Titanic (1997)

[laconicchick]

I think Titanic Heaven was a dream before she died. I don't think the other people were actually there (well, I don't believe in heaven anyway, but that's beside the point). I think she dreamed it and then died and went wherever she went.

[Deleted]

laconicchick said:

I think Titanic Heaven was a dream before she died. I don't think the other people were actually there (well, I don't believe in heaven anyway, but that's beside the point). I think she dreamed it and then died and went wherever she went.

I remember when the movie came out and the arguments I would get in with those who said she died. I was among those who said she was dreaming. My evidence was the Celine Dion song particularly when she sings "Every night in my dreams, I see you, I feel you...."

[Brookie]

I think because she casually dunked that dreadful looking necklace at the site of the sinking, she was eligible to get into Titanic Heaven.

[Deleted]

If only those who died on Titanic are allowed on Titanic heaven, then how come Rose gets in?

Somewhere there's gotta be an insane site that shows all the characters in that end scene, because I swear there are some other survivors in there. Weren't Col. Gracie and Lightoller there?

Here's an interesting philosophical question: at the end, Cal gets on a lifeboat by pretending the crying kid is his own. He uses the kid for his own selfish reasons. Yet Rose gets OFF the lifeboat also for her own selfish reasons - yet society tells us her reasons are "good" because she did it for love. Yet, in the end, despite his bad motives, Cal ended up saving a child. And Rose probably cost Jack his life - had she stayed in the lifeboat he could've gotten on that floating door himself. So think about that (I can't believe I found an interesting philosophical question imbedded in this movie).

Historically, I wonder why people didn't loot the ship for things that could be used as makeshift rafts. There's got to be a million things that could've been used.

[jynni]

poorfrances said:

And Rose probably cost Jack his life - had she stayed in the lifeboat he could've gotten on that floating door himself. So think about that (I can't believe I found an interesting philosophical question imbedded in this movie).

However, if Rose hadn't gotten back on the ship, there's no guarantee that Jack would've ended up at the same place when the ship went down. I'm sure not having her around and not having to deal with Cal chasing them down into the depths of the ship would've altered his behavior.

[Deleted]

Jack was portrayed as pretty savvy though. Wasn't he the one who led Rose to the railing of the ship? He was also the one that thought of climbing over it and holding on to the outside ad how the ship was going to suck them down and told her to hold her breath and then kick. So since he led her to that place in the first place and was the one guiding her I can believe he'd go the same way and do the same thing without her.

[lallybroch]

I couldn't find anything official on a list of characters in the last scenes, but here are some rather flowery musings of a Titanic fan on the death/dream subject:

The last scene of the film has generated some controversy. Does Rose die, or does she simply have a dream? Cameron himself seems ambiguous on the subject, as his script reads: "She is very still. She could be sleeping, or maybe something else."Apparently, Cameron has left it to each viewer to decide based upon his own beliefs and opinions. But the very fact that he hints it's maybe something else says to me that it issomething else.

From a dramatic standpoint, for the end sequence to be a dream would be utterly anti-climactic. Which is the better way for this movie to end: with Rose going on with her life and simply having a dream; or with Rose dying and being finally reunited with Jack? This woman has lived a long, full life. She has had children and grandchildren. She has fulfilled her promise to Jack and embodied his philosophy of making it count, as evidenced by the many activities depicted in her bedside photos, and reached the ripe old age of 101. If one reads the original script, there is a scene not in the final cut in which Rose reveals to Jack things she'd like to do, such as become an actress or an artist. The photos show not only that she did the things she dreamed about, but also the things Jack told her they would do together, such as go to the Santa Monica Pier and learn to ride a horse like a man. She even flew an airplane. Rose has done it all, made it count, and by the end of the movie, there is nothing left for her to do... except to go back to Titanic and come full circle by revisiting the past and finally having closure. To suggest that after finally revealing her story and Jack's existence she leaves Keldysh and goes back to Cedar Rapids to continue making pottery is completely anti-climactic and very dramatically weak.

Shortly before he dies, Jack tells Rose that she won't die that night but die an old lady in bed. And that's exactly what Rose does at the end of the movie. That's why Cameron shows us all those photos she brought along with her that chronicle her life, the long life Jack told her she would live. The beautiful end sequence is not a dream at all; it's Rose's trip to Heaven and her reunion with Jack, who has waited for her to finally join him. And he has been waiting in the same spot where he asked her to meet him after the first class dinner: at the clock at the top of the stairs. And all of the people present at that reunion are the passengers and crew who went down with the ship. Jack and Rose are finally reunited, their love stretching across both death and time, and the audience applauds, all of them aboard a heavenly Titanic that can never sink and whose pristine beauty is eternal and cannot be ravaged by either ice or water or man.

After seeing the final sequence for the third time, I am more convinced than ever that Rose has died. In the script, Cameron writes, "THE WRECK OF TITANIC looms like a ghost out of the dark. It is lit by a kind of moonlight, a light of the mind. We pass over the endless forecastle deck to the superstructure, moving faster than subs can move... almost like we are flying."As the camera moves through the water and toward the Titanic's wreck, I believe we are seeing Rose's point-of-view as her spirit descends into the ocean and goes to the wreck. And as she flies along the deck, she makes the transition to Heaven. When the light pours out of those windows, it is an otherworldly sight. The first people we see after going in through the first-class entrance are the members of the band, and they watch us and smile at us as if they have been waiting and expecting us. The last person standing at the foot of the stairs before we ascend them is Andrews, who had a special affinity for Rose, as evidenced by his apology, "I'm sorry I didn't build you a stronger ship, young Rose". As we go up and Jack turns toward us (in an exact duplication of the scene when he says "Want to go to a real party?" and which was also shot from Rose's point-of-view) the camera steps aside and assumes the third-person role, and we see Rose, seventeen again, join Jack. The onlookers, all crewmembers and passengers who died, applaud, not only to celebrate Rose's arrival, but in approval of the love she and Jack share.

Something else that occurred to me is that the final scene is not only a reunion of Jack and Rose in Heaven, it is also a marriage. Notice the dress that Rose is wearing. While all of the other people in this scene are dressed in the same attire they wore during the Titanic's voyage, Rose wears a dress we never saw her wear before, and a dress that is white.

Every time I see this scene, I try to spot more of the people in it than I've seen on previous occasions. Cameron has conspicuously placed in this scene not only characters whom we are familiar with, but characters we immediately recognize as those who died on Titanic. There is no ambiguity there. There is no Cal in this scene; no Ruth; not even Molly Brown. We see the members of the band; Tommy Ryan; First Officer Murdoch; Thomas Andrews; Fabrizio; Captain Smith; J.J. Astor; Rose's maid Trudy... I have tried to see if Lovejoy is there, but apparently he's not (I would assume he has gone to a hotter place).

It is also interesting to note that the people gathered here are not divided as they were during Titanic's voyage. First-class passengers, third-class passengers, and crewmembers are all mixed together, for here there is no meaning to earthly distinctions of position or social status.

While Rose didn't die in the Titanic disaster, if you believe that she died and wasn't dreaming, her life still ended at the general area of the sinking, just many years later, and since she was a passenger on the ship, the gods of Titanic Heaven must have decided it was close enough and let her through. Since the site is in the middle of the ocean, there probably weren't too many other (non-Titanic) people dying at that exact spot on a regular basis.

I think Rose doesn't get much blame for causing Jack's death because it's impossible to know that he would have survived without her. Maybe without reuniting with Rose, being chased by Lovejoy, or being with her when she stopped to talk with Mr. Andrews, he ends up at the wrong place at the wrong time when the ship lurches and slides down the deck with Trudy the maid or turns into another Propeller Guy.

[gibby]

Titanic, like Gone With the Wind, is only good if the sound is turned down.

[Casino Bride]

Call me evil, but I laughed my arse off the whole time. It was so bloody horrible. My "favorite" part was near the end, when they're going through the water-filled halls and calling out: "Jack!" - "Rose!" - "Jack!" - "Rose!" I laughed so hard I had cramps.

[Binky]

I noticed watching pieces of it this weekend that Jack almost always prefaces dialogue directed at Rose with her name. "Rose, blah blah blah." Like if he didn't specify he was talking to her she'd get distracted by the shiny blue diamond and wander off.