James Cameron Went And Did A Scientific Test To Prove That Jack Had To Die In ‘Titanic’

Fifteen Decembers ago, just like this December, James Cameron had a gigantic movie out in theaters. It was called Titanic, and it was for a very long time the highest grossing movie ever made (not adjusted for inflation). Eventually it was unseated by another movie: James Cameron’s Avatar. Will its belated sequel unseat it? Too early to tell. In the meantime, people are still talking about Titanic, particularly its ending, particularly whether Leonardo DiCaprio’s Jack had to eat it. But Cameron, long annoyed by this debate, finally has a concrete answer for that.

In a new interview with The Toronto Sun (as caught by Deadline), Cameron addressed the biggest debate about 1997 money-gobbler: Whether both Jack and Kate Winslet’s Rose could have fit on that door in the middle of the Atlantic. His answer: No. And he even did a scientific test to prove it.

“We have done a scientific study to put this whole thing to rest and drive a stake through its heart once and for all,” said Cameron. “We have since done a thorough forensic analysis with a hypothermia expert who reproduced the raft from the movie, and we’re going to do a little special on it that comes out in February.”

Here’s how it worked:

“We took two stunt people who were the same body mass of Kate and Leo and we put sensors all over them and inside them and we put them in ice water and we tested to see whether they could have survived through a variety of methods and the answer was, there was no way they both could have survived. Only one could survive.”

Cameron’s test contradicts a previous test done in 2012 on the show Mythbusters, which concluded that Jack’s death was “needless.” But it’s Cameron’s film, and not only has he scientifically proven that Jack had to die, but his death fit in with the story’s themes.

“It’s a movie about love and sacrifice and mortality,” Cameron said. “The love is measured by the sacrifice.”

(Via The Toronto Sun and Deadline)