LOS ANGELES – It has been 25 years since the film Titanic (1997) sailed into global cinemas, but one debate has raged on: Would Jack have fit on the door?
The film’s Canadian writer-director James Cameron has thrown down a definitive gauntlet, telling the Toronto Sun newspaper: “We have done a scientific study to put this whole thing to rest and drive a stake through its heart once and for all... and we’re going to do a little special on it that comes out in February.”
The blockbuster romance climaxes with the titular ship sinking after crashing into an iceberg in the midst of its maiden voyage from Britain to New York. Protagonists Jack and Rose – played by Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet respectively – survive the sinking, but are trapped in the icy waters.
They latch onto a piece of floating debris – a door from the ship – and manage to haul Rose onto the makeshift raft. After an aborted attempt to join her, Jack stays in the water and dies of hypothermia before rescue teams can arrive.
Cameron explained that his “scientific study” involved two stunt people of similar size to the two actors, reconstructing the entire scene.
“We put sensors all over them and inside them, and we put them in ice water, and we tested to see whether they could have survived through a variety of methods. And the answer was, there was no way they both could have survived. Only one could survive.”
The 1997 film’s tragic ending, which capped off a poignant and epic romance between the couple, has left fans debating for years if there had been enough space for ill-fated Jack on the door.
In 2013, the science entertainment programme Mythbusters (2003 to 2016) also reconstructed the scene and claimed that, yes, Jack would have fit – if Rose tied her life vest under the door.
But 68-year-old Cameron, who also directed iconic films such as The Terminator (1984) and Aliens (1986), threw water over that theory in an 2017 interview. “You’re Jack, you’re in water that’s 28 deg F (minus 2 deg C); your brain is starting to get hypothermia.
“Mythbusters asks you to now go take off your life vest, take hers off, swim underneath this thing, attach it in some way that it won’t just wash out two minutes later – which means you’re underwater tying this thing on in 28-degree water, and that’s going to take you five to 10 minutes, so by the time you come back up, you’re already dead. So that wouldn’t work.”
In a recent podcast, Winslet said she did not know the answer, but added: “I do have a decent understanding of water and how it behaves. If you put two adults on a stand-up paddleboard, it becomes immediately, extremely unstable. That is for sure.”
Nevertheless, whether Jack would have fit on the door or not, one thing remains clear to Cameron: The character had to die. “It’s like Romeo and Juliet. It’s a movie about love, sacrifice and mortality. The love is measured by the sacrifice,” he said.
The special project will be broadcast on the National Geographic channel in February, in conjunction with the film’s 25th anniversary theatrical re-release.
