'Titanic's 27-Year-Old "Door Controversy" Finally Solved – You Won't Believe the Answer

James Cameron’s Titanic (1997) is one of the most heart-breaking love stories to grace the silver screen. Now, a long-running debate about the film has, at last, been put to rest.

Based on the true story of the ill-fated ocean liner of the same name that set sail on a transatlantic voyage on April 10, 1912, before striking a massive iceberg in the North Atlantic where it plunged into the depths just four days later, Titanic is an epic masterpiece.

When it was released in theaters in 1997, it impressed audiences and critics alike, so much so that countless cinemagoers enjoyed repeated viewings of James Cameron‘s blockbuster. It grossed $2.264B worldwide and became the highest-grossing film of all time.

Starring Leonardo DiCaprio as Jack Dawson, a good-natured drifter, and Kate Winslet as Rose DeWitt Bukater, a first-class teenager suffocated by her misogynistic fiancé Cal Hartley (Billy Zane), Titanic follows a love story that deals with true love and devastating tragedy.

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The three-hour film is, in many ways, one of two halves. The first is dedicated to developing the relationship between Jack and Rose, while the second half plunges them into a race-against-time scenario after the ship collides with an iceberg, causing it to sink rapidly.

During those final minutes of the ship’s time above the surface, we watch in horror as the star-crossed lovers take refuge — along with hundreds of other terrified passengers — at the ship’s stern, which is now pointed upwards to an eerily silent, starry Atlantic night.

After breaking in half down the middle, the front half of the Titanic (the bow) disappears beneath the black, ice-cold surface, falling two-and-a-half miles towards the bottom of the sea, leaving the stern to bob on the surface, before it eventually begins to sink downward.

Thousands of people are left screaming on the surface as the second half of the ship disappears beneath them; its suction claiming many who though they’d at least escaped being dragged down with the ship. Among the people on the surface are Jack and Rose.

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After losing all hope they’d find each other again, the pair are reunited, and Jack places Rose on a floating door. However, sadly, minutes later, Jack dies from extreme exposure, and Rose is eventually rescued by one of the returning lifeboats.

And this is where countless people have taken great issue with the film in the 27 years since its release, with many believing that Jack could have easily joined Rose on the door, thus increasing his chances at survival. But they’re missing the point completely.

Naturally, director James Cameron has been asked about this many times over the years, a question that seems to irritate him, which is hardly surprising considering it’s probably been put to him countless times.

However, in a 2022 interview with Josh Horrowitz while promoting Avatar: The Way of Water, Kate Winslet was asked whether she thinks Jack could have survived (although it certainly wasn’t the first time). Watch the resurfaced clip below:

“I don’t f**king know,” she jokes. “All I can tell you is, [that] I do have a decent understanding of water and how it behaves.” She adds that she and her husband “do a lot in the water, saying, “We paddleboard, we surf, we kite-surf,” before explaining that “if you put two adults on a stand-up paddleboard, it becomes immediately extremely unstable.”

“I actually don’t believe that we [Jack and Rose] would have survived if we had both gotten on that door. I think that he could have fit, but it would have tipped, and it would not have been a sustainable idea. So, you heard it here, for the first time: yes, he could have fit on that door, but it would not have stayed afloat — it wouldn’t.”

It’s a perfectly logical analogy, but the truth is actually a lot simpler: Jack was simply trying to guarantee Rose’s survival. Even if he was able to fit, had he gotten on the door, too, he’d have more than likely upended it or compromised its buoyancy.

He was just trying to better Rose’s odds at living through the inhospitable and unrelenting temperatures of the North Atlantic Ocean. Why is that so hard to understand?

Are you one of the many people who thinks Jack could have survived? Let Inside the Magic know in the comments below!