The one glaring, impossible-to-overlook question that’s been nagging at you ever since the 1997 release of Titanic has finally been answered.
Yes, we always knew it was meant to be a romantic tragedy. That the couple, who met aboard the famous “unsinkable” passenger vessel in 1912 on its maiden voyage from Southampton to New York City, were doomed from the start.
But, surely, surely, both of them could have fit on that floating door?
Let's recreate the scene.
The Titanic has struck the submerged iceberg and - against all predictions - the ship is sinking. Spectacularly and tragically sinking.
Lovers Rose (Kate Winslet) and Jack (Leonardo DiCaprio) have escaped the heaving vessel. They're floating in waters that are sub-zero in temperature and they're both going to die from hypothermia.
They find a wooden door, big enough to keep (SURELY BOTH!) one of them out of the freezing cold water. Like the true gentleman he is, Jack offers the door to Kate, who happily slides up there and watches the love of her life freeze to death as he grips onto the wooden edge.
WHY DIDN'T SHE SHARE THE DOOR WITH HIM?
We're talking a standard door. Big enough, surely, for two people.
Not according to the film's director, James Cameron, who has spoken out about the scene 20 years after the Oscar-winning movie was released.
“Look, it’s very, very simple: you read page 147 of the script and it says, ‘Jack gets off the board and gives his place to her so that she can survive.’ It’s that simple," he told The Daily Beast.
He then spoke about a Mythbusters episode that claimed to have "busted" the show's ending.
“OK, so let’s really play that out: you’re Jack, you’re in water that’s -2 degrees [celsius], your brain is starting to get hypothermia. Mythbusters asks you to now go take off your life vest, take hers off, swim underneath this thing, attach it in some way that it won’t just wash out two minutes later — which means you’re underwater tying this thing on in — 2 degree water, and that’s going to take you five to ten minutes, so by the time you come back up you’re already dead,” he said.
He continued, “So that wouldn’t work. His best choice was to keep his upper body out of the water and hope to get pulled out by a boat or something before he died. They’re fun guys [Mythbuster hosts], but they’re full of s**t.”
What a kill joy.