Over a beer Brody quizzes Quint on how to catch a shark and this prompts the fisherman to tell of an earlier encounter with a Great White. Not only does Quint's story serve to establish a precedent for what will happen in later chapters ("Damn thing attacked the boat."), but it allows the author to explain the purpose of the ten hemp-wrapped wooden barrels secured at the Orca's prow. In the novel the barrels do not take on the iconic status they assume in the movie. For the filmmakers, frustrated by the failure of their mechanical effects to work at sea, the kegs were both a shorthand for the shark's presence, and an extension of the Sirkian visual motif that makes yellow one of the picture's touchstone colours.
When Quint recalls the shark's attack on his boat he compares it to being "hit by a freight train" - an image that echoes a phrase from the book's very first chapter ("the great conical head struck her like a locomotive") and prefigures Hooper's description of a megalodon ("a locomotive with a mouth full of butcher knives") in the next. As he tells it, the fisherman remains unfazed by the encounter and reserves a healthy dose of contempt for his customer, who "[screams] bloody murder" in the face of danger and - when the boat is "all tied up safe and sound" at dock - tries to claim the Hemingwayesque glory of the catch with a bribe, which is refused. The story adds another layer to Quint's character, suggesting he lives by some twisted code of honour that cannot be bought.
He goes on to explain to Brody in some detail how he plans to catch Amity's shark:
"If he takes one of the lines, there'll be no way to stop him if he wants to run. But I'll try to turn him towards us - tighten the drag way down and take the risk of tearing loose. He'll probably bend the hook out pretty quick, but we might get him close enough for an iron. And once I've got one iron in him, it's only a matter of time."
The screenplay distills Quint's M.O into a single line of dialogue ("See what I do, chief, is I trick him to the surface, then I jab at him."). In the movie the fisherman uses a Greener harpoon gun to "jab" at the shark, but in the book he hurls each harpoon - Ahab-like - with his arm.
