51 Years Later, the Greatest Survival Thriller's Best Line Still Officially Defines the Genre

Published Oct 31, 2026, 7:48 AM EDT Lloyd 'Happy Trails' Farley: the man, the myth, the legend. What can be said about this amazing - and humble - man that hasn't been said before? Or, more accurately, what can be said in public? Born in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, Lloyd is a master of puns and a humorist, who has authored one pun book to date - Pun and Grimeish Mint - and is working on a second. His time with Collider has allowed Lloyd's passion for writing to explode, with nearly 1,000 articles to his name that have been published on the site, with his favorite articles being the ones that allow for his sense of humor to shine. Lloyd also holds fast to the belief that all of life's problems can be answered by The Simpsons, Star Wars, and/or The Lion King. You can read more about Lloyd on his website, or follow his Facebook page and join the Llama Llegion. Happy trails! There is arguably no genre that generates quips that enter the pop-culture vernacular and stay there quite like the thriller film. Lines like "I'm your number one fan," and "Hi, I'm Chucky, want to play?" immediately bring you back to the first time you saw Misery and Child's Play respectively. Others — "I see dead people" or "They're here" — have taken on a life of their own outside the films they're from (The Sixth Sense and Poltergeist, for the record). The best line, however, exists in both worlds, first said 51 years ago in the greatest survival thriller of them all, a quote that defines the genre to this day. The Survival Thriller's Best Line Is Pitch-Perfect in Context The movie, of course, is Steven Spielberg's masterpiece Jaws, and its most iconic line needs no introduction: "You're gonna need a bigger boat." The quote, which landed at #35 on AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movie Quotes, wasn't even in the script, but rather was an in-joke among crew members in reference to a tugboat that was too small for what it was being used for. Actor Roy Scheider, a.k.a. Chief Brody, liked the line, and tried to work it in at various points in the film, only it never hit right. Then came the filming of a pivotal scene, where Brody is at the back of the boat, throwing chum into the water in an effort to lure the monstrous great white. It works, with the shark making his appearance for the first second time with his big, toothy head, which only Brody sees. He's visibly shaken and starts walking backwards toward the cabin. Just as he passes Quint (Robert Shaw), Scheider tries the improvised line again, times it perfectly, and the rest is history. In context, the line is pitch-perfect. It's wholly accurate: the shark is almost as big as the boat itself; and, in his state of shock, the words feel natural. Yet it also stands as a reproach of Quint and, to a lesser degree, Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss), implying that they have greatly underestimated what they're up against. That implication is justified in the moments immediately following, as both Quint and Hooper go to take a look for themselves, staring slack-jawed as they try to guesstimate just how big the shark actually is. Of course, in the grand tradition of the genre, Quint's hubris overtakes his common sense, smashing the radio to pieces just as Chief Brody attempts to call in the Coast Guard . . . a "bigger boat." The Best Line in 'Jaws' Rings True for the Entire Thriller Genre While the quote fits perfectly in the scene, and the film by extension, in a literal way, it is also applicable to the thriller genre as a whole, where, more often than not, the characters in the film need the metaphorical equivalent of a "bigger boat." Threats are rarely ever fully comprehended at the start of these movies. In the aforementioned Poltergeist, what was believed to be a mischievous spirit performing relatively harmless activities, like chairs moving, is far more sinister. A group of youngsters breaks into the house of a blind veteran, believing him incapable of preventing their looting, only to discover he's not only capable, but deadly in Don't Breathe. Harry Dalton's (Pierce Brosnan) plea to alert the town about an impending volcano eruption is dismissed by his superior, until it happens and levels the town completely in Dante's Peak. And so on, and so on. The "bigger boat" in those cases are easy to point out — a seasoned exorcist, better research on their mark, and immediate evacuation, respectively — and yet no one ever goes for the bigger boat right away. Single women go downstairs by themselves to investigate a noise without turning on the lights or carrying a flashlight. Police officers confront serial killers without backup. Teenagers hang out in isolated cabins instead of a place in the city where help is easily available if something goes wrong. People infected with a seemingly benign virus aren't quarantined. Ultimately, it means that the genre wouldn't exist if the need for a "bigger boat" was acted on right from the start. Die Hard, for one, could have been a much different story had the response to John McClane's (Bruce Willis) radio call involved more than just Sgt. Powell (Reginald VelJohnson) doing a drive-by. Well, maybe not, but you get the idea. In a way, then, Brody represents all of us, watching the movie knowing that what they have or what they're doing isn't enough, leaving us to clamor for the characters to get a "bigger boat," but thankful that they aren't all the same. Jaws Release Date June 20, 1975