All language subtitles for Titanic 25 Years Later With James Cameron (2023)

We released Titanic
25 years ago.

But despite all our
efforts to make the film

as accurate as possible...

There's one thing some
fans just can't accept.

They insist Jack
could have survived if

he climbed on that floating

piece of debris with Rose.

People even claim
to have proved it.

Of course, Jack and Rose
were fictional characters.

Nearly 1,500 real
people died that night,

and my aim was to
honor their memory.

You know, imagine all of these
people out there in the ocean.

This is the crowd that
was floating at sea.

But if we look at Jack
and Rose's plight as a

reflection of real events, it
raises interesting questions.

What actually happened
when Titanic sank?

Would having more lifeboats
onboard have saved more lives?

I think I probably would cut
faster if my life depended on it.

To find the answers, I'm going
to revisit some relevant tests

my team of experts and
I have conducted...

Yes!

Then, for the first time,

I'm going to recreate
Jack and Rose on the raft

in a controlled
laboratory setting.

So we're taking them to
clinical hypothermia.

ROSE Jack!

And one, two...

Three...

I don't think he could
sustain this for very long.

We'll find out, once and
for all, whether Jack

could have survived
the sinking of Titanic.

Well, I think we've seen enough.

Jim Cameron's Titanic was
beyond anybody's expectations.

We knew when we were working
on it, it was going to be epic.

What a great setting for a
love story, this fantastic

shipwreck that has fascinated
people for decades anyway,

presented so vividly
and so accurately.

To go back there is to
risk being pulled down into

that icy water with them.

So it's really a choice between
your lives and their lives.

James Cameron brought Titanic
back to life as I have

tried to do through my
entire life with my paintings

and you can't put
enough value on that.

I knew the old
lady in her grave,

that's the Titanic I knew.

Jim showed me this
beautiful young woman,

we sailors tend to
think of ships as women.

He showed me that
beautiful ship.

I just loved it.

That movie used Titanic
as a stage to tell

a teenage love story.

It wasn't meant to be
a historical narrative,

but it created a passion in
Jim to follow up that movie

with actual expeditions to the
actual wreck and because of

that continued interest that
goes way beyond a feature film,

we have made discoveries
and learned things that have

actually changed
the history and our

understanding of Titanic.

Are you ready to
go back to Titanic?

On April 14th, 1912 at
11:40 pm, the RMS Titanic

struck an iceberg
during its maiden voyage

from Southampton, England

to New York City.

Two hours and 40 minutes later,

it sank to bottom of
the Atlantic Ocean.

Of the more than 2,200
passengers and crew onboard,

just over 700
survived that night.

The wreck remained lost at sea
until 1985, when oceanographer

Robert Ballard discovered
it while on a secret mission

for the US Navy.

His expedition changed the
way we explore the deep,

and changed my life.

Bob and I recently met at the Ronald
Reagan Presidential Library to take

a look at their
exhibit on Titanic.

Everybody that dives Titanic
has their own story of seeing

it for the first time.

And probably the most
frequently asked question

to me is, what was it like

seeing the wreck
for the first time?

I get asked that,
"What was it like?"

And I always wanna tell them
the story they want to hear...

Right.

Which was, there she
was and, you know,

this beautiful, stately ruin...

Yeah, right, right,
right, right.

Coming out of the darkness.
But that's not what happened.

No.

Oh, I remember when we,
this was where we came in,

we landed here and...

It's a cliff.

The, you know,
the wall of China.

I mean, it's just a wall.

And the first thing I recognized
was the Anti-fouling paint.

Yeah, the red. It was pink.

The red paint, right?
It was still pink.

And I said, "Too bad they
didn't paint the whole ship

with that stuff."

Yeah, and the bilge
keel was sitting on top

of the sand, it was
back, back here.

Exactly, it was
right, right there.

And then the pilot, he
said, "We got to go."

Yeah.

So he dropped his weights
and then we began our ascent.

But then these eyes.

Yeah, which is your
lights kicking back.

Your lights, all
the eyes of the,

like the people in,
were looking at us.

Did you get spooked?

It was spooky, yeah.

Because we were
now in free ascent.

There was no, we couldn't stop,
you dropped all your weights.

And it was just all these
eyes and then we cleared it.

It was amazing.

That's pretty much what
it looked like to me

the first time except we
were down here someplace.

And we came in on
her, right about here.

Yeah.

And we had come across
this bermed-up mud...

Yeah, yeah.

He came up and we
just cleared here.

Yeah, all right.

And then we wound
up sitting up here.

Yeah.

But there's also nothing
cooler than coming up

on her from the,
from the, from the...

Yeah. Yeah, that
was our second dive.

Right. And that's
the money shot.

And that's the money
shot looking up.

We did it for fake in
the movie and it's...

You never...

It's the transition shot
where it goes into 1912.

Yeah, yeah.

So we come past,
past old Rose's face.

We come to that shot of
the stem, the vertical bow,

and then we, we
transition into 1912.

And we crane up over it
and we see the whole ship.

Keep it coming.

Uh, watch your mate there, sir.

Come one. Come
on get in a row.

Watch your bag. I'll
give you a tour.

If we're going to seriously
consider the question

of whether Jack and Rose
both could have survived,

we need to look at the hardships

they endured that night.

For starters, the shocking
way the ship broke apart.

The film Titanic depicted
what we believed was

an accurate portrayal of
the ship's last hours.

We showed it sinking bow first,

lifting the stern
high in the air before

its massive weight
broke the vessel in two.

Over the past 20 years, I've
been trying to figure out

if we got that right.

I've dived to the wreck
dozens of times and I brought

in naval engineers to analyze all
the complex variables at work.

Now, I wanna take it to the
next level, doing an actual,

real-world physical test of
the sinking that incorporates

the new information
we've gathered.

Will it sink the
way we portrayed it?

I don't know.

Our mission is to mirror
the physics at work as best

we can, and see what happens.

There's a gazillion
theories floating around,

there always have been.

We wanna come up with
a credible theory.

The whole purpose of
this investigation

is to understand, does this
hang on or does it go away?

And I've been talking
about the bow swinging down

and breaking off for 20 years,
but I never had any proof.

It's just outside of
science at this point.

And I thought, we'll just
build a model and break it.

I, I have no way of saying that
that is in fact what happened,

but I'd like to be able to
rule it in as a possibility.

'Cause then, I don't have
to remake the fricking film.

We're gonna be doing practical
rigging with pyrotechnics, and

sinking it in a tank.

I immediately thought
of Gene Warren.

I've known him forever, and
we've done a few projects

together over the years.

Let's think about what would
be the best way to help

hold that up when this breaks.

He wanted us to do a
disaster forensics on really

what happened when Titanic sank.

Because water is water.

Water doesn't
change its dynamics.

Let's see what the bow does.

Let's see what the stern does,

and recreate what
might've happened.

I've been wanting to
do this damn model test

for a long time.

I knew that trying to
incorporate all the lessons

we'd learned about the sinking into
a single model test wouldn't be easy.

Well, that's not what
I believe happened.

But I was about to find out
just how hard it would be.

"You're not following
what I'm saying."

Why did the Titanic go
down the way it did?

The mystery of the
ship's sinking has

puzzled me for decades.

Iceberg right ahead!

In the movie, it breaks,
and the stern falls

back with a big wave, and
then the bow pulls it down,

and then it's stern
stands up straight.

And then the bow breaks off,
sinks straight down, and that

stern's sittin' there
and it slowly goes down.

It's a dramatic image,
and as accurate as I could

make it at the time.

But I've never stopped
trying to find out

exactly what happened.

Over the years, our little
analysis team has used

a wide variety of source
material in order to try and

put together the pieces
of the puzzle that is

the sinking of the Titanic.

We know from the
wreck exactly where

the steel broke.

Right to the rivet.

Jim's exploration of the
bow section has fine-tuned

our understanding of what was
going on during the flooding

and during the descent
to the ocean floor.

We got a mass that's
knocked aft, all the B deck

forward-facing windows
broken, broken, broken.

To me, that all adds up to a
very strong longitudinal flow

over the ship.

We see a consistent pattern
of the effects of an almost

hurricane-like flow of water
from the front of the ship

toward the back of the ship.

That can only be explained
by the ship sinking

vertically straight down.

Big piece of the keel, 70
feet long two big frames

of the double bottom, were found
way out in the debris field.

They had been
ripped off the ship.

By what?

Well, they'd been ripped
off by the bow separating.

Bit by bit, putting all these

little data points together,

we're essentially able
to reverse-engineer

major key frames of the sinking.

We engaged the United
States Navy to build

two computer simulation
models of Titanic.

One showed us how the
water progressed through

the ship as it sank.

The other measures the
stresses in a hull.

And what it told us was,

Titanic didn't need to rise
90 degrees out of the water.

The model calculated
approximately 23 degrees

before the peak stresses were
realized in the structure

and she broke.

But for a ship the size of
Titanic to sink, there's an

unlimited number of variables
going on during the sinking.

The computer simulation

would bear some of that out, but

too many variables to nail down

exactly what would happened,

so we got to try a
different dimension,

and that's where the
physical model comes in.

Hydrodynamically, it's
got to be pretty close to

what the ship was, I think.

It's a one-off model.

It's not a 100% accurate in
some of its fine details,

but it was accurate in
terms of the overall shape,

which is all we really need
for a hydrodynamic study.

The biggest part was
having this model

float and then sink, like
we learned from all of

our research gathering.

It's a known length,
right, 70 feet?

Yes.

70 feet from the,
from the break aft.

From the break point here.

We knew that the model was
gonna have to break, so we had

to put in a mechanism that
would allow it to break at

the point where our computer
simulation had indicated.

And so this is the
hinge piece down here?

Yeah, the hinge is right here.

No, that's not what I'm
calling the hinge piece.

The hinge isn't here.

The hinge is here.

Jim, he'd given
us some direction.

Um, we kind of
got it half-right,

but he wanted the hinge
in a different place.

It's what I called
a banana theory,

which is as the ship
broke, that keel,

the strongest part
of the ship held on.

This falls back, and that's
there, and then it rips away.

Mm-hmm. Exactly.

That's your hinge piece.

And as it ripped away, it formed
almost like a third piece.

It's the keel, it goes...

Like that.

No, it doesn't take off yet
necessarily, necessarily.

That's what we wanna understand.

Understand. Right.

It's a kind of a
proof of concept.

We can never prove
what actually happened.

We can only prove what
might have happened.

The hydrodynamic forces on
this were enough to snap

the mast aft, blow
the wheelhouse off.

Jim came in and looked at
it, and what he did not see

is the water flow that
accounts for a lot of

the damage that we've
seen at the wreck.

So he's directed some changes
so that we can truly remove

any latent buoyancy
left in the bow.

We didn't have all the
interior walls and everything

that would have slowed
down the rate of flooding.

So, we used a combination
of sponges and foam, foam to

provide buoyancy, sponges to
provide a delaying factor in

how quickly a space will fill
up with water once flooding.

It' all very catastrophic
right in here

and very fast, which is
the equivalent of this

wicking the water in rapidly.

Each successive run was
basically a fine-tuning of

the model to where we would
see it perform the way

that we knew it had to.

Haven't we sunk
this damn ship yet?

Believe it or not, we're
doing actually exactly,

we're doing the banana peel.

Okay. Well, let's
see what we got.

That thing's buoyant,
so that's no good.

It needs to be negative.

Then we came up with
another problem;

when the ship breaks,
it loses buoyancy.

Our buoyancy was foam.

We couldn't just make it
disappear when it broke.

So we had to come up with a
method to have the foam work

its own way out of the hull to
simulate the loss of buoyancy

after the break.

If they tried to adjust
flotation in this so that

the break happened where
it's always been filmed,

it's too high out of the water.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah, yeah, we definitely
got that wrong.

At that point, it
became a team effort.

I would drill up
this area, right?

Yeah.

This should all be packed
with sponge up in here.

He jumped in with
us like we were at

Roger Corman days, like
he was in his 20s again.

So, we'll probably have
to cut these up, right?

There we were, back rigging
stuff together, and doing tape

and soldering and all
the things that you do.

That wasn't setting the
way back machine for

20 years ago on Titanic.

That was setting it back
to the early '80s for me.

You've done this before.

A few times.

I'm blown my share
of (bleep) up.

We started to figure out
how to do it in a way that

we fine-tune the breakup
by changing that timing.

We could have the stern fall
back more, or fall back less,

have the bow swing down
more or swing down less.

When we did our
computer simulation,

there was a moment where the
stresses on the ship exceeded

the strength of the material.

And that's when it
should have broken.

And that happened when the
ship tilted to 23 degrees.

So when we sank the ship at
23 degrees, it seemed to do

everything that was observed.

We said it broke at 23 degrees.

So, we were actually breaking
at around 25, 26 degrees,

according to this crude test.

But I mean I think, you know,
it's telling us something.

We're homing in on this.

And in fact, that was even
increased when it broke,

the stern kind of popped
up a little bit and

you could kind of see the break.

And the bow swung down and
detached and fell vertically.

So we feel pretty comfortable
that it, that it was somewhere

between maybe 20 and 30
degrees of tilt when it broke.

All right, here we go.

Let's do it, let's roll.

All right, so props are clear.

And it breaks right
at the water line.

Oh, that's sweet.
Comes up a little bit.

Sweet.

Swings down, pulls the
stern more vertical.

That's the banana model.

Check that out! Touchdown!

We did see some scenarios
played out almost

exactly as it was filmed.

The stern going
under vertically,

giving Jack and Rose
their few moments,

right there at the fan tail.

As the stern came up,
and went vertical,

it always turned
almost 90 degrees.

And that's exactly
what people saw.

Now people describe it
standing up like, uh,

like a tower or like a finger
pointing at the sky and

that's exactly what we saw.

Yes! Vertical stern!

Yes!

It's not like we did a
battery of 100 runs with

a very precision model.

But I think it does show what
is possible to have happened.

I think what we're seeing
is there's a range, right?

You can get it to where
the stern falls back.

But then it doesn't go
vertical when it goes under.

We found out that you can have
the stern sink vertically and

you can have the stern fall
back with a big splash,

but you can't have both.

So the film is wrong on
one point or the other.

I tend to think it's wrong on
the fall back of the stern,

because of what we see
at the bow of the wreck.

There are about five or six
instances of hydrodynamic effects,

and there's only one
way that can happen.

It swung down, and it
shot off like a bomb

dropping straight down.

So, I think we can rule in
the possibility of a vertical

stern sinking, and I think we
can rule out the possibility

of it both falling back
and then going vertical.

We were sort of
half-right in the movie.

With each thing that we
try, each step that we take,

I think we're getting
closer and closer to

what actually did
happen that night.

Okay, let's do it again.

That was perfect.
Let's do it again.

I'm constantly fascinated by
the engineering, the hardware,

the forensics, and I'll
get very excited about

the ideas, you know.

You always have to kind of
grab yourself by the scruff of

your neck and remind yourself
what happened there was a real

tragedy that happened to
real people, and it still

resonates down through time
in this very powerful way.

But sometimes you forget
that in the moment, but I try

never to forget
it for very long.

In our movie, Jack and Rose
were among the hundreds of

passengers who plunged
into the freezing water.

The safest place to be
was in a lifeboat...

Which brings up
another controversy.

If the ship had more lifeboats,

could more people
have been saved?

Mr. Andrews, forgive me.

I did the sum in my head,

and with the number of lifeboats

times the capacity you
mentioned, forgive me,

but it seems there are not
enough for everyone aboard.

About half, actually.

Titanic carried 20
lifeboats, but they only

managed to launch 18
in an hour and a half.

Now we've all been told
that if the ship carried

more boats, more lives
could have been saved.

But would that really
have made a difference?

Could the crew have launched
more boats in the time they had?

I've wondered about
this for a long time,

and we never tested
it until now.

So what we did was we
took a replica lifeboat

left over from the
movie with a set

of davits mounted on top

a platform that was tall
enough to represent the height

of the promenade deck,
boat deck being up on top.

Got a crew to man and lower
the lifeboat so that we could

see how long it took.

We figured that it would take
about two minutes to roll

the canvas back on
these lifeboats.

Roll back that cover!

Roll back that cover!

So we preset our
clock to 2:00 minutes.

Okay, so the ropes are in,

and you guys know
what to do, right,

to get them flaked
out on the deck?

Mm-hmm. Yes.

You gonna do that sort
of there and there so

we need to stay out of this.

No, we, we can put
it right there.

Well, put it where you would have done
it if you were really on the ship.

Okay.

And if we're in your
way, then move us out of

the way because we're
curious passengers,

and you're having to yell
at us to get out of the way.

Politely of course because
we're also, you know,

rich passengers in the
first class area of Titanic.

And it's noisy.

So, when we say go,
ready the boat and then

tell us when it's ready, okay?

Yeah. Bring lines on deck.

Clock is running.

Remove cradle.

Swing boat out.

Yeah, you can see
how geared down it is

on that lead screw.

It takes a lot of cranks
to get that davit to

move just a few feet.

Keep it cleared, keep cranking!

The other thing you notice is,

was the voice commands by the
officer coordinating the two sides.

And in the beginning with
that steam going off...

They're gonna have
trouble hearing.

Somebody would have to
yell back and forth or

somebody would just have to
see the other guys working and

just imitate, because they
couldn't hear anything.

Okay, good!

Lower boat embarkation deck!

So, at what point do
they start loading it?

So they're going to
lower down to the edge

of the boat deck.

'Cause then you
just step into it.

Right. You wanna step into it,

you do not want them stepping
over it, if you can avoid it.

Right. Hold it!

Secure the boat!

Okay.

All right, stop the clock.

Eight minutes and
30 seconds, wow.

Eight minutes and 30 seconds.

Now we're just gonna have to
just estimate the loading time.

The key here is, is that
you don't know how much

time you have, you've
never practiced this.

But just as a baseline,
let's get some values for how

long it takes to do each
part of the operation.

Yeah, exactly.

So, I think you're, you're
probably looking at a,

a time that varied.

Initially it was probably
slower, as people were reticent,

and then later as they got more
desperate, it probably sped up.

Let's say ten minutes.

Okay. Let's say ten minutes.

Yeah. Okay.

That put us up to 18
and a half minutes.

Now let's see how long it takes
us to lower it one deck level.

Ready? And clock running.

Ready! Okay, lower!

You're right, it did jerks its
way down and look at the...

You can see how jerky it
is even now, not loaded.

It would be like three times
that when it was fully loaded.

That'd make it a
lot harder to lower.

Okay, pull it. Okay.

Stopping the clock.
So what was that?

Just shy of two minutes.

Just shy of two minutes.

Okay, so that's two
minutes to go ten feet.

Mm-hmm.

It's another 50
feet to the water,

so we have to add
another ten minutes.

So that's 30
minutes, 30 seconds.

And they were working
simultaneously.

They were loading passengers
in while they were

cranking out the next boat.

Right.

Then our times can
telescope somewhat.

When you start multiplying
it out, it should have taken

more like two hours.

From the time the lifeboats
were ordered launched,

you had about an
hour and a half.

However they managed it,
they had just enough time

to get those boats off.

Not quite enough time.

Yeah, not quite.

The truth is the last
two boats, the last two

collapsibles were
washed off the ship.

They did not have time.

It's actually pretty amazing
that they managed to launch

as many as lifeboats
as they did.

And what made it even more
challenging was in the final

stages of Titanic sinking,
the lifeboats were being

launched right on
top of each other.

To avoid being crushed,
men were cutting the ropes

connected to the davits
with pocket knives.

I mean, I wanted to see for
myself how difficult that was.

Well, let's raise up one
end of the boat in content.

About one inch
out of the cradle!

And then they want to
cut one of the ropes.

Okay.

No, I was thinking
more like a foot.

One foot?

Let's do an action shot!

Let's raise it up a foot guys.

All right, so who's
gonna do the honors?

What someone
needs... I'll do it.

To go under the
boat? I'll do it.

Whatever happens, Jim,
we'll get it on film.

Exactly! Let's go!

Clock running.

All right.

Jeez, is this an actual knife?

It, it should have been
a really sharp knife.

It's sharp!

But we do know this
type of knife was used.

All right, I'm gonna
go with your expertise.

I think I probably would cut
faster if my life depended on it.

That's promising.

We're getting close. Aw, jeez.

Can you imagine like
50 people screaming?

Yeah. Water coming up?

There's a boat coming down
on your head, don't forget.

Yeah, that too.

It's gonna get dramatic
here in a second.

I can hear it.

All right, that's promising.

Beauty!

And we're free.

Yeah!

So how long did that take?

1:40.

I would say if my
life depended on it,

I could probably shave
about 30 seconds off that.

And you go for a ride!

I think if you had more
lifeboats on that ship,

they would've just
gotten in the way and

it might've cost
hundreds of lives.

We've answered the
lifeboat question.

Now it's time to solve
another controversy.

Could both Rose and
Jack have survived?

I don't think he could
sustain this for very long.

When Titanic sank, almost
1500 people went into

the freezing Arctic water.

Most were wearing lifebelts.

But death came quickly,
not from drowning, but

from the extreme cold.

Floating in 28 degree water,
it doesn't take long for the

body to start shutting down.

Keep swimming.

And eventually you
succumb to hypothermia.

Can anyone hear me?

This is what took the
lives of the passengers who

hadn't made it into lifeboats.

Is there anyone alive out there?

It's pretty daunting
when you see

all the names all at once.

Exactly. I mean...
How many people?

In this? 1,496 people.

You know, imagine all of these
people out there in the ocean.

This is the crowd that
was floating at sea.

You know, you, you get so
into the forensics of it...

Yeah, yes.

You know, and, uh,
studying the wreck and the

breakup of the wreck and
discovering the artifacts and

so on, you really lose sight
of the human tragedy sometimes.

I know, I know that that was
an epiphany for me when I was

there at the wreck
the first time.

Mm-hmm.

You know, how that hit me.

And I'd been studying
it for months, you know,

but it wasn't, now it
wasn't at a remove,

it wasn't a myth anymore.

These were real people.

For the movie, I wrote that
Rose gets onto a piece of

wooden debris that's
too small and unstable

to support them both.

He's in love with her.

He's looking at not clearly,
definitively enough buoyancy

for them both to survive.

Jack's survival might have
come at the price of her life.

And that's all going
through his head.

But ever since the movie came
out, people have insisted

they both could have survived.

I'll never let go!

Fans of the movie have
been going on endlessly

about the fact that
Jack could've lived,

he could've gotten on that door.

So let's test it, let's
do some science, you know,

let's see if he could've lived.

We took two stunt people of the
same age, height, and weight as

Jack and Rose to the
New Zealand laboratory

of Doctor Jim Cotter.

Jim and his team study
the effects of cold on

the human body.

We created an exact replica
of the raft in the movie,

as much as we
could reproduce it,

and we carefully trimmed
it to the same free board,

the same degree of buoyancy
that we see in the film,

and then we started
playing around with like

how could he have gotten
out of that situation

without compromising her safety.

Here we go.

There's a genuine element of
danger to these experiments.

All right.

So we're taking them to
clinical hypothermia.

When you're talking
about hypothermia

you're talking about it
clinically, meaning that

the core, the internal organs,
the heart and everything are

starting to get affected
by the ambient temperature.

Yeah.

Hypothermia sets in when
the body's core temperature

drops to 95 degrees Fahrenheit.

As you cool, you lose blood
flow to your extremities...

And then your organs
begin to shut down.

We're basically seeing
how long it takes Jack

to cool down to 95.

We're not gonna let
him go more than 95,

it's clinically hypothermic,

we shouldn't take
him colder than that.

Our Jack and Rose
have been fitted with

three internal thermometers,

one in the lowest part
of the digestive tract,

one that travels
through the intestine,

and one that sits in the

esophagus next to the heart.

Jack, right now reading 98.6,

baseline core
temperature pretty good.

Rose is just over 98.6.

The pool's water
temperature can't go below

50 degrees Fahrenheit.

So we're running each test
twice as long, to approximate

the effects of 28
degree Arctic water.

Is there anyone alive out there?

Fifth officer Lowe
testified that it was almost

two hours before he
could row back to

rescue people in the water.

In the movie, Rose is
still barely alive,

but Jack has died.

Jack...

So our first experiment
will be a baseline test

to see what would have
really happened to them.

Whoo!

Okay, all right, now
so, come around here...

We put them in the same
position he was in the movie,

put her in the same position
she was in the movie, and saw

how rapidly his core
temperature dropped.

So you're already
shivering pretty intensely.

That's, that's pretty early.

Our Jack is losing heat
even faster than expected.

Rose's core temperature is
dropping much more slowly.

So you were underwater
at the start.

No I don't feel too wet.

I think this coat is
doing a really good job.

Yeah.

It's made out of wool and
that's keeping me quite warm.

Plus the lifejacket as well,

so I feel quite
warm around my core.

You've got three big
benefits over Jack.

Yes.

After only 20 minutes
in Titanic time,

Jack is clinically
hypothermic and has

to be taken out of the water.

In 28 degree water it
can be pretty quick.

People will lose consciousness
and their heart will cease to

function adequately
and pump adequately.

And it was pretty
steep curve and

it was a very clear curve.

He was losing heat fast.

Dropping down. He
wouldn't have made it.

The movie was correct.

Jack could not have survived
as it was played in the film.

But what if Jack and Rose had
tried something different?

With our modern
understanding of hypothermia,

could we save them both?

He clearly made a decision
to sacrifice himself

so she could have all
the buoyancy for herself.

But what if they split it?

So we'll start with you
in that initial position.

The object is to get your
head and shoulders over a bit

toward the far side, 'cause
the idea is if you can get

your core up out of the water,
then you'll be better off.

Okay, I'm on.

Yep.

So, ease up on it, just
use your weight, yep...

So the next test is let's
look at, what, what if they

just did the natural next thing.

Try to solve this problem
without tipping the raft...

Okay. So, you go up first.

Okay.

Okay, you try to shift
and a little over.

Okay, shift around to the end so

you're coming in on the end.

Find your balance.

All right.

All right?

Pretty unstable...

All right!

It doesn't look like
it's a roaring success.

He says, "All right, I'm
just gonna try that again

a little slower and
I'm gonna creep up."

So he just creeps up and he
gets his upper body kinda as

much out of the
water as possible.

Feels pretty stable, huh?

Stability-wise, it's fine.

So if a swell came along,
kind of bounced you

a little bit,
you're okay, right?

Yeah.

Jack and Rose are able
to get on the raft,

but now they're both
submerged in dangerous levels

of freezing water.

We started with her putting
her arm around him...

Um, go for it.

Go for it, as long as you feel
that you're stable on the raft.

But it actually pushed
him down and his chest was

awash in the water and he
was losing a lot of heat

through the front.

He is still cooling down
quite a bit more than Rose.

What if Jack put
his arm around her?

Lifted his chest up and
put her more at risk.

Oh yeah, I feel cold!

If you think about
it from character,

he would have wanted to protect
her as much as possible.

How's Jack's core
temperature doing?

Steadily dropping. Mm-hmm.

Slower than yesterday
when he was more immersed,

but he's still creeping down.

Okay.

That's, that's yesterday,
that's today, right?

He's going down continuously...

Mm-hmm. But at a slower rate.

With Rose you can see
there's almost no difference

between her baseline
experiment yesterday and today.

I would have expected more,

but it's obviously not
getting to her core, right?

'Cause he was still getting
pretty cold, pretty fast.

So the question is, how
do we save his life?

How do we get this curve up.

Yep. Right?

How do we get him
up where she is?

My pals over at Mythbusters
opined that, "Oh well, they

could have just solved the
problem because the buoyancy

that she was carrying
wasn't doing them any good

out of the water..."

You're wearing a lifejacket.

What say if Rose spreads
some of her buoyancy around.

Let's put it underneath
this thing and get every bit

we can out of it."

So we tried that.

The task is going to be to
work together to take her

lifejacket off and put
it underneath the raft.

Think for a moment about what
a lifejacket does, it's just

to get your mouth out of the
water so you can breathe.

So it takes you
from here to here.

It doesn't lift
your entire weight,

so let's say Jack
weighed 170 pounds,

he doesn't have
170 pounds of lift

available if he's
wearing a lifejacket.

Buoyancy that it's
generating is so, so little.

I, I don't see a big
difference by eye.

Your greatest loss here
would be, would be losing it.

Also, with Rose without
a lifejacket with

her big coat and dress on,
she would just go down.

The lifejacket thing
was, was a waste of time.

I think for the degree to
which it compromised her

safety by taking it off,
it added very little.

It's not doing anything.

You'd be better keeping it
on her and not using it for

buoyancy but try using it
for thermal insulation.

So we can bust that myth, guys.

Sorry.

Our tests at the hypothermia
lab showed that if Jack had

climbed onto the raft
with Rose, they would have

both been partially
submerged in freezing water.

He would still have died
before the rescue boat

arrived two hours later.

And she might have died, too.

But if Jack and Rose
knew what we know today

about hypothermia, could
they both have survived?

What would it be like if
we just do the best case?

Best case that we can imagine
is they both kneel on the raft,

facing each other, use their
body heat together, you know,

kind of in an embrace,
and she shares her heat

with him and vice-versa
and they kind of insulate,

they huddle against the,
the elements, right?

So we get them on the raft, we
try to do that, guess what...

Pretty unstable...

All right!

It ain't happening.

That thing's way too unstable.

I'm, I'm using quite
a lot of energy just

trying to keep...

So Jim Cotter, in this
situation, is them using

energy to stay balanced working
for them or against them?

No, against.

Any muscle that's
having to move is,

needs a little more blood,
that's taking the heat away.

Right. Okay.

A bit more heat production,

but proportionally
more heat loss.

The only real thing is if
somehow Jack could keep

his whole trunk outta the water.

But, they did manage to
find a stable position,

with a little bit of trying,
where their upper bodies

were out of the
water, both of them,

and that's when it
got interesting.

Out of the water, that violent
shaking was helping him.

His curve now was above
the other two curves.

And projecting it out, he coulda
made it pretty long, like hours.

But the interesting thing was,
he's taking buoyancy from her,

getting into a threshold
where he can live,

that's not affecting her.

We saw that, that Kristen
wasn't violently shaking

the way he was.

Her core was still
in pretty good shape,

because of all her insulation.

But he never gets anywhere
near up where she is.

The best thing we came up with
was them trying to keep their,

their body out of
the water, right?

Their, their core.

I really learned something
interesting here.

Is when you shiver and
shake like that underwater,

it's conducting away
heat very rapidly.

But when you do it
in air, above water,

it's actually working for you.

Cold?

And then survival time for
him depends on him being

able to keep shivering.

Now remember you just have
to do this for another hour.

If that plateau could have
lasted long enough to get to

where the boat came
back to rescue them,

he might have made it.

He has got a chance.

That's, that's all we can say.

But that sort of best-case
scenario was kind of

a fantasy, because they
didn't really go through all

the stuff that our characters
are seen doing before they got

to that, they didn't just magically
teleport themselves to the raft.

So now let's do the real
test, let's put them

through a simulation of
all of the things that

Jack and Rose went through.

So we did exactly what,
what they did, in the movie,

except that we doubled the
time for every stage of it

because our water
wasn't as cold.

Going into 28 degree water,
and that just makes you gasp.

And that's the cold shock, that
accelerates the heart rate,

constricts blood vessels
so your blood pressure

goes up immediately...

And a guy pushes her under...

One one thousand,
two one thousand...

Back up!

One one thousand,
two one thousand

and Jack, save me!

Jack!

Rose!

Jack swims over...

Jack!

And one...

Two...

Three!

All right, swim Rose!

And the faster your
heart's beating, the faster

that cooling blood from
your arms and legs is coming

into your core, taking
your temperature down.

So I was really curious
to see what that did

to Jack's situation.

And it's pretty interesting.

What we saw was that he got
up on there and he immediately

went into the really strong
shaking shivering, right?

The two big factors.

Still having enough dexterity
and power in their limbs to get

onto the raft...

Right.

And still being warm enough
to actually shiver intensely.

Now if she saw him
shivering like that and that

he was in worse shape than
her, she might get the idea

to give him the lifejacket
as an insulator.

Wouldn't you try to help him?

Oh, for sure! Okay.

All right, let's
go for that then.

Number one is stability.

Keep the balance,
keep the balance...

Yep.

All right.

He had a dramatic
decrease initially after

the swim and since he's been
up here shivering aggressively

like this he's
stabilizing somewhat,

he's still coming down, but
this is definitely a better...

It's the knee in the curve.

Yeah. Yeah.

He went down, he went way down,

he went way down
to our baseline,

which is our worst-case scenario
with his body fully immersed.

So this is probably our
most accurate line for what

our characters are supposed
to have experienced, and then

he starts to inflect up and
kind of stabilizes up kind of

halfway between our
mid-case and our best-case.

Yeah.

He was shivering quite
aggressively and that seemed

to protect him and
he was actually...

It looks almost
like on the upswing.

And he pulled up a little
bit and he stabilized.

He got into a place where
if we projected that out,

he just might have made it
until the lifeboat got there.

But what's interesting
is there's actually a, a,

a precedent for it in
the, in the history.

There was a Chinese passenger
who was found drifting on a,

on a piece of wooden debris.

We actually shot that scene.

My assistant at the time was a
guy named Van Ling, and I said,

"Van, get in the water!"

So Van got out there and was
yelling in Mandarin to be rescued.

Cold water!

So and that's kinda what I based
the whole Jack and Rose thing on,

it's like, okay, if you can get
on a piece of wooden debris,

you can live longer.

Bring him in quickly!
Aye, aye, sir!

Final verdict, Jack
might have lived...

But there's a lot of variables.

How much swell is there,
how long does it take

the boat to get there...

In a well-lit experiment in a
test pool, we can't possibly

simulate the terror,
the adrenaline,

all the things that would
have worked against them.

Get on it.

Get on top.

He couldn't have
anticipated what

we know today about hypothermia.

He didn't get to run a bunch
of different experiments

to see what worked the best.

Jack's survival might have
come at the price of her life.

You know, there was a, a code of
chivalry that men had in those days.

Get on it. Stay on it.

Add to it his
individual character.

He's in love with her,
a grand epic love,

which is self-sacrificial.

I think his thought process
was, I'm not going to

do one thing that
jeopardizes her.

There's x amount of buoyancy.

I'm not going to take any of it.

I'm not going to
jeopardize her life.

And that's 100% in character.

Now we are talking
about a fictional story,

I do want to remind people.

So based on what I know
today I would've made

the raft smaller...

So there's no doubt.

What can it tell us about
the Titanic sinking?

Probably a lot.

If people are still
interested in Titanic,

and they want to see
what we're doing here,

they might learn something
about hypothermia.

There might be one person
out there, in the audience,

that remembers what they see and
it actually saves their life.

Who knows?

But if nothing else, it
gives you an appreciation of

what those people went through.

You know, so, from my
perspective it's about

preserving the
history of Titanic,

understanding that
it was a real event

that took place, and
1500 people died.

And they died horribly and
not the way people think.

Captioned by "Cotter Media Group".