On April 15, 1912 tragedy struck. The R.M.S. Titanic was struck by an iceberg and sank, killing an overwhelming number of 1,517 people.

On Dec. 19, 1997 an award winning movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet premiered, spotlighting the tragic event and putting the viewer directly in 1912. DiCaprio plays a witty and adventurous character named Jack Dawson, and Winslet plays a young, engaged Rose DeWitt Bukater. Throughout the movie, the two characters quickly fall in love with each other.

However, on that devastating night, the pair found themselves fighting for their own and each other’s lives. As stated before, the ship struck an iceberg and because of this, Dawson and Buttaker find themselves in freezing water. Things are falling off the ship before it goes under the water of the Atlantic, and they come upon a door floating.

The pair could have fit on the door and both could have survived the tragic night together.

If the two would have put more thought into a plan instead of not acting because of impulse and fear, DeWitt could have moved herself over and made room for Dawson. There were multiple ways he could have fit onto that door with her.

The door also would not have flipped if they did get on the door together, and they were careful enough when they tried to get Dawson onto the door, then once he got onto the door, they could have moved to make enough room for each other and balance the door on top of the water at the same time.

If they would have thought this through and Dawson lived, DeWitt would have had no reason to say.

“And now you know there was a man named Jack Dawson and that he saved me, in every way that a person can be saved. I don’t even have a picture of him. He exists now only in my memory,” DeWitt said.

And therefore she would not need to mourn over Dawson as she was. If only he had gotten onto the door with her and to safety like her.

The 1997 Titanic  film sparked some controversy among viewers.  Viewers mourned the loss of Jack and argued both characters should have survived. 

In the film after the R.M.S. Titanic sank, the main characters, Jack Dawson and Rose DeWitt Bukater, both find themselves among the hundreds of other passengers freezing in the water on the morning of April 15, 1912. 

After reuniting with each other, both Jack and Rose swam off to find something to float on while waiting for a lifeboat to rescue them. The couple ends up finding a floating door frame. Jack takes it upon himself to put Rose on the door and moves off to the side to hold her hand. 

Some people like to make the argument that both Jack and Rose could have fit on the door frame and both survived, which is just simply not true. 

Yes, the area of the door frame may have fit the two lovers; the issue was that after Jack put Rose on the door frame, he did try to get on it himself, but it flipped due to the unbalanced weight on each side. People will then try to make the argument that if Jack would have taken off Rose’s life vest and put it under the other side of the doorframe, then it could have held them both. 

Physically speaking, yes, the frame could have held both of them if the plan was executed correctly. However, in an interview with the director of the film, James Cameron, Cameron stated that Jack had to die.

“Had he lived, the ending of the film would have been meaningless,” Cameron said. “The film is about death and separation; he had to die. So 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.”

In the movie, Jack’s entire spiel was living everyday like it was his last and being content with the cards he was dealt in life. If Jack didn’t die at the end of that film, it would have made one of Jack’s most famous quotes completely unmeaningful. 

“I figure life’s a gift, and I don’t intend on wasting it,” Dawson said.