Michael Caine has long borne the blame for the critical failure of 1987's "Jaws: The Revenge", despite having minimal involvement in the film. Caine, fresh from winning an Academy Award for "Hannah and Her Sisters", became the convenient scapegoat for an widely-panned film when he possessed limited agency over its production and direction. His status as a major star meant audiences and critics naturally directed their criticism towards the biggest name attached to the project.

In reality, Caine's role in the film was minimal: he appears for approximately ten minutes of the 90-minute runtime—essentially a cameo performance. He accepted the role for £1 million in exchange for ten days of work filmed in Nassau, the Bahamas. After enduring twenty years of criticism, Caine spoke out in 2008, pointedly noting he neither wrote, directed, photographed, nor produced the film, nor played any leading parts. He explained that he took the job for the financial opportunity, which allowed him to purchase his mother a house—a detail that has become the film's most memorable legacy.