Question: Is there ANY chance of them making a film based on the trailer Titanic Two the Surface? It seems like a really good idea for a sequel.
Answer: None whatsoever. While the trailer's a clever example of an editing job, the actual concept is absurd to a truly spectacular degree, and would undoubtedly be seen as a completely shameless cash-in on the original, to the extent where even studio executives might well balk at the idea.
Question: Whatever happened to the little girl that Cal pretends is his daughter (I think) so he can get into the lifeboat? I didn't see her in the lifeboat with Cal in later scenes.
Answer: In one of the deleted scenes it shows an extended version of the Titanic survivors getting on the Carpathia. As you watch it you see the little girl being carried aboard. You can check it on youtube. I think its something like Titanic deleted scene extended Carpathia sequence.
Answer: In the montage scene after Rose is rescued when she looks up at Lowe waving the green light there's a shot of Cal accepting a flask, the woman he handed the girl to when getting on the life boat is still holding the girl as she sleeps. Presumably she stays with that woman.
She does. She appears in the steerage section on the Carpathia.
Answer: On the Carpathia both in the deleted scene and in the regular cut you can see her in the steerage section when Cal comes down to look for Rose. But I believe she looks slightly different from earlier because I believe it was the sister of the original actor playing her at that moment.
Question: Why were many of the lifeboats intentionally lowered down to the water without being filled to capacity?
Chosen answer: This is what really happened - it was at first feared that the davits used to lower the boats would buckle under the weight, or that the boats themselves would break in the middle, and so many of the ones lowered first were not filled to capacity - one of them, with space for forty, had just twelve people on board. Later, as it was realised that there was not nearly enough life-boat space for all the passengers and crew, boats were filled to capacity, or even over-filled (one boat carried seventy).
Question: What is so interesting about the number of times that Jack and Rose's names were said in the movie? Is there some meaning behind the numbers?
Answer: There's absolutely nothing interesting about it. Probably the only reason that this information appears anywhere is that they do say the names rather a lot - somebody, for reasons unknown, decided to count them.
Question: Before dinner, when Rose is telling Jack the name of people who are gathered downstairs, she points out a man who has a wife who is Rose's age, and says that his wife is in "delicate condition", that she's trying to hide it, and it's "quite the scandal." If the couple is married, why does the woman want to hide her pregnancy?
Answer: At this time, and particularly in higher society, most personal matters concerning women, and particularly a pregnancy, was considered something extremely private. This would be never be discussed openly with strangers. The man in question is John Jacob Astor IV, and the woman is his second wife, Madeleine, who was 29 years his junior, hence the possible source of the "scandal."
Answer: At the time, it was a big scandal surrounding John Jacob Astor's divorce then marriage to Madeline, even his grown sons were in opposition. It wasn't until after the sinking that the sons met with her in support.
Question: I've seen this movie about 10 times now but I always wondered the next thing. After the Titanic hits the iceberg, they knew the ship would sink. Couldn't they go back to the iceberg and survive there and wait for help? Surely there would be more places, and it would be warmer on the iceberg than in the water?
Chosen answer: Trying to turn the Titanic and return to the iceberg would just have put additional strain on the ship's structure, likely hastening its sinking. So the only available option, short of swimming, which is obviously insane, would be to use the ship's lifeboats to ferry passengers over to the iceberg, which, given the lack of capacity, would have taken multiple trips and a considerable amount of time. Once they reached the iceberg, there would be no way to tie the boats securely to the iceberg to allow the passengers to cross over safely; icebergs usually have pretty sheer sides anyway, making boarding impossible without specialist equipment that they didn't have. Even assuming, for the sake of argument, that somehow this could be done, the passengers are now sitting on a large block of ice in the middle of the night, in, for the most part, inadequate clothing. Hypothermia would rapidly set in, leading to death within at most a couple of hours, before any help reached the scene.
Question: If Rose is recalling her story on the Titanic to everyone, it's one thing where the scenes involving Rose herself or anything she witnessed could be retold... but how is it all the rest of the scenes (not involving Rose) be shown accurately in her story when she was not there (other passengers, crewmen conversations, etc.)?
Answer: Of course, Rose couldn't possibly relate incidents and conversations that she didn't personally witness. Rose's story merely serves as a dramatic conduit by which the audience is transported back in time to experience the last days of the Titanic.
I read somewhere that the scenes that Rose didn't specifically witness may have been filled by other eye witnesses and recorded in the inquiry after the sinking. Eg: when the Captain is told by Ismay to light the remaining boilers to get into New York on Tuesday and surprise the press there is a women in the background drinking tea who glances up and towards the Captain and Ismay apparently over hearing the conversation. She could have survived and told the inquiry what she overheard.
Answer: While we can accept that the scenes involving Rose are accurate (or as accurate as can be after 85 years) the rest is just shown to be for entertainment purposes.
While parts are fictionalized, much of what was depicted in the movie was based on the recorded narratives of the Titanic survivors, both crew and passengers.
Question: When Jack wins the poker game and the Titanic tickets in the bar at the start of the movie, one of the other players grabs him and says something in his own language before making as if to punch him. Does anyone know what he actually says?
Answer: The man is from Sweden, and he said "Förbannade usling." In English, it is "You damn scoundrel."
Question: When Lovejoy says to Jack, 'It's interesting. The young lady slipped so suddenly and you had time to remove your jacket and your shoes.', what exactly is he getting at? That he's figured out Rose attempted suicide, or he's accusing Jack of attempted rape?
Question: In the middle of the film Mr. Andrews tells Rose that "the ship will sink, don't tell anyone to cause any panic and go to a boat, quickly!" After that he says "you remember what I told you?" which Rose replies "yes, I understand." What was this about?
Question: Just before Rose finds Mr. Andrews to ask him how to find Jack, who is under arrest, we see Andrews telling a woman to put on her life jacket and go up to the boats. As he is walking away we see that she goes back in her room. By the look on her face, it didn't really seem like she was going to obey. Assuming she didn't believe him, in general could there really be situations of people who were in shock of the situation and for whatever reason didn't get on a lifeboat, such as the example shown in a deleted scene showing the deaths of Jack's friend Cora and her parents who get trapped behind a locked gate (and the man who Rose tries to get to help her free Jack, but he keeps running down the hallway) as the ship is already close to breaking apart. Would they have really waited that long to go up to the deck on purpose? Because obviously they were all alone and the crew members locked the gate without knowing they were still in their room.
Answer: It was common back then to keep the three classes separated. Most didn't stay down below on purpose. They stayed because they had no choice. The procedure originally would have been to lower the lifeboats according to class. However, with Titanics situation, there wasn't enough boats and there wasn't enough time to carry out a full evacuation procedure in an orderly fashion.
Answer: The primary reason there were so many casualties with the sinking of the Titanic was due to the arrogance of those involved with building and sailing the ship and not having enough lifeboats for such a catastrophe -- they really and truly believed the ship could not be sunk. Many of the passengers felt the same way and failed to see the severity of the disaster until it was too late.
Question: Just a quick one: Why the hell didn't Rose just move over on her door to give Jack some room? And why didn't Jack take the piece of wood from the frozen guy with the whistle after he had died?
Answer: In an episode of Myth Busters, they checked to see if Jack could've actually fit on the board and survived. Their first result stated the the movie was correct; there was not enough buoyancy to keep them both afloat. After some thinking they decided to tie Rose's life jacket under the board to increase the amount of buoyancy, and sure enough the board did float, but it's not unreasonable that that wouldn't have occurred to Jack and Rose. When they consulted James Cameron about the results he simply stated, "I think you guys are missing the point here. The script says Jack died. He has to die. So maybe we screwed up and the board should have been a little tiny bit smaller, but the dude's goin' down."
Answer: Insider did an interesting article on this debate. The "door" Rose was floating on was actually a carved piece of wood paneling that hung above the first-class lounge. The evidence for this resides on display at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic in Nova Scotia where an original panel of the ship served as the inspiration for the design of the wood seen in the movie. This is important because those panels were only made from teak, pine, and oak. Physics Central calculated the possibility of survival for all three based on buoyancy. They estimated teak would have been too heavy and would have sunk under its own weight. Pine may have supported their weight, but was ruled out when the panel flipped when Jack tried to grab it. The oak paneling seen was only strong [and large] enough to contain Rose as the weight of both Rose and Jack would have outweighed its buoyancy.
Question: When Jack and Rose have sex, is it the first time for both of them?
Answer: Cal says to Rose that she is his wife "in practice" he is referring to the fact that she is his fiancee and as it would not be appropriate for her to behave that way (dancing below deck, drinking etc) as his wife, it is not appropriate for her to behave that way as his fiancee. So basically "you need to act the same way it would be expected of you as my wife, even though you are just my fiancee right now." When he gives her the diamond he tells her that there is nothing he would not "refuse her", if only she would not "refuse" him. Wink wink. He grazes her cheek slightly when he says this, making it pretty clear that it is a come on. This gesture seems to make Rose uncomfortable. Also in that time it was not acceptable behavior for a girl to be sexually active outside of wedlock. Especially a girl of high standing. Also IMO Jack's demeanor after they had sex in the car was not that of an experienced guy. I don't believe Jack had ever had sex. But it is not addressed in the film.
I think that Rose is already having sex with Cal, due to obligation - she knows that she and her mother need this marriage for financial security. She will do what it takes to please him and make the wedding happen smoothly. I think she is uncomfortable with him because, if they are having sex already, it is not truly satisfying for her. Just a duty.
Question: When Rose and Ruth are sitting with Ruth's friends, Ruth comments on how Rose chose lavender for the bridesmaid dresses, even though she knows Ruth detests the colour. Why should it bother Ruth that Rose chose lavender, when after all, it's Rose's wedding and not hers?
Answer: Because some people are shallow, vain and self-centered and are bothered about such inconsequential things like how they're going to look on somebody else's wedding day. Ruth is annoyed that, despite the fact that Rose knows that she hates lavender as a colour, she still chose it for her to wear anyway. In her self-centered way, Ruth thinks that Rose should have chosen a colour for the bridesmaids to wear that she would approve of. Some people are just like that. It could also be a small measure of payback for Rose. Since Ruth arranged Rose marriage to Cal, whom she does not love, Rose's gets a small jab back at her mother. Her attitude is: since you are forcing me into this marriage with a man that I don't love, then you will be forced to wear this color that I know you hate.
Answer: She says that Rose did it to spite her mother, knowing that her mother detested the colour. I think Ruth was trying to illustrate how needlessly rebellious, unseemly, immature, difficult and obstructive she thought Rose was being - basically trying to show her up in front of the other high class ladies there.
Answer: During that time period, lavender was the color of half-mourning, to be worn half a year after solid black. It would be the equivalent of your bridesmaid wearing a black armband to a wedding today. Lavender and half-mourning is explored in the first season of Downton Abbey as well.
Question: In the scene right after Jack hustles Rose into the Gymnasium, she is at tea with her mother and some other women, looking at a little girl. As she stares, her face and the background seem to turn very luminescent, like a painting. Is it just me, or did they film it in a certain way or do something in post-production to make it look like that?
Answer: In the special edition DVD, they actually made a scale model of the room in question and filmed the actors against a green screen. The lighting of the shot didn't match up correctly with the footage of the scale model.
Answer: The "if only you has come to me sooner" was in reference to the bridesmaids dresses. Not the little girl and the etiquette part.
Answer: It's probably showing 1) that Rose is detaching from the present into her own thoughts, and 2) that she's envisaging the type of narrow and straitjacketed life this naturally vivacious and innocent little girl is going to have to get used to, which brings her back to thinking of the life she will be stuck in if she marries Cal, thus changing her mind about it. She wants to be free to express joy and to laugh, dance wildly, travel on the wind, run, climb, swim - everything she won't be able to do if she marries Cal. I don't think the little girl is the daughter of the woman, because you can hear the woman saying to her: 'If only you'd come to me sooner!' when the little girl makes mistakes of etiquette. This implies to me that the little girl has changed guardians for some reason, and in doing so, has gone up in class. Rose realises, where the little girl does not yet, what kind of life this little girl has unknowingly just been aportioned, and how, if the upper classes had their way, children would never get the opportunity to just be children (this is the implication of 'if only you'd come to me sooner'). The encroaching loss of that little girl's right to express the spirit of a child reminds her of Jack's warning that Rose will likewise die if she doesn't break free, because the fire that he loves about her will, sooner or later, burn out.
Question: My friend an I have been having an argument. Whose hand hits the car window in the sex scene?
Answer: Although Leonardo DiCaprio has some femine looking hands for a guy, this is Rose's hand hitting the window and sliding down. Pay attention to the fingernails, and you will notice it is a woman's hand.
Question: Rose and her group are eating, and Rose begins to smoke a cigarette. Her mother says "You know I don't like that, Rose." If I am correct, smoking was considered to be "classy" during this time. Would it not be normal for first-class passengers to be smoking?
Answer: For men, yes, but it was considered uncouth for ladies to smoke, as it was seen as a "masculine" habit.
Chosen answer: No particular reason why they couldn't if they wanted to. The gesture goes back into antiquity - the origins of the gesture are completely unknown, so they would be aware of it. It certainly wouldn't be the done thing for a well-brought-up young lady to do, but that doesn't mean that they couldn't if the situation appeared to warrant it.
Tailkinker ★
Exactly. There have always been people who display behaviors that are not "proper" or standard for the time. Another example is Cal and Rose having sex despite not being married yet. Considering his comments about her being "his wife in practice" and him asking why she didn't come to his room one night.
Actually, in Edwardian times, it was considered acceptable for upper class engaged couples to be sexually intimate before being married.