James Cameron’s 1997 film follows Jack and Rose, portrayed byLeonardo DiCaprio andKate Winslet, respectively. They’re both passengers aboard theTitanic, but they’re from vastly different worlds, separated by class. Of course, they fall in love anyway. And when the Titanichits an iceberg and sinks to the bottom of the ocean, Jack performs one final act of love: He helps Rose onto a floating wooden board—and remains in the freezing water beside her. Rose makes it. Jack doesn’t.
Over the past 25 years, the gesture has racked up a whole lot of skepticism. Did Jack really need to sacrifice his own life for Rose to survive? Couldn’t he have shared that piece of wood with her?
But Cameron, who has always maintained that the script calls for Jack to die, is determined to put an end to these questions. “We have done a scientific study to put this whole thing to rest and drive a stake through its heart once and for all,” he tells the Toronto Sun’s Mark Daniell.
The study consisted of “a thorough forensic analysis with a hypothermia expert who reproduced the raft from the movie” as well as “two stunt people who were the same body mass of Kate and Leo,” Cameron continues. “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.”
It’s not the first time Titanic’s tragic endinghas been put to the test. Jack and Rose’s raft was the subject of a2012 episode of “MythBusters,” which came to the conclusion that Jack and Rose could have shared the board and made it out alive—if they secured Rose’s life jacket underneath.
“I think you guys are missing the point here,” Cameron said in the episode. “The script said Jack dies. He has to die. So maybe we screwed up and the board should have been a little tiny bit smaller, but the dude’s going down.”
Besides, the hosts of “MythBusters” didn’t account for how the water’s temperature would have affected their proposed plan of action, Cameron told theDaily Beast’s Marlow Stern in 2017.“You’re underwater tying this thing on in 28-degree water, and that’s going to take you five to ten minutes, so by the time you come back up you’re already dead,” he said.
The findings of Cameron’s study will be explained in a National Geographic special in February 2023. Around the same time, aremastered version of Titanic will hit theaters in honor of the film’s 25th anniversary.
With his special, Cameron hopes the skeptics will finally leave him alone. “Maybe … maybe … after 25 years, I won’t have to deal with this anymore,” he tellsthe Toronto Sun.
Sarah Purkey, an oceanographer at the University of California at San Diego, tells the Washington Post’s Praveena Somasundaram that any answers will come down to buoyancy and gravity: The buoyancy of the wooden board must be greater than or equal to the gravity from Jack and Rose.“That’s how boats float, and that’s how a piece of driftwood floats,” she says. “And it’s going to sink if gravity is more than its buoyancy.”
But either way, she adds, if the study gets people thinking about physics, “then it’s great.”
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Ella Malena Feldman is a writer and editor based in Washington, D.C. She examines art, culture and gender in her work, which has appeared in Washington City Paper, DCist and the Austin American-Statesman.
Of course, they fall in love anyway. And when the Titanic hits an iceberg and sinks to the bottom of the ocean, Jack performs one final act of love: He helps Rose onto a floating wooden board—and remains in the freezing water beside her. Rose makes it. Jack doesn't.
As he pointed out in an interview with the Daily Beast, the script says “Jack gets off the board and gives his place to her so she can survive.” Jack was doomed to die because that's what the script says, and no amount of space or buoyancy research can change that.
New York, U.S.A. Jack Dawson (born 1892-1912) is the deuteragonist in Titanic and the love interest of Rose DeWitt Bukater. He dies at the end of the film from hypothermia, protecting Rose by having her float on a doorframe while he stays in the water; he was only twenty years old.
Too late for Rose to use on Jack in 1912 when the Titanic sank. Even if she had been able to incapacitate Jack in some way, the door wasn't big enough to hold up both their weight and would have sunk, drowning both of them.
After 25 years, James Cameron has admitted that both Jack and Rose could both have survived the sinking of the Titanic in his 1997 cinematic masterpiece, though there were "a lot of variables" in play.
Rose Dewitt Bukater became one of only six passengers rescued from the water following the sinking of the Titanic, and the survivors were later rescued by the RMS Carpathia. Once on board the Carpathia, Rose hid among the steerage passengers to avoid Cal, who she saw walking around looking for her.
It becomes a symbol of his loss of control over his fiancée, and to Rose, it becomes a symbol of her freedom and love for Jack. During the final moments of the boat's sinking in Titanic's ending, Cal convinces Rose to leave Jack behind and board a lifeboat.
Promise me you'll survive.That you won't give up, no matter what happens, no matter how hopeless.Promise me now, Rose, and never let go of that promise.
In the first test, Cameron disproves the fan theory that there was simply enough room on the raft for both Jack and Rose to survive. While there is enough room for “Jack and Rose to get on the raft, they're now both submerged in dangerous levels of freezing water,” Cameron observed.
As Cameron said in the Daily Beast interview, he would have had to spend time tying it underneath, so that it wouldn't just pop up from under the board and float away. The show went into full detail, pronouncing Jack dead in the freezing water at 51 minutes if he hadn't tried to get on the board.
However, during the voyage she and third-class passenger Jack Dawson fell in love. The voyage came to an abrupt end when the ship struck ice and sank. Rose survived the ship's sinking, but Jack did not. She later married a man named Calvert, and had at least three children.
"There was no way they both could have survived," Cameron said. "Only one could survive." The journey of that study will be revealed in a "little special" set to come out on National Geographic in February, he said, at the same time that "Titanic" is back in theaters to celebrate its 25th anniversary.
The Titanic Heaven scene is the final scene of the Titanic film. This scene shows the old 100 year old Rose DeWitt Bukater dying, showing her on the Titanic and reuniting with Jack Dawson and all the people who perished on the ship.
But as Rose, lying atop the door and wearing a life jacket, tries to wake him, she realizes he's dead. And ever since Jack disappeared into the dark waters, fans have argued that he could've survived if he'd gotten on the door beside Rose.
Jack (Leonardo DiCaprio) sacrifices his spot on a makeshift raft to save Rose (Kate Winslet) in Titanic. (Major spoilers for the 1997 film below. Psst: The ship sinks.)
Jack puts the stone plug back to restore the golden light exposing himself to the electromagnetism at the Source, as he realizes that this is destiny. He dies in the bamboo grove after assuring the survival of his friends and their escape from the island.
In the second test, Cameron again fit both Jack and Rose on the raft but positioned their bodies so that their upper halves (which includes vital organs) remained out of the water. Their chances of both surviving increased in this scenario. “Out of the water, [his body's] violent shaking was helping him,” Cameron said.
Introduction: My name is Terrell Hackett, I am a gleaming, brainy, courageous, helpful, healthy, cooperative, graceful person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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:focal(2018x1057:2019x1058)/tf-cmsv2-smithsonianmag-media.s3.amazonaws.com/filer_public/e8/75/e8755183-2a69-4e2b-88ee-7ad9b08bda0c/gettyimages-1192757498.jpg "Did Jack Really Need to Sacrifice Himself for Rose? (1)")
