WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.520 Welcome back to the Deep Dive. You've handed 00:00:01.520 --> 00:00:04.400 us quite a stack of sources again. We certainly 00:00:04.400 --> 00:00:06.879 have. And our mission, as always, is to really 00:00:06.879 --> 00:00:10.179 dig in, extract the crucial knowledge, maybe 00:00:10.179 --> 00:00:12.580 find some surprising insights so you can feel 00:00:12.580 --> 00:00:16.460 genuinely well -informed. And today we're tackling 00:00:16.460 --> 00:00:20.559 a big one, a really big one. The 1997 film Titanic. 00:00:20.920 --> 00:00:23.179 Right. And this isn't just, you know, watching 00:00:23.179 --> 00:00:25.519 an old movie again. No, no. It's about analyzing 00:00:25.519 --> 00:00:29.179 this huge cultural moment, this cinematic event, 00:00:29.280 --> 00:00:32.079 this financial phenomena that really defined. 00:00:32.939 --> 00:00:35.380 The late 90s. So our deep dive is focusing on 00:00:35.380 --> 00:00:39.659 that colossal success, but also the frankly terrifying 00:00:39.659 --> 00:00:42.240 production complexity. Absolutely terrifying. 00:00:42.420 --> 00:00:44.899 And the historical grounding, or maybe the lack 00:00:44.899 --> 00:00:47.600 of it sometimes. We need to figure out how this 00:00:47.600 --> 00:00:49.399 movie, which everyone predicted would be a total 00:00:49.399 --> 00:00:51.640 disaster. A sinking ship, financially speaking. 00:00:51.719 --> 00:00:54.079 Exactly. How did it become the first film ever 00:00:54.079 --> 00:00:56.799 to cross that billion dollar mark? That's really 00:00:56.799 --> 00:00:58.859 the core question we need to unpack. It still 00:00:58.859 --> 00:01:01.590 feels like maybe the biggest gamble. Hollywood 00:01:01.590 --> 00:01:03.929 ever took. I mean, just look at the basic stats. 00:01:04.049 --> 00:01:06.530 You've got Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet. Huge 00:01:06.530 --> 00:01:08.709 stars eventually, but maybe not quite then. Well, 00:01:08.810 --> 00:01:11.409 DiCaprio was definitely rising. Winslet, less 00:01:11.409 --> 00:01:13.730 so internationally. But yeah, backed by people 00:01:13.730 --> 00:01:17.129 like Billy Zane, Kathy Bates, Bill Paxton, and 00:01:17.129 --> 00:01:21.069 the budget. Ah, the budget. $200 million. Unheard 00:01:21.069 --> 00:01:23.329 of back then. Completely record -breaking. It 00:01:23.329 --> 00:01:25.269 just blew everything else out of the water. And 00:01:25.269 --> 00:01:27.500 if you break that down... What does that even 00:01:27.500 --> 00:01:30.439 mean? $200 million? That's well over a million 00:01:30.439 --> 00:01:33.060 dollars for every single minute of screen time. 00:01:33.120 --> 00:01:34.579 Yeah, think about that. Over a million bucks 00:01:34.579 --> 00:01:38.540 a minute for a period drama. Not a sequel, not 00:01:38.540 --> 00:01:41.260 some known action franchise. That's just an insane 00:01:41.260 --> 00:01:44.579 bet. But it paid off. Oh. Oh, boy, did it pay 00:01:44.579 --> 00:01:48.060 off. In a way that completely reset studio thinking. 00:01:48.519 --> 00:01:51.579 That initial worldwide gross was over $1 .84 00:01:51.579 --> 00:01:54.060 billion. The first $2 billion. The very first. 00:01:54.239 --> 00:01:55.939 And then with the re -releases, you know, the 00:01:55.939 --> 00:01:58.400 3D versions and anniversaries. Right. The total 00:01:58.400 --> 00:02:03.200 haul has now passed $2 .264 billion. Just staggering. 00:02:03.500 --> 00:02:05.599 And remember, it held the title of highest grossing 00:02:05.599 --> 00:02:08.120 film ever for 12 years. Until Karen beat himself 00:02:08.120 --> 00:02:10.539 with Avatar. Exactly. And the money was matched 00:02:10.539 --> 00:02:12.400 by the awards, the critical acclaim, at least 00:02:12.400 --> 00:02:15.479 initially. Yeah. 14 Oscar nominations. That ties 00:02:15.479 --> 00:02:18.520 all about Eve. Just... Incredible. And then at 00:02:18.520 --> 00:02:22.080 111, tying Ben -Hur, including best picture, 00:02:22.199 --> 00:02:24.539 best director. So you've got this unbelievable 00:02:24.539 --> 00:02:28.129 risk. Unbelievable reward and, you know, massive 00:02:28.129 --> 00:02:30.330 industry validation. It's quite the story. It 00:02:30.330 --> 00:02:32.349 really is. To understand how it even happened, 00:02:32.409 --> 00:02:34.689 we have to go back to James Cameron's specific 00:02:34.689 --> 00:02:37.150 drive here. Right. This wasn't just what's my 00:02:37.150 --> 00:02:39.729 next movie. No, not at all. It came from somewhere 00:02:39.729 --> 00:02:42.569 deeper. Yeah. A personal passion really rooted 00:02:42.569 --> 00:02:46.210 in history and crucially in exploration. Yeah. 00:02:46.270 --> 00:02:47.969 The sources are clear on this. His fascination 00:02:47.969 --> 00:02:50.650 wasn't primarily filmmaking at the start. It 00:02:50.650 --> 00:02:54.069 was deep sea exploration, shipwrecks. He called 00:02:54.069 --> 00:02:56.539 the Titanic the. Mount Everest of shipwrecks. 00:02:56.699 --> 00:02:59.060 That's the prize he wanted. So his first goal 00:02:59.060 --> 00:03:01.180 wasn't even the movie. It was funding an expedition 00:03:01.180 --> 00:03:04.879 to actually dive the real wreck. Precisely. He 00:03:04.879 --> 00:03:07.930 described it as a mental restlessness. He needed 00:03:07.930 --> 00:03:10.469 to see it, to explore it. The film was almost 00:03:10.469 --> 00:03:13.330 the excuse to get the funding for the dive. So 00:03:13.330 --> 00:03:15.650 how did he sell that to the studio? Fox executives 00:03:15.650 --> 00:03:17.590 must have been expecting, what, Terminator 3? 00:03:17.870 --> 00:03:20.090 Probably. And he comes in with this incredibly 00:03:20.090 --> 00:03:22.830 short pitch. Romeo and Juliet on the Titanic. 00:03:23.189 --> 00:03:25.189 Just that. Just that. You can imagine the room. 00:03:25.830 --> 00:03:28.090 Skepticism doesn't quite cover it. A period romance. 00:03:28.729 --> 00:03:31.189 From the action guy. Exactly. They doubted it 00:03:31.189 --> 00:03:35.539 would sell. But Cameron was smart. He tied the 00:03:35.539 --> 00:03:38.259 budget directly to authenticity. He basically 00:03:38.259 --> 00:03:41.340 said, look, we can spend X amount on models and 00:03:41.340 --> 00:03:45.900 CGI or we can spend, say, X plus 30 percent and 00:03:45.900 --> 00:03:49.439 actually go shoot footage at the real wreck using 00:03:49.439 --> 00:03:52.860 the academic Dostoevsky. So he made the expedition 00:03:52.860 --> 00:03:56.580 part of the movie's cost structure. Clever. Very. 00:03:56.960 --> 00:03:59.139 And actually diving the wreck, seeing it down 00:03:59.139 --> 00:04:01.639 there, that changed everything for him. How so? 00:04:01.960 --> 00:04:03.900 He said he felt this immense mantle of responsibility 00:04:03.900 --> 00:04:06.219 to the people who died. Yeah. It shifted from 00:04:06.219 --> 00:04:08.680 just recreating an event to telling, as he put 00:04:08.680 --> 00:04:10.919 it, a great novel that really happened. So the 00:04:10.919 --> 00:04:13.319 history needed an emotional core for the audience. 00:04:13.460 --> 00:04:15.219 Right. And that's where Jack and Rose come in. 00:04:15.300 --> 00:04:17.800 That fictional romance became the engine. He 00:04:17.800 --> 00:04:19.560 figured the audience needed to fall in love with 00:04:19.560 --> 00:04:22.180 them. So that when the disaster hits and their 00:04:22.180 --> 00:04:25.480 love is destroyed. You feel the loss. You mourn 00:04:25.480 --> 00:04:28.180 the real people through them. It makes the history, 00:04:28.379 --> 00:04:32.019 personal, devastating. He called it a love story 00:04:32.019 --> 00:04:35.519 with a fastidious overlay of real history. That 00:04:35.519 --> 00:04:38.259 nails it. It does. And he even put a character 00:04:38.259 --> 00:04:40.759 in the film to represent the opposite view, Brock 00:04:40.759 --> 00:04:43.259 Lovett. The treasure hunter. Yeah, the guy who's 00:04:43.259 --> 00:04:45.100 just focused on the diamond, the technical stuff. 00:04:45.240 --> 00:04:48.279 He misses the human tragedy until Old Rose tells 00:04:48.279 --> 00:04:50.740 your story. He's kind of the audience's surrogate. 00:04:50.939 --> 00:04:53.139 learning that lesson. And that fastidious overlay, 00:04:53.379 --> 00:04:56.220 that took serious work. Oh, incredible amounts. 00:04:56.279 --> 00:04:58.079 Six months of pure research before they even 00:04:58.079 --> 00:05:01.459 got close to filming. Passenger lists, crew manifests, 00:05:01.740 --> 00:05:04.439 creating this super detailed timeline. Verified 00:05:04.439 --> 00:05:06.819 by historians too, right? Absolutely. They got 00:05:06.819 --> 00:05:08.959 Harlan and Wolf, the original builders, to share 00:05:08.959 --> 00:05:11.379 blueprints that had been lost for decades. That 00:05:11.379 --> 00:05:13.800 was huge for the set design. And he wasn't shy 00:05:13.800 --> 00:05:16.689 about borrowing, apparently. From other Titanic 00:05:16.689 --> 00:05:19.009 films? No, he acknowledged pulling elements from 00:05:19.009 --> 00:05:21.850 A Night to Remember, the 1958 film. Things like 00:05:21.850 --> 00:05:24.310 the lively party in third class, the musicians 00:05:24.310 --> 00:05:27.089 playing on deck. Iconic images he felt worked 00:05:27.089 --> 00:05:29.990 dramatically. So the research is intense. Then 00:05:29.990 --> 00:05:34.829 comes the build. The scale required. It's mind 00:05:34.829 --> 00:05:36.769 -boggling. They literally had to build a new 00:05:36.769 --> 00:05:40.310 studio. Fox created Baja Studios down in Rosarito, 00:05:40.310 --> 00:05:42.949 Mexico, just for this. And the centerpiece was 00:05:42.949 --> 00:05:45.920 that giant water tank. The 17 million gallon 00:05:45.920 --> 00:05:48.600 horizon tank. Yeah. Essential. It gave them that 00:05:48.600 --> 00:05:51.160 270 degree ocean view, made it feel like they 00:05:51.160 --> 00:05:54.019 were really isolated out at sea. No buildings 00:05:54.019 --> 00:05:56.100 popping up in the background. And the ship itself 00:05:56.100 --> 00:05:59.160 built to full scale. Almost. Almost full scale. 00:05:59.199 --> 00:06:01.860 Yeah. Which is just breathtaking to think about. 00:06:01.939 --> 00:06:04.660 But, you know, pragmatic choices were made. Sections 00:06:04.660 --> 00:06:06.680 the camera wouldn't see were left out, filled 00:06:06.680 --> 00:06:08.579 in later with digital effects. And some things 00:06:08.579 --> 00:06:10.839 are shrunk. The lifeboats and funnels, yeah. 00:06:11.399 --> 00:06:13.639 Deliberately scaled down by about 10%, probably 00:06:13.639 --> 00:06:15.959 for handling, maybe visual composition. But the 00:06:15.959 --> 00:06:18.279 key sets, the ones you remember. Oh, no expense 00:06:18.279 --> 00:06:21.339 spared there. The grand staircase. Painstakingly 00:06:21.339 --> 00:06:24.160 recreated from those blueprints and photos. Though, 00:06:24.259 --> 00:06:26.680 interestingly, they had to make it wider. Wider? 00:06:26.860 --> 00:06:30.480 Why? By about 30%. And reinforced with steel. 00:06:31.110 --> 00:06:33.389 partly for filming logistics, getting cameras 00:06:33.389 --> 00:06:35.790 in there, but also crucial for those big flooding 00:06:35.790 --> 00:06:38.910 scenes later on, needed to hold up. Right, every 00:06:38.910 --> 00:06:40.990 detail, down to the cutlery having the white 00:06:40.990 --> 00:06:43.610 Starline logo. Total commitment to authenticity 00:06:43.610 --> 00:06:47.269 on screen. Okay, so pre -production is this massive, 00:06:47.290 --> 00:06:49.949 meticulous effort. Then the actual filming starts, 00:06:50.110 --> 00:06:53.430 and, well... Things get notoriously difficult. 00:06:53.730 --> 00:06:56.069 That's putting it mildly. Yeah. Let's start with 00:06:56.069 --> 00:06:58.290 casting the leads. Even that had its own share 00:06:58.290 --> 00:07:01.990 of drama. Finding Jack Dawson. Right. The casting 00:07:01.990 --> 00:07:04.970 director, Mally Finn, found Leonardo DiCaprio. 00:07:05.310 --> 00:07:08.449 He was only 21, kind of hot, but not the megastar 00:07:08.449 --> 00:07:11.230 yet. Cameron wanted someone with that old Hollywood 00:07:11.230 --> 00:07:13.670 feel, like a Jimmy Stewart or Gregory Peck. And 00:07:13.670 --> 00:07:16.189 he turned down some big names. Apparently. Matthew 00:07:16.189 --> 00:07:18.589 McConaughey was considered. Tom Cruise was interested, 00:07:18.709 --> 00:07:20.730 but way too expensive, especially with the budget 00:07:20.730 --> 00:07:23.129 already looking scary. And Leo himself wasn't 00:07:23.129 --> 00:07:26.050 sure. Reportedly, yeah. He initially refused 00:07:26.050 --> 00:07:28.629 to do a reading for the romantic scenes. Didn't 00:07:28.629 --> 00:07:30.550 see himself as that kind of lead. But Cameron 00:07:30.550 --> 00:07:33.209 saw something. He saw that star quality, that 00:07:33.209 --> 00:07:36.009 charisma. He basically said he knew Leo was the 00:07:36.009 --> 00:07:38.209 guy in a split second during casting. Pushed 00:07:38.209 --> 00:07:40.990 hard for him. And Kate Winslet for Rose. Different 00:07:40.990 --> 00:07:43.069 story there. Completely different. She went after 00:07:43.069 --> 00:07:46.699 that role hard. Gwyneth Paltrow, Claire Danes, 00:07:46.699 --> 00:07:49.680 apparently they turned it down. Really? Winslow 00:07:49.680 --> 00:07:53.040 just bombarded Cameron. Daily notes, phone calls. 00:07:53.860 --> 00:07:57.139 Famously told him, I am Rose. I don't know why 00:07:57.139 --> 00:07:59.879 you're even seeing anyone else. That takes guts. 00:08:00.300 --> 00:08:02.500 It does. And that determination clearly paid 00:08:02.500 --> 00:08:04.939 off. But maybe she needed it because the shoot 00:08:04.939 --> 00:08:07.139 itself sounds like an ordeal. A total nightmare 00:08:07.139 --> 00:08:10.699 by most accounts. Planned for 138 days. Stretched 00:08:10.699 --> 00:08:13.839 to 160. Ran right through summer 96 into spring 00:08:13.839 --> 00:08:16.519 97. And the condition... Those long hours, cold 00:08:16.519 --> 00:08:19.120 water. Yeah, and those tanks in Baja. People 00:08:19.120 --> 00:08:22.060 were constantly getting sick. Colds, flu, even 00:08:22.060 --> 00:08:24.079 kidney infections from being submerged for so 00:08:24.079 --> 00:08:26.779 long. And Cameron's reputation on set. Legendary. 00:08:27.360 --> 00:08:29.360 Uncompromising, hard -charging perfectionist. 00:08:29.420 --> 00:08:32.379 They called him the 300 -decibel screamer. Ouch. 00:08:32.840 --> 00:08:34.500 The crew even had a nickname for his demanding 00:08:34.500 --> 00:08:37.519 side. Meej. Yeah. Term spelled backwards. Winslet 00:08:37.519 --> 00:08:40.519 chipped her elbow and said she was actually scared 00:08:40.519 --> 00:08:43.600 of him sometimes. She did, yeah. Though... Later, 00:08:43.639 --> 00:08:46.720 she also praised his vision, to be fair. But 00:08:46.720 --> 00:08:49.820 the pressure was clearly intense. That pressure 00:08:49.820 --> 00:08:51.779 cooker atmosphere apparently led to one of the 00:08:51.779 --> 00:08:54.779 most iconic scenes being shot really early, kind 00:08:54.779 --> 00:08:57.320 of unexpectedly. The sketching scene, yeah, where 00:08:57.320 --> 00:09:00.080 Jack draws Rose. The main sets weren't ready 00:09:00.080 --> 00:09:03.039 yet, so they shot this intimate, crucial scene 00:09:03.039 --> 00:09:05.960 almost first. And Cameron said the real -life 00:09:05.960 --> 00:09:08.620 nervousness actually worked. Yeah, he felt it 00:09:08.620 --> 00:09:11.389 gave the scene this... Nervousness and an energy 00:09:11.389 --> 00:09:13.870 and a hesitance that was perfect for Jack and 00:09:13.870 --> 00:09:15.909 Rose at that moment. And Cameron did the drawing 00:09:15.909 --> 00:09:18.649 himself. The hands we see. Yep. Adds another 00:09:18.649 --> 00:09:21.450 layer to the mythology of the production. Speaking 00:09:21.450 --> 00:09:24.490 of mythology and chaos, the chowder incident. 00:09:24.549 --> 00:09:26.710 We have to mention that. Oh, God, yes. Yeah. 00:09:26.789 --> 00:09:29.370 Utterly bizarre. Someone apparently disgruntled 00:09:29.370 --> 00:09:32.889 laced the crew's clam chowder with PCP. PCP? 00:09:32.970 --> 00:09:36.120 Yeah. Send over 80 people to the hospital. hallucinations, 00:09:36.120 --> 00:09:38.480 chaos. It sounds like something out of a movie 00:09:38.480 --> 00:09:40.759 itself. Definitely not your typical onset catering. 00:09:40.759 --> 00:09:45.019 So delays, sickness, budget soaring, now drug 00:09:45.019 --> 00:09:47.879 laced chowder. Fox executives must have been 00:09:47.879 --> 00:09:51.440 losing their minds. Full blown panic mode. The 00:09:51.440 --> 00:09:54.080 budget hits $200 million. They're looking at 00:09:54.080 --> 00:09:57.559 this 195 -minute runtime, thinking fewer screenings 00:09:57.559 --> 00:10:00.039 per day means less money. So they demand cuts. 00:10:00.379 --> 00:10:03.019 They wanted him to cut an hour, an entire hour 00:10:03.019 --> 00:10:05.500 out of the film. And Cameron's response is legendary. 00:10:05.899 --> 00:10:08.500 Absolutely. He basically told them, you want 00:10:08.500 --> 00:10:09.919 to cut my movie, you're going to have to fire 00:10:09.919 --> 00:10:11.559 me. You want to fire me, you're going to have 00:10:11.559 --> 00:10:14.409 to kill me. Wow. Standing his ground. Totally. 00:10:14.730 --> 00:10:17.549 And to kind of appease them, or at least reduce 00:10:17.549 --> 00:10:20.129 the financial pressure and keep control, he made 00:10:20.129 --> 00:10:22.769 a massive personal gamble. He gave up his salary. 00:10:22.970 --> 00:10:26.649 His entire $8 million salary. Plus, he forfeited 00:10:26.649 --> 00:10:28.889 his percentage points on the film's initial gross 00:10:28.889 --> 00:10:31.350 profit. Which the studio execs probably thought 00:10:31.350 --> 00:10:33.929 was worthless anyway. He dismissed it as an empty 00:10:33.929 --> 00:10:36.730 gesture. They were convinced the film would bomb. 00:10:36.970 --> 00:10:39.210 Turned out to be maybe the most lucrative empty 00:10:39.210 --> 00:10:42.730 gesture in history. And the cost still forced 00:10:42.730 --> 00:10:45.269 Fox to bring in help. Yeah, $200 million was 00:10:45.269 --> 00:10:48.929 just too much for one studio to risk. They approached 00:10:48.929 --> 00:10:51.029 Paramount. So they ended up splitting it. Yep. 00:10:51.389 --> 00:10:53.669 Paramount co -financed and took North American 00:10:53.669 --> 00:10:56.970 distribution. Fox kept international. A deal 00:10:56.970 --> 00:11:00.070 born out of desperation that, ironically, spread 00:11:00.070 --> 00:11:02.629 the eventual massive profits around. Okay, so 00:11:02.629 --> 00:11:05.330 the film gets made. Now let's talk about how 00:11:05.330 --> 00:11:07.929 it balances the fiction and the history. The 00:11:07.929 --> 00:11:10.289 framing device is key here. Absolutely crucial. 00:11:10.490 --> 00:11:13.129 Starting the film in 1996 on that research vessel, 00:11:13.269 --> 00:11:15.649 the Keldysh, with Brock Lovett. The treasure 00:11:15.649 --> 00:11:18.070 hunter looking for the necklace. Right, the fictional 00:11:18.070 --> 00:11:20.149 heart of the ocean. And then we meet Old Rose, 00:11:20.370 --> 00:11:22.870 played by Gloria Stewart, who was 87 at the time. 00:11:22.909 --> 00:11:25.049 She becomes the narrator. And Lovett is kind 00:11:25.049 --> 00:11:27.269 of our entry point, focused on the diamond, the 00:11:27.269 --> 00:11:29.929 money. Exactly. Old Rose's story is designed 00:11:29.929 --> 00:11:33.629 to shift his perspective and ours. To teach that 00:11:33.629 --> 00:11:36.330 lesson about the pricelessness of life. of human 00:11:36.330 --> 00:11:38.649 connection over material wealth. Which is why 00:11:38.649 --> 00:11:41.090 she drops the diamond at the end. Right. And 00:11:41.090 --> 00:11:44.169 Cameron apparently cut a scene where Lovett actually 00:11:44.169 --> 00:11:48.070 sees her do it. He realized, correctly I think, 00:11:48.169 --> 00:11:50.870 that by that point, the audience doesn't care 00:11:50.870 --> 00:11:53.409 about Lovett's reaction to the necklace anymore. 00:11:53.629 --> 00:11:56.250 We care about Rose's story. The fictional characters 00:11:56.250 --> 00:11:58.870 themselves are pure archetype, really. Totally. 00:11:58.970 --> 00:12:02.350 Jack Dawson. Poor, free -spirited artist from 00:12:02.350 --> 00:12:06.320 Chippewa Falls. Embodies freedom, passion. Rose 00:12:06.320 --> 00:12:09.799 Dewitt Bricotter, the trapped 17 -year -old socialite, 00:12:09.860 --> 00:12:12.340 forced into this engagement with Cal Hockley 00:12:12.340 --> 00:12:15.059 to save her family's status. Cal Hockley. The 00:12:15.059 --> 00:12:18.139 arrogant, wealthy fiance, the perfect villain 00:12:18.139 --> 00:12:20.139 for this kind of story. And there's an interesting 00:12:20.139 --> 00:12:22.919 footnote about Jack the real Jay Dawson. Yeah, 00:12:22.960 --> 00:12:24.820 purely coincidence, apparently. The filmmakers 00:12:24.820 --> 00:12:26.879 didn't know until after the movie came out that 00:12:26.879 --> 00:12:29.340 there was a real Jay Dawson buried in the Titanic 00:12:29.340 --> 00:12:31.940 Cemetery in Halifax. Just adds to the mystique. 00:12:32.019 --> 00:12:34.240 And Cal gets his comeuppance, kind of retroactively. 00:12:34.480 --> 00:12:36.820 Old Rose mentions it at the end, yeah. He lost 00:12:36.820 --> 00:12:39.019 his fortune in the 1929 crash and committed suicide. 00:12:39.580 --> 00:12:41.799 Ties up that loose end, fictionally at least. 00:12:42.120 --> 00:12:44.500 Okay, so those are the fictional anchors. Then 00:12:44.500 --> 00:12:47.000 you have the portrayals of real historical figures 00:12:47.000 --> 00:12:50.860 where things get interesting and sometimes controversial. 00:12:51.240 --> 00:12:53.419 Definitely. You've got Margaret Molly Brown, 00:12:53.700 --> 00:12:57.279 played wonderfully by Kathy Bates, shown accurately 00:12:57.279 --> 00:13:00.919 as new money, a bit ostracized but warm towards 00:13:00.919 --> 00:13:03.299 Jack. And the film shows her taking charge of 00:13:03.299 --> 00:13:05.759 Lifeboat Six. Yeah, arguing with Quartermaster 00:13:05.759 --> 00:13:08.480 Hitchens to go back for survivors, which aligns 00:13:08.480 --> 00:13:10.299 with her known reputation for assertiveness. 00:13:10.779 --> 00:13:13.620 Thomas Andrews, the ship's designer, Victor Garber. 00:13:13.740 --> 00:13:16.860 Portrayed as this decent, heartbroken man, seen 00:13:16.860 --> 00:13:19.299 in the first -class smoking room, lamenting his 00:13:19.299 --> 00:13:21.620 failure to build a strong enough ship. But that's 00:13:21.620 --> 00:13:24.159 maybe a bit of legend. It's a famous image, but 00:13:24.159 --> 00:13:27.039 yeah, historical accounts suggest, while he might 00:13:27.039 --> 00:13:29.259 have been there briefly, he was seen actively 00:13:29.259 --> 00:13:32.100 helping with the evacuation later on. Still a 00:13:32.100 --> 00:13:34.460 tragic figure, just maybe more active till the 00:13:34.460 --> 00:13:36.539 end. The most controversial one, though, was 00:13:36.539 --> 00:13:39.139 First Officer Murdoch. Ewan Stewart's portrayal, 00:13:39.139 --> 00:13:41.100 yes. He's the officer on the bridge when they 00:13:41.100 --> 00:13:43.679 hit the iceberg. And in the film, during the 00:13:43.679 --> 00:13:46.360 chaos of the sinking, he shoots a couple of passengers 00:13:46.360 --> 00:13:48.940 in a panic and shoots himself. Which caused a 00:13:48.940 --> 00:13:52.159 huge outcry. Absolutely. His family, particularly 00:13:52.159 --> 00:13:56.100 his nephew, protested very publicly, argued it 00:13:56.100 --> 00:13:58.179 tarnished the reputation of a heroic officer. 00:13:59.000 --> 00:14:02.440 Fox ended up apologizing and donating to a memorial 00:14:02.440 --> 00:14:05.379 fund in his name. But Cameron defended it. He 00:14:05.379 --> 00:14:08.159 did. He argued he wasn't trying to slander Murdoch, 00:14:08.240 --> 00:14:11.159 but to show an honorable man under impossible 00:14:11.159 --> 00:14:13.759 pressure, making horrific choices in a panic. 00:14:14.240 --> 00:14:16.580 He pointed out how efficient Murdoch actually 00:14:16.580 --> 00:14:19.139 was, launching more lifeboats than his counterpart. 00:14:19.440 --> 00:14:21.039 It was meant to show the tragedy of command, 00:14:21.179 --> 00:14:23.720 perhaps. A fine line to watch? A very fine line. 00:14:23.899 --> 00:14:26.399 Then there's J. Bruce Ismay, the White Star Line 00:14:26.399 --> 00:14:29.340 director. Jonathan Hyde. Portrayed as pretty 00:14:29.340 --> 00:14:31.659 villainous, pushing Captain Smith to go faster. 00:14:31.899 --> 00:14:34.009 The film implies that heavily... though there's 00:14:34.009 --> 00:14:35.789 not much solid evidence he actually influenced 00:14:35.789 --> 00:14:38.590 the speed. But he was widely seen as a coward 00:14:38.590 --> 00:14:40.789 for getting into a lifeboat, collapsible sea, 00:14:40.950 --> 00:14:43.789 and surviving. That part is historically accurate 00:14:43.789 --> 00:14:46.629 to public perception. Some portrayals feel very 00:14:46.629 --> 00:14:48.590 true emotionally, though. The Strauss couple. 00:14:48.889 --> 00:14:52.129 Isidore and Ida Strauss. The elderly wealthy 00:14:52.129 --> 00:14:55.409 couple. The film shows Ida refusing to leave 00:14:55.409 --> 00:14:58.269 Isidore, saying, where you go, I go. and them 00:14:58.269 --> 00:15:00.730 embracing in their cabin as it floods which maybe 00:15:00.730 --> 00:15:02.889 wasn't exactly how they died reports suggest 00:15:02.889 --> 00:15:05.190 they were last seen sitting calmly on deck chairs 00:15:05.190 --> 00:15:07.889 but the film captures the documented essence 00:15:07.889 --> 00:15:10.789 of their devotion ida's refusal to leave him 00:15:10.789 --> 00:15:14.350 it's emotionally true if not factually precise 00:15:14.350 --> 00:15:17.429 in that moment and the baker charles movian uh 00:15:17.429 --> 00:15:20.970 -huh yes the chief baker The film shows him clinging 00:15:20.970 --> 00:15:23.250 to the stern railing, drinking brandy. Which 00:15:23.250 --> 00:15:26.129 was real. Apparently so. His own testimony confirmed 00:15:26.129 --> 00:15:28.210 he rode the ship down like an elevator and hardly 00:15:28.210 --> 00:15:30.409 felt the cold. Likely due to the significant 00:15:30.409 --> 00:15:33.070 amount of alcohol he'd consumed. A bizarre survival 00:15:33.070 --> 00:15:35.610 story. One last crucial element, the music. Can't 00:15:35.610 --> 00:15:38.110 talk about Titanic without the score. James Horner 00:15:38.110 --> 00:15:40.230 stepped in after Enya declined. Enya was asked 00:15:40.230 --> 00:15:42.889 first. Interesting. Yeah. Horner brought in the 00:15:42.889 --> 00:15:45.110 Norwegian singer Cicel Kirchhofer for those haunting 00:15:45.110 --> 00:15:48.039 vocals. And the soundtrack. Huge. Biggest selling 00:15:48.039 --> 00:15:50.360 orchestral soundtrack ever, right? Diamond certified. 00:15:51.159 --> 00:15:56.039 Over 11 million copies. The music became inseparable 00:15:56.039 --> 00:15:59.000 from the film's emotional impact. Okay, so production 00:15:59.000 --> 00:16:03.120 wraps. It's hugely over budget. delayed. The 00:16:03.120 --> 00:16:06.080 buzz is not good initially. No, the delay from 00:16:06.080 --> 00:16:08.960 summer to December 97 fueled all sorts of speculation. 00:16:09.279 --> 00:16:11.600 The press was practically sharpening its knives, 00:16:11.799 --> 00:16:14.779 calling it a guaranteed flop, a disaster movie 00:16:14.779 --> 00:16:17.100 in the wrong sense. But then word started to 00:16:17.100 --> 00:16:19.419 shift. A key preview screening in Minneapolis 00:16:19.419 --> 00:16:22.299 got incredibly positive reactions. That word 00:16:22.299 --> 00:16:24.340 of mouth started to build, counteracting the 00:16:24.340 --> 00:16:26.620 negative press just before release. And the box 00:16:26.620 --> 00:16:29.279 office performance? It wasn't a typical blockbuster 00:16:29.279 --> 00:16:31.500 opening. Not at all. It was all about the The 00:16:31.500 --> 00:16:34.179 legs, the longevity. It didn't have a monstrous 00:16:34.179 --> 00:16:36.299 opening weekend, relatively speaking. It just 00:16:36.299 --> 00:16:38.799 kept going. That stat about its highest gristing 00:16:38.799 --> 00:16:42.240 day is amazing. Disney made $13 million on Valentine's 00:16:42.240 --> 00:16:44.299 Day, 1998. That's more than eight weeks after 00:16:44.299 --> 00:16:46.399 it opened. It showed people weren't just seeing 00:16:46.399 --> 00:16:48.759 it once. They were going back, bringing friends, 00:16:48.960 --> 00:16:51.159 making it an event. Which led to those records. 00:16:51.399 --> 00:16:54.120 Number one for 15 straight weeks in North America. 00:16:54.340 --> 00:16:57.759 A record that still stands. Fastest to $300 million, 00:16:58.059 --> 00:17:00.799 beating Jurassic Park by weeks. And of course, 00:17:00.820 --> 00:17:03.159 the first to crack a billion worldwide. And the 00:17:03.159 --> 00:17:06.700 audience. Who was driving this? Initially, there 00:17:06.700 --> 00:17:09.339 was a lot of talk about Leomania, the huge draw 00:17:09.339 --> 00:17:11.740 for young women. And that was definitely part 00:17:11.740 --> 00:17:14.440 of it. And not the whole story. No way. The repeat 00:17:14.440 --> 00:17:17.059 viewing rate was over 20%. Normal was maybe 5 00:17:17.059 --> 00:17:20.619 % for a hit. This crossed demographics. The romance 00:17:20.619 --> 00:17:22.839 pulled people in. The spectacle kept them there. 00:17:22.960 --> 00:17:25.619 The positive buzz just snowballed. Even with 00:17:25.619 --> 00:17:28.500 that long run time, three hours plus. Yeah, which 00:17:28.500 --> 00:17:31.400 meant fewer showings per day. Theaters were adding 00:17:31.400 --> 00:17:34.000 midnight screenings just to meet demand. And 00:17:34.000 --> 00:17:36.539 those midnight shows were packed week after week. 00:17:36.680 --> 00:17:39.079 So commercially, it's undeniable. Critically, 00:17:39.079 --> 00:17:41.799 though. Much more divided, especially about the 00:17:41.799 --> 00:17:43.400 writing. Oh, absolutely. You had high praise 00:17:43.400 --> 00:17:46.279 initially. Roger Ebert loved it. Flawlessly crafted, 00:17:46.500 --> 00:17:49.480 spellbinding. But then the backlash came. Swift 00:17:49.480 --> 00:17:52.680 and pretty harsh. Big critics like Richard Corliss, 00:17:52.720 --> 00:17:55.640 Kenneth Turan, they tore into the script. Called 00:17:55.640 --> 00:17:58.119 it hackneyed, derivative, unbelievably badly 00:17:58.119 --> 00:18:00.279 written. Said it was just melodrama for teenagers. 00:18:00.779 --> 00:18:03.240 Turan basically said it only won Oscars because 00:18:03.240 --> 00:18:06.339 it made so much money. He did. Cameron. naturally 00:18:06.339 --> 00:18:08.559 fired back. He defended the script's simplicity. 00:18:08.980 --> 00:18:11.599 Yeah, he argued it worked because it used archetypes, 00:18:11.599 --> 00:18:14.599 dealt with universals of human experience and 00:18:14.599 --> 00:18:17.960 emotion. He directly accused Turan of mistaking 00:18:17.960 --> 00:18:21.920 archetype for cliche, essentially saying these 00:18:21.920 --> 00:18:23.660 stories resonate because they're fundamental, 00:18:23.880 --> 00:18:25.819 not because they're unoriginal. And culturally, 00:18:26.079 --> 00:18:28.619 Cameron's approach seems to have won out. You 00:18:28.619 --> 00:18:30.200 could argue that. I'm the king of the world. 00:18:30.640 --> 00:18:33.700 became instantly iconic. Even now that it's been 00:18:33.700 --> 00:18:37.420 84 years, meme is everywhere. The film burrowed 00:18:37.420 --> 00:18:39.700 deep into pop culture. Okay, let's pivot slightly 00:18:39.700 --> 00:18:41.759 and connect the movie's spectacle back to the 00:18:41.759 --> 00:18:44.259 real ship. Because the film's grandeur relies 00:18:44.259 --> 00:18:47.359 on the reality of Titanic. Absolutely. The ship 00:18:47.359 --> 00:18:49.740 itself, Hull 401, built alongside its sister 00:18:49.740 --> 00:18:52.700 Olympic in Belfast. The details of its design 00:18:52.700 --> 00:18:54.720 really show that class system the film highlights. 00:18:54.960 --> 00:18:56.759 Like the lifeboats on the boat deck? Exactly. 00:18:56.799 --> 00:18:59.619 Leaving a gap in the first class area so the 00:18:59.619 --> 00:19:02.220 view wasn't spoiled by these utilitarian objects. 00:19:02.700 --> 00:19:05.140 Says a lot about priorities. And the different 00:19:05.140 --> 00:19:08.799 decks clearly marked status. A deck was just 00:19:08.799 --> 00:19:12.079 for first class promenade. Entirely. Over 500 00:19:12.079 --> 00:19:14.480 feet long. Then you go down to E -Deck and you 00:19:14.480 --> 00:19:17.539 have cabins for all three classes. All connected 00:19:17.539 --> 00:19:19.680 by that long corridor they called Scotland Road. 00:19:20.079 --> 00:19:22.900 Keeping everyone in their designated zones. Pretty 00:19:22.900 --> 00:19:25.099 much. And the luxury in first class was just 00:19:25.099 --> 00:19:27.779 astounding for the time. The grand staircase, 00:19:28.019 --> 00:19:30.720 obviously, but also the swimming pool, the Turkish 00:19:30.720 --> 00:19:33.319 baths on F deck. Even third class was better 00:19:33.319 --> 00:19:35.740 than many other ships. Yeah, private cabins instead 00:19:35.740 --> 00:19:38.960 of big dormitories. Still basic, but a step up. 00:19:39.079 --> 00:19:41.180 And it wasn't just pretty, it was technologically 00:19:41.180 --> 00:19:44.400 advanced. Hugely. Complex heating, ventilation, 00:19:44.759 --> 00:19:47.319 even distilling fresh water from seawater. And 00:19:47.319 --> 00:19:49.799 that Marconi wireless set. State -of -the -art, 00:19:49.859 --> 00:19:52.920 powerful, could transmit over 350 miles. With 00:19:52.920 --> 00:19:55.299 dedicated operators, Jack Phillips and Harold 00:19:55.299 --> 00:19:58.319 Bride. That radio room becomes absolutely critical 00:19:58.319 --> 00:20:00.680 later. The voyage itself had a shaky start, didn't 00:20:00.680 --> 00:20:03.380 it? Almost disastrous. Right out of Southampton, 00:20:03.480 --> 00:20:06.420 Titanic's massive size created suction that pulled 00:20:06.420 --> 00:20:09.099 the moored liner SS City of New York away from 00:20:09.099 --> 00:20:12.079 the dock. Snapped its mooring lines. Yep. Captain 00:20:12.079 --> 00:20:14.539 Smith had to throw the engines full astern. They 00:20:14.539 --> 00:20:16.940 missed colliding by only about four feet. Delayed 00:20:16.940 --> 00:20:19.559 departure by an hour. A really bad omen. And 00:20:19.559 --> 00:20:22.079 the conditions on the night of the sinking, brutal. 00:20:22.480 --> 00:20:26.619 Exceptionally so. Clear, flat, calm, which actually 00:20:26.619 --> 00:20:29.400 made spotting icebergs harder. But the water 00:20:29.400 --> 00:20:33.119 temperature, minus 2 Celsius, 28 Fahrenheit, 00:20:33.440 --> 00:20:36.000 way colder than usual. That extreme cold was 00:20:36.000 --> 00:20:38.839 deadly. The lifeboat situation is often misunderstood, 00:20:39.079 --> 00:20:41.599 too. Right. They actually had more lifeboats 00:20:41.599 --> 00:20:43.900 than legally required at the time, 20 in total. 00:20:44.220 --> 00:20:46.759 But the regulations were based on outdated tonnage 00:20:46.759 --> 00:20:49.200 rules and didn't account for passenger numbers. 00:20:49.400 --> 00:20:51.619 Enough for maybe half the people on board. Roughly. 00:20:51.619 --> 00:20:53.980 And the thinking then wasn't that lifeboats would 00:20:53.980 --> 00:20:56.319 hold everyone until rescue. It was that they'd 00:20:56.319 --> 00:20:58.859 ferry people to a nearby rescue ship. A flawed 00:20:58.859 --> 00:21:00.900 assumption, tragically. And the survival rates 00:21:00.900 --> 00:21:04.420 confirm the film's focus on class. Starkly. Only 00:21:04.420 --> 00:21:06.980 3 % of first -class women died. Compare that 00:21:06.980 --> 00:21:09.519 to 54 % of third -class women. Wow. All the children 00:21:09.519 --> 00:21:12.720 in second class survived. But 52 out of 79 kids 00:21:12.720 --> 00:21:15.119 in third class were lost. Even first -class men 00:21:15.119 --> 00:21:17.160 died at a higher rate than third -class women. 00:21:17.400 --> 00:21:20.240 Yes. Your ticket absolutely determined your odds. 00:21:20.420 --> 00:21:23.539 It's brutal, but true. One major historical point 00:21:23.539 --> 00:21:25.740 the film got right, unlike earlier versions. 00:21:26.079 --> 00:21:28.920 The breakup. Showing the ship splitting in two 00:21:28.920 --> 00:21:31.700 before sinking. Previous films often showed it 00:21:31.700 --> 00:21:34.359 sinking intact, but the wreck discovery confirmed 00:21:34.359 --> 00:21:37.400 it broke apart violently. The bow and stern sections 00:21:37.400 --> 00:21:40.480 are quite far apart on the seabed. But Cameron 00:21:40.480 --> 00:21:43.000 did omit one significant historical element. 00:21:43.279 --> 00:21:46.700 The SS California, the nearby ship that saw Titanic's 00:21:46.700 --> 00:21:48.839 distress rockets but didn't properly respond, 00:21:49.160 --> 00:21:51.500 largely because its radio operator was asleep. 00:21:51.759 --> 00:21:54.200 He filmed scenes about it. He did, exploring 00:21:54.200 --> 00:21:57.319 that controversy, but he cut them. Said he wanted 00:21:57.319 --> 00:22:00.119 the Titanic story to feel self -contained, focused 00:22:00.119 --> 00:22:02.359 on the people on that ship, their emotional reality, 00:22:02.559 --> 00:22:05.019 rather than bringing in this external blame game. 00:22:05.220 --> 00:22:07.900 A narrative choice. Exactly. And focusing on 00:22:07.900 --> 00:22:10.579 that internal reality. The sources mention what's 00:22:10.579 --> 00:22:12.640 left at the wreck site now. Just shoes and boots. 00:22:13.579 --> 00:22:16.819 Mainly. The bodies, clothes, all consumed by 00:22:16.819 --> 00:22:18.960 marine life over the century. Just these poignant 00:22:18.960 --> 00:22:20.640 pairs of shoes marking where someone came to 00:22:20.640 --> 00:22:24.319 rest. It's incredibly haunting. So the film endures. 00:22:24.839 --> 00:22:27.599 The awards, the cultural impact. Undeniable. 00:22:27.839 --> 00:22:30.799 Eleven Oscars, four Grammys for the music, including 00:22:30.799 --> 00:22:32.920 Song of the Year for My Heart Will Go On. And 00:22:32.920 --> 00:22:35.319 it's now officially preserved. Yep. Added to 00:22:35.319 --> 00:22:38.660 the U .S. National Film Registry in 2017. Culturally, 00:22:38.799 --> 00:22:42.019 historically, aesthetically significant. The 00:22:42.019 --> 00:22:44.220 AFI ranks it high on multiple lists, too, like 00:22:44.220 --> 00:22:46.940 hashtag six epic film. And it keeps making money 00:22:46.940 --> 00:22:49.440 through re -releases. The 3D conversion in 2012 00:22:49.440 --> 00:22:52.339 was a huge deal. Massive undertaking. Took 60 00:22:52.339 --> 00:22:55.359 weeks, cost $18 million just for the conversion. 00:22:55.619 --> 00:22:57.660 And led to that amazing story about the stars. 00:22:58.079 --> 00:23:00.160 Neil deGrasse Tyson. Yeah, the astrophysicist. 00:23:00.519 --> 00:23:03.640 He pointed out that the starfield Rose sees when 00:23:03.640 --> 00:23:05.740 she's floating on the debris was inaccurate for 00:23:05.740 --> 00:23:07.559 the date and location. And Cameron actually fixed 00:23:07.559 --> 00:23:10.460 it. He did. For the 3D re -release, he got the 00:23:10.460 --> 00:23:12.859 correct star map from Tyson for the North Atlantic, 00:23:13.039 --> 00:23:16.920 April 15, 1912, 420 a .m., and completely re 00:23:16.920 --> 00:23:18.579 -rendered that shot. That's commitment to detail, 00:23:18.700 --> 00:23:21.400 even after 15 years. It really is. And that 3D 00:23:21.400 --> 00:23:24.000 re -release added another $343 million to the 00:23:24.000 --> 00:23:26.180 total gross. Then they did it again for the 20th 00:23:26.180 --> 00:23:28.359 and 25th anniversaries in 4K. Which brings us 00:23:28.359 --> 00:23:32.750 inevitably to the door. Ah, the door. Or the 00:23:32.750 --> 00:23:35.250 piece of paneling, technically. Could Jack have 00:23:35.250 --> 00:23:38.150 fit? The debate that will never die. It went 00:23:38.150 --> 00:23:41.250 beyond internet forums, right? Mythbusters tackled 00:23:41.250 --> 00:23:44.150 it. They did. And Cameron himself finally commissioned 00:23:44.150 --> 00:23:46.589 a proper forensic study for a National Geographic 00:23:46.589 --> 00:23:49.809 special in 2023. And the scientific verdict? 00:23:50.049 --> 00:23:53.829 The conclusion was... maybe. Survival was... 00:23:54.140 --> 00:23:57.059 possible but unlikely. It depended on a lot of 00:23:57.059 --> 00:23:59.480 factors. Could they have tied Rose's life jacket 00:23:59.480 --> 00:24:02.380 underneath for extra buoyancy? Could they have 00:24:02.380 --> 00:24:04.180 balanced well enough to keep most of their bodies 00:24:04.180 --> 00:24:06.420 out of the freezing water? It wasn't a simple 00:24:06.420 --> 00:24:08.900 yes or no. But Cameron, the filmmaker, has his 00:24:08.900 --> 00:24:12.200 own answer. Always has. He maintains Jack had 00:24:12.200 --> 00:24:15.359 to die for the story, the tragedy, the sacrifice, 00:24:15.500 --> 00:24:17.599 the permanence of that loss. That's the point 00:24:17.599 --> 00:24:19.940 of the ending. The narrative demanded it. regardless 00:24:19.940 --> 00:24:21.660 of physics. So it really comes back to that blend, 00:24:21.799 --> 00:24:24.000 the meticulous history, the engineering, the 00:24:24.000 --> 00:24:26.059 research. Driving the massive cost and scale. 00:24:26.259 --> 00:24:28.680 Mixed with that powerful, simple, archetypal 00:24:28.680 --> 00:24:31.539 romance. Exactly. That's the synthesis. That's 00:24:31.539 --> 00:24:33.359 why it worked. Despite the production chaos, 00:24:33.500 --> 00:24:36.059 despite the skepticism, it tapped into something 00:24:36.059 --> 00:24:38.579 universal through both historical fascination 00:24:38.579 --> 00:24:41.220 and emotional connection. Which leaves us with 00:24:41.220 --> 00:24:43.599 a final thought for you, the listener, to chew 00:24:43.599 --> 00:24:46.559 on. Okay. The real Titanic was this pinnacle 00:24:46.559 --> 00:24:49.200 of Gilded Age technology. State -of -the -art 00:24:49.200 --> 00:24:53.279 engineering, communication, luxury, everything 00:24:53.279 --> 00:24:56.140 designed with immense confidence. Utter confidence 00:24:56.140 --> 00:24:58.960 in technology. So considering that, what does 00:24:58.960 --> 00:25:01.859 the ship's catastrophic failure, and you could 00:25:01.859 --> 00:25:04.160 add the failure of... the nearby Californian 00:25:04.160 --> 00:25:06.519 to even understand or react properly, what does 00:25:06.519 --> 00:25:09.900 it all reveal about human overconfidence, about 00:25:09.900 --> 00:25:11.819 our faith in the systems we build, maybe even 00:25:11.819 --> 00:25:14.019 then, maybe even now? That's a deep one. That 00:25:14.019 --> 00:25:16.980 question of hubris and technology, it definitely 00:25:16.980 --> 00:25:19.640 still resonates, doesn't it? Over a century later. 00:25:19.819 --> 00:25:22.240 It certainly does. Thank you for joining us for 00:25:22.240 --> 00:25:24.759 this deep dive into the truly unsinkable story 00:25:24.759 --> 00:25:25.279 of Titanic.