If you’ve seenTitanic, you probably have a strong opinion on whether lovable scamp Jack Dawson (Leonardo DiCaprio) could have been saved from a frigid fate by sharing the door-turned-raft keeping Rose (Kate Winslet) afloat in the icy North Atlantic.
Though directorJames Cameronhas always insisted that Jack had to die for drama’s sake, the filmmaker is so fed up with the 25-year-long debate over whether both young lovers could have fit on the door that he took matters into his own hands.
Sitting down withThe Toronto Sunwhile promoting his latest project,Avatar: The Way of Water, Cameron shared that he undertook a scientific study to prove “once and for all” that Jack wouldn’t have survived the ill-fated steamship’s sinking—even if hehadmanaged to get on the door.
“We have done a scientific study to put this whole thing to rest and drive a stake through its heart once and for all. 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.”
“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.”
Related:Titanic: A Closer Look at How James Cameron Filmed the Historic Blockbuster
Cameron Just Wants the Debate to End: ‘Maybe After 25 Years, I Won’t Have to Deal with This Anymore’
Even if the thorough scientific investigation had proven Jack could have been saved by sharing the door, the tragic young hero’s fate has been sealed from the beginning—a decision that Cameron doesn’t regret in the slightest.
“[Jack] 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.
Cameron hopes that fans will (finally) put the quarter-decade debate to rest when the National Geographic special airs in February alongside a 4K theatrical re-release ofTitanic.
“Maybe after 25 years, I won’t have to deal with this anymore,” he joked.
TheTitanicre-release sails into theaters on June 22, 2025;Avatar: The Way of Wateris in theaters now.
