The Finish (Edited) |
|
13. End Credits |
End Credits (Edited) |
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