Every fan of James Cameron’s “Titanic” must have debated many times whether Jack (Leonardo DiCaprio) had to die or not. Many viewers claim that the floating door that turned into a makeshift raft had enough room for both Jack and Rose (Kate Winslet), but Cameron himself is here to prove everyone wrong. In an interview with The Toronto Sun to promote “Avatar: The Way of Water,” Cameron revealed that he documented a “scientific study” proving that two people could not have survived on the floating door at the end of “Titanic.”
“We did a scientific study to put this whole thing to rest and put a stake through the heart once and for all,” Cameron said. “We’ve since done a thorough forensic analysis with a hypothermia expert who reproduced the raft from the film, and we’re going to do a little special on it to be released in February.”
The special’s February release coincides with the 4K restoration of “Titanic,” which is slated to open in theaters on Valentine’s Day weekend 2023.
Cameron continued: “We took two stuntmen who were the same body weight as Kate and Leo, put sensors on them and in them, put them in ice water and tested whether they could survive different things and the answer was there was no way how could both survive. Only one could survive.”
“[Jack] he needed to die,” Cameron added. “It’s like Romeo and Juliet. It is a film about love, sacrifice and mortality. Love is measured by sacrifice…Maybe after 25 years I won’t have to deal with it anymore.”
Cameron made headlines in 2019 when he called the endless debate over Jack’s fate “stupid”. The filmmaker told the BBC: “There is no debate. But if you really want to debunk all the stupid arguments involved… I mean, let’s get back to it, could Romeo have been smart and not taken the poison? Yes. Could he have decided not to bring his little dagger in case Juliet could stab herself with it? Yes, definitely. It somehow misses the point.”
Just last month, Cameron revealed that DiCaprio almost lost the role of Jack because he didn’t want to test for the role. DiCaprio charmed studio executives during his first meeting for the role, so Cameron arranged a second meeting with the actor for a screen test with Kate Winslet.
“He didn’t know he was going to test,” Cameron told GQ magazine. “He thought it was another appointment to meet Kate. So I said, ‘Okay, we’ll go into the next room, do a few lines, and I’ll shoot it.’ And he said, ‘You think I read?’ I said, ‘Yes.’ He said, ‘Oh, I don’t read.’ I shook his hand and said, ‘Thank you for coming.'”
Cameron was ready to turn DiCaprio away immediately, but the actor came back to him and said, “Wait, wait, wait. If I don’t read, won’t I get the part? Exactly?” Cameron replied, “Oh, yeah. Come on. This is a huge movie that’s going to take up two years of my life, and you’re going to be off doing five other things while I’m doing post-production. So I’m not going to screw it up with a bad casting decision. So you’re going to read or you won’t get the part.’
The re-release of Titanic will begin on February 10, 2023. Cameron’s latest directorial effort, “Avatar: The Way of Water,” is now playing in theaters nationwide.
