Ending Changes
In the ending that was originally filmed, Ellen rammed the shark with Michael's boat, mortally wounding it. The shark then causes the boat to break apart with its death contortions, forcing the people on the boat to jump off to avoid going down with it. Test audiences disapproved of this ending. A new ending was shot with the shark getting stabbed with the bow sprit and then exploding; and with Jake being found wounded but alive. According to Orange Coast, the magazine of Orange County, reshooting the ending prevented Michael Caine from collecting his Academy Award for Hannah and Her Sisters. One version can be seen on cable broadcasts, while the other version is featured on the home releases.
The new ending had left many audiences confused. In his scathing review, Roger Ebert says that he cannot believe "that the director, Joseph Sargent, would film this final climactic scene so incompetently that there is not even an establishing shot, so we have to figure out what happened on the basis of empirical evidence."
Read more about this topic: Jaws: The Revenge, Production