Before James Cameron funneled all his creative energy into the Avatar franchise, one of his biggest movies was Titanic. The 1997 disaster movie was a box office sensation upon release, featuring a love story set against the infamous ship’s tragic sinking. Beyond the accolades, Cameron became a genuine expert on the history of the Titanic, even making numerous dives to the ship’s wreckage aboard submersibles, which have been featured in his documentaries, such as 2003’s Ghosts of the Abyss.
Throughout his meticulous production and research, Cameron has also determined the best way to survive the Titanic disaster. However, THR‘s question lays out conditions, giving the director specific parameters to answer within. Cameron was asked to picture himself as a second-class passenger, negating the higher chance of survival first-class passengers had, and the potential death sentence being in third-class could have been, as many were locked below decks. He was also told that he would be traveling alone, which would keep him from having to prioritize a spouse and child when they were being loaded into lifeboats first. Cameron speculates on “what-if” scenarios, stating:
“I think there were interesting ways to what-if or second-guess the whole thing. One I like to play with my Titanic experts is — with what we know now, and if you had the captain’s ear — how could you save everybody? The other is: What if you’re a time traveler, you go back and want to experience the sinking, and your little time-travel thing that gets you back fails, and you’re like, ‘Oh f*ck, I’m really on the ship, I’ve got to get off it.'”
Cameron then went into his daring plan for survival, which still entails plunging into the icy 28-degree water the passengers endured during the ship’s sinking. Yet, if you “had the courage to jump,” it was your best bet before “you were screwed.” Cameron elaborated, saying:
“Most people wouldn’t have had the courage to jump into the water. They couldn’t quite believe that the ship was really going to sink. But if you knew for sure it was going to sink and you weren’t on a lifeboat, you jump in the water next to the boat the second it casts off. Once they rowed away, you were screwed. Are they going to let you drown when Titanic is still there and everybody is watching? No, they’d pull you in, and the officers would go, ‘Well, f*ck, there’s nothing I can do about that.’ Boat four would be a good one for this.”
Cameron Has Solved ‘Titanic’ Survival Mysteries Before
Laying out his plan to get on a lifeboat isn’t the only Titanic survival mystery Cameron has gone about solving. While hindsight is 20/20 when it comes to the actual disaster, Cameron’s movie spawned its own debated survival moment with Rose lying on a door, leaving Jack to freeze to death in the water. Fans had volleyed theories back and forth for years, stating that there was plenty of room for Jack on the door, with others noting it would sink too low in the water to be effective. Despite MythBusters stating they could both fit and survive, Cameron took it upon himself to get to the bottom of the argument.
In a National Geographic special called Titanic: 25 Years Later with James Cameron, the director conducted his own experiments to determine whether both of his characters could have survived the disaster. Cameron’s findings ultimately showed him that it was possible, given proper placement and conditions, and his final argument shifted to the fact that he should have made the door smaller. Still, his knowledge of the Titanic disaster continues to grow, with his insights proving beneficial far beyond his cinematic masterpiece.
- Release Date
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December 19, 1997
- Runtime
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3h 14m
This story originally appeared on Movieweb
