Things the Titanic Movie got WRONG

Discussing the Titanic (1997) movie vs real life

[wickedphantm]

The biggest (and scariest) revelation for me about real life vs. movie was the lighting. Cameron had to add a bunch of light to the scenes so the audience could see what was happening, but it was a moonless night in the middle of nowhere when the ship really sank. The breakup and final plunge would have happened in almost complete darkness and that's horrifying to think about.

[fallofrock]

1. Ocean water does have a green tinge due to microorganisms that turn green at surface level
2. Reports from survivors said the water coming in the ship was green
3. Ocean water only appears murky when sand is combined. The water they saw would have in fact appeared clear with green tinge

[t.j.gallagher]

It's A NINETY Degree (90) Angle! NOT 180!

[mattrowlandhall]

The middle of the Atlantic would have been crystal clear water. Sea water is typically only murky around coastlines where debris including sand and mud is picked up in suspension. I'm almost certain the flooding water would have been closer in appearance to that in the movie, compared to the Honour and Glory simulation. However the movie does give a swimming pool vibe. Dirt would have been picked up off the floors as she flooded deck by deck so likely not as crystal clear in reality.

[jorgevillavicencio]

The only thing you got wrong was assuming that the north Atlantic waters are murky, quite the opposite. They appear dark because of the depth and the marine floor composition. However, it is true that the water flooding the ship wouldn't look like swimming pool water. Oil, coal dust and particles, even the ship's sewage, would have made the water murkier than how it appeared in the movie.

[KevsterWilson]

James cameron himself has pretty much said in the several documentaries hes made since the film that he got stuff wrong, but purely based on facts at the time. Hes since done more research including a full scan on the wreck site just to try & determine what happened that night, including that the ship never reached a 90 degree angle as in the film, but more like a 45 degree before breaking.

He even did an experiment with a lifeboat to see if Titanics losses could of been reduced by having more lifeboats, & in fact he proved that the ship couldnt of had anymore boats as it took nearly 30 mins just to prepare & launch a single boat.

[juslewissr]

The movie was made with the information they had at the time. James Cameron has even went on a couple differently documentaries demonstrating how inaccurate certain things were in his movie, including the angle of the stern, when exactly the ship more than likely broke apart, etc. That can't be easy to say, "Yeah, I made this insanely incredible movie based off of the sinking of the Titanic and I got some key parts wrong, " but he still went on to prove how he knew he'd gotten those things wrong. Btw, that is a 90 degree angle in Cameron's sinking scene. Much like James Cameron, it wouldn't hurt for you to to back yourself and explain that you, too, got some things wrong as well. Ninety degrees is straight up and down; I'm not entirely sure where you got 180° unless you just don't really understand angles/degrees correctly. Regardless, picking apart a movie and not having your own "corrections" actually be correct is a great example of irony. 😆

[MannyBrum]

The water in the middle of the Atlantic would be some of the clearest water as there is little pollution and the sediment is too far down to cloud it. The reason it looks dark is you're looking down into the lightless abyss of the ocean, whereas on a tropical shore the sunlight can illuminate it all the way to the bottom. If you scoop up that water and put it into a shallow container (like the Titanic was) then light can easily penetrate it to reflect off the bottom.

Also simulations show the port list may have doubled the amount of time the Titanic took to sink. Without it, Thomas Andrews' estimates about how long it would take to sink were right.

[BimDaTitanicNerd]

The angle of the stern in the movie was only 90 degrees. If it was 180 degrees then the ship would've completely capsized upside down.

[ronhaase]

If the movie was made today it would have been 100% CGI not 5% like it was back in mid 90’s. Impressive to think all those sets were built

[TheMuni]

The elevators were bigger and more spaced out because they made the grand staircase wider. The original dimensions were just deemed to be too small for the actors to comfortably walk up/down without hitting each other, so they made the staircase wider which resulted in the dome becoming a circle instead of the original oval, and since the elevators fit into the same shaft as the staircase they had to space them out more and make them a bit bigger to fill out the extra space. Plus those original elevator dimensions were also pretty cozy.

[sterlingcampbell]

Not knowing the difference between 90° and 180° makes it absolutely impossible to take you seriously.

[The-One-True-Emperor]

The TITANIC film set was shot alongside the Pacific Ocean in Baja California, Mexico. So, the water used in simulating the sinking scene was authentic sea water, but it was not from the Atlantic Ocean. 😉 Also, it was not until 2012, one hundred years since the sinking, that scientific analysis deduced that the ship tilted to about 23° and not the 45° diagonal angle we see in the motion picture. On another note, the scene with Jack and Rose being chased through the First-Class Reception Area was shot during the daytime. Although the windows in this area did have interior illumination when shut, these window panes would not have shone so brilliantly. Also, the E-Deck landing of the First-Class elevators is walled off on one side and does not open up to crew passages. Speaking of which, Thomas Andrews' instructions to Rose on how to find the Master-at-Arms office is unnecessarily complicated than in real-life. As for Cameron's depiction of the sinking tragedy, and in his own words, he was mostly correct and got 'the brush strokes' of the event right whereas the actual specific details of the sinking were slightly different in real life. What we know about the devastation are eye-witness testimonies and now over a century of scientific analysis. So, whatever inaccuracies we see in the motion picture can easily be forgiven. Even more so, it is the only feature film and TITANIC-based story that most accurately depicts the interior spaces and the sinking. As for the TITANIC film set, the Grand Staircase was widened by 24" more so that two individuals could comfortably ascend and descend astride each other. Note that the Grand Staircase in the film is actually far more grand than its real-life counterpart. By the way, the dome was an oval but in the film it is a perfectly round circle. If you see extra lighting in scenes that should have been darker historically, that is artist license for better cinematography.

[mudhutproductions]

Cameron may not have gotten all of the facts correct but he ignited massive public interest in the ship that is present even today.

[TheGreekPianist]

I saw Titanic in theaters last February in 4K 3D. Seeing it on the big screen, especially the sinking scenes, was absolutely phenomenal and surreal. It was like being there and experiencing everything for yourself, too. Watching it in theaters with an audience also amplified the emotions. We all cried together and you could feel the tension hanging in the air. A tragically beautiful film ❤

[mikeg]

They knew about the port list in the 90s because it comes from survivor accounts. It would probably have been too difficult to rig the main and stage sets to tilt laterally for very little payoff.

The ship is at too steep an angle when it breaks, and breaks too cleanly in the film, and the broken stern probably lifts to a 90° angle way too soon and goes down too perfectly without bobbing or twisting in the water. But we do know from survivor accounts that the stern did reach a near vertical angle. There was also no suction at the end. The chef, shown in the movie drinking on the stern, says he rode it down like an elevator and barely got his head wet.

[gljm]

One of the thing that you didn't mention that the movie got wrong but was later corrected by Cameron was the stars in the night sky. When released the stars shown are not what would have been in the sky at that latitude, time of night and time of the year. This was pointed out by Noted Astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson. The astrophysicist then supplied Cameron with a chart showing what the sky should have looked like and Cameron went back and changed the sky in the film for the 3D release. This is the only major technical change that was made to the movie.

[adamlacey]

It's like listening to a hyperactive child on their fourth lemonade. Slow down.

[gotguity]

James Cameron has said he intentionally had the water appear green just to let the audience imagine and feel how cold it must've been that night since it was the North Atlantic.

[USSIceberg]

@Depressed Ginger, the Titanic being straight up like that, that is a 90 degree angle. Look up what a 180 degree angle looks like, you'll feel silly once you do find out what that angle looks like. Might need to add a correction on the angle thing in the info section.