by Thinus Ferreira
Jack and Rose clung on for dear life on a door as the Titanic sank after he finally also slipped into the deep - now director James Cameron returns to find out in a new National Geographic special on Wednesday night if it was ever possible for him to have survived.
In Titanic: 25 Years with James Cameron on Wednesday night at 21:00 on National Geographic (DStv 181 / StarSat 220) the filmmaker James Cameron returns to the scene of the sinking to settle the debate once and for all - in a scientific way - as to whether Rose and Jack could possibly both have survived.
Long after the smash-hit film, fans have argued for decades as to whether Jack, played by Leonardo DiCaprio could have survived if Rose made more space atop the Titanic door, or whether the two star-crossed lovers could have done something else to have ensured that both survived the icy tragedy in the frigid Atlantic Ocean.
The aftermath of Titanic's sinking however goes beyond just whether there was room for two on a piece of debris. The deeper story - one that some claim James Cameron got wrong - is whether Jack could have changed the outcome had he acted differently.
National Geographic settles this once and for all together with James Cameron, by staging a few scientific experiments to find out what Jack and Rose could have done differently within the circumstances, and whether it would have changed anything.
"Ever since the movie came out, people have insisted they both could have survived," says James Cameron. "Let's test it - let's do some science. I'm going to recreate Jack and Rose on the raft in a controlled laboratory setting. There's a genuine element of danger to these experiments," he says.
"We find out, once and for all, whether Jack could have survived the sinking of Titanic," James notes.
In a pool of -2 degrees Celcius, two stunt people who have the same height and weight as Kate Winslet and DiCaprio, are dressed up in the same attire and put into the water with the same debris that the two clung to in the movie.
Was there really not enough space for both on top of it? That's the question of the first experiment and it's shocking what you see when both get on the door, since something else happens.
In a second experiment, Jack will again get on the debris, but in a way where only half their bodies remain further out of the water. Would Jack and Rose be able to survive in this scenario, and if so, for how long?
And in a third and last test: What happens if Rose gives Jack her lifejacket? Does he then live and does she then die?
