James Cameron is a man who does not mince his words, and it seems like he has finally had enough of people asking one question about his first $1 billion success: Could Jack have survived on the raft in Titanic? Yes, that age-old enigma of the modern world that was created with the final scenes of Cameron’s epic 1997 blockbuster has finally started to get on the director’s nerves.
During a stint on The Hollywood Reporter’s Awards Chatter Podcast, Cameron sensed the eternal question rearing its head about whether Jack and Rose could have both survived if they had used the raft to its full potential. On the subject, Cameron said:
“Don’t ask me about the f*cking raft, people! Look, we even went to the lengths of doing an experiment to see if Jack could have in any way survived, or if they could have both survived, and people didn’t even hear the answer when I told them the answer. The answer is, if Jack somehow was an expert in hypothermia and somehow knew what science now knows back in 1912, it is theoretically possible, with a lot of luck, that he might have survived.
Therefore, the answer is no, he could not have. There’s no way. The conditions were not met. He couldn’t have known those things.”
James Cameron’s Next Movies May Not Be an ‘Avatar’ Sequel
In the last two decades, James Cameron has mostly been working on his Avatar franchise, with Avatar: Fire and Ash releasing in December 2025 as the third installment. While Cameron has at least two more movies planned, currently with release dates in 2029 and 2030, it is unclear whether he will direct these himself, as other things are starting to attract his attention.
While Cameron’s Avatar franchise seemed to be capable of getting any kind of budget and green light it wanted when Avatar: The Way of Water repeated the success of the 2009 original movie and broke the $2 billion mark during its theatrical run. However, Avatar: Fire and Ash has not found the same kind of success, and will end up behind Zootopia 2 in the year’s chart unless it can find around $400 million from somewhere.
Cameron has pondered what this means for the next chapters of Avatar, and how he can look to cut costs to keep his Disney overlords happy. He has, however, also been hinting that a return to the Terminator franchise could be on the cards. The director has discussed bringing back his iconic franchise with a brand new set of characters and story, if only he can work out a story that still seems from the future and not something happening in the world of AI right now.
Whatever happens next, Cameron has made it clear that he has plenty of things that he would like to do in the coming years, and it is just finding the time to fit it all in. One thing he seemingly won’t be wasting time on, though, is answering the same question about whether Jack could have survived his Titanic death.
- Release Date
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December 19, 1997
- Runtime
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3h 14m
This story originally appeared on Movieweb
