20 Century Studios
James Cameron had already treated moviegoers to a number of stunning spectacles before Titanic hit theaters in 1997. However, the man behind The Abyss, True Lies, and The Terminator franchise truly outdid himself with his slightly fictionalized retelling of what transpired during the ill-fated inaugural voyage of the supposedly unsinkable ship.
Titanic ultimately raked in more than $2.2 billion at the box office and gave the director some major leverage he was more than happy to use to his advantage to flex on some studio executives during the production of Avatar (although you could argue Titanic was a flex in and of itself when you consider Cameron has admitted he basically made it so he’d have an excuse to visit the shipwreck in real life).
It’s hard to argue Titanic didn’t deserve to take home the bulk of the Oscars it won at an Academy Awards ceremony where it came out on top in 11 of the 14 categories where it was nominated. The movie has also aged pretty well since its initial release, although there are a few issues that viewers have had trouble ignoring after repeated viewings.
None of those supposed problems has attracted more attention than the debate over whether or not the door Rose uses to successfully survive the sinking actually had enough room to fit Jack, who slowly freezes to death after spending the final hours of his life partially submerged in the frigid waters of the Atlantic Ocean.
That fairly overblown controversy served as the basis of an episode of Mythbusters where the team determined the door was likely large enough to accommodate both of the star-crossed lovers. Cameron actually appeared on the program and was a pretty good sport about things, as he acknowledged there may have been a slight oversight after learning about the results of the experiment.
However, it seems that he’s changed his tune a bit since then.
According to The Toronto Sun, Cameron apparently found some time to squeeze in some experiments of his own while working on the latest entries in the Avatar franchise. The director teased the release of a documentary that’s slated to come out in February he claims will finally put the argument to rest, saying:
“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.”
Classic Cameron.