Allow me a moment to be pedantic about this whole infernal argument. The “door” that Rose Dewitt Bukater (Kate Winslet) shivered on in the last act of the 1997 epic Titanic is not, in fact, a door. It is instead modeled after an actual artifact recovered from the sinking, which is most likely a piece of wooden paneling from one of the first-class lounges.
This debate has been going on for so long. Every time I think I’m free, it pops back up. Listen: It was never about the circumference of the paneling, it was about the buoyancy. The whole point of Rose getting on there was to keep her from being fully submerged in water that was 28 degrees Fahrenheit. Jack (Leonardo DiCaprio) even tries to get on and fails because the paneling begins to sink!
While promoting his newest installment in the Avatar franchise, Fire and Ash, director James Cameron talks about the technology involved in the Avatar franchise, and inevitably the conversation steers towards his time making Titanic. Specifically, how a few years back Cameron himself had debunked the theory that the paneling could hold both of them.
Cameron talks about how initially he was “irked because it had become a meme.” Given that Jack and Rose’s story is Romeo & Juliet, Cameron says, “Romeo’s gotta die!” Who doesn’t love a good tragedy? Everybody else, apparently!
The debate, like my heart, goes on and on
Cameron’s words and actual debunking of the theory, however, have not stopped people from an ouroboros of an online debate. Anybody who knows anything about Cameron knows that he is perhaps one of the most thorough and detail-oriented directors around. With the Titanic also being something of an area of interest for him, he made sure to do everything as meticulously as possible. Experts were brought in. Minute changes were made to make it as close to what would have happened as it could be without endangering the actors.
“If they had both gotten on the raft, [Jack] still would’ve died,” Cameron says. “Unless he knew everything we know now about the body’s hypothermic response, and he took certain very specific actions based on that scientific knowledge, which didn’t exist in 1912.”
Cameron goes on to say that it was all about creating a scenario where Rose could live, because Jack loved her that much, and “The intention of the writing, the actual literal physics, and the historical period and what was known says Jack dies.”
Will this actually stop people from talking about it ad nauseam? Absolutely not. Memes never truly die. But, please, if you’re going to, at least stop calling it a door.
(featured image: Paramount Pictures)
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