James Cameron has admitted Jack “may” have survived following a re-examination of the debate over the infamous Titanic door.
Ever since the blockbuster’s release in 1997, fans have wondered if the character played by Leonardo DiCaprio could have climbed through the broken door alongside Rose, played by Kate Winslet, during the emotional closing sequence.
After conducting a “forensic examination” of the theory as part of National Geographic’s Titanic: 25 Years Later, James Cameron confessed that if he and Rose put their bust on the door and only would have had the bottom of the legs in the water.
“Final verdict: Jack may have survived, but there are many variables,” he said of the results, according to an excerpt obtained by Rolling Stone. With a well-lit experience in a test pool, we can’t simulate the scare, the adrenaline, all the things that would have worked against it. (Jack) couldn’t do many different experiments to see what worked best. Jack’s survival could have come at Rose’s expense. From what I know today I would have reduced the raft so there would be no doubt.
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For the experiment, James Cameron and his team used stuntmen to stage four different scenarios. In one test, the filmmaker noted that Jack would most likely have suffered from hypothermia and would have died within 20 minutes, while in one where Jack and Rose only had their torsos on the raft and their entire legs in the water, they concluded that they would both freeze to death.
Titanic: 25 Years Later will be released on February 5th.