When a great white shark is found to be responsible for the deaths of some swimmers in Amity, Long Island, a police chief (Scheider), fisherman (Shaw) and ocean expert (Dreyfuss) set out to find and destroy it before more lives are lost.

Recognised as the first official 'summer blockbuster', it became the highest grossing box-office movie of all time (the first to ever reach $100m), until Star Wars overtook it two years later.

See also: Jaws 2 (1978), Jaws III (1983), Jaws: The Revenge (1987)