| NOTE: This page only covers information about the film version of Brody, as his original novel incarnation wasn’t voted Near Pure Good. As a result, only the info from his films incarnation should be listed. |
| “ | You're gonna need a bigger boat... | „ |
| ~ Brody to Quint after encountering Bruce up close, also his most famous quote. |
| “ | Smile you son of a b- | „ |
| ~ Brody before blowing up the Bruce the Shark. |
Chief Martin Brody is the main protagonist of the Jaws film quadrilogy, serving as the main protagonist of the first two films, a mentioned character in the third film Jaws 3D, and the posthumous overarching protagonist of the fourth and final film Jaws: Revenge. He is the police chief of Amity Island and the husband of Ellen and the father of their sons Michael and Sean.
He is played by the late Roy Schneider.
His Good Ranking[]
What Makes Him Close to Being Pure Good?[]
Jaws[]
- Due to feeling New York was too dangerous to live in, he moved to Amity Island with his family to keep them safe.
- While getting ready for work, he briefly advised his two sons Michael and Sean to stay off the swings after the former revealed that he had cut his hand while riding them.
- Upon being told that Chrissie’s cause of death was a shark attack, he immediately tried to convince Mayor Vaughn to close the beaches so that everyone wouldn’t suffer the same fate.
- While at the beach,he kept an eye on the people who were swimming just in case the shark that killed Chrissie (named Bruce) happened to showed up (which he of course did)
- Upon noticing that Michael and Sean were about to ride their boat on the water, he immediately had them get out of it and return back to their house so that they wouldn’t get killed by the Shark.
- While a bunch of shark hunters were getting ready to hunt for Bruce, he attempted to warn them not to overload their boat as their could be a chance, it would potentially endanger them and get them killed by Bruce.
- Even though it was technically Mayor Vaughn and the town council fault for indirectly getting Alex Kintner killed by the shark by ignoring Brody’s warnings and refusing to close the beach, he still accepted it when Mrs. Kintner blamed him instead of them.
- After having a friendly conversation with his wife Ellen and Hooper, he later agreed to help the latter cut open the stomach of the Tiger shark that had been caught/killed so that they could find out if it was the same shark that had killed Chrissie and Alex.
- After him and Hooper figured out that the Tiger shark didn’t have any human remains inside of it, him and the latter later drove a boat at night to go find some evidence of the actual shark they were looking for.
- Upon discovering the damaged remains of Ben Gardners’ boat, he reluctantly let Hooper go underwater (under his request) so that he could find potential evidence of the shark
- After Hooper discovered Ben Gardners corpse (and lost the shark tooth), he and Hooper attempted to convince Mayor Vaughn to close the beaches again so that they could hire someone to kill the shark
- Following him and Hooper’s failed attempt at convincing Vaughn to close the beaches again, he had Hooper and a bunch of guards watch over swimmers in case Bruce would ever show up again
- While at the beach, he had Michael and his friends ride their boat in the pond in order to keep them safe. (Unfortunately this would ironically lead to the shark trying to attack them in that area).
- Upon realizing Bruce was heading near the pond where Michael and his friends were, he immediately started running to that area to try and save them.
- While at the hospital, he managed to successfully convince Mayor Vaughn into hiring Quint to kill Bruce Additionally, after managing convincing Vaughn, he had Ellen bring back Michael and Sean back home
- Despite being scared of the water, he still choose to help Quint catch Bruce due to Bruce nearly killing Michael earlier.
- Before joining Quint and Hooper in their goal to catch Bruce, he briefly advised Ellen to tell Michael and Sean that he was going fishing in order to prevent them from worrying about him.
- Upon encountering Bruce in person, he immediately started suggesting getting a bigger boat, even going so far as to try and radio the coast guard the next day in order to get help (at least up until Quint destroyed it).
- While he did scream and get angry at Quint when he destroyed their radio, this was completely justified as Quint had essentially destroyed the only thing that was capable of helping them get back home and getting back up. Additionally, despite this, he still forgave him and even attempted to save his life when Bruce was trying to eat them during the climax.
- When Hooper accidentally got stuck on the side of the boat by some rope, he quickly came in to help him.
- Despite initially being reluctant to let Hooper go in the shark cage to kill Bruce using a spear with poison on the top, he eventually agreed to do it when Hooper pointed out the lack of options that were left (mainly due to Quint unintentionally damaging their engine and him destroying their radio, preventing them from getting help).
- As Hooper was going into the shark cage, he briefly took the time to hold his glasses while he put on his goggles.
- Upon noticing that Hooper was getting attacked while in the Shark cage, him and Quint quickly tried to pull him up (fortunately, even though Bruce damaged the cage, Hooper was still able to escape and hide away from it).
- Although he ultimately failed, he briefly tried to save Quint by holding his hand when Bruce was trying to eat them.
- As Bruce was trying to eat him, he briefly threw an oxygen tank into it mouth in order to distract it. Following this, he then went on to blow Bruce up from the inside by using one of Quint’s spare riffles, thus defeating the shark for good while also managing to prevent it from killing anymore people.
- Following the death of Bruce, he helped Hooper swim back to shore by swimming together with on a raft.
Jaws 2[]
- Upon being told about a boat accident that had resulted in an explosion, he had Hendricks and another sailor start checking for the bodies of Terry and Diane.
- As Michael was leaving to go sailing, he briefly advised him to be careful and not go out to far in case things got too rough.
- Upon hearing that a dead Orcha had washed up on shore with 2 huge bite marks on it, he immediately called in Dr. Elkins to check the bite radius to see if it was from a Great white. After that, when Elkins revealed it could have been from a shark or another whale, he immediately went to Mayor Vaughn to try and convince him to close the beaches (even if he ultimately failed like the other times) Additionally, during this, he stopped Michael from continuing his plan to go sailing, even going so far as to him have return the boat Andy had gave him.
- While his act of prohibiting his son Michael from going sailing with his friends (and instead landing him a job at the beach as a show of community service) may seem harsh, it was really just to protect him from potentially getting killed by a shark (something that would later be proven correct after encountering a traumatized Tina ). Plus, he was still able to interact with his friends, just not on the water.
- After discovering the burnt remains of Diane in the water and dragging her to the shore so that he could report it to his fellow police officers, he immediately attempted to contact Hooper to help him potentially stop Brucette, the new shark was terrorizing Amity Island (Unfortunately Brody quickly found out that Hooper was unavailable and was on a research expedition in Antarctica).
- Upon noticing the camera that had belonged to 2 divers who went missing inside his office, he immediately had Deputy Hendricks bring it to a photographer so that he could develop the photos that were left behind.
- While he did cause a panic a panic at the beach by shoutng at everyone to get out of the water, waving his gun around,and shooting at some blue fish that he had mistook for a shark (all while nearly getting someone hurt), he only did it to prevent some of the beach goers from potentially getting killed as he was suffering from severe PTSD as a result of the trauma he experienced during the events of the first film (ie him nearly getting killed by Bruce while stranded in the middle of the sea as the orca was sinking, Bruce nearly killing his son michael, him watching Bruce graphically kill Quint). Additionally, he likely did it to make up for failing to prevent Alex Kintner’s death as he felt he didn’t do enough to try and stop him and the other beach goers from going into the water. Furthermore, after another life coach helped him realize he was shooting at bluefish, he immediately felt guilty for it and went to clarify to the other beach goers that it was a false alarm out of remorse.
- Despite his devastation at loosing his job, he still went out of his way to celebrate Hendricks promotion when he became the new chief, even going so far as to offer him a toast while also giving him his badge. Additionally, when Hendricks admitted to feeling guilty about taking over Brody’s place as the new chief, Brody reassured him that his wasn’t fault, showing he had no animosity towards him despite the fact he was replacing him.
- Upon noticing that a ambulance truck was heading near the beach, he followed it to see if it had anything to with Brucette. Because of this, he was able to find out from Hendricks that Michael, Sean, and a bunch of teenagers (Jackie Peters, Larry Vaughn Jr, Tina Wilcox, Eddie, Marge, Lucy, Patrick, Andy, Timmy, Doug, and Bob) had gone sailing far off from the beach near the lighthouse.
- Following the revelation that his sons and the other teenagers had gone sailing near the lighthouse , he immediately took a boat (alongside Ellen and Hendricks) to go and rescue them, despite the fact that he was fired.
- As Hendricks was driving the boat to go help him find the kids, he briefly took the time the time to contact the harbor patrol. While talking to them, he had them send in a chopper to go rescue the kids in case they got attack by Brucette.
- Upon finding Tina and noticing that she was shivering and crying (due to death of her boyfriend Eddie at the hands of Brucette), him and Ellen went in to hug and console her, all while comforting her and reassuring her that everything was going to be okay. Additionally, after Tina revealed Eddie was killed by a shark, he then had Hendricks and Ellen bring her back home on another boat so that she could be safe.
- Upon finding Timmy, Doug, and Michael while searching for kids/teens, he had them go to the lighthouse so that they could be safe. Additionally, even though Michael had gone sailing against his wishes and had brought Sean with him, he ultimately forgave him, even telling him to forget about it and focus on getting to the lighthouse so that he could be safe.
- By using Dr. Elkins advice about Sharks and their attraction to certain frequency noises, he managed to successfully trick/lure Brucette into biting an electrical stock high voltage wire, thus killing/defeating her for good while also preventing her from killing Sean, the other teens (Andy, Jackie, Brookes, Bob, Paul, Lucy, Larry Vaughn Jr.) and more Amity beach goers as a whole. Following this, he later helped Sean, Michael, and the other teens get back to Amity Island.
- As he was bringing the teens back to Amity Island, he briefly put his coat on Jackie to comfort her as she was the one most traumatized out of all of them.
What Prevents Him From Being Pure Good?[]
- He has a brief jerkish moment be rude as when Hendricks tried telling Brody the coordinates of where the lighthouse, Brody rudely interrupted him and demanded (in an annoyed manner) he instead point stating “don’t give me that shit. Point.” However, given how his sons (and the other teens) were in danger, his impatience was somewhat understandable, even though he still could have been nicer about it.
- He can have moments of short temperedness as shown in during his interactions with Mayor Vaughan and Amity island council in the 2nd film where he becomes increasingly more angry when they keep on doubting his claims that there’s a shark; eventually culminating him giving his famous rant after they start dismissing the photo he brings (belonging to the missing divers) of the shark as simply a lens error or seaweed (But I'm telling you, and I'm telling everybody at this table that that's a shark! And I know what a shark looks like because I've seen one up close! And you'd better do something about this one because I don't intend to go through that hell again!"). On the other side of this though, his anger and frustration is somewhat justified considering how many died during the events of the first film and the sheer trauma he went through (his son nearly getting killed and nearly dying while defeating the shark), as well as how it was Mayor Vaughn and the council’s fault to begin with due to the fact that they were more concerned about money rather than the safety of the beach goers, even after he tried to warn them.
- Another example of Brody having moments of short temperedness is when him and Dr. Elkins were examining the bite marks of dead Orca. In the scene as Elkins is talking to Brody about how the currents of the water could have lifted the dead Orca’s corpse, Hendricks randomly quipped that Amity was gonna have a hell of tide that month , leading to Brody getting annoyed and angrily asking him to just take care of the crowd that was surrounding them.
- Additionally, immediately after this when Brody told Michael he wasn’t going to let him go sailing (for that day) and that he wanted him to come home, Michael proceeded to point out that he had brought his boat out and that he was having a date with Jackie. In response to this, he tried to reassure Michael that Andy would take the boat back for him and that Jackie would be understanding of this. Unfortunately, when a stubborn Michael told him she wouldn’t, he (out of frustration) angrily asked him to give him a break. Granted, Brody was simply trying to prevent his son from potentially getting killed and was stressed at the fact that there was likely another shark lurking in the waters.
- Another example of Brody having moments of short temperedness is when him and Dr. Elkins were examining the bite marks of dead Orca. In the scene as Elkins is talking to Brody about how the currents of the water could have lifted the dead Orca’s corpse, Hendricks randomly quipped that Amity was gonna have a hell of tide that month , leading to Brody getting annoyed and angrily asking him to just take care of the crowd that was surrounding them.
Trivia[]
- He is the only Jaws character to be Near Pure Good.
External Links[]
- Martin Brody on the Heroes Wiki
