Titanic is a great James Cameron movie, and one of the defining ’90s movies too. But, the drama movie is not without its critics, and there’s one moment that comes in for more criticism than any other.
Titanic is a movie based on a true story, but tells a fictionalised version of the sinking of the RMS Titanic. The romance movie centres on the story of Rose and Jack, played by Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio respectively, as they meet onboard the ship and fall increasingly in love. It’s packed full of emotion and memorable moments, and it’s runtime is as long as its name suggests.
However, Titanic does not have a happy ending. The ship sinks after colliding with an iceberg, and while Rose survives Jack drowns after refusing to climb aboard the floating door which she is using to keep herself above water. For decades now that climatic moment has been mocked, with audiences arguing that there was clearly enough room on the floating door for both of the characters.
Well, it turns out that James Cameron – the legendary director behind the new Avatar science fiction movie – has had enough of the mockery. Speaking to The Toronto Sun, the director revealed that he conducted scientific research to debunk the claim that Jack could have survived if he’d climbed aboard the make-shift raft with Rose.
He said “We have done a scientific study to put this whole thing to rest and drive a stake through its heart once and for all. We have since done a thorough forensic analysis with a hypothermia expert who reproduced the raft from the movie and we’re going to do a little special on it that comes out in February.”
He continued, elaborating on the study further “We took two stunt people who were the same body mass of Kate and Leo and 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. [Jack] needed to die. It’s like Romeo and Juliet. It’s a movie about love and sacrifice and mortality. The love is measured by the sacrifice…Maybe after 25 years, I won’t have to deal with this anymore.”
So, there y0u have it. The constant criticism clearly irked Cameron, and he hopes this study will mean that it’s put to bed once and for all. For more on Cameron’s cinematic magic, take a look at our guide to the Avatar 2 cast. Or, check out our Avatar 2 review to find out whether it’s worth watching.