James Cameron: Jack could not have survived “Titanic”
James Cameron is setting the record straight on a debate that’s divided “Titanic” fans for nearly 20 years -- whether or not there was room for Jack (Leonardo DiCaprio) on the piece of wood that kept Rose (Kate Winslet) out of the water.
“Look, it’s very, very simple: You read page 147 of the script and it says, ‘Jack gets off the board and gives his place to her so that she can survive.’ It’s that simple. You can do all the post-analysis you want,” Cameron told the Daily Beast when quizzed about the idea.
“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.”
Cameron also took the hosts of “Mythbusters” to task for addressing the question during a 2012 episode and determining that Jack and Rose could have both fit on the board.
“OK, so let’s really play that out: You’re Jack, you’re in water that’s 28 degrees, your brain is starting to get hypothermia,” Cameron offered. “‘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 ten minutes, so by the time you come back up you’re already dead. So that wouldn’t work.”
“They’re fun guys and I loved doing that show with them, but they’re full of s***.”