For a quarter of a decade, Titanic fans have been embroiled in a heated debate: was there enough room on the floating debris for both Rose (Kate Winslet) and Jack (Leonardo DiCaprio) to survive the luxury liner’s sinking? Some insist yes, but director James Cameron says absolutely not—and he’s so tired of the debate that he turned to hypothermia experts to conduct a scientific study that would “drive a stake through its heart once and for all.”
In a new look at Titanic: 25 Years Later with James Cameron shared on Good Morning America Thursday, Cameron oversees the study, conducted by stunt actors in a freezing pool with a replica of the doorframe that Rose clings to in the film.
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The first experiment recreates the most commonly debated scenario—could Rose have simply scooted over to save her lover? Cameron points out why this quickly fails:
“Jack and Rose are able to get on the raft, but now they’re both submerged in dangerous levels of freezing water.”
A second experiment sees the Jack proxy propping the upper half of his body out of the water and onto the door, instead of staying submerged. Though he’s shivering violently, Cameron and his experts say the shaking could’ve bought Jack time.
“Out of the water, [his body’s] violent shaking was helping him. Projecting it out, he could’ve made it pretty long. Like, hours,” the director adds.
Depending on just how long shivering could save him, Jack could’ve survived in this scenario—in the real-life disaster, the ship’s surviving passengers were rescued by a ship three hours away (though the rescue operation itself took additional hours).
The final experiment gave Jack the best chance for survival, even after recreating the exhaustion of fleeing a sinking ship and fighting for their lives in the water. Turns out, the best solution is sharing the life vest.
“He’s stabilized. He got into a place where if we projected that out, he just might’ve made it until the lifeboat got there,” Cameron notes of the last test.
Cameron Weighs in on the Verdict: ‘There’s a Lot of Variables’
Paramount Pictures
Though the science has Cameron admitting that there’s a possibility Jack could’ve survived Titanic’s sinking, the director remains firm that his character was always just as ill-fated as the ship itself.
“Jack might’ve lived, but there’s a lot of variables,” he says, adding that any other ending would have been out of character for the gentlemanly Jack. “I think his thought process was, ‘I’m not going to do one thing that [would have] jeopardized her,’ and that’s 100 percent in character.”
Titanic: 25 Years Later with James Cameron premieres Sunday, Feb. 5 at 9 p.m. EST on National Geographic; the special will be available to stream the next day on Hulu.
