Titanic (1997 film)

Titanic is a 1997 American epic historical romance film written and directed by James Cameron. Incorporating both historical and fictional aspects, it is based on accounts of the sinking of in 1912. Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet star as members of different social classes who fall in love during the ship's ill-fated maiden voyage. The ensemble cast includes Billy Zane, Kathy Bates, Frances Fisher, Bernard Hill, Jonathan Hyde, Danny Nucci, David Warner and Bill Paxton.
Cameron's inspiration came from his fascination with shipwrecks. He felt a love story interspersed with human loss would be essential to convey the emotional impact of the disaster. Production began on September 1, 1995, when Cameron shot footage of the Titanic wreck. The modern scenes on the research vessel were shot on board the Akademik Mstislav Keldysh, which Cameron had used as a base when filming the wreck. Scale models, computer-generated imagery, and a reconstruction of the Titanic built at Baja Studios were used to recreate the sinking. Titanic was initially in development at 20th Century Fox, but delays and a mounting budget resulted in Fox partnering with Paramount Pictures for financial help. It was the most expensive film ever made at the time, with a production budget of $200 million. Filming took place from July 1996 to March 1997.
Titanic premiered at the Tokyo International Film Festival on November 1, 1997, and was released in the United States on December 19. It was distributed by Paramount Pictures in the United States and Canada and by 20th Century Fox in other territories. It was praised for its visual effects, performances, production values, direction, score, cinematography, story, and emotional depth. Among other awards, the film received fourteen nominations at the 70th Academy Awards and won eleven, including Best Picture and Best Director. In doing so, it tied both All About Eve for the record for the most Academy Award nominations, and Ben-Hur for the most Academy Awards won by a film, making Titanic the most successful individual film in Academy Award history. With an initial worldwide gross of over $1.84 billion, Titanic was the first film to reach the billion-dollar mark, and was the highest-grossing film of all time until Cameron's next film, Avatar, surpassed it in 2010. Income from the initial theatrical release, retail video, and soundtrack sales and US broadcast rights exceeded $3.2 billion. Releases pushed the worldwide theatrical total to $2.264 billion, making Titanic the second film to gross more than $2 billion worldwide after Avatar; as of 2023, it is the fourth-highest grossing film. In 2017, the Library of Congress selected it for preservation in the United States National Film Registry as "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

Plot

In 1996, aboard the research vessel Akademik Mstislav Keldysh, treasure hunter Brock Lovett and his team explore the wreck of RMS Titanic, hoping to find a necklace known as the Heart of the Ocean. Instead, they recover a safe containing a drawing of a young woman wearing the necklace. The sketch is dated April 14, 1912, the day the Titanic struck an iceberg and sank, resulting in about 1,500 deaths. After seeing a television report about the discovery, centenarian Rose Dawson Calvert contacts Lovett, revealing she is the woman in the drawing. Hoping she can help locate the necklace, Lovett brings Rose and her granddaughter aboard the Keldysh, where Rose recounts her experience on Titanic.
In 1912, 17-year-old Rose DeWitt Bukater boards the Titanic in Southampton with her wealthy fiancé, Cal Hockley, and her mother, Ruth. Rose is unhappy in the loveless engagement, but Ruth stresses that the marriage will resolve their financial problems. Rose contemplates suicide by jumping from the ship's stern, but is stopped by Jack Dawson, a poor nomadic artist. Jack and Rose form a friendship, and Jack confesses his feelings for her. Though initially resistant, Rose realizes she has fallen in love with Jack, despite Cal's and Ruth's disapproval.
Rose brings Jack to her stateroom and asks him to draw her nude wearing only the necklace. Afterward, they evade Cal's valet, Spicer Lovejoy, and have sex in a car in the cargo hold. On the forward deck, they witness the ship's collision with an iceberg and overhear officers discussing the severity of the situation. When Cal discovers Jack's sketch of Rose, he has Lovejoy plant the necklace on Jack, framing him for theft. Jack is arrested and locked in the master-at-arms' office, and Cal pockets the necklace.
As Titanic sinks, women and children are prioritized for the lifeboats. Rose rescues Jack and they return to the deck, where Cal urges Rose to board a lifeboat, claiming he and Jack will board another. Cal unwittingly wraps his coat, containing the necklace, around her. As her lifeboat is lowered, Rose jumps back onto the ship, unwilling to leave Jack behind. Enraged, Cal grabs a pistol and chases them through the flooding ship, but gives up when they escape. Cal joins a lifeboat by pretending to be a child's father.
As the flooded bow sinks, the stern rises into the air and Jack and Rose cling to the railing. The ship splits in two, and the stern sinks into the freezing water with the remaining passengers. Jack helps Rose onto floating debris and makes her promise to survive and live a full life. Jack dies from hypothermia, but Rose is saved by a returning lifeboat and rescued by the. Rose hides from Cal and her mother and gives her name as Rose Dawson on her arrival in New York City.
In the present, Rose reveals that Cal committed suicide after losing his fortune in the 1929 stock market crash. She tells the Keldysh crew that Jack saved her in every possible way, and laments that her memories are all that she has left of him. Touched by her account, Lovett abandons his search for the necklace. Alone at night on the stern of the Keldysh, Rose, who has kept the necklace in her possession, drops it into the sea above the wreck. Later, as she lies in her bed, photographs on her dresser depict a life of freedom and adventure inspired by Jack. Aboard the pristine Titanic, a young Rose reunites with Jack at the Grand Staircase, applauded by the passengers and crew who died in the sinking.

Cast

Fictional characters

Leonardo DiCaprio as Jack Dawson, an itinerant, poor orphan from Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, who has travelled the world, including Paris. He wins two third-class tickets for the Titanic in a poker game and travels with his friend Fabrizio. He is attracted to Rose at first sight. Her fiancé's invitation to dine with them the next evening enables Jack to mix with first-class passengers for a night. Cameron's original choice for the role was River Phoenix; however, he died in 1993. Although Jack was a fictional character, in Fairview Cemetery in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where 121 Titanic victims are buried, there is a grave labeled "J. Dawson". The producers did not know of the real J. Dawson until after the film was released.
Kate Winslet as Rose DeWitt Bukater, a 17-year-old girl from Philadelphia, who is forced into an engagement to billionaire Cal Hockley so she and her mother, Ruth, can maintain their high-class status after her father's death left the family debt-ridden. Rose boards Titanic with Cal and Ruth as a first-class passenger and meets Jack.
Gloria Stuart as the modern-day Rose Dawson Calvert. Rose narrates the film in a framing device. The elderly Rose was partly inspired by the American artist Beatrice Wood.
Billy Zane as Caledon "Cal" Hockley, Rose's arrogant and snobbish 30-year-old fiancé, who is the heir to a Pittsburgh steel fortune. He is resentful of Rose's affection for Jack.
Frances Fisher as Ruth DeWitt Bukater, Rose's widowed mother, who arranges Rose's engagement to Cal to maintain her family's high-society status. Like many aristocratic passengers portrayed in the film, her disposition is elitist and frivolous. She loves her daughter but believes that social position is more important than having a loving marriage. She strongly dislikes Jack, even though he saved her daughter's life.
Bill Paxton as Brock Lovett, a treasure hunter looking for the Heart of the Ocean in the wreck of the Titanic in the present. Time and funding for his expedition are running out. He reflects at the conclusion that, despite thinking about Titanic for three years, he has never understood it until he hears Rose's story.
Suzy Amis as Elizabeth "Lizzy" Calvert, Rose's granddaughter, who accompanies her when she visits Lovett on the ship and learns of her grandmother's romantic past with Jack Dawson.
Danny Nucci as Fabrizio De Rossi, Jack's Italian best friend, who boards Titanic with him after Jack wins two tickets in a poker game. Fabrizio fails to board a lifeboat when the Titanic sinks and is killed when one of the ship's funnels breaks and crashes into the water, crushing him and several other passengers to death.
David Warner as Spicer Lovejoy, an ex-Pinkerton constable and Cal's English valet and bodyguard. He monitors Rose and is suspicious about the circumstances surrounding Jack rescuing her. He dies when the Titanic splits in half, causing him to fall into a massive opening. Warner also appeared in the 1979 TV miniseries S.O.S. Titanic, portraying passenger Lawrence Beesley.
Jason Barry as Tommy Ryan, an Irish third-class passenger who befriends Jack and Fabrizio. Tommy is killed when he is accidentally pushed forward and shot by a panicked First Officer Murdoch.
Alexandrea Owens-Sarno as Cora Cartmell, a young third-class girl who dances with Jack at the Irish party. In a deleted scene, Cora and her family drowned after they were trapped at the locked third-class gate.
Camilla Overbye Roos as Helga Dahl, a Norwegian immigrant and third-class passenger who falls in love with Fabrizio. While most of her scenes were cut and the secondary significance of her character was drastically reduced from the original screenplay to the final theatrical cut, Helga is most notably seen clinging onto the rail of the ship's stern with Jack and Rose before slipping into the frigid waters below.
Amy Gaipa as Trudy Bolt, Rose's personal maid.