James Cameron Settles Titanic Door Debate After 25 Years

Titanic came out in 1997, 25 years from now. The movie became an instant classic and can be considered a Hall of fame movie even in today’s contemporary world. It was created by Cameron on a $200 million budget and starred Leonardo DiCaprio as Jack and Kate Winslet as Rose. The iconic romantic duo of the film is immortalized by the script and the actors’ performances. While DiCaprio and Winslet’s chemistry together was undoubtedly beautiful, there is still one question that bothers fans and critics alike. Could Jack have survived on the floating door as well?

Cameron Settles The Debate

While plenty of fans agree that Jack would have died anyway, there are also many of those who hold the other view. As anyone who heard about the movie or the actual incident that happened knows, the Titanic collapsed after crashing into an iceberg and rapidly sank to the ocean floor. In the end, the titular characters somehow make it out. Jack sacrifices himself by staying in the bone-chilling water while Rose lies on a broken door of the ship. While Jack eventually loses his life to the ice and water, Rose survives and becomes the lone survivor of the crash.

But the question is, was the door big enough for both of them to survive? After 25 years of the film, director James Cameron finally steps up to settle the actual debate. National Geographic and James Cameron team up to reenact the climax of the hit film.

Cameron’s Aid

The writer and director of the film James Cameron enlist the help of scientists and stunt workers to reenact Jack’s dying moments. The team sets out to test different scenarios which could have come to be at the end of Titanic. In one situation, the team sees that the two characters could have actually fit on the door, but that could mean them being drowned in no time. As Cameron notes:

“Jack and Rose are able to get on the raft, but now they’re both submerged in dangerous levels of freezing water.”

 Cameron also entertains the idea of Jack’s survival once he was out of the freezing water. He admits that outside of the cold water, he could have probably survived for far longer than he actually did. Perhaps, Rose could have even thrown him a life jacket to make things better for him.

“Out of the water, violent shaking was helping him and projecting it out, he could’ve made it pretty long, like hours.”

So there are definitely scenarios where Jack could have made it, according to Cameron. Even as they went through multiple scenarios, he tried to ensure that every variable worked in an appropriate way. They work out another scenario taking into account the pain they must’ve endured after the sinking of the ship. If Rose had offered Jack the life jacket, he could have felt warmer and survived:

“And he’s stabilized. He got into a place where if we projected that out, he just might’ve made it until the lifeboat got there.”

Alas, that was not quite what happened. Jack died because the script said so. In spite of that, Cameron gives a final statement to try and settle the 25-year-long debate:

“Jack might’ve lived, but there are many variables.”

He mentions that the film and the character’s thought processes were all about love and sacrifice. Jack would not have done a single thing to risk Rose’s life, and that was very much in character for him. In his own words, in an interview with Toronto Sun, Cameron said:

“No, he 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.”