Titanic film riddle that has baffled fans for 25 years finally solved with detailed reconstruction
THE director of Titanic has finally conceded Jack might have survived if lover Rose had just shifted over a bit on her raft.
After years of fans doubting whether Leonardo DiCaprio’s character really needed to die, James Cameron tried it in a pool.
In NatGeo TV special Titanic: 25 Years Later, the filmmaker, 68, said: “Jack might have lived.
“But Jack’s survival might have cost Rose’s life.
“On what I know today, I would have made the raft smaller so there’s no doubt.”
Cameron took two stunt people the same height and weight as Jack and Rose to a lab which specialises in studying the effects of cold on the human body.
First, they determine that Jack would have clinical hypothermia if he’d stayed in the water for more than 20 minutes and since it took the rescue team 2 hours to find Rose, he would have died.
Then they try to fit Jack and Rose on the board.
They both fit on the raft, though only their upper halves are on while their legs remain submerged in the freezing water but they’d likely freeze to death.
Next, Cameron has them both kneeling on the raft and sharing their body heat with one another yet the raft proves too unstable.
Finally the pair are both on top of the raft and only their lower legs are underwater.
Here, Cameron determines that Jack could have survived ‘a few hours’ in time to be rescued.
Cameron claims this is nothing more than a ‘fantasy’ because in the experiment Jack and Rose did not go ‘through all the stuff’ that his characters did in the film.