Remembering 'Titanic': James Cameron Explains Why Jack Had To Die

A lot of the fans of “The Titanic” still cannot come to terms with the fact that Jack Dawson (Leonardo DiCaprio) had to die in “The Titanic.”

Many fans are still wondering why the raft could not fit both Jack and Rose, since it appeared big enough to carry both of their weights. But director James Cameron said it’s about time people let go of their angst since Jack would really have to die in order for the story to work.

“Had he lived, the ending of the film would have been meaningless,” he said in a Vanity Fair interview. “The film is about death and separation; he had to die.”

“The answer is very simple because it says on page 147 [of the script] that Jack dies,” Cameron explained. “Very simple. … Obviously it was an artistic choice, the thing was just big enough to hold her, and not big enough to hold him … I think it’s all kind of silly, really, that we’re having this discussion 20 years later. But it does show that the film was effective in making Jack so endearing to the audience that it hurts them to see him die.”

To put fans’ frustrations to rest, Cameron said they would’ve found another way to kill off Jack if he didn’t die of frostbite. “Whether it was that, or whether a smoke stack fell on him, he was going down. It’s called art, things happen for artistic reasons, not for physics reasons,” Cameron insisted.

At the same time, Cameron said he did extensive research about the raft being able to carry just one person. In fact, he tried it out himself. “I was in the water with the piece of wood putting people on it for about two days getting it exactly buoyant enough so that it would support one person with full free-board, meaning that she wasn’t immersed at all in the 28-degree water so that she could survive the three hours it took until the rescue ship got there,” he said.

This was not the first time Cameron was asked about the death of Jack. Several years ago, he turned pink with anger when The Guardian asked him about it. “Wait a minute, I’m going to call up William Shakespeare and ask why Romeo and Juliet had to die!” he said.