Twenty years after its release, the tragic demise of Leonardo DiCaprio’s character at the end of “Titanic” continues to be a matter of debate with fans who still don’t realize why Jack couldn’t have clung onto the same wooden door as Rose (Kate Winslet) instead of sinking to a watery grave — heck, the “Mythbusters” guys even tested it out and determined that Jack could have lived (although James Cameron countered by declaring that “‘Mythbusters is full of s**t”).
The issue reared its head yet again when Kathy Bates introduced “Titanic” co-star Winslet at the SAG AFTRA Foundation 2nd Annual Patron of the Artists Awards on Thursday.
‘“In one of Cinema’s most tragic love scenes Jack insist that Rose must survive, her heart will go on,” Bates told the audience as she introduced Winstlet. “He lets go of her hand and sinks into the depth of the Atlantic. And I personally think that there was plenty of room on there!”
After joining Bates onstage, Winslet concurred. “I completely agree with you on that door,” she said. “He could have fit on it! He could have fit on that door!”
While “Mythbusters” provided evidence that Jack could have lived in the 2012 episode, Cameron said at the time that there was a very compelling reason why Jack had to die: because it was in the script.
“I think you guys are missing the point here,” Cameron quipped. “The script says Jack died. He has to die. So maybe we screwed up and the board should have been a little tiny bit smaller, but the dude’s goin’ down.”
In an interview with The Daily Beast earlier this year, Cameron doubled down on his belief that DiCaprio’s character was doomed.
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“You’re Jack, you’re in water that’s 28 degrees, 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 28-degree water, and that’s going to take you five to 10 minutes, so by the time you come back up you’re already dead,” the director explained. “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.”
Added Cameron of “Mythbusters”: “They’re fun guys and I loved doing that show with them, but they’re full of s**t.”
