Happy 40th Anniversary To Jaws

The film, based on the 1974 best-selling novel by Peter Benchley, centers on a giant, man-eating great white shark attacking beachgoers on Amity Island, a fictional New England summer resort town. The local police chief teams with a marine biologist and a professional shark hunter to get rid of the beast.

Adjusted for ticket price inflation, Jaws would remain the seventh highest-grossing film ever at the U.S. box office. Many of the film’s elements, especially the John Williams score, remain iconic pieces of American popular culture.