Apparently, There Was a Way to Save Jack, After All, Admits Titanic Director James Cameron
As Titanic returns to theaters to celebrate its 25th anniversary, director James Cameron is still getting questioned about Leonardo DiCaprio’s character Jack and his infamous death, like, a lot. And for good reason. To this day, we ask, did it really have to happen, man? (there's even this famous fan theory that both Jack and Rose could've fit on the raft, which is plausible, really, just ask the MythBusters).
Well, recently, Cameron himself just said that there was a way for Jack to survive. So we were right all along, goddamnit.
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Titanic Director James Cameron Explains Why Jack Had to Die
Cameron said so in an upcoming National Geographic special called Titanic: 25 Years Later With James Cameron. Here, the Avatar director explores and addresses different scenarios on how Jack and Rose could've lived happily ever after.
They were said to have done three experiments to test out various fan theories during the show. Producers looked for stunt people who had similar body mass to Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, as well (it's that serious). What Cameron found out was that Jack, indeed, would've lived if Rose gave him her jacket. He needed the insulation, Rose.
"Jack might've lived, but there's a lot of variables," he reportedly said during the documentary. "I think his thought process was, 'I'm not going to do one thing that jeopardized her,' and that's 100 percent in character."
He added: “Based on what I know today, I would have made the raft smaller so there’s no doubt.”
Nevertheless, Cameron was still adamant that Jack's death was necessary for the plot to move forward. In the past, the director has always kept his answers about Jack's death concise and straightforward, especially his one during the film's 20th anniversary.
"The answer is very simple," he told Vanity Fair in 2017, "because it says on page 147 [of the script] that Jack dies."
Titanic has made $2.19 billion since its debut in 1997. It's one of the highest-grossing films in history, and is one of Cameron's works that have surpassed the billion-dollar threshold.
Titanic: 25 Years Later With James Cameron airs on February 5.
