Turns Out Jack Could Have Survived the Titanic After All, Says James Cameron

(SPOT.ph) “Jack had to die. It’s that simple.” Or so James Cameron thought.

In December 2022, the blockbuster director concluded that the makeshift raft during the Titanic's final moments could only fit one person (read: Rose). But it looks like Cameron has changed his mind about the fate of Jack Dawson (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Rose Bukater (Kate Winslet) less than two months later.

Cameron has tried to set the record straight many times in the past, but he’s finally giving us the closure  audiences around the globe have been yearning for for decades now; yup, the Titanic is celebrating its 25th anniversary release. And with it, the director did multiple tests for a National Geographic special entitled Titanic: 25 Years Later With James Cameron. The question they wanted to answer? Whether Jack could have really survived the ice-cold waters of the Atlantic Ocean.

And not-so-spoiler alert for all of us jilted hopefuls: The results had Cameron rescinding his earlier conclusion.

The final verdict on Titanic

Consulting with a hypothermia expert, Cameron found that had Jack accepted Rose’s offer to wear her life vest, Jack could have benefitted from the insulation, a move that likely could have eventually saved his life.

The makeshift raft was also big enough to have both Jack and Rose sit on it, with the upper half of their bodies in the air and the lower half submerged in the water. This might not seem like much, but this would have actually protected their vital organs enough to keep both of them alive for much longer.

Tests showed that there are things Jack and Rose could have done differently in the movie that would have saved both their lives; Jack could have "made it until the lifeboat got there," it was said in the documentary, as quoted by Entertainment Weekly.

"Final verdict: Jack might've lived, but there's a lot of variables," concluded the director. As he points out, the factors that they could not recreate were the physical exhaustion that Jack and Rose had to endure during the ship's sinking. Add in the fact that in their time period, not much was known about hypothermia.

The director further argues that it is simply Jack and who he is that made the movie's ending what it is. "He's in love with her, a grand epic love which is self-sacrificial — I think his thought process was, 'I'm not going to do one thing that jeopardizes her'... and that's 100 percent in character."

Still, Cameron concedes: "Based on what I know today, I would have made the raft smaller, so there's no doubt!" 

Also read: 3 Romantic Movie Scenes and Where to Recreate Them

In commemoration of its 25th anniversary, a 3D remastered version of Titanic is showing in Philippine cinemas starting February 8, 2023.