Police Chief Martin Brody, played by Roy Scheider, is a character in the film Jaws. He was also featured in the Peter Benchley novel of the same name and the film sequel Jaws 2 and it's novelization written by Hank Searls.
After a shark attack resulting in the death of Chrissie Watkins at Amity Island, Police Chief Martin Brody closed the beaches. After pressure from Mayor Larry Vaughan, Brody is forced to open the beaches again. Brody reluctantly accepts his demands until the shark kills a young boy, Alex Kintner. A bounty is placed on the shark, causing an amateur shark-hunting frenzy, and local professional shark fisherman Quint offers his services for $10,000. Meanwhile, consulting oceanographer Matt Hooper examines Chrissie's remains, and confirms her death was caused by a shark—an unusually large one.
Mrs. Kintner, Alex's mother, confronts Brody and blames him for her son's death. Hooper expresses doubts that the tiger shark is responsible for the attacks.
Vaughn dismisses Brody and Hooper's assertions that a huge great white shark is responsible for the deaths, and refuses to close the beaches, allowing only increased safety precautions. On the Fourth of July weekend, tourists pack the beaches. Following a juvenile prank with a fake shark, the real shark enters a nearby lagoon, killing a boater and causing Brody's oldest son, Michael, to go into shock. Brody then convinces a guilt-ridden Vaughn to hire Quint.
Quint, Brody, and Hooper set out on Quint's boat, the Orca, to hunt the shark. While Brody lays down a chum line, Quint waits for an opportunity to hook the shark. Without warning, it appears behind the boat. Quint, estimating its length at 25 feet and weight at 3 tons, harpoons it with a line attached to a flotation barrel, but the shark pulls the barrel underwater and disappears.
At nightfall, Quint and Hooper drunkenly exchange stories about their assorted scars, and Quint reveals that he survived the attack on the USS Indianapolis. The shark returns unexpectedly, ramming the boat's hull, and disabling the power. The men work through the night, repairing the engine. In the morning, Brody attempts to call the Coast Guard, but Quint, who has become obsessed with killing the shark without outside assistance, smashes the radio. After a long chase, Quint harpoons the shark with another barrel. The line is tied to the stern cleats, but the shark drags the boat backward, swamping the deck and flooding the engine compartment. Quint prepares to sever the line to prevent the transom from being pulled out but the cleats break off, keeping the barrels attached to the shark. Quint heads toward shore to draw the shark into shallower waters, but he overtaxes the damaged engine and it fails.
As the Orca slowly sinks, the trio attempts a riskier approach. Hooper enters the water in a shark-proof cage, intending to lethally inject the shark with strychnine, using a hypodermic spear. The shark attacks the cage, causing Hooper to drop the spear, which sinks and is lost. While the shark thrashes in the tangled remains of the cage, Hooper manages to escape to the seabed. The shark breaks free and leaps onto the boat, devouring Quint in the process. Trapped on the sinking vessel, Brody shoves a pressurized scuba tank into the shark's mouth and climbs onto the crow's nest. He shoots the tank with Quint's rifle, killing the shark with the resulting explosion. Hooper resurfaces and paddles back to Amity Island with Brody, clinging to the remaining barrels.