Jaws 2's extended helicopter attack was arguably the most terrifying scene, but here's why it was cut. Jaws became the first summer blockbuster in 1975 and launched the career of Steven Spielberg. The troubled production was somewhat traumatic for the young helmer, however, as it went wildly over budget and schedule due to issues with filming at sea. The stress proved to be worth it ultimately, but Spielberg quickly rejected an offer to return for Jaws 2. While sequels and franchises weren't in vogue during this time, the groundbreaking success of Jaws made a second entry all but inevitable.
Jaws 2 would suffer its own tortured journey to screens, where the original director John Hancock was fired after a month of filming due to clashes with producers and executives. His darker vision was scrapped and almost all of his footage was cut when new Jaws 2 - which almost dropped the shark - director Jeannot Szwarc took over. The latter also clashed with returning star Roy Scheider, who reluctantly signed on for Jaws 2 to complete his contract with the studio. Despite the production woes, the sequel was still a tremendous hit for Universal. It suffers when compared to the original, but Jaws 2 is an effective thriller in its own right with some well-staged setpieces and another great score by John Williams.
Highlights of Jaws 2 include a chase between the shark and a water skier, plus the electrifying (pun intended) finale. The sequel also feels like a precursor to the slasher movies of the '80s, with the third act featuring the shark stalking some marooned teenagers. This results in the one sequence viewers tend to recall the most from Jaws 2 - which was nearly R-rated - where a helicopter arrives to tow the teens to safety. Of course, the shark is having none of this and emerges from the water to pull the copter - pilot and all - in the water. However, a deleted, extended scene revealed what happened to the pilot trapped in the cockpit and may have been one of the most purely terrifying moments of Jaws 2.
In this deleted Jaws 2 scene, the pilot is seen in the overturned cockpit, struggling to get out. That's when the shark returns and starts to ram the cockpit, which slowly crumbles against its brute force. When the pilot screams in terror, the scene cuts abruptly as it's about to grab him. Sadly, the scene is somewhat let down by lifting the audio of Hooper's (Richard Dreyfuss) cage attack from Jaws, but the sight of the trapped pilot being attacked by the shark is the stuff of purest nightmare.
While not gory in the slightest, it appears concerns over body count and the level of intensity was the key reason this extended Jaws 2 scene was cut. Parents complained over the level of gore in the first movie, so Jaws 2 reduced the blood on display, and even cut the death of another character named Bob was cut to lower the death count further. Ironically, the pilot had a happier fate in earlier drafts, as did another shark victim. In this initial script, the pilot was to take shelter in the cockpit and rescue Marge - a teenager who is eaten saving Chief Brody's son Sean in the final movie - by talking her to the wreckage and sharing his oxygen tank. They survived that version but weren't so lucky in later rewrites.
