Titanic has remained one of the highest grossing films of all time since it’s release more than 20 years ago. Since it’s debut, fans of the film have debated why Jack and Rose didn’t share the floating door together.
Many people insist that there is more than enough room on the door for two people. Advocates of this argument frequently post images of themselves laying on a mock door made in the exact same dimensions as the door in the film.
Opponents of this argument typically point out that while the area of the door was large enough for two grown adults, the door itself was not buoyant enough to float under their combined weight.
The TV show Mythbusters once dedicated an entire episode to the debate, but director James Cameron says it’s is simpler than all that. In an interview with Vanity Fair, Cameron explains that Jack dies at the end of the film “because it says on page 147 [of the script] that Jack dies.”
“Had he lived, the ending of the film would have been meaningless,” Cameron continued. “The film is about death and separation; he had to die. So whether it was that, or whether a smokestack fell on him, he was going down. It’s called art: things happen for artistic reasons, not for physics reasons.”
Cameron goes on to discuss the mechanics behind the scene. “I was in the water with the piece of wood, putting people on it for about two days, getting it exactly buoyant enough so that it would support one person with full free-board, meaning that she wasn’t immersed at all in the 28-degree water so that she could survive the three hours it took until the rescue ship got there,” he explained.
Watch the full interview with Cameron below and watch the film’s creator finally put the debate to rest.