Recently, James Cameron carried out a scientific investigation to demonstrate that Jack Dawson and Rose DeWitt Bukater could not have survived on the floating door at the conclusion of his 1997 epic Titanic. Fans have long claimed that after Titanic sank in the epic disaster movie, Rose, played by Kate Winslet, ought to have made room for Leonardo DiCaprio’s Jack on the floating piece of lumber. Jack clung to the edge and perished in the frigid waves of the Atlantic while Rose, who was lying on top of the door, eventually made it out alive.
In the movie’s dramatic conclusion, Jack and his lover Rose are cast off into the frigid Atlantic Ocean when the doomed luxury liner sinks. Jack clings onto the edge and speaks encouraging words to Rose as she struggles to get onto a wardrobe door in the water. As Rose allows Jack to enter the chilly, dark sea, he ultimately succumbs to the subzero temperatures and dies from exposure. Fans have contended for years that Rose could have easily let Jack onto the door, saving both, just by virtue of buoyancy and the angle she was lying at.
Cameron thinks that the resolution provided in the special would allow fans to go on and allow him to “not have to deal with this” in the future. He hired a forensic expert and two stuntpeople who had bodies identical to the key characters of the movie. “We have done a scientific study to put this whole thing to rest and drive a stake through its heart once and for all,” said Cameron in an interview with PostMedia.
He added, “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.”
Cameron went on to say that the almost mythological love connection between the two was strengthened by Jack’s passing. Cameron stated that Jack had to pass away. He said, “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.”
