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James Cameron Conducted a Scientific Study to Solve Titanic’s Biggest Mystery

When British passenger liner RMS Titanic sank in the North Atlantic Ocean on April 15, 1912, more than 1,500 passengers of the 2,224 onboard died, in what remains the deadliest sinking of a super-liner in times of peace. It’s a fictional death we’re still talking about today, though.
Titanic came out in 1997, is one of the highest-grossing and popular movies of all times 12 photos
Photo: Paramount Pictures
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RMS Titanic was the second of the three Olympic-class ocean liners operated by the UK-based White Star Line, on its maiden voyage from Southampton, UK to New York City, U.S. The “unsinkable ship” and the “ship of dreams” carried some of the wealthiest people in the world at the moment, about to be pampered in the most luxurious floating interiors they’d ever set foot in, valuable cargo and art, and hundreds of migrants heading to a better life across the pond.

It also carried fewer lifeboats than the number of maximum passengers and, most importantly, 900 crew that had not been properly instructed for a worst-case scenario situation. The latter would play an essential part in how the deploying of lifeboats was done after the ship hit the iceberg and started taking on water, to disastrous consequences.

The sinking of the Titanic, one of the biggest naval tragedies of modern times, also represented a milestone for the naval industry in terms of additional safety measures. For James Cameron, it was an inspiration that turned into a decades-long obsession, so if you’re itching to relive it, mark your calendars for February 2023: there’s a new Titanic special coming out then, done in partnership with National Geographic. It drops with the 4K remastering of the film, which will screen in theaters.

Titanic came out in 1997, is one of the highest\-grossing and popular movies of all times
Photo: Paramount Pictures
You’d think everything that could be said about the 1997 Oscar-winning film of the same name has been said already, but the biggest mystery remains: could have Jack (Leonardo DiCaprio) fit on the same door-raft as Rose (Kate Winslet), and thus be saved? In previous interviews, Cameron has repeatedly shut down the fan theory that there was enough room for both, but he’s hoping real science will now do that for him. For good, this time, because he’s growing tired.

“We have done a scientific study to put this whole thing to rest and drive a stake through its heart once and for all,” Cameron says in a recent interview with The Toronto Sun, to promote Avatar: The Way of the Water. The study included consulting with a hypothermia expert to conduct a forensic analysis, and while Cameron doesn’t go into details, there’s this: if you were rooting for Jack, we have bad news.

“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,” Cameron says. “Only one could survive.” Harsh!

Previously, Cameron said that the door did not have enough buoyancy to support the weight of both bodies, though that was disproved by Myth Busters in 2013, when they did a full episode about the most requested myth of all times, as they called it.

Titanic came out in 1997, is one of the highest\-grossing and popular movies of all times
Photo: Paramount Pictures
Despite what was shown in the film, it turns out that the door would have stayed afloat if they adjusted position. To solve the issue of being half-submerged in water, Myth Busters found that, if Rose had removed her lifejacket, she could have placed it underneath the raft to increase its buoyancy. Not only would they have fit on the raft without it toppling over, but they would have been out of the water, for about 80% of their body.

Some time after the Myth Busters episode, Cameron was still saying that Jack and Rose would have been lying in frozen water, so both would have died, even assuming the door fit them both. It seems that this new study set out to prove just that, but we’ll have to wait a few more months to find out.

Of course, Cameron has also said that the story of Jack and Rose is like that of Romeo and Juliet, so one of them had to die for love, regardless of the feelings it aroused in the audience. In other words, science be damned, because Cameron had it in for Jack from the get-go – and would have even made the raft smaller to make sure it happened.

Titanic came out in 1997, is one of the highest\-grossing and popular movies of all times
Photo: Paramount Pictures
Jokes aside, self-professed Titanic fanboy Cameron will have the fans know that focusing on Jack’s “unnecessary” death is missing the bigger point his movie is trying to make – though we have a feeling he loves being challenged to such an extent as to conduct a scientific study just to prove his case. He has a point, if you think about it: this is the story of RMS Titanic, one of the biggest tragedies at sea of all times.

Then again, this is Hollywood for you.



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About the author: Elena Gorgan
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Elena has been writing for a living since 2006 and, as a journalist, she has put her double major in English and Spanish to good use. She covers automotive and mobility topics like cars and bicycles, and she always knows the shows worth watching on Netflix and friends.
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