James Cameron, a man who is clearly sick of being asked why Leonardo DiCaprio had to die in Titanic, commissioned a legit scientific study to prove that Jack couldn’t have survived.
This man has a whole underwater Avatar film to promote. Yet he’s still fielding questions on the age-old pop culture debate about whether both Jack and Rose could have fit on that damn door floating in the Atlantic Ocean. I have to respect it, frankly.
In fact, it was during a promo interview for Avatar: The Way of Water that Cameron revealed this dedication to science.
“We have done a scientific study to put this whole thing to rest and drive a stake through its heart once and for all,” he said, per The Toronto Sun.
It turns out this study wasn’t just some casual investigation. They got an actual hypothermia expert on board and did forensic analysis of the door debacle.
I can’t begin to imagine how one becomes a hypothermia expert but surely it involves a number of puffer jackets.
“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,” Cameron said.
“We took two stunt people who were the same body mass of Kate [Winslet] 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.”
Okay Harry Potter. I must say, I’m excited to see this Titanic investigative special. According to The Toronto Post it’ll be featured on National Geographic.
“Maybe … maybe … after 25 years, I won’t have to deal with this anymore,” Cameron said.
He also explained why Jack had to die from a storytelling POV as well as a scientific one, comparing the Titanic‘s love story to Romeo and Juliet.
“He needed to die. It’s like Romeo and Juliet. It’s a movie about love and sacrifice and mortality. The love is measured by the sacrifice,” he said.
There’s been legit decades of debate about whether Jack could have survived, from Mythbusters to Kate Winslet herself.
In a 2017 interview with Jimmy Kimel Winslet said, “I think he could have actually fitted on that bit of door”.
But apparently both scientifically and narratively, there was simply no way Jack could have survived on that dastardly plank of wood.
