James Cameron tested the fan theory that both Rose and Jack could've fit on the door in Titanic -- Did he now?
Posted by JDB-667@reddit | mythbusters | View on Reddit | 20 comments
Xaphnir@reddit
You also have to remember the waves would make it a lot harder to maintain stability.
inkedbutch@reddit
titanic famously sank on an extremely calm night
iMecharic@reddit
Even a very calm night isn’t free of shifting water and rocking seas.
MrBlueSky-ToldYouWhy@reddit
The Mythbusters literally did this experiment. If Rose had strapped her life jacket to the driftwood, then both she and Jack could've fit on it.
TheRealBlueJade@reddit
The Myth Buster's found that they both could have fit and Jack did not have to die. The life jacket was not a deciding factor. James Cameron rejected their result and said... Jack had to die because that was what was written into the script.
malakyoma@reddit
Which is totally fine. If the script says he dies because he can't fit on the door, make the door small enough that they can't both fit.
lbunch1@reddit
The script had the exact dimensions and density of the door. Sorry, his hands were tied.
inkedbutch@reddit
he oughtta find whoever wrote that script and yell at them…
vita10gy@reddit
This was such a bad result for the show though. They basically proved all the internet turds wrong, that it was never about "fitting on the door" and a matter of buoyancy.
Only to then go one step past what they were testing give the internet the headline it wanted, for people that only read the headlines, because they found Jack could technically have MacGyvered a situation to make the door bouyant enough for both.
For all intents and purposes the Mythbusters proved Cameron right.
_thewebslinger@reddit
Wouldn't Jack have died anyways bc he was fully in the water so the hypothermia would've gotten to him even if he'd made it onto the door?
Protiguous@reddit
Hypothermia is a race against the pace of heat loss, and cooler water is definitely a major factor.
She survived, so if he had also got out of the water sooner..
flapsmcgee@reddit
Rose was also in the water at first.
CherokeeHawkman@reddit
This feels like the kind of "science" where you already have the result and you build the experiment to confirm it. We all know they both could have fit on the door but that didn't fit the story James wanted to tell.
MrWigggles@reddit
Mythbuster also did it. Jamie and Mr warlus recreated the board, changed its size to account for their different body weight so the bouncy of the wood be the same for them. And it couldn't sustain 2 fokks
vita10gy@reddit
Yeah, they basically proved the movie right and a generations of nay sayers wrong....then they shoved their life jackets underneith, found that Jack could have theorietically thought of that, and declared the internet trolls right.
First time I was kinda legit upset at the show. They always do the "what would it have taken" step, but they usually stop "keeping score" there. Aka they'll end with "We were able to get [result] to happen." "Yeah, but to do that we had to bring in [extra things], so the myth is still [whatever result made sense before they 'Mythbustersed it']".
This time, for whatever reason, they decided Jack could have saved himself with extra steps, so he could have gotten on the board, so the movie got it wrong.
vita10gy@reddit
It had nothing to do with "fitting" though, it was about balance/buoyancy.
AFAIK Cameron has never argued for one second they both wouldn't "fit" on the door.
(And probably for good reason really, because Jack could have just climbed on top of Rose either way. Life and death matters aren't the time to worry about how much personal space you'll have to retire to on the driftwood you happened upon.
rjwut@reddit
Story comes first in a movie, no question. But I don't see any reason why the story would have been harmed if they'd made the door smaller.
rjwut@reddit
Titantic is hardly the first movie to stretch facts to serve the narrative. Honestly, movies should do that. Yes, they absolutely should strive to make the story plausible as much as reasonably possible. But their first job is to tell a good story. If realism gets in the way of that, do your best to explain it away, but serve the story first.
kinyutaka@reddit
Fact is that it's plausible that the door wasn't good enough to hold both Jack and Rose. It wasn't like it was a full sized liferaft.
rowsdowerrrrrrr@reddit
he was a great sport on the show.