Who really said it

We're gonna need a bigger boat

Q: Who really said "We're gonna need a bigger boat"?

In Jaws (1975), Chief Martin Brody — shovelling chum off the stern when the shark surfaces beside him — backs into the cabin and says "You're gonna need a bigger boat," addressing Quint, who is steering. The popular version swaps in "We're," which turns Brody's dig at the man in charge into a shared gulp. Unusually for a famous screen line, no writer composed it: co-screenwriter Carl Gottlieb says it was never in the script but a crew catchphrase about the production's undersized support boat, which Roy Scheider ad-libbed.

Not quite — the actual line is “You’re gonna need a bigger boat” Roy Scheider (ad-lib) 1932–2008 · American actor · the line was unscripted; screenplay credited to Peter Benchley & Carl Gottlieb

Disputed In copyright

In Jaws (1975), Chief Martin Brody — shovelling chum off the stern when the shark surfaces beside him — backs into the cabin and says “You’re gonna need a bigger boat,” addressing Quint, who is steering. The popular version swaps in “We’re,” which turns Brody’s dig at the man in charge into a shared gulp. Unusually for a famous screen line, no writer composed it: co-screenwriter Carl Gottlieb says it was never in the script but a crew catchphrase about the production’s undersized support boat, which Roy Scheider ad-libbed.

Last verified 16 Jul 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

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Disputed wording — copy with the correction

“We're gonna need a bigger boat” You're gonna need a bigger boat. — Chief Martin Brody (Roy Scheider) in Jaws (1975), dir. Steven Spielberg. Commonly misquoted as "We're gonna need a bigger boat." The line was not in the screenplay: it was an on-set crew catchphrase that Scheider ad-libbed, per co-screenwriter Carl Gottlieb. Via Quotle.info

Can you use it?

Still under copyright (rights held by Universal City Studios / Universal Pictures). A short, credited quote is generally fine for talks, teaching, and internal decks; for commercial, published, or large-scale reuse, get permission.

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In context

Evoking the world of Roy Scheider — American actor · played Chief Martin Brody in Jaws (1975). Theme: "We're gonna need a bigger boat". Atmospheric and restrained, cinematic directional light, a muted period-appropriate palette, fine grain and texture. Compose with generous empty space for the quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Minimalist

Minimalist editorial slide for the quote "We're gonna need a bigger boat". Clean background, a single muted accent color, generous negative space, subtle paper or linen texture, no literal illustration — let the words carry it. Reserve clear space for a serif quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Provenance

The line, as actually spoken

Film: Jaws (1975), dir. Steven Spielberg
Spoken by: Police Chief Martin Brody (Roy Scheider) — a fictional character
Screenplay: Peter Benchley & Carl Gottlieb, based on Benchley's 1974 novel — but neither wrote this line
Actually originated: On set: an uncredited crew catchphrase, ad-libbed by Scheider in the shark-reveal scene

‘Slow ahead.’ I can go slow ahead… [the shark suddenly surfaces; Brody recoils and backs into the cabin] You’re gonna need a bigger boat. Pronoun drift

Wikiquote’s transcription of the scene. Note the pronoun: You’re, not We’re. Brody is talking to Quint, who is at the helm.

Wikiquote: Jaws (film) — transcribed dialogue

How we verified this

The transcript. Wikiquote’s Jaws page ↗ transcribes the line under Police Chief Martin Brody as “You’re gonna need a bigger boat,” and credits the film to Steven Spielberg, written by Peter Benchley and Carl Gottlieb, based on Benchley’s novel.
The official wording. The American Film Institute ranks the line #35 on AFI’s 100 Years…100 Movie Quotes ↗, printed there as “You’re gonna need a bigger boat.” — Jaws, 1975. Two independent transcriptions, same pronoun.
Nobody wrote it. Co-screenwriter Carl Gottlieb told The Hollywood Reporter ↗ the line was not scripted: the equipment barge’s support boat was too small, so cast and crew kept telling the producers “You’re gonna need a bigger boat” until it became a catchphrase for every mishap. Gottlieb: “It was an overlap of a real-life problem combined with the dilemma of the characters onscreen.”
How it reached the screen. Mental Floss ↗, drawing on Gottlieb, reports Scheider ad-libbed the catchphrase into several scenes; the take that survived was the one after the shark’s first full reveal. So the phrase is the crew’s, the delivery is Scheider’s, and the screenplay’s contribution is none.

In copyright

Jaws was released by Universal Pictures on 20 June 1975 and remains in copyright — nothing published in 1975 is in the US public domain. Screen writing is work-for-hire, so the rights sit with the studio rather than with Benchley or Gottlieb; an ad-libbed line is no different, as it was fixed in the copyrighted film as part of Scheider’s employment. The line is quoted here briefly for identification and fact-check.

Fact-check

Three things people get wrong

The film is right and the shark is right. What’s wrong is one pronoun — and, underneath it, the widespread assumption that somebody sat down and wrote this line.

“We’re gonna need a bigger boat” Misquotation

The line is “You’re gonna need a bigger boat.” Both Wikiquote’s transcription ↗ and AFI’s official #35 entry ↗ give “You’re.” It is a small swap that changes the aim: Brody is telling Quint, the man who chose the boat, that his boat is inadequate.

Peter Benchley & Carl Gottlieb, the credited screenwriters Not in the script

Neither wrote it. Gottlieb — who adapted the novel and would know — told The Hollywood Reporter ↗ that the phrase came from the crew complaining that the barge’s support boat was too small, and that Scheider ad-libbed it. The most famous line in the screenplay is not in the screenplay.

Peter Benchley’s 1974 novel Jaws Not from the novel

Famous film lines often come from the source book — not this one. Gottlieb locates its origin on the water during the 1974 shoot, as a running joke about the support boat serving the barge nicknamed the S.S. Garage Sale ↗ — that is, after the novel was already in print. Stated honestly: this rests on Gottlieb’s account of where the phrase came from, not on a full-text search of the novel, which we could not run.

The film is Jaws, the speaker is Brody, the pronoun is You’re — and the author is nobody. It was a crew joke about a small boat that Roy Scheider kept ad-libbing until one take landed ↗.

Context

Why “We’re” wins

The drift is easy to explain, and it is worth separating what is documented from what is merely sensible. What’s documented: Brody says “You’re,” and he says it into the cabin, at Quint — the shark hunter who priced the job, picked the vessel and has spent the film treating Brody as a landlubber. The line is a jab. The chief, who hates the water, has just looked a three-ton animal in the mouth and his verdict on the professional’s equipment is deadpan.

What’s an observation rather than a fact: “We’re” probably wins in memory because it scans as the more natural thing to say. Brody is on the boat too, so a shared “we’re” feels like the honest reaction, and the phrase has since escaped the film to mean this situation has outgrown our resources — a sentiment that is collective by nature. Quoted at work about an under-resourced project, “we’re” is the version that fits. The misquote is the line adapting to the uses people put it to.

Brody isn’t saying we’re in trouble. He’s telling Quint his boat is too small.

Read the full story

The joke was aimed at the producers first. Per Gottlieb, the phrase started as cast-and-crew needling of producers Richard Zanuck and David Brown over an undersized support boat, and became the all-purpose complaint on a famously troubled water shoot — late lunch, rocking swells, anything. The barge itself was nicknamed the S.S. Garage Sale.

It nearly went unheard. Wikipedia's account of the test screenings notes the audience's screams covered Scheider's delivery, so Brody's reaction was extended and the line's volume raised in the mix. The most quoted line in American cinema needed a level boost to be audible at all.

A note on our own rule. Quotle credits screen lines to writers, never actors, because the actor's face is what people remember and the writer's work is what gets forgotten. This page is the exception that proves it: here the writers genuinely didn't write the line, and applying the rule mechanically would have produced exactly the false credit the rule exists to prevent.

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More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.

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Trusted places to keep pulling the thread — primary archives, fact-checks, and scholarship. We show how we used each one before you leave.

Wikiquote: Jaws (film)en.wikiquote.org

Transcribed dialogue: the line under Brody reads "You're gonna need a bigger boat," with the AFI #35 note and full writing credits.

AFI's 100 Years…100 Movie Quoteswww.afi.com

The official list. Entry #35 prints the line as "You're gonna need a bigger boat." — an independent check on the pronoun.

'Jaws' "Bigger Boat" Quote: Writer Reveals Originswww.hollywoodreporter.com

Co-screenwriter Carl Gottlieb's first-hand account: the line was never in the script, but a crew complaint about the undersized support boat.

How Jaws's Most Famous Line Came to Bewww.mentalfloss.com

Explainer built on Gottlieb: Scheider ad-libbed the catchphrase into several scenes; the shark-reveal take is the one that stuck.

The story behind the iconic linethedailyjaws.com

Names the equipment barge (the S.S. Garage Sale) whose too-small support boat produced the catchphrase Scheider ad-libbed.

Wikipedia: Jaws (film)en.wikipedia.org

Production and credits: Universal Pictures, released 20 June 1975, dir. Spielberg, screenplay Benchley & Gottlieb, Scheider as Brody.

The man who said it — because nobody wrote it

The line has no screenwriter

Roy Scheider

1932–2008 · American actor · played Chief Martin Brody in Jaws (1975)

Roy Scheider was an American actor, twice Oscar-nominated (The French Connection, All That Jazz), who played Amity Island police chief Martin Brody in Jaws. He is named here for an unusual reason: this line has no author in the normal sense. Quotle's standing rule is that a screen line belongs to its writer, never its actor — but co-screenwriter Carl Gottlieb states plainly that this line was never in the script. It began as an on-set gripe about the production's undersized support boat, passed anonymously around the cast and crew, and Scheider ad-libbed it into the shark-reveal take. No single person is documented as coining the phrase; Scheider is simply the one who put it on film. Crediting Benchley or Gottlieb would be the misattribution.

For writers & researchers

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Primary source

Jaws, directed by Steven Spielberg, screenplay by Peter Benchley and Carl Gottlieb, based on the novel by Peter Benchley (Universal City, CA: Universal Pictures, 1975). Line spoken by Roy Scheider as Chief Martin Brody; transcribed at Wikiquote and listed as #35 in AFI's 100 Years…100 Movie Quotes (2005). Not in the shooting script — ad-libbed on set, per co-screenwriter Carl Gottlieb, interviewed in The Hollywood Reporter.

This verification page

Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘We're gonna need a bigger boat’?” Last verified 16 Jul 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/were-gonna-need-a-bigger-boat