One of the oldest and most persistent debates in modern cinema, aside from whether Die Hard is a Christmas movie, concerns the ending of James Cameron's epic film Titanic (1997). The film concludes with the sacrifice of Jack, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, who disappears into the icy waters of the Atlantic so that Rose, played by Kate Winslet, can survive on a makeshift raft fashioned from a floating door. Since then, one question has resurfaced with almost ritualistic regularity: wasn't the door big enough to accommodate both characters?
A controversy that ultimately receives little attention, as it adds little to the film, but which continues to fuel fan conversations, especially during boozy gatherings of enthusiasts. Despite the years, the debate has never truly died down. In early 2023, a filmed scientific study was even conducted with Cameron's involvement to concretely test the hypothesis. For the experiment, the filmmaker used two body doubles with a height and weight close to those of DiCaprio and Winslet at the time of filming, then recreated the scene in a tank, testing several possible configurations. Conclusion: the survival of the two characters on the door proved essentially impossible, except in a highly theoretical scenario based on an accumulation of implausible variables.
Once and for all: Jack couldn't have survived. One might have thought the matter closed. Clearly not. Some die-hard fans persist and continue to press Cameron on this subject, to the point that the director, three years later, says he no longer wants to dwell on it. As he nears the end of the promotional tour for Avatar: Of Fire and Ashes, he cut the matter short, very explicitly, by reminding everyone that he had already had the question verified experimentally.
In essence, James Cameron concedes that Jack's survival would theoretically be conceivable under a virtually unrealistic condition: that he had been an expert in hypothermia and that he had access to modern scientific knowledge in 1912, all with considerable luck. In other words, under the circumstances of the story, the answer remains negative: Jack couldn't have survived.
As Ferris Bueller would say at the end of his crazy day: it's over, you can go home.