| Brody and his wife Ellen argue, Ellen missing the swanky life she had before marriage to Brody. | 1 | Brody and his wife banter about Amity dialects, Ellen later suggesting they "get drunk and fool around." |
| Hooper is a well to do Ivy league egomaniac. | 2 | Hooper is Richard Dreyfuss at his most charming. |
| Hooper and Ellen have an affair (he is the younger brother of a guy she once dated) including seedy liaisons in an out of town motel. | 3 | Hooper and Ellen have a dinner with Brody and she embarrassingly asks him if he's "in sharks." |
| Deputy Hendricks pulls the shark tooth from Ben Gardner's dry-docked boat — he doesn't drop it. | 4 | Matt Hooper pulls the shark tooth from Ben Gardner's sunken boat — oops! |
| Mayor Vaughn is under pressure from the mafia to keep the beaches open: the mob have invested in Amity real estate and want to keep the value sky high. | 5 | Mayor Vaughn is under pressure from hoteliers, local businesses and his own greed to keep the beaches open. |
| Newspaper man Harry Meadows has a much bigger role, hushing up the shark attack, uncovering Mayor Vaughn's underworld connections and hiring Ichthyologist Matt Hooper. | 6 | Newspaper man Harry Meadows is a bit part played by co-screenwriter Carl Gottlieb. |
| Brody tries to strangle Hooper on deck due to suspicions of affair. | 7 | Brody edges out to the bow of the boat so that Hooper can take a picture. |
| Quint shoots beer cans on deck using a makeshift skeet launcher — taunts Hooper for not joining in. | 8 | Quint crushes beer cans on deck and tosses them overboard — Hooper taunts him by crushing a Styrofoam coffee cup. |
| Quint uses illegally caught unborn dolphin as bait. | 9 | Brody uses fish guts (chum) as bait. |
| The Orca comes home each night. | 10 | The Orca stays on the seas. |
| Hooper is killed in the shark cage — hooray! | 11 | Hooper escapes from the shark cage — hooray! |
| Quint is killed by drowning: he is dragged under water after harpooning the shark and his foot gets caught in the rope. | 12 | Quint is killed by the shark eating him. |
| The shark dies by harpoon-inflicted wounds, just as he is about to chomp Brody. | 13 | The shark by Brody shooting an air canister lodged in the creature's jaws. |
