Let me take this opportunity to welcome you all to my newest segment here on How Heavy This Axe, aptly titled KILL OF THE DAY. (Hopefully) each day I will bring you one of my favorite death scenes from film or television. Be it one of the most bloody, violent, clever, or funny deaths (or a combination), I will do my best to satisfy your lust for murder and mayhem. I may do weekly themes, or it may be completely random, but it will be fun regardless. Let’s kick it off…here is the first Kill of the Day!

“Here’s to swimmin’ with bow-legged women.”

– Quint, Captain of The Orca

Quint Goes Down With The Ship (Jaws, 1975) – Quint (played by Robert Shaw, was the salty old veteran of the sea that entertained Brody (Roy Scheider) and Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss) with drunken song and tales of nautical adventure, while leading them on a hunt for the shark that had been terrorizing their Amity Island beaches. Is it ironic then, that Quint is eaten alive on his own boat, while hunting his greatest foe, while two men who barely have their sea legs watch in horror? I suspect it is more of a case of man dying while doing what he loved to do. Also, you may notice that while Quint is being bitten in half, he is still bad ass enough to be driving a hunting knife into the side of the sharks face. Jaws is great because instead of relying on ghosts and masked killers, it uses the real life fear of what unknown terror lurks beneath the ocean’s surface. Quint came face to face with the unknown, and unfortunately it was the greatest of the Great Whites. May his headband rest in peace.

Cool fact: Quint’s boat, The Orca, is named after the sharks only natural predator, the Killer Whale.

T.