Would Rose AND Jack fit the door? James Cameron has now tested it himself

25 years have passed since the release of «Titanic». But one question still worries movie fans: could Jack also have watched the door and survived? Would there have been a happy ending for Rose and Jack?

Director James Cameron has so far never commented on the question. Ahead of the film’s Feb. 10 re-release, Cameron examines the speculation in National Geographic’s upcoming “Titanic” special. In it, Cameron teams up with a team of scientists to recreate the scene and test four different scenarios where Jack actually climbed aboard the wreck.

In the first round, “Jack and Rose manage to get onto the raft, but now they’re both in dangerous, icy water,” Cameron explains in the clip above.

Then the team places both actors on the raft in a position that lifts their torsos – and vital organs – out of the water, increasing their chances of survival.

For the final test, the actors re-enact all the physically demanding actions Jack and Rose went through before finding the floating door – including the scene where another passenger tries to use Rose as a flotation device, only to find a heavy one being hit. by Jack’s fist. They also add an extra moment, not in the movie, when Rose gives Jack a life jacket for extra protection in the experiment.

His verdict:

“He’s stabilized,” Cameron says. “He’s in a position where, if we extrapolate, he might have just survived until the lifeboat arrived. Jack might have survived, but there are many variables. I think his mindset was, ‘I’m not going to do anything that could endanger her,’ and that’s 100 percent his character.”

Cameron is not alone in trying to test this theory. In 2013, the Myth Busters recreated the scene, and they say Jack could have watched the door.

(cmu)