Changes: Jaws (Richard Kiel)

Revision as of 10:50, 26 October 2014

Holly Goodhead: "Do you know him?"

James Bond: "Not socially. His name's Jaws. He kills people."

―Holly Goodhead and James Bond^[src]

Jaws is a fictional assassin in the James Bond media franchise with stainless steel teeth. He first appeared in the 1977 film The Spy Who Loved Me and made a subsequent appearance in 1979's Moonraker. The character was played by the late actor Richard Kiel.

An obvious reference to the 1975 horror/thriller film of the same name, Jaws gets his name both from his enormous size and strong metal teeth that could bite through virtually anything. During filming, Kiel would only wear the metal teeth for a few minutes because they hurt his mouth.

Film biography

Spoiler warning: This article contains spoilers! Plot and/or ending details follow.

Jaws first appeared in the 1977 film The Spy Who Loved Me as a henchman to the villain, Karl Stromberg. He would later appear in the sequel Moonraker as a henchman to the villain Hugo Drax. However, in this second appearance, his character was changed from that of a ruthless and unstoppable killing machine to more of a comedy figure. He eventually turns against Drax and helps Bond to defeat him, and also gains a girlfriend.

"Well, heres to us" (Jaws first and final line to girlfriend Dolly)

In The Spy Who Loved Me, Jaws battled a shark and won, had an entire construction scaffold collapse on top of him, drove a car off a cliff into someone's roof, and fell off a moving train and survived. Furthermore, in Moonraker Jaws survives a fall from an airplane without a parachute in the opening credits; later in the movie, he survives a high-speed crash of a tramway car in Rio de Janeiro and a fall from a Brazilian waterfall (shot at Iguassu Falls). After every accident, a signature move by Jaws is to get up, dust himself off, and walk away.

In addition to having steel teeth, Jaws was also 7 feet, 2 inches (2.18 m) tall for 315 pounds (142 kgs). He is also extremely strong, which forced Bond to be especially inventive while fighting him. In combat, Bond found himself caught in an unbreakable death grip by Jaws, who was about to fatally bite him; Bond only escaped by using a broken electric lamp to send an electric shock through the assassin's teeth to stun him. Jaws also has an uncanny ability to survive any misfortune seemingly completely unscathed and come back to challenge Bond again.

In The Spy Who Loved Me, Jaws survives a battle underwater with a shark and the destruction of Stromberg's lair. Most notably, in Moonraker he survives falling several thousand feet without a parachute (granted, he falls through a circus tent and lands in the trapeze net), a crash through a building on top of a runaway cable car, and falling off a waterfall, as well as the destruction of most of Drax's space station. He has fantastic skills in unarmed combat, combining his steel teeth, his tremendous strength with several highly complex martial arts moves. Along with Baron Samedi, Oddjob, and Tee Hee, Jaws is perhaps the most iconic James Bond henchman in the franchise, and one of several characters who have creative appearances, deaths, fighting styles and relationships with other characters. He is exceedingly sadistic and psychopathic, smiling when he kills people and fights James Bond. He has almost reckless in his efforts to overpower his enemies and doesn't take in his surroundings, notably what could be used to defeat him.

Jaws' jaws are his weakness as well as his signature weapon. They are highly susceptible to magnetism, electricity and heat. They are also incredibly durable, able to withstand a bullet, an explosion and several direct punches. This also renders him unable to communicate with others.

Novelisation biography

Most of the background information on Jaws comes from Christopher Wood's novelisation of the film The Spy Who Loved Me, called James Bond, The Spy Who Loved Me so as to differentiate from Ian Fleming's novel of the same name. In Wood's novel, Jaws's real name is Zbigniew Krycsiwiki and he was born in Kraków, Poland. Krycsiwiki was arrested by the secret police for his part in the "1972 bread riots". While imprisoned the police "beat him with hollow steel clubs encased in thick leather" until they thought he was dead leaving his jaw broken beyond repair. Krycsiwiki later escaped and stowed aboard one of Stromberg's vessels. Eventually he was caught; however, instead of turning him in Stromberg hired a prestigious doctor to create an artificial jaw. After 14 operations Krycsiwiki's jaw was restored using steel components that created two rows of terrifying razor-sharp teeth. The result of the artificial jaw left Jaws a mute.

Since none of the above is actually mentioned in either movie, this is not necessarily considered canon. Wood contradicts his own continuity when one compares his scripts and his novelisations; in the novelisation of The Spy Who Loved Me Wood specifically states that Jaws is a mute. Yet, in the film, Moonraker, he speaks, although in the novelisation James Bond and Moonraker, Jaws remains a mute. For the films, it is possible Jaws might have somehow regained the ability to speak between the two adventures, but there is nothing on screen or in literary form to suggest how this might have occurred.

One thing to also note is that Jaws was originally supposed to have been killed in the finale of James Bond, The Spy Who Loved Me, when Jaws encounters Stromberg's shark. The scene in the novelisation is ambiguous in that the blood mentioned could have been interpreted as either Jaws' or the shark's. Jaws at the time was technically attached to a magnet and dipped into the tank, unlike the film in which Bond releases Jaws from the magnet into the tank.

"Now both hands were tearing at the magnet, and Jaws twisted furiously like a fish on the hook. As Bond watched in fascinated horror, a relentless triangle streaked up behind the stricken giant. A huge gray force launched itself through the wild water, and two rows of white teeth closed around the threshing flesh."

― Christopher Wood.^[src]

It has been stated that in the initial script, the film concluded with Jaws being killed by the shark; however, after a rough test screening including Lewis Gilbert's grandson, Jaws was so well liked that the scene was changed to have Jaws live. Jaws was later brought back in the film Moonraker and Christopher Wood's follow up novelisation of Moonraker, entitled James Bond and Moonraker.

Other Appearances

Video Games

Jaws, likely being the most popular of the henchmen and characters in the James Bond franchise, has appeared in three video games since his last cinematic appearance in Moonraker. His first appearance was in the 1993 Sega Megadrive game The Duel, where he appears multiple times, and also as the final opponent of the game. His second appearance would be in 1997, in the Nintendo 64 game GoldenEye (video game), in which Jaws — for unknown reasons — is working for Drax Corporation once again in a bonus level. In 2002, he appeared in Nightfire , but only as a multiplayer character.

In 2004, Jaws appeared again in the video game Everything or Nothing, working for the game's villain, Nikolai Diavolo. Richard Kiel is credited, because his face and body was used to create the 3D game model. He recorded no dialogue for the game. Jaws makes an appearance in GoldenEye (2010 video game) in the multiplayer as a playable character in the splitscreen mode, and on Classic Conflict mode online. He has appeared in game 007 Legends as well, when Bond gets a flashback in the Moonraker level.

James Bond Jr

Jaws regularly appeared in the 1990s animated spin-off James Bond Jr. as a member of the SCUM organization. He is a dimwitted villain whose trademark is his steel teeth that destroy almost anything he chews up - and his ridiculous clothing not only serves as a small source of comedy for the series but also compliments his lack of intelligence. He usually acts as a henchman for higher-ranking SCUM agents and is often paired with Nick Nack. Unlike his movie counterpart, he talks regularly. And while in the films he simply had steel teeth, in the cartoon he now has an entire lower jaw made of steel. In the novelization "A View To A Thrill", it is explained that he was shot in the mouth during a bank robbery and "to save his life, the doctors had given him a set of metal teeth, and motors for jaw muscles."

Appearances include The Beginning, Plunder Down Under, Valley of the Hungry Dunes, Never Give a Villain a Fair Shake, No Such Loch, The Inhuman Race, Fountain of Terror, Ship of Terror, Queen's Ransom, Avalanche Run, Barbella's Big Attraction, Invaders from S.C.U.M., Ol' Man River, Catching the Wave, S.C.U.M. on the Water, Between a Rock and a Hard Place, Sherlock IQ, Quantum Diamonds, Rubies Aren't Forever, The Thing in the Ice, Monument to S.C.U.M. and Northern Lights.

Behind the scenes

Although Ian Fleming had requested that no elements from his original book The Spy Who Loved Me (1962) be used in the film series, the novel's antagonists would provide the basis for the characters of Jaws and Sandor. The novel features two thugs named Sol Horror and Sluggsy Morent. Horror is described as having steel-capped teeth, while Sluggsy had a clear bald head.

While Jaws was in two James Bond movies, he actually only had one short line of dialogue. In Moonraker, towards the end of the film, he turns to his girlfriend Dolly (Blanche Ravalec) and says "Well, here's to us".

Richard Kiel passed away 3 days prior to his 75th birthday.

Gallery

Trivia

Inspector Gadget - Minion Recovery Group — Jaws makes an appearance in the "Minion Recovery Group", *Inspector Gadget* (1999)

Jaws was the second henchman to switch sides in the entire series. The first would be Landislav Kotze. He's also the only other Bond villain apart from Ernst Stravo Blofeld to appear in more than one film.
Bond punched Jaws in the mouth in The Spy Who Loved Me but it seems that he totally forgot about it in Moonraker when he did it again and both times it did not affect Jaws.
In the final credits sequence of the 1999 film Inspector Gadget, Dr. Claw's assistant is shown attending a "Minion Recovery Group". Richard Kiel is one of the participants (along with Oddjob and Nick Nack) and is billed in the credits as 'Famous Guy with Metal Teeth'.
Jaws also appears to be immune to being kicked in the crotch; when Bond tried it, Jaws didn't react. Instead we hear a clanging sound and Bond appears to have hurt his foot.
Richard Kiel played a very similar character — complete with strange teeth — in the 1976 comedy Silver Streak.
A similar character to Jaws appears in the video game Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. King Bulbin is extremely powerful, wielding one of the most powerful enemy weapons in the game, not flinching when Link damages him with his sword, surviving two falls off a bridge and taking a lot of damage from Link. He doesn't speak until his final fight with Link, after which he switches sides.

@@ Line 90: / Line 90: @@
 ==Trivia==
 [[File:Inspector_Gadget_-_Minion_Recovery_Group.png|thumb|260px|Jaws makes an appearance in the "Minion Recovery Group", ''Inspector Gadget'' (1999)]]
+* Jaws was the second henchman to switch sides in the entire series. The first would be Landislav Kotze. He's also the only other Bond villain apart from Ernst Stravo Blofeld to appear in more than one film.
 * Bond punched Jaws in the mouth in ''The Spy Who Loved Me'' but it seems that he totally forgot about it in ''Moonraker'' when he did it again and both times it did not affect Jaws.
 * In the final credits sequence of the 1999 film ''[[wikipedia:Inspector Gadget (film)|Inspector Gadget]]'', Dr. Claw's assistant is shown attending a "Minion Recovery Group". Richard Kiel is one of the participants (along with [[Oddjob]] and [[Nick Nack]]) and is billed in the credits as 'Famous Guy with Metal Teeth'.