Hook

The next scene of the two locals trying to catch the shark with a hook and chain under cover of darkness is split into two sections: their brief preparations as they set their bait, and what happens when they catch the shark. The first section begins with an establishing shot of a rowing boat moving through the water towards a pier. It's natural to assume that this is the same wooden jetty Michael Brody's boat was tied up to in the previous scene, but a brief exchange of dialogue between the two men in the boat informs us that 'the chief lives on the other side of the island.' One of the men seems concerned about the legality of their actions ('Let's stop before someone reports us'), but, unless they're trespassing (which is hard to do on an ocean) then it's difficult to see how they are breaking the law. As they draw closer to the jetty there is a fade (not a cut) to a closer shot of the boat (which resembles the one Ellen saw in the book illustration) and we see them through one of the fisherman's nets that have been hung out on the shore to dry. It's a visual shorthand for telling us that these two bumbling bounty hunters are going to get caught in their own trap.

There is a cut to the boards of the jetty as a length of coiled chain lands on it and a hand reaches out to attach one end to a large butcher's hook. Another cut shows a marbled hunk of raw meat, which one of the men obligingly identifies as his wife's holiday roast as he pierces it with the hook. Another cut shows him wrapping the chain around one of the jetty's upright posts, and then there is a cut to a low angle shot from the sea, showing both men on the jetty, faintly illuminated by a bare light bulb, with a grey sky above them, and in the background along the shore some ocean front properties, their windows all dark. The man in the checked shirt and pork pie hat stands at the end of the jetty and throws the bait, which is attached to an inflated inner tube tyre, into the sea. As he works, he whistles tunelessly to himself. The man in the baseball cap takes a step nearer the edge, and the two men watch as the tide takes the bait out, a fact that one of them comments on more for the benefit of the audience that his companion.

The task of rowing to the jetty and setting the bait would in reality take maybe half an hour. By giving the audience just a few snippets of visual information (the boat on the water, the jetty, the chain, the hook, and the meat) Spielberg tells us everything we need to know in only fifty seconds of screen time. The same montage  technique is used when the shark cage is assembled on the Orca although then music is used to underscore the heroic nature of Hooper's decision to get into the water.