With the help of scientists, "Titanic" director James Cameron would like to end the discussion about whether his classic film could not have had a happy ending after all.
"We did a scientific study to put an end to this whole thing once and for all and put a stake in her heart," the 68-year-old told the Toronto Sun.
The question is still hotly debated around 25 years after the box office hit (US theatrical release: December 19, 1997): If the main character Jack Dawson, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, hadn't also fitted the door on which his beloved Rose after the sinking of the ship drifted in the sea?
Cameron would now like to end the debate: The raft was rebuilt for his experiment.
Two stuntmen with the same body mass as the main characters, equipped with sensors, were placed in ice water to determine their chances of survival using various methods.
Summing up the result, Cameron said: "There was no way they could both have survived.
Only one survived.” In February, the experiment will be featured in a National Geographic special.
"Maybe in 25 years I won't have to deal with it anymore."
"Jack had to die"
In the interview, Cameron underlined that he had no regrets about the ending: "He had to die.
It's like Romeo and Juliet.
It's a film about love and sacrifice and mortality.
Love is measured by the sacrifice it makes.”
It's not Cameron's first admission to the door controversy.
In 2017, he told Vanity Fair magazine, "Had he lived, the ending of the movie would have been meaningless." Winslet said shortly thereafter on Stephen Colbert's Late Show, "He should've just put more effort, on the door to come.” Winslet and Colbert reenacted the scene and showed: There would have been enough space!
Celine Dion, who sang the Titanic song "My Heart Will Go On," suspected in 2019 that Jack was so frozen from the cold ocean water that he no longer had the strength to jump on the door.
DiCaprio was asked about it by fellow actors Brad Pitt and Margot Robbie in an interview with MTV in 2019.
Unlike Cameron, Winslet, and Dion, DiCaprio just said, "No comment."
