Leonardo DiCaprio Had To Die In His Best Movie, Director Explains
James Cameron did a scientific study that proves Leonardo DiCaprio had to die in the Titanic.
Apparently, James Cameron has had to deal with a massive Monday morning quarterback situation for a decade and a half as fans have been second-guessing one of his decisions. At the climax of one of his most famous films, Leonardo DiCaprio perished by freezing in the cold water after the sinking of the Titanic, leading people to believe he could have survived if Kate Winslet had made room for him. According to CNN, 25 years later, Cameron is coming out to show that he has done the research and that there was no scientific way Jack could survive; his death was needed for the story.
According to the report, Cameron did a scientific study involving a raft, sensors, and two body doubles of the same size as the two actors and proved once and for all that the door could not have held them both, despite what Mythbusters claimed. But that isn’t the only reason Leonardo DiCaprio died at the end of Titanic; there was a narrative reason that the character had to die. James Cameron called the film a story about love, sacrifice, and mortality, likening the film to that of Romeo and Juliet; the level of sacrifice measures the intensity of the love. So if death is the highest sacrifice, then the love Jack and Rose shared is of the highest order.
While James Cameron may believe that Jack had to die at the end to prove his love for Rose, Kate Winslet disagreed in 2016 when she said that she thought he could have fit on that door. The conversation also still invades interviews for the cast and crew two and a half decades later as Leonardo DiCaprio couldn’t escape the Titanic debate while doing press for his film, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Fellow castmates Brad Pitt and Margot Robbie put him on the hot seat when they asked him directly if he could have made it; when he refused to comment, Robbie called it the biggest controversy in modern cinema, to which DiCaprio clarified that it is the biggest controversy ever.
While Leonardo DiCaprio sinking to the bottom of the ocean at the end of Titanic is the most hotly debated controversy, there are other controversies the iconic film has faced since its release in 1997. The shootings of First Officer William Murdoch, who shot two passengers rushing to a lifeboat and then himself out of guilt, were contested by his surviving family in Scotland, prompting the director to donate to his foundation. There is also the small matter of the stars in the night sky not being correct, and after being called out by an astronomer with too much time on his hands, the director went back and corrected it.
James Cameron has done the research; he is one of the most intense and dedicated directors in Hollywood, as he has been behind the camera for some of the most successful films of all time. Scientific or not, if James Cameron believes that Leonardo DiCaprio’s death in Titanic was necessary for the story, then he is the kind of person we should trust.
