James Cameron did the experiment: Titanic’s Jack probably wouldn’t have survived

(Major spoilers for the 1997 film below. Psst: The Ship Sinks.)

Since James Cameron’s blockbuster movie titanic When the film hit theaters in December 1997, fans were warned about a particular scene in which Jack’s (Leonardo DiCaprio), the woman he loves, majestically gives way to a makeshift raft for survival. have been discussing. Cameron was tired of having to constantly defend his artistic choices against claims that two lovers could raft, so he told The National in his Geographic’s new documentary. , decided to reproduce the scenario under controlled conditions. Titanic: 25 Years Later with James Cameron, Movie Quarter Century Memorial.

For the 10 people on earth who haven’t seen this movie, Jack and Rose are star-crossed lovers of different social classes who have had the misfortune of consummating love just minutes before. titanic Hit that infamous iceberg. (The characters are fictional and are meant to humanize the tragedy by rooting for someone specific.) As the icy sea approaches and engulfs them, Rose rescues Jack from the lower decks. , followed by much drama, including jumping out of the lifeboat she briefly boarded. She can’t imagine leaving Jack behind.

Thanks to Jack’s cool head, we can get through the crisis. titanicis sinking They end up splashing in the icy sea with the other survivors until Jack finds floating debris and lifts Rose onto a makeshift raft. However, when he also tries to climb, the raft becomes unstable. Unwilling to risk her safety, Jack clings to the edge of the raft and stays in the water, slowly freezing to death. Rose is rescued. Many hardcore romantics were outraged at being robbed of the fairytale ending, sparking heated debate and theories of speculation as to how Jack survived underwater until the two were rescued. I got

Cameron’s commitment is to get every last historical detail right. titanic So much so that astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson began to dispute the astronomical details depicted in the original film, as Rose gazes up at the stars and floats in the open ocean. He knew the exact latitude and longitude of that date and time, and recalled receiving a “rather ironic email” from Tyson pointing out that the star field was wrong. , Cameron (to his credit) made changes in the 3D re-release of the film.

But the question of whether Jack could have been saved too didn’t have the same definitive answer. was even the subject of a 2012 episode suspicious rumorCo-hosts Adam Savage and Jamie Heinemann conducted their own experiment and found that if they found a way to keep the upper body upright and attach Rose’s life jacket underneath to increase buoyancy, both Jack and Rose would be able to lift the raft. We concluded that we could have shared and survived. Cameron also appeared in the episode, saying he thought he was “missing the point” and didn’t explain how difficult it would be to tie a life vest to debris floating in the water when the water was 28 degrees Fahrenheit.

“If he had lived, the ending of the movie would have been meaningless,” Cameron told Vanity Fair in 2017 on the film’s 20th anniversary. He had to fall because of it, even if the chimney fell on him, it’s called art.Things are for artistic reasons, not for physical reasons. It happens for a number of reasons.” Cameron said he spent two days testing the wood in water for the right amount of buoyancy. In order to survive, I figured I couldn’t submerge the rose in 28 degree water. And 20 years later, he said, he still finds it “silly” to have the same argument.

Twenty-five years later, Cameron told the Toronto Sun in December that he had conducted a scientific study to “put all this to rest and put the stakes completely at its heart.” , two weight-matched stuntmen were chosen to represent Jack and Rose. They were outfitted with three internal thermometers to monitor their body temperature, and if their body temperature fell below 95°F they were hypothetically dead. . Because these were not comfortable experiments, even dangerous.) Cameron also suspicious rumor‘ Suggested scenarios for appropriate action.