- James Cameron said he commissioned a scientific study on the famous door scene in "Titanic."
- Fans debated over the years whether Jack could have fit on the wooden debris with Rose.
James Cameron said he wants to end the debate over the door scene from "Titanic" — and he has a scientific study to back him up.
In an interview with the Toronto Sun published Friday, the director of the 1997 film said he had a forensic analysis done on a replicated version of the famous moment, noting that he wanted to "put this whole thing to rest and drive a stake through its heart once and for all."
The scene features the movie's protagonists, played by Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, floating in the ocean after the sinking of the Titanic. DiCaprio's character Jack Dawson dies from hypothermia in the icy water while Winslet's Rose DeWitt Bukater survives after lying on a piece of wooden debris.
Fans have debated for decades whether both of the characters could have survived on the raft. Cameron said the study, which was done with the help of a hypothermia expert, concluded only one person could make it out alive.
"We took two stunt people who were the same body mass of Kate and Leo and we put sensors all over them and inside them and we put them in ice water and we tested to see whether they could have survived through a variety of methods and the answer was, there was no way they both could have survived. Only one could survive," he said.
Cameron also said he still doesn't regret writing Jack's tragic death.
"No, he needed to die. It's like 'Romeo and Juliet.' It's a movie about love and sacrifice and mortality," the filmmaker said. "The love is measured by the sacrifice."
According to Entertainment Weekly, the experiment Cameron conducted will air on National Geographic next year. It will coincide with the restoration re-release of "Titanic" in theaters over Valentine's Day weekend.
Winslet also weighed in on the dispute recently. She told podcast host Josh Horowitz in an interview shared Friday that while she thinks both Jack and Rose could fit on the door, she doesn't think it would stay afloat.
"If you put two adults on a stand-up paddleboard, it becomes immediately extremely unstable," she said. "So the reality is, it was a door. I have to be honest, I actually don't believe that we would have survived if we had both gotten on that door. I think he would have fit but it would have tipped and it would not have been a sustainable idea."