Bruce Goes to the Junkyard: The Last Jaws Shark

All three mechanical sharks built for Jaws were destroyed after filming — nobody at Universal foresaw the first summer blockbuster in history. When the film exploded, the studio cast a fourth shark from the original mold. That Bruce hung at Universal Studios Hollywood as a photo op for 15 years, then was discarded again around 1990, ending up in a Sun Valley, California junkyard.

For 25 years he sat mounted on two poles among the palm trees, cracking in the sun, while Jaws fans traded rumors online about whether the last shark still existed. In 2010, NPR reporter Cory Turner tracked him down by cold-calling Southern California junkyards until he found the one that had taken delivery in 1990. The owner, Nathan Adlen, had quietly loved and kept the shark; Jaws effects supervisor Roy Arbogast authenticated it as genuine.

When the junkyard closed in 2016, Adlen donated Bruce to the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures. A seven-month restoration led by The Walking Dead''s Greg Nicotero — with original Jaws production designer Joe Alves consulting — rebuilt the 25-foot, 1,208-pound shark, teeth and all. He now hangs four stories up in the museum''s atrium, the largest object in its collection.

The lo.st takeaway: The last surviving shark from the most famous creature film ever made was findable only by manually phoning junkyards. Disposal is a handoff like any other — and untracked handoffs are where history disappears.