Jaws: How Accurate Quint's USS Indianapolis Story Is
Quint’s infamous monologue from Jaws was based on a true story, but how much of the speech reflected the real USS Indianapolis sinking? Jaws premiered in 1975 and soon became one of the first big blockbusters. While Jaws is not a conventional slasher movie it contains elements of the genre, such as Quint’s character-trope as the expert on the terrifying villain. What set Jaws apart from the paranormal serial killer stereotypes of many horror movies was its root in a universal setting; anyone could encounter a shark if they brave open waters, and shark attacks weren’t a movie-crafted phenomenon.
This heightened the horror elements of Jaws and the reality of Amity's fear, and the sentiment is similar to a haunted house movie based on true stories. One of the most famous scenes is Quint (Robert Shaw) recounting his experience in the aftermath of the USS Indianapolis' sinking, with his harrowing story of men - who are already going through a horrifying experience - meeting a new unforeseen enemy in scores of sharks. Viewers don't have to see a flashback of the incident to understand the impact of the scene; it’s all in Quint’s vivid description, tone of his voice, and the solemn silence from Brody and Hooper.
This scene comes around midway through Jaws where Chief Brody, Hooper, and Quint are on the Orca at night, fixing the boat and waiting for the shark to reappear. As they impatiently wait, the men begin telling the stories behind their scars. The tales are rounded off by Quint who reveals he is a survivor of the 1945 USS Indianapolis attack, a real event in which an American WWII ship sunk in the ocean following an attack by a Japanese submarine. Many who survived were killed or injured by sharks while stranded in the water. While most of Quint's story is historically accurate, several details were either mistaken or exaggerated by Spielberg for dramatic effect.
For the most part, Quint tells the real tragedy of the horrifying mass shark attack and the greatest loss of life event at sea for the US Navy. Quint is correct that while on a top-secret mission from Tinian to Leyte, the Indianapolis was struck twice in the side by Japanese torpedoes. Like the Jaws story detailed, the ship of 1,195 men was transporting parts for the bomb that would later be dropped on Hiroshima. The ship sunk in twelve minutes, some men were eaten and killed by sharks, and only 316 were pulled out of the water by a pilot who spotted them a few days later.
Though the general details of Quint’s Jaws monologue follow the event correctly, many aspects were modified for emotional effect. For starters, the boat sunk on July 30th, not June 29th. There was also no "Herbie Robinson from Cleveland" aboard, so Quint seeing him half-eaten was fabricated. Also, Quint believes their mission was so secretive nobody sent a distress signal, but historically a signal was sent and ignored by a drunk radio commander. The biggest discrepancy is that sharks were the main cause of death for the men in the water. Quint implies 600 men were killed by sharks, whereas sharks truly only murdered a small amount; many succumbed to hypothermia, suicide, or homicide from delusion, starvation, and thirst. While the sinking of the USS Indianapolis remains the largest single shark attack on humans, the tragedy’s details were exaggerated by Jaws to more effectively convey Quint’s disdain against sharks.