TRIVIA (fin)
-When old Rose is looking at her drawing in the water, her original line was supposed to be "Wasn't I a hot number?", but both James Cameron and Gloria Stuart felt that this line was out of the character for Rose, so it was changed to the one in the final film.
-Jack mentions to Astor that he is of the "Chippewa Falls Dawsons". This is the nearest city to Lake Wissota which he mentions earlier, when he is saving Rose, as a lake near his childhood home. His childhood home would most likely be Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, United States.
-Jack Dawson is depicted as both one of the last passengers to board the Titanic as well as one of the last people to go into the ocean when the ship finally sinks.
-First winner of the Best Picture Academy Award to be converted to the 3D format after its original 2D release.
David Warner, who played Spicer Lovejoy, also played real life survivor Laurence Beesley in the 1987 TV movie S.O.S. Titanic.
-James Cameron pitched the film to 20th Century Fox with the single line of "Romeo and Juliet on the Titanic."
-Jennifer Aniston was considered for the role of Rose DeWitt Bukater. (Au secours!!)
-During the sinking scene, the priest reciting a passage from the Bible did exist on the Titanic. He is believed to be Father Byles of second class.
-Jeremy Sisto screen tested opposite Kate Winslet for the role of Jack Dawson.
-Thomas Andrews was originally suppose to appear during the "King of the World" scene, but was removed because he hadn't yet been introduced.
-During the corset scene, it is originally Rose who is suppose to be tightening her mother's corset. However, James Cameron and the actresses felt that the scene had much more of an effect of Rose being in the corset.
-A 2012 episode of MythBusters: Titanic Survival tested whether or not Jack could have joined Rose on the floating door without submerging it and therefore survive the story. As it turned out, he could have, particularly if they strapped Rose's life vest underneath the door to add buoyancy. James Cameron, who appeared on the episode, maintained that Jack needed to die for thematic reasons, but conceded that he could have used a smaller door to make it more plausible.
-Tom Cruise was considered for the role of Jack Dawson.
-James Cameron, being a certified scuba diver, has admitted that the reason why he wanted to make a movie about "a big ship that sinks" was because he just wanted to dive to the real wreck of the Titanic.
-During the 3rd Class party scene, Jack and Rose try to dance the Polka, with neither one really knowing the steps. The Polka is the official state dance of Wisconsin, where Jack is from.
-At the end, when Rose meets with Jack again, the grand staircase clock says "2:20" which is the time of when Titanic slipped under the Atlantic.
-Upon discovering the sketch of young Rose, Brock Lovett says "I'll be goddamned". These were the exact words of Dr. Robert Ballard upon his discovery of the Titanic wreck.
-Jack mentions he is from Chippawa Falls, Wisconsin. James Cameron grew up in a town called Chippawa in Ontario, Canada.
-James Cameron said his original pitch for the film consisted of his showing the Fox studio executives a book full of famous Titanic paintings by Ken Marschall and said "This ship... Romeo and Juliet."
Director Cameo
James Cameron: Just below Lovejoy during the below decks party, with a gray beard.
James Cameron: Standing behind Fabrizio on the deck waiting for a lifeboat when Murdoch starts shooting.
Director Trademark
James Cameron: [feet] The shoe at the beginning, Rose's feet while climbing the rail, Jack's feet when taking off his shoes, Rose's and Jack's feet while dancing.
-James Cameron: [perfect cut] Several dissolves between the Titanic on the seabed to the Titanic of the past, and the dissolve from the young to the old Rose.
-James Cameron: [theme] humanity's arrogance and over-reliance on technology, leading to disaster.
Spoilers (à ne pas lire si vous n'avez pas vu le film)
The trivia items below may give away important plot points.
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-When Rose is afloat on the wood looking up at the stars, there is a vague image of the necklace. It is outlined by brighter stars shaping the heart loosely, and a few bright stars shaping the chain. This shot is omitted in the 3D re-release, in which it is replaced with a shot of how the stars really looked like in 1912.
-Rose only says "I love you" to Jack once while they are both shivering in the water. Jack never says it, although he mentions what he loves about her (see Quotes).
-Danny Nucci (Fabrizio) stated that there were several different versions of his death that were scripted. One of them would have involved him swimming up to Cal's swamped lifeboat and begging to be let aboard, saying it was his destiny to go to America. At that point Cal was supposed to have knocked him unconscious with his oar and tell him "IT'S THAT WAY!"
-As originally scripted, Cal was intended to actually find Rose aboard the Carpathia after the sinking. Rose was to tell him to let her mother know that she died on the Titanic, and that he would leave her alone for the rest of her life.
-Cal's snide comments notwithstanding, Rose intuitively has quite an eye for art. She bought herself a canvas considered one of the most influential paintings of the 20th century: Pablo Picasso's Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (The Ladies of Avignon). During the sinking, it is shown floating in Rose's cabin -but actually it has been on exhibit safe and dry for decades at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City (see Goofs).
-Considerable controversy arose when James Cameron depicted the suicide of First Officer Murdoch. While Cameron did apologize to Murdoch's family members for the upset the scene caused them, he still kept the shot in the film, stating simply that while no one could prove that it did happen, neither could anyone prove that it didn't. Murdoch's body was never recovered, but it is generally agreed that he either froze to death in the water or went down with the ship.
-When we last see Cal's bodyguard Lovejoy in the finished film, he is hanging onto the side rail of the Titanic as it is breaking in half, with the side of his head appearing quite bloody. A scene had been cut that explains how Lovejoy got to look so bloodied and disheveled. The existing scene where Cal chases Jack and Rose down the Grand Staircase, shooting at them and then runs out of bullets (prior to realizing he put his coat which contains the diamond on Rose), was actually supposed to continue, where Cal hands Lovejoy the gun and tells him that if he gets the diamond from Rose, he can keep it.
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Lovejoy then loads the gun and goes hunting for them in the dining room. Cameron states on the 3-Disc Special Edition DVD that includes the scene, that it was not only considered much too long, but preview audiences didn't buy the fact that Lovejoy turns into a murderous villain trying to get a diamond from Jack and Rose as the ship is sinking (and they're ALL liable to die anyway). Lovejoy's head gets bloodied when Jack catches him off guard, crashes Lovejoy's head through a glass window and roughs him up a bit before he and Rose run away.
-Both Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet died by committing suicide in the films they each did just prior to Titanic (DiCaprio in Roméo + Juliette and Winslet in Hamlet - both Shakespeare adaptations, nonetheless)
-When Mr. Ismay is being lowered down in one of the lifeboats, the band is playing Orpheus from the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. Orpheus descended to Hell to rescue Eurydice, his wife from a life of misery in the underworld. Since the camera shows Ismay being lowered at the time, its almost like he's descending into his own personal Hell. Because if it weren't for his insistence on speeding up, the Titanic never would have hit the iceberg. So he gets to watch it sink while the lifeboat slowly sails away.
-The photos Old Rose has on her dresser all show things Jack said she would do with her life. Like riding a horse with both legs either side.
-In order to visit Rose as she's touring the bridge with Thomas Andrews and Cal on the day of the sinking, Jack steals a coat and hat belonging to a first class passenger named A.L. Ryerson. A.L. Ryerson (Arthur Larned Ryerson) was a real 1st class Titanic passenger who boarded in Cherbourg with his wife Mrs. Emily Maria Ryerson and three of their five children including their son John Borie Ryerson. The Ryerson's stayed in staterooms B57, 63, and 66 and the family purchased their tickets from the White Star Line for a total of 262 pounds 7 shillings.
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The scene in which Jack steal's the coat depicts a famous picture of a father and his young son playing with a top on Titanic's deck. The scene in the movie takes place on April 14, 1912, the day of the sinking. The original photo however was taken on the day of the sailing, and it's generally accepted that it was the Spedden who appear in the picture. Originally from Harford, PA the Ryersons were traveling aboard the Titanic to Cooperstown, NY. Emily and the children were rescued aboard life boat 4, but Arthur perished in the sinking.
-An alternative ending was shot, in which old Rose shows Brock the diamond before she throws it into the sea. James Cameron didn't use it, because it took away too much closure for the character of Rose.