How to Survive the Real-Life Sinking of the Titanic, Explained by James Cameron

If you thought that James Cameron’s oeuvre peaked with his “Avatar” franchise, I fear you were entirely wrong. Although we should definitely keep looking for more sequels to come the (predictable) box office success of “Avatar: Fire & Ash”, there’s another reason to do it, beyond just wanting to spend more time in Pandora. As long as he continues to make these films, Cameron will be forced to go on extensive press tours around the world. And if he wants to have microphones placed in his face at every possible moment, he’s bound to deliver some of the most fascinating quotes of any working filmmaker. That’s precisely what he’s done now and, well, let’s just say This This is what the James Cameron Experience™ has always been built towards.

Among his many legendary contributions to cinema over the decades, few would dare dispute the longevity of Cameron’s “Titanic.” The 1997 epic historical romance has remained in our public consciousness thanks to its storytelling prowess, real-life tragedy at the center of the action, and the most controversial moment in cinema history involving a door. But here’s a much larger question that we’ve always overlooked: What would have been the optimal way to survive the sinking in the first place?

Fortunately, The Hollywood Reporter spoke about it directly with Cameron himself:

“I think there were some interesting ways to guess or guess all of this. The one I like to play with my Titanic experts is […] how could you save everyone? The other is: what if you’re a time traveler, and you go back and you want to experience the shipwreck, and your little time travel thing that takes you back fails, and you’re like, “Oh shit, I’m actually on the ship, I need to get off.” »

Is anyone a little surprised that the man who almost committed suicide (and his actors) while filming “The Abyss”, waited decades for technology to catch up with his dizzying ambitions for Pandora, and explored the wreck of the real Titanic would he conduct thought experiments with real experts on how best to survive the catastrophe of 1912? Of course he would. This is exactly what sets goddamn James Cameron apart from the rest of us mere mortals.

This is probably why THR decided to subject the filmmaker to a very specific set of conditions: imagine him being a second-class passenger on the Titanic (since first-class civilians get preferential treatment and third-class civilians are essentially left to their own devices), traveling alone (thus freed from the responsibility of saving a woman and/or child first), and knowing in advance that the “unsinkable” ship was doomed to do just that (that which most on board refused to believe until he did). it was too late). What would be the best course of action to follow to save your skin? It turns out it’s surprisingly simple… provided you’re familiar with the basics of human psychology, i.e.:

“If you knew for sure [the Titanic] was going to sink and you weren’t on a lifeboat, you jumped into the water next to the boat the second it cast off. Once they rowed, you were screwed. [But] are they going to let you drown while the Titanic is still there and everyone [still on board] is watching? No, they would arrest you and the officers would say, “Well, there’s nothing I can fucking do about it.” “Boat four would be a good boat for that.”

There you go, friends. The answer is peer pressure. Go ahead and use this information wisely.

If anyone was looking for an anecdote that best illustrates which places James Cameron above the vast majority of other storytellersthat’s it. Many directors are technically good. Even more are those who know how to captivate the audience in the emotion of it all. But only a rare few are able to merge these two aspects into something that seems completely human. And a lot of that, naturally, has to do with a true understanding of what motivates us.

While the narrative itself of “Titanic” is primarily about the doomed romance inspired by “Romeo and Juliet,” you can be sure that these sorts of logical conundrums were never far from the director’s mind. How else could he bring to life such an arrogant and unapologetic villain like Billy Zane’s Cal Hockley (who, lest we forget, simply jumped aboard an empty lifeboat at his convenience), or capture so brilliantly the mix of arrogance and denial in Bruce Ismay’s (Jonathan Hyde) protests that even God couldn’t sink the Titanic? Even in a hypothetical exercise, there is some wisdom in knowing that the otherwise indifferent officers aboard various lifeboats would have no interest in rescuing passengers who froze to death in the icy waters of the Atlantic. except if hundreds of passengers were still watching their every move from the ship’s railing.

While the “Avatar” films may bounce off many types of moviegoers, there’s no denying that Cameron’s understanding of the human condition has contributed to many of his directorial efforts being as badass as they are. Maybe don’t ask him about “Alien 3.”

“Avatar: Fire & Ash” is currently playing in theaters.