One of the longest-running debates in modern cinema has been settled according to filmmaker James Cameron.
Cameron’s 1997 epic “Titanic” famously ends with Leonardo DiCaprio’s Jack sacrificing himself to the watery depths of the Atlantic so his love Rose (Kate Winslet) can survive on the makeshift raft they made out of a floating door.
Long have there been arguments that the rather sizeable door was big enough to fit both of them, with various film fans discussing the topic sometimes humorously and sometimes more seriously.
Well, the debate can apparently be put to rest as whilst out promoting “Avatar: The Way of Water,” Cameron revealed to The Toronto Sun that he has the results of a documented scientific study proving two people could not have survived on said door.
Those results will be shown as part of a documentary special to be released in February on National Geographic and ties in with a re-release of “Titanic” in cinemas for Valentine’s Day next year. Cameron says:
“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.
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.”
In 2019, Cameron called the never-ending debate “stupid,” saying there is “no debate” and claims many of the arguments “sort of miss the point” of the whole nature of the story:
“[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.”
Cameron revealed last month that DiCaprio nearly lost out on the role of Jack because he didn’t want to screen test for the part. The “Titanic” re-release will take place on February 10th.
Source: Variety
