James Cameron Uses Science to Determine if Viral 'Titanic' Door Theory is True of False

James Cameron stands corrected.

The famed director has long held there was no way both Leonardo DiCaprio‘s Jack Dawson and Kate Winslet‘s Rose DeWitt Bukater could have fit on the door after the Titanic sank.

He was so sure that he commissioned a scientific study, which proved him wrong. Kind of.

Read more about James Cameron’s new opinion about the Titanic door theory…

In an upcoming special called Titanic: 25 Years Later with James Cameron, the director organized a study that utilized two stunt doubles that exactly mirrored Kate and Leonardo. They then recreated the scene exactly to see if there was any situation where both Jack and Rose could have made it through to being saved.

According to Rolling Stone, the test proved that Jack wouldn’t have survived more than 20 minutes had he remained fully submerged in the water.

However, there is one situation where both might have been able to balance most of their bodies on the raft and survive. While the long-held fan theory is technically correct, there are some important concessions to keep in mind.

“Final verdict: Jack might have lived,” James admitted. “But there’s a lot of variables.”

Chiefly, he pointed out that the sheer terror of the night the Titanic sank could not be replicated in any sort of testing environment.

“In a well-lit experiment in a test pool, we can’t possibly simulate the terror, the adrenaline, all the things that would have worked against them,” he explained. “[Jack] didn’t get to run a bunch of different experiments to see what worked the best. Jack’s survival might have come at the cost of her life.”

What was James‘ biggest take-away from the test: “Based on what I know today, I would have made the raft smaller so there’s no doubt.”

He adds, “Based on what I know today, I would have made the raft smaller so there’s no doubt.”

Kate reacted to people who used the theory to body shame her.