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Titanic is a 1997 American epic romantic disaster film which was directed, written, co-produced, co-edited and partly financed by James Cameron. A fictionalized account of the sinking of the RMS Titanic, it stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet as members of different social classes who fall in love aboard the ship during its ill-fated maiden voyage.
Production on Titanic began in 1995, when Cameron shot footage of the actual Titanic wreck. The modern scenes were shot on board the Akademik Mstislav Keldysh, which Cameron had used as a base when filming the wreck. A reconstruction of the Titanic was built at Playas de Rosarito in Baja California, and scale models and computer-generated imagery were used to recreate the sinking. The film was partially funded by Paramount Pictures and 20th Century Fox, and, at the time, was the most expensive film ever made, with an estimated budget of $200 million. Below is a plot synopsis of the film.
Plot
In 1996, treasure hunter Brock Lovett and his team aboard the research vessel Keldysh search the wreck of RMS Titanic for a necklace with a rare diamond, the Heart of the Ocean. They recover a safe and find inside a drawing of a nude woman wearing only the necklace. The drawing is dated April 14, 1912, the day the Titanic hit the iceberg. An elderly woman calling herself Rose Dawson Calvert and claiming to be the person in the drawing visits Lovett, and tells of her experiences as a passenger on the Titanic.
Above left: A safe found aboard the sunken Titanic is hauled onto the Keldysh. Above right: An elderly Rose Dawson Calvert views this hand-held mirror found in the safe; she says the mirror is one that belonged to her.
In 1912 Southampton, first class passengers Ruth DeWitt Bukater, her daughter, 17-year old Rose DeWitt Bukater (wearing large hat), and Rose's fiancé, Caledon "Cal" Hockley, board the Titanic.
Ruth emphasizes the importance of Rose's engagement; the marriage will resolve the DeWitt Bukaters' secret financial problems. Made distraught by the engagement, Rose considers committing suicide by jumping off the ship's stern; Jack Dawson, a penniless artist, intervenes and convinces her not to jump. Discovered with Jack, Rose tells Cal she was looking over the edge and Jack saved her from falling. Cal is at first indifferent to Jack's actions, but when Rose indicates that some recognition is due, Cal offers Jack a small amount of money. After Rose mocks Cal by asking if saving her life meant so little, he invites Jack to dine with them in first class the following night. Jack and Rose develop a tentative friendship, even though Cal and Ruth are wary of the young third class passenger. Following the dinner, Rose secretly joins Jack at a party in third class.
Jack and Rose dancing at the party in third class.
Cal and Ruth both disapprove of Rose seeing Jack, so Rose attempts to rebuff Jack's continuing advances. However, she soon realizes that she prefers him to Cal, and goes to meet him during what turns out to be the Titanic's last moments of daylight ever. They go to Rose's stateroom, where she asks Jack to sketch her nude wearing only the Heart of the Ocean necklace, which was Cal's engagement present to her. Afterward, they evade Cal's bodyguard and make love in an automobile in the ship's cargo hold. Later, the pair go to the ship's forward deck, witness a collision with an iceberg, then overhear the ship's officers and designer discussing its seriousness. Rose and Jack decide to warn her mother and Cal.
Cal opens his safe, and retrieves some items from it (below left). He finds among these items Jack's sketch of Rose, and he also finds a mocking note from Rose (as shown at below right).
Furious, Cal arranges for his bodyguard to slip the necklace into Jack's coat pocket. Accused of stealing it, Jack is arrested, taken to the Master-at-arms' office, and handcuffed to a pipe. Cal puts the necklace in his own coat pocket. Rose evades both Cal and her mother, who has managed to board a lifeboat, then frees Jack. The crew starts to launch flares to attempt to obtain help from nearby ships.
Once Jack and Rose reach the top deck, Cal and Jack encourage Rose to board a lifeboat (as shown at left).
Cal claims that he has arranged for himself and Jack to get off safely. After Rose boards, Cal tells Jack the arrangement is only for himself. As Rose's boat lowers away, she realizes she cannot leave Jack and jumps back on board the Titanic to reunite with him. Infuriated, Cal takes a pistol and chases them into the flooding first class dining saloon. After using up all of his ammunition, Cal realizes, to his chagrin, that he gave his coat and the diamond to Rose.
With the situation now extreme, Cal returns topside and boards a lifeboat by carrying a lost child in his arms (shown at left).
Jack and Rose return to the top deck. All lifeboats have now departed and passengers are falling to their deaths as the stern rises out of the water and the ship's power goes out. The ship then breaks in half, and the stern rises 90 degrees into the air (below left). As it sinks, Jack and Rose ride the stern into the ocean. Jack helps Rose onto a wooden panel only buoyant enough to support one person (below right). Holding the edge of the panel, he assures her she will die an old woman, warm in her bed. Jack dies from hypothermia. Fifth Officer Harold Lowe has commandeered a lifeboat to search for survivors. Rose gets Lowe's attention and is saved.
Rose and the other survivors are taken by the RMS Carpathia to New York, where Rose gives her name as Rose Dawson in memory of Jack. She hides from Cal on Carpathia's deck as he searches for her. She learns later that he committed suicide after losing everything in the Wall Street Crash of 1929.
Rose's story causes Lovett to abandon his search. Rose goes alone to the stern of Keldysh, takes out the Heart of the Ocean — in her possession all along (below left) — and drops it into the sea over the wreck site. When she is seemingly asleep in her bed, the photos on her dresser show she lived a life of freedom and adventure thanks to Jack. A young Rose is then seen reuniting with Jack at the Grand Staircase of the RMS Titanic, congratulated by those who perished on the ship (below right).[b]
a. Poster for Titanic: The poster art copyright is believed to belong to 20th Century Fox, Paramount Pictures.
b. Wikipedia, Titanic (1997 film). Web, n.d. URL = http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titanic_(1997_film).
