Titanic
Nothing on Earth could come between them.
![Video for the film Titanic — Titanic (1997) Theatrical Trailer [5.1] [4K] [FTD-1046]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/UFQ2AZVQ9mg/maxresdefault.jpg)
Country
Production
Budget
$200 000 000
Box office
$2 264 805 579
Director
Actors
Scenario
Producer
James Cameron, Jon Landau, Rae Sanchini
Camera operator
Composer
Artist
Peter Lamont, Héctor Romero
Audition
Mali Finn, Emily Schweber
Editing
Short description
101-year-old Rose DeWitt Bukater tells the story of her life aboard the Titanic, 84 years later. A young Rose boards the ship with her mother and fiancé. Meanwhile, Jack Dawson and Fabrizio De Rossi win third-class tickets aboard the ship. Rose tells the whole story from Titanic's departure through to its death—on its first and last voyage—on April 15, 1912.
What's left behind the scenes
- Creating a 3D version of 'Titanic' cost $18 million and took 60 weeks – longer than the actual filming of the movie.
- Matthew McConaughey was considered for the lead role, but James Cameron insisted on Leonardo DiCaprio. Gwyneth Paltrow was offered the role of Rose.
- The deep-sea footage that made it into the final version of the film totals just 12 minutes in runtime. In reality, each dive took several hours. To improve resource efficiency, James Cameron ordered the preparation of a 33-times-reduced scale model of the Titanic's wreckage. Every actual dive was rehearsed using this model and models of Russian submarines. A total of 12 dives took place. During the last two, the image was transmitted by a special device installed inside the Titanic's wreckage. Some footage was computer-generated.
- The paintings used during the filming of the movie are authentic. One such painting was Pablo Picasso’s 'The Guitarist' from 1903, kindly provided for the filming by the Paris Museum of Art. Many of the decorations – from carpets to chandeliers – were recreated from archival sketches of the companies involved in creating the ambiance of the 'Titanic'.
- The drawing of Rose was made by James Cameron himself – those are his hands in the shot. However, since the director is left-handed, the footage was mirrored during editing. All other drawings in Jack’s album are also the work of James.
- Initially, 40,000 gallons of water were planned for the scene where water first enters the ship. However, this proved insufficient, and Cameron asked for the amount to be tripled. After that, part of the set had to be rebuilt as it couldn’t withstand the additional weight.
- The film topped the American box office for 15 weeks, from December 19, 1997, to April 2, 1998.
- A full-scale mock-up of the ship was constructed in the waters of a large pool on the Mexican beach of Rosarito. Construction began on the 85th anniversary of the Titanic's launch – May 31, 1996. To reduce costs, the number of repeating ship components (such as windows) was reduced, and some details were modeled to only 90%.
- The stern of the ship mock-up was placed on a special platform that allowed it to quickly assume a vertical position. A total of 10 takes were made for filming this scene, each of which required the participation of about a hundred falling stunt performers.
- Instead of using expensive helicopters during the filming process, it was decided to use a 50-meter crane placed on rails.
- After filming was completed, the full-scale Titanic model was dismantled and sold for scrap metal.
- James Cameron lost an $8 million fee and a percentage of the total box office revenue after producers discovered that the budget had been significantly exceeded (200 million instead of the planned 135).
- While working on the script, James Cameron insisted that the main characters, Jack and Rose, be fictional. Only after the script was finished did James learn that a passenger named J. Dawson was aboard the Titanic.
- The role of Cal Hockley was almost secured by Michael Biehn, but ultimately went to Billy Zane.
- Kate Winslet was one of the few actors who refused to wear a wetsuit during the filming of the water scenes. The actress contracted pneumonia.
- The film set a record for the length of its run. It premiered on December 19, 1997, and the last screening took place on September 25, 1998. Thus, the film was in theaters for 281 days.
- Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet agreed to participate in the film long before the final version of the script appeared, based on James Cameron's sketches.
- Actor Macaulay Culkin could also have played the role of Jack Dawson.
- At the moment when the ship is in a vertical position, a person in white drinking from a flask can be seen in the frame. Rumor has it that one of the stokers managed to survive thanks to alcohol. He stayed in the water for several hours and managed not to freeze.
- The character of Rose was partially based on the Californian actress Beatrice Wood.
- Caledon Hockley got his name from two small towns (Caledon and Hockley) located in the province of Ontario, Canada, where James Cameron's aunt and uncle lived.
- The full-scale model of the 'Titanic' lacked a bow. It was added digitally each time. When James Cameron saw how much these special effects cost, he exclaimed, 'We should have just built it!'
- The film had the longest run in a cinema anywhere on the planet at the 'Salut' cinema in Yekaterinburg, a fact recorded in the Guinness Book of Records.
- During the filming of the scene depicting the 'Titanic' colliding with the iceberg, a green screen was placed behind the deck where Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet were standing, which was later replaced with a computer-generated image of the iceberg during editing. To make the scene look more realistic, pieces of real ice were sprinkled onto the deck from above.
- The effect of frost on the clothes and hair of the 'Titanic' passengers in the water was achieved by coating their hair and clothing with wax, as well as a special powder that turned into crystals upon contact with water. And the steam from their mouths was added digitally.
- During the film's editing, Cameron taped a blade to the editing computer with the instruction, 'To be used only in emergencies!'
- The shooting schedule was exceeded by 22 days.
- During pre-production, the director hired the 'Mir' deep-sea submersibles, conducted underwater filming of a ship, and engaged art historians and artists to restore the ship's interior. Underwater filming of the sunken 'Titanic' was carried out in collaboration with specialists from the Deep-Water Apparatus Laboratory of the P.P. Shirshov Institute of Oceanology of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
- Claire Danes was the main candidate for the role of Rose, but she declined because she had recently filmed with DiCaprio in 'Romeo + Juliet'.
- The first film to gross over $1 billion.
- In 2012, the film was re-released in 3D without changing the footage, even with plot inconsistencies, except for the scene where Rose lies on a piece of debris looking at the stars – the sky did not match the one from 1912. American astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson repeatedly pointed out this error to the director. Eventually, Cameron asked the scientist to send him the exact star positions, and the sky was corrected in the re-release.
- Before starting to paint Rose on canvas, Jack says to her: "Over there, on the bed, mmm... on the couch." This was actually a mistake by DiCaprio, who mispronounced the line from the script. However, Cameron liked the slip of the tongue.
- The scene where Rose thanks Jack for saving her is an improvisation by the actors.
- After the ship breaks into two parts, the bow of the ship begins to sink quite quickly. The model was initially divided into two parts, but due to buoyancy, this full-weight structure still could not sink rapidly. Then Cameron suggested filling the airspace between the two compartments with water, lifting the structure, and quickly flooding it before the water could escape. This idea worked.
- The scene of Rose's portrait being painted was filmed on the first day of shooting for Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio. After filming, Leo asked Cameron: "How did I do?" To which the director seriously replied: "Well, you know, today is your first day of shooting, so you can still be replaced."
- In one of the deleted scenes, Caledon Hockley sends Lovejoy to kill Jack and Rose, promising him the treasure. Unable to resist the temptation, Lovejoy agrees. Jack and Rose try to hide from him, but he finds Rose. Jack fights Lovejoy and wins. As they escape, Lovejoy manages to get up and aim a gun at them, but they manage to hide. During the fight, Jack breaks Lovejoy’s face – this is why, in the scene where the viewer sees Lovejoy for the last time (he is standing on the upper deck at the very place where the liner begins to break in two), his face is smeared with blood. The fight scene with Lovejoy also explains why Jack has wet hair after running from the dining room, even though the water was chest-deep for him and Rose there – they fell into the water several times during the fight with Lovejoy.
- Young Rose has green eyes, while the older heroine's eyes take on either a blue or an undefined shade.
- The hymn performed in the ship's chapel was written 25 years after the events depicted in the film.
- The captain's bridge was submerged 4 times and resurfaced 4 times during a 14-minute segment of the film.
- Rose pays Jack for the portrait with a 10-cent coin featuring Roosevelt. Such a coin only appeared in 1946.
- James Cameron deliberately allowed a historical inaccuracy when filming the scenes in the lifeboats. The night of April 15, 1912, was moonless, the stars provided too little light, and the director needed to illuminate the sets somehow. Therefore, Cameron gave some officers electric flashlights, which their 1912 counterparts did not have.
- Cameron was categorically against using any songs in the film. Then, composer James Horner decided to be cunning. Secretly from James, he, along with Will Jennings (the lyricist) and singer Celine Dion, recorded the song 'My Heart Will Go On'.
- To record the soundtrack, James Cameron planned to invite Enya. When she refused, James enlisted his old acquaintance James Horner to work on the score (they had previously collaborated on 'Aliens'). It wasn't easy to do, as the composer hadn't retained the fondest memories of working with Cameron, who made strict demands on his staff.
- Gloria Stuart plays the older Rose, whose age in the script was 101 years old. Gloria herself was 86 at the time of filming, and according to the actress herself, she found applying the age makeup extremely unpleasant.
- On the last night of filming, some pranksters mixed phencyclidine ('angel dust') into the food for the film crew. This drug has a hallucinogenic effect and impairs coordination and thought. 80 people became seriously ill, many were hospitalized with acute hallucinations. After the incident, actor Bill Paxton was depressed for two weeks.
- An elderly Rosa acquired a Pomeranian dog. During the disaster, the Pomeranian became one of three surviving dogs. Cameron filmed an episode of the dogs' rescue, but decided not to include it in the final version of the film.
- Christian Bale auditioned for the role of Jack Dawson, but Cameron rejected his candidacy as one of the first, as the script stipulated that the main characters were to be Americans. Cameron decided that he had enough with just one non-American, Kate Winslet.
- When one of the ship's officers says “Full speed ahead!”, someone picks up “Full speed ahead!” in the background. This is the voice of director James Cameron.
- The filming of the Titanic's departure from Southampton port was done 'in reverse': due to budget constraints, the full-scale Titanic model was covered with metal only on the left side (the weather forecast predicted a southerly wind, so it was decided to position the model nose-south, so that the wind would carry the smoke from the funnels to the stern, creating an additional illusion of the ship's movement). However, in Southampton, the real Titanic was moored on the right side, and to avoid historical inaccuracies, James Cameron decided to film 'in reverse'. For this, a portion of the equipment, props, and costumes were ordered mirrored. During editing, the image was flipped, and everything was correct.
- Matthew McConaughey was considered for the lead role, but James Cameron insisted on Leonardo DiCaprio. The role of Rose was offered to Gwyneth Paltrow.
- The deep-sea footage included in the final version of the film totals only 12 minutes in running time. In reality, however, each deep-sea dive took several hours. To improve resource efficiency, James Cameron ordered a 1:33 scale model of the Titanic wreckage to be prepared. Every actual dive was rehearsed using this model and models of Russian submarines. In total, there were 12 dives. During the final two, the image was transmitted by a special device installed inside the Titanic wreckage. Some shots were computer-generated.
- The paintings used during the filming of the movie are originals. One such piece was Pablo Picasso's 1903 work 'The Guitarist,' kindly provided for the shoot by the Paris Museum of Art. Many of the sets—from the carpets to the chandeliers—were recreated based on archival sketches from the companies that had originally helped create the atmosphere of the Titanic.
- The drawing depicting Rose was done by James Cameron himself; it is his hands seen in the shot. However, since the director is left-handed, the footage was mirrored during editing. All other drawings in Jack's sketchbook are also the work of James.
- Initially, 40,000 gallons of water were planned for the scene in which water first penetrates the ship. However, this proved to be insufficient, and Cameron asked to triple the amount of water. Subsequently, part of the sets had to be rebuilt after they failed to withstand the additional weight.
- Cameron was categorically against using any songs in the film. Consequently, composer James Horner decided to use a bit of trickery. Secretly, and without James's knowledge, he worked with lyricist Will Jennings and singer Celine Dion to record the song 'My Heart Will Go On'.
- James Cameron had planned to invite Enya to record the soundtrack. When she declined, James brought in his old acquaintance, James Horner (they had previously worked together on the film 'Aliens'), to record the audio track. This was not an easy task, as the composer held rather unpleasant memories of working with Cameron, who placed rigorous demands on his staff.
- Gloria Stuart played the elderly Rose, who was 101 years old according to the script. Gloria herself was 86 at the time of filming, and according to the actress, she found applying the aging makeup extremely unpleasant.
- On the final night of filming, some pranksters laced the crew's food with phencyclidine ("angel dust"). This drug has hallucinogenic effects and impairs coordination of movement and thought. Eighty people became seriously ill, and many were hospitalized with acute hallucinations. Following the incident, actor Bill Paxton suffered from depression for two weeks.
- The elderly Rose owned a Pomeranian dog. During the disaster, the Pomeranian became one of the three surviving dogs. Cameron filmed a scene showing the rescue of the dogs, but decided not to include it in the final version of the movie.
- James Cameron lost an 8-million-dollar fee and a percentage of the total box office receipts after the producers discovered that the budget had been seriously exceeded (200 million instead of the planned 135).
- While working on the script, James Cameron insisted that the main characters, Jack and Rose, be fictional. It was only after the script was completed that James learned there had been a passenger named J. Dawson on board the Titanic.
- The role of Cal Hockley was practically in Michael Biehn's pocket, but it ultimately went to Billy Zane.
- Kate Winslet was one of the few actors who refused to wear a wetsuit during the filming of the water scenes. As a result, the actress contracted pneumonia.
- Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet agreed to take part in the film long before the final version of the script existed, based on James Cameron's drafts.
- Christian Bale auditioned for the role of Jack Dawson, but Cameron rejected him early on because the script required the main characters to be American. Cameron decided that having one non-American, Kate Winslet, was enough.
- Actor Macaulay Culkin was also considered for the role of Jack Dawson.
- Caledon Hockley got his name from two small towns (Caledon and Hockley) in Ontario, Canada, where James Cameron's aunt and uncle lived.
- When one of the ship's officers shouts "Full speed ahead!", someone echoes "Full speed ahead!" in the background. That is the voice of director James Cameron.
- The full-scale model of the Titanic was missing its bow. It was added digitally every time. When James Cameron saw how much these special effects cost, he exclaimed, "We should have just built it!"
- James Cameron consciously allowed for a historical inaccuracy when filming the scenes in the lifeboats. The night of April 15, 1912, was moonless, and the stars provided too little light, but the director needed some way to illuminate the sets. Therefore, Cameron gave some of the officers electric flashlights, which their real-life counterparts did not have in 1912.
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