Most of Steven Spielberg’s Jaws takes place on the fictional Amity Island.
Amity is presented as a New England resort community whose economy depends heavily on summer tourism. When a great white shark begins attacking swimmers, Police Chief Martin Brody wants to close the beaches, but the mayor and local business interests fear the financial consequences.
The island is fictional, but the production filmed much of the town material on Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts. The location provided beaches, harbors, and a working seaside community that could stand in for Amity. The visible setting therefore feels geographically real even though the story’s island name is invented.
Amity Island is sometimes confused with locations from other creature films. It is not the dinosaur island from Jurassic Park, which is called Isla Nublar, and it is not a real island commonly identified on maps. The fictional setting helps Jaws function as both a local disaster story and a universal summer-shark nightmare.