“We wanted to put an end to all this speculation,” says james cameron to Toronto Sun. And when he wants to close a debate on one of his films, the director does not do things by halves, going so far as to order a scientific study. We’re not talking about recent Avatar: The Waterway which James Cameron is currently on promotion for. But from one of his previous blockbusters and not the least: titanic.
As soon as the film was released, almost twenty years ago, moviegoers debated the ending and in particular this scene where Rose (Kate Winslet) is alone on the wooden door transformed into a makeshift raft, while Jack (Leonardo DiCaprio ) clings only to it, the rest of the body in the freezing water.
A thorough forensic analysis
The whole question then is whether Kate Winslet could have made room for Leonardo Di Caprio on the raft, thus saving his life. It is this debate that James Cameron wanted to settle, once and for all. “We carried out an in-depth forensic analysis with a hypothermia expert who reproduced the raft from the film”, specifies the director at Toronto Sun.
For this experiment, two stuntmen of the same body mass as Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio were covered with sensors and then placed in freezing water. “We did tests to see if they could have survived by various methods and the answer was that there was no chance that they could both have survived. Only one could survive”, assures the filmmaker.
And for those who ask to see to be fully convinced, James Cameron specifies that the experience was filmed and will be the subject of a documentary broadcast next February, when the restored version of Titanic is released.
“He had to die”
As to whether the director has any regrets? “No, he had to die, he decides. It’s like Romeo and Juliet. It’s a film about love, sacrifice, death. Love is measured by sacrifice. »