Factual error: At the end of the movie, the Straus' are seen lying in each other's arms on their bed with water coming into the cabin under the closed door as the ship is sinking. This is not true, their cabin was on C deck, but his body was found in the following days of the sinking. For his body to get into the open water it would have had to float through a closed door, and up several flights of stairs. Historically, they refused to leave the ship, and were last seen sitting in deck chairs. They were there when the ship sank on the boat deck. Her body was never recovered.
Factual error: In the film the water tight doors are shown to lower mechanically all the way down, however in reality the last 20 inches or so they would suddenly drop by their own weight to effectively "dent" into the floor creating the water tight seal. A few of the crew in the film getting through "at the last moment" would have actually had their lower legs shattered by several tonnes of iron.
Revealing mistake: When Cal steps out of the car just after the beginning of the movie, you can see behind him the back of the Titanic replica still incomplete, with the internal structure totally visible. (00:22:06)
Revealing mistake: When Jack spreads the handcuffs over the pipe, we have a very clear close up shot of the links connecting the cuffs. In this shot you can see that the link nearest Jack's right hand is broken and not a complete link, therefore he should be able to separate the cuffs without going through the axe sequence. (02:00:05)
Factual error: Shortly after Old Rose mentions just leaving the coast of Ireland, a shot of the captain's area (with the steering wheels) is shown with the sun shining in from the right (if facing toward the front of the ship) This would be impossible for a westbound ship in the middle of the day as the sunshine could not enter from the north side of the ship. The rest of the movie has all scenes with the sun correctly coming from the south during mid-day as the ship is travelling westbound.
Factual error: When Rose is trying to rescue Jack, the corridors that she is running through are a bright white colour, the lights appear to have a high colour temperature, and they have a more modern A19 bulb shape, and they might be halogen. In reality they would emit a much dimmer yellowish light. The lightbulbs would also be transparent along with a different bulb shape.
Continuity mistake: When Jack is giving their tickets to the ship's crew before boarding the Titanic with Fabrizio, the crew took the tickets, but in the next shot, the tickets are in Jack's hand again.
Continuity mistake: When Lovejoy and Jack are talking, Jack tucks his cigarette in his ear in an 11 o'clock position. A shot later it's in a 9 o'clock position and a bit of hair is covering his ear.
Continuity mistake: When Jack and Rose are in the lower hallway after escaping from Cal, Titanic is already at a major tilt with the bow completely underwater and the first class dining saloon getting flooded. The problem is that the water in the hallway is completely level and the water that floods is also level. With the ship tilted the way it is the water should have been collecting at the end of one of the hallways, not flat.
Continuity mistake: The first chimney fell in the scene where Fabrizio died, but later when showing the Titanic sinking, the uppermost part of the chimney is visible, intact. (02:40:30 - 02:41:15)
Continuity mistake: On the night of Rose's attempted suicide, we see her with a necklace on at the meal which disappears when she reaches the end of the ship. There was a deleted scene showing her removing it in her room, but without that it just vanishes. (00:35:00)
Continuity mistake: The way the necklace is held after it is found in Jack's pocket changes instantly. In one shot the steward is gripping the chain. In the next, the chain is draped over his fingers. (01:41:10)
Visible crew/equipment: When Jack and Rose are running from Lovejoy, they stop for a moment on E deck. When they do, look behind them and a member of the ship's crew comes into shot holding a bag of something. When Jack and Rose start running again, this man has disappeared. (01:28:20)
Continuity mistake: When Rose is talking to Mr Andrews about the lifeboats, her bag changes hands instantly. (01:13:10)
Character mistake: At the beginning of the movie, Bill Paxton is pulling out documents out of the safe, maybe destroying some of them. Extremely unprofessional from an archaeological perspective. Although he represents a private company on a Russian ship searching for a diamond, he for sure violates many international laws with this brutal act of recovering objects. A professional treasure hunter should know that, plus a camera is filming him. He risks never getting a licence for a treasure hunt again.
Revealing mistake: When Jack and Rose are talking at the bow of the ship before the "I'm flying" part, if you look at the windows behind them you can tell it is a painted prop area and not a real ship.
Other mistake: After Jack and Rose are "done" in the cargo hold, they come out onto the bow of the ship laughing. Whilst the door they used to get onto the bow does lead to the cargo hold, inside you have to go down a flight of stairs and are greeted by a cast iron hydraulic door which can't be opened from inside the cargo hold, and would close automatically if the control wheel wasn't being held. The only way they would have been able to get out is by running back through the boiler rooms.
Continuity mistake: When Jack and Rose are being carried towards the locked gate by the water, we see the water and Rose hit the gate in the first long shot and then the camera changes to a close angle of the gate and Rose and the water have not reached the gate yet. (02:15:30)
Revealing mistake: You need to watch carefully for this as it's tricky to spot, but it is visible without the need of slow motion. When the steward calls for the gate to be unlocked to the third class passengers, the gate is already open and just pushed to a close. You can see the gate wobbling and separating around the lock area. Also as the gate is unlocked we see a key being pressed against the lock to unlock it. However the key doesn't actually engage with the lock, making it impossible to open it. (02:02:50)
Continuity mistake: When we see Rose at the start she says she doesn't know what all the fuss is about. As she says this she has her hand on her hat, but after the angle changes it isn't. (00:21:15)
Answer: Yes, it was. At the time, the big cruise lines were all trying to outdo each other with the largest and most opulent cruise ships. The Olympic class ships were the White Star Line's entry in the size race, with Olympic, the first built, taking the title in 1911, before losing it to her sister ship, the Titanic, the following year.
Tailkinker ★