Question: What does SQD Mean?
Answer: Its not SQD, it's CQD. This used to be the distress signal sent out by ships before SOS became commonplace, and it stems for the French pronunciation of CQ, the same as how they pronounce "sécurité". The D either means disaster or distress.
Answer: It was CQD. It stands for "come quickly, distress" or "come quickly danger!"
CQ does not mean "come quickly." CQ meant all telegraph stations to be on alert. Later they added D to stand for Distress. CQD means "all stations: distress."
Question: At almost the end of the Titanic, they show pictures of Rose doing the things that she had talked about doing with Jack. EX. riding a horse with one leg on each side. Then they show "Old Rose." Is she asleep dreaming about Jack or is she dead and has gone to "be with Jack." I was wondering because they show Jack and Rose kissing by the clock, on the boat, at the very end. Then the screen goes white. So I figured that she had died. Am I correct?
Question: Rose's mother says that a woman's purpose for going to a university is to find "a suitable husband," and Rose is already engaged to Cal. I was under the impression that, during this time, many women would still be homemakers instead of pursuing careers. Were they studying for degrees but hoping to find a husband and not have a career after all?
Answer: Not exactly. In the mid-19th century, in the wake of first-wave feminism, women began entering university in greater numbers, breaking the gender barrier across the world. However, in 1912, it was still not common for the "upper class" to do so, since, as you say, women were restricted to their more traditional role of wife/homemaker. Rose's mother is simply reflecting this view (and her class' general dim view of higher education in general, i.e, what's the point, when you have wealth?) while Rose herself admires, and wishes to emulate, the women who went to university for its intended purpose, to receive an education.
I want to add that college was not always about training for a job. Female students used to learn more about home-making skills and arts. As an upper-class woman, Rose would be expected to socialise and entertain other women, i.e. the wives of her future husband's business contacts. Of course, she may have attended a "finishing school" (which Jack makes a joke about).
Question: When Cal and Jack escort Rose to a boat to get off the ship, we see a father saying goodbye to his wife and daughters. What is the name of this actor? Was he credited?
Answer: If you mean the one who says, "It's goodbye for a little while...", the actor's name is John Walcutt. He's credited as "1st Class Husband."
Question: When Cal and Lovejoy frame Jack for stealing the necklace, at one point during the scene Cal says something to the effective of two things dear to him having disappeared, one being the necklace obviously. So then was Rose the other "thing" he was referring to?
Answer: Yes, he meant Rose. He basically viewed her as a possession.
Question: This is probably a tedious task, but at what scenes were the songs "Rose," "A Life So Changed," "Unable to Stay, Unwilling to Leave," and "The Portrait" (the former three from the Titanic OST and the latter from Back to Titanic OST) played within the film? Most of the music in the film is so similar, it's hard for me to determine which song is which.
Answer: "Rose" was used in the flying seen at the bow of Titanic when Jack and Rose are flying. "A life so changed" was used when Rose is in a life boat after Jack dies at the end. Unable to Stay, Unwilling to Leave," was used when Jack gets Rose into a life boat and she looks up at him in slow mode and she jumps back on Titanic. "The Portrait" was used when Jack is drawing Rose.
Question: How far could the rudder panel on the Titanic actually turn? Could it turn 90 degrees, or 45, or something in the middle? I'm wondering, because this could have made a difference.
Chosen answer: The Titanic's rudder was capable of turning to about sixty degrees off the centreline, reaching that position in about six seconds from straight.
Question: During the dinner scene Jack throws something at Cal, and then later on in the scene Cal throws it back. What were they throwing?
Chosen answer: A box of matches. At 1:03:10, Cal is seen putting a cigarette in his mouth and then patting his coat pockets looking for a match to light it with.
Question: Did the real Titanic have a passenger named J. Dawson on board?
Answer: Not a passenger, no. There was, however, a 23-year-old Irish crewmember named Joseph Dawson who died in the tragedy. His body was recovered and is buried in Nova Scotia. According to James Cameron, he was not aware of this until after the script was finished.
Question: Over the course of the film we learn all the middle portion of Rose's life, but how did she get through life without any paperwork such as a birth certificate? Getting married, driving/flying, all need documentation the "renamed" version of herself wouldn't have.
Answer: Record keeping at the turn of the 20th century was still incomplete and inaccurate. Many people were born without a birth certificate being issued. Tens of thousands of immigrants entering the country often lacked those types of papers, and many had their surnames changed when they arrived. It was also much easier to get alternate documentation to prove one's identity or, in certain situations, may not have required proof, as it does now.
Question: At the end of the movie, when the crew member yells something and waves a green light, what is he saying? Not the scene where he's looking for survivors, the scene right before they reach the Carpathian.
Answer: Using my amateur lip-reading skills, it appears as though he is saying "Come on, put your backs into it, men. We've been saved! Row!"
Question: Do Rose and Cal ever sleep together? I've heard that they don't, but in one scene Cal says something like, "There's nothing I won't deny you if you don't deny me tonight," and we don't see how she responds. And in the scene where Cal blows up at her at breakfast, he says "You're my wife in practice if not yet in name, so you will honor me." That's pretty suggestive.
Chosen answer: When he says at breakfast "wife in practice" he's saying that yes, they indeed sleep together which is also why she isn't hesitant about sleeping with Jack so quickly. She obviously was not a virgin.
Question: I know that originally, Cal was supposed to kill Fabrizio with an oar, and this scene was even partially filmed, but it was abandoned. Why was it scrapped?
Answer: This was cut, and Fabrizio's death scene was re-edited because James Cameron felt Cal was turning into a cartoon villain by that point.
Question: Why did the guy in the engine room turn that big wheel before throwing the engines into reverse?
Answer: In order to reverse the engines, they have to be completely stopped first. So first they shut the dampers so that the engines slow and turn the wheel to release pent up steam. Then they go into reverse.
Answer: It was just a succinct, aspirational and poetic way of saying, "I will go wherever you take me, as long as we're together, an it's anywhere away from my hopelessly bleak and loveless existence." It's one of a few references they make to being together, wherever they go (with apologies to "Gypsy"). They sing the ditty "Up We Go." They say, "you jump, I jump." It also provides kind of an interesting foreshadowing and counterpoint to where they end up, souls knit, spending eternity together at the bottom of the sea. Obviously, it isn't literal.
Answer: The first class tickets ranged enormously in price, from $150 (about $1700 today) for a simple berth, up to $4350 ($50,000) for one of the two Parlour suites. Second class tickets were $60 (around $700) and third class passengers paid between $15 and $40 ($170 - £460).
Tailkinker ★