25 Titanic Movie Facts That Will Make You See It in a Different Light

The elderly couple seen lying in bed while musicians are playing and the water rushing into the room are based on real passengers from the unfortunate ship. The passengers in the real Titanic were Isidor and Ida Strauss, and their love story is as touching as Jack’s and Rose’s. They were married for 40 years, and witnesses say they were allowed on a lifeboat because of their age. Still, Isidor refused to get in before every woman and child left the ship. His wife decided to stay with her husband, and they were last seen on the boat deck sitting on a pair of deck chairs and holding hands until they both perished.

While the musicians are playing on the deck, there are some shots of people inside the ship: the captain, the ship’s designer, the elderly couple lying in bed, and the Irish mother telling a story to her children. The story was about Tír na nÓg: “And so they lived happily together for 300 years, in the land of Tír na nÓg, the land of eternal youth and beauty.” In Irish mythology, Tír na nÓg is a part of the Celtic Otherworld and is reached by passing a path across the sea. The story wasn’t in the original script and was suggested by other Irish actors. It fits perfectly: the mother is soothing her children, that once they are immersed in water, they will reach a land where they will be happy.

There are several iconic scenes in the Titanic that everyone remembers. Jack drawing Rose is definitely considered one of those touching, unforgettable moments. But in the up-close drawing shots showing the work with the pencil, we don’t see DiCaprio’s hand, but Cameron’s himself.

James Cameron drew Rose’s portrait and all the sketches of the ‘French girls’ in Jack's binder. And that’s not all; DiCaprio is right-handed while Cameron is left-handed, but this little detail didn’t slip the director’s mind. The image was reversed in post-production to maintain continuity and ensure that nothing would break the illusion that Jack was the real artist.

The scene when Jack is teaching Rose to spit was almost completely improvised, but not forgotten by the actress. Apparently she was inspired by it and decided to use her newly acquired skill in another impromptu scene. When the ship is sinking and she wants to leave her mother and her future husband to go back to find Jack, her fiancé Cal grabs her arm and doesn't let go. That's when Rose spits to his face and breaks free. The original script said to use a hairpin, but spitting worked even better, especially because it was Jack who taught her that. Also, the actor who played Cal, Billy Zane, wasn't aware of Winslet's idea, so his surprised face and disgust are a genuine reaction.

After the ship sank, Jack and Rose were hanging on to their lives in the freezing water. That scene wasn’t the most pleasant experience for the actress Kate Winslet. There were even rumors that she got pneumonia. Still, in an interview with Colbert on The Late Night Show, the actress clarified that it wasn’t that severe. Still, the water was really cold, and she actually got hypothermia. If you are wondering why they would make the actors suffer from the cold and not just let them act that it’s cold, Winslet remembers that there was a lot of water, so she thinks there was just too much of it to heat up.

James Cameron was fascinated by shipwrecks, and the idea of filming the Titanic came when he met Robert Ballard—the crew leader, who discovered the famous liner’s wreckage. The film’s production started in 1995, and they dived into the sea to look at the real Titanic ship. Cameron really did dive into the sea and spent more time on the Titanic than the actual passengers in 1912. He went there 12 times and would spend between 15 and 17 hours exploring, filming, and taking in all the disaster’s sadness and injustice. The footage he took underwater appeared in the movie, making it even more realistic. This experience made Cameron want the viewers to understand that this story wasn’t just a drama. It was an event that happened to real people, not all of whom survived.

Most of the decor on set was reconstructed by or under the supervision of researchers of the White Star Line to be as realistic and historically accurate as possible. Cameron insisted on using real wallpaper and actual crystal chandeliers, putting lead windows, and stamping small or unseen items with the White Star Line’s logo. He also persuaded the firm who made carpets for the real Titanic, BMK-Stoddard of England, to make carpets for the movie. The manufacturers still had the patterns of the original carpet, and they can be seen in the main salon at the bottom of the Grand Staircase, in the corridors and suites.

In the script, James Cameron used quotes from real passengers who survived the disaster. For example, when Jack wants to stop Rose from jumping off the ship, he tells her that while fishing, he fell into the freezing water after the ice broke. It felt like “being stabbed with a thousand knives all over your body.” This is an actual quote of Second Officer Charles Herber Lightoller, describing his experience: “Striking the water was like a thousand knives being driven into one’s body, and, for a few moments, I completely lost grip of myself.“

The Grand Staircase on set was built like a real staircase that would take quite a bit of damage with water-it wasn’t built just to be convincing enough for the viewers. But it was also built knowing it would be destroyed from the start. When the ship starts sinking, the room with the Grand Staircase is flooded with water. To make the destruction of the staircase more dramatic, 90,000 gallons (about 340,000 liters) of water were dropped on it. The production team knew they had just one shot to make that scene because this much water would completely destroy the set.

The Titanic in real life had four funnels, but only three of them were functional. In the beginning of the 20th century big ships had four funnels to properly draw heat and smoke out. But the Titanic had more advanced engineering and needed only three of them. The fourth was added to make the ship more impressive and grandiose. Also, because the ship was so big, it looked more balanced, so there was also an aesthetic purpose. It could be that it was used for ventilation for the kitchens. This detail was not missed in the movie and the fourth funnel emitted less smoke than the other three.

James Cameron didn’t want any music to sing in his movie, and even more so, he didn’t want to end it with a pop song. He originally wanted Enya to compose the score for the film, but when she declined, Cameron turned to James Horner. Horner knew about Cameron’s vision, but he still secretly arranged to record a demo tape with Célin Dion of My Heart Will Go On, which he showed Cameron. In the end, the film director changed his mind. How could he not have? The song became Dion’s signature and one of the most memorable elements from the Titanic. From today’s perspective, the music and the film are truly inseparable.

Because Titanic was marketed as a historically accurate movie, no mistake slipped through the viewers’ eyes. One of the things pointed out to be inaccurate was the night sky. Rose was floating on the door and looking up, but she didn’t see the same sky that people in 1912 saw. American astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson was insisting that it should be changed. Finally, Cameron agreed with that and sent Dr. Tyson an accurate constellation map. It was done, and in the 2012 re-release, the night sky was adjusted to reflect the historical time.

The differences can be seen in the picture: the first is from the 1997 release, and the second is from the 2012 re-release.

The movie lasts a little bit more than three hours, but did you know that from the moment of the collision with the iceberg to the total submersion of the actual ship, 2 hours and 40 minutes have passed? The ship’s sinking wasn’t as fast as seen in the movie, but one of the details is very accurate. The ship collided with the iceberg at 23:40 (ship’s time). It disappeared at 02:20. There is a moment in the movie, nearly at the end, when total chaos takes over, where a clock is shown up close. It shows 02:15, five minutes until everything is over. The loyalty to details is really admirable!

In James Cameron’s Titanic, there is a scene of a child playing with a spinning top while Jack is sneaking onto the first-class deck. This scene is actually recreated from a photo taken on April 11, 1912, by a Jesuit novitiate named Francis Browne. In it, six-year-old Robert Douglas Spedden of New York plays a traditional game of that time. His father is standing nearby, and other passengers are looking on.

The boy and the father survived the sinking of the ship, though Robert died not long after in an accident. Francis Brown didn’t have to witness the ship’s disaster because he was one of the eight people who disembarked from the Titanic. He traveled from Southampton, England, to Queenstown (now Cobh), Ireland.

The chef we see drinking from a flask next to Jack and Rose while the ship is sinking is based on a real person. Charles John Joughin was an English-American chef who is notable for surviving in the freezing water for two hours, which is a lot. He was the last survivor to leave the Titanic. He climbed on the safety rail outside the ship and waited to go down like on an elevator. He explained that he didn’t feel the effects of the cold water as much, probably because of the consumed alcohol.

The car being hoisted onto the ship at the beginning of the movie is a 1912 Renault Type CB Coupe de Ville. It is the same car in which, later in the film, Rose and Jack have their steamy scene. Although the scene was the product of the director’s imagination, the car wasn’t. According to the ship’s cargo manifesto, it was actually aboard the Titanic. And it is the only car known to have been there. It belonged to an American named William Carter of Bryn Mawr. He just bought the car while traveling in Europe with his family. Carter survived and later sought reimbursement from White Star Line for the value of his newly purchased car, which was $5000. Today, that would be about $130,000.

Since 1985, when Robert Ballard discovered the wreckage of the RMS Titanic, salvagers have been very interested in the car, but it still remains hidden. If the car was found, it could be sold for millions of dollars at auction, knowing that other items found at the bottom of the ocean, such as dinner menus, were sold for $25,000 to $35,000.

At the beginning of the movie, Jack is playing cards with his friend Fabrizio. In the end, they win the tickets with which they can board the Titanic, some money, a watch, and a knife. Later in the film, when the ship is sinking, Fabrizio uses the same knife to cut down a lifeboat.

Also, the watch says it was 11:53, so the two friends had to hurry to the ship because it was scheduled to leave at 12:00, just like the real one.

At the beginning of the movie, shortly after Jack and Rose meet, Jack promises Rose that he will take her to Santa Monica Pier, where they will have fun like Rose never had before. He tells her he will take Rose on the roller coaster and ride horses on the beach. Let’s ignore the fact that the roller coasters were built after the sinking of the Titanic and focus on the fact that at the very end of the movie, when we are shown Rose’s old photos, in one of them, she is on a horse and Santa Monica Pier is seen in the background.

The old Rose in the movie owns a white Pomeranian. It’s not just a random detail, as it was Cameron’s way of paying tribute to the dogs that survived the ship’s sinking. The breed of the dog was also chosen purposely because two of the three dogs that survived were Pomeranians. When the real ship sank, a passenger released dogs from their kennels. James Cameron initially filmed scenes with animals, but they didn’t make the cut.

Sometimes actors get in accidents on set, and Kate Winslet had one while filming the Titanic. During the scene when Jack and Rose were running away from a flush of water down the corridor and were swiped by the wave, Winslet’s heavy coat got caught on the gate. The actress nearly drowned, but luckily, she managed to free herself from the coat. She said she never complained about it to James Cameron because she didn’t want to be a wimp and continued working. On the other hand, James Cameron reassured that Winslet was never in physical danger.