“Terrors of the Deep": The Original "Jaws”

“Terrors of the Deep: The Original Jaws”
A talk by Tom McNamara, science filmmaker

Long before "Jaws" (1975), the first time a movie camera ever filmed below the ocean’s surface was in 1914, to test technology that would be used in the silent classic "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" (1916). The footage, known as "Terrors of the Deep," was lost until science filmmaker and journalist Tom McNamara found it mislabeled in a Dutch archive. Like "Jaws," "Terrors" is about the hunt for a shark, except this shark was real. With found archive footage and scenes from "Jaws," McNamara recounts the making of "Terrors of the Deep" and examines our relationship to sharks and other undersea creatures.

Watch Tom’s film "Finding Captain Nemo" here:    • The lost, first underwater film: "The Terr...  

This program, “Creature Feature: The Science of Monster Movies,” took place live at Museum of the Moving Image, New York, on June 8, 2025, as part of Open Worlds: Science, a series of free public events exploring the world through science and cinema.

Learn more at https://movingimage.org/series/open-w...

Open Worlds: Science is supported by the Simons Foundation. 

Filmed and edited by Yan Mengyu.