Titanic

Titanic

Director: James Cameron

Writer: James Cameron

194 minutes

American audiences need happy endings. We need satisfaction for the $11.50 ticket we paid for. We need hope.

Hope is happy.

Titanic is a story based on the maiden voyage of the greatest passenger ships ever built. Fictionally, a man named Jack (Leonardo DeCaprio) and Rose (Kate Winslet) met on the ship, fell in love, and promised to start a new life in America. Together.

Yet that fateful night, the Titanic sank to the bottom of the Atlantic.

In the process of the sinking, Jack is one of the 1,500 people killed in the frigid waters. Floating on a makeshift raft, Rose lives. She is rescued. She is saved.

Yet, she is forever changed.

Rose lived to be over 90 years old, had children, and grandchildren. She experienced a full life from riding a horse on the beach to catching large sail fish to flying airplanes. Though, her heart always remained at the bottom of the Atlantic.

She never forgot the Titanic, nor did she ever forget Jack.

In the scene above, Rose has died. After dropping the “Heart of the Ocean” into the ocean, she retires to her cabin and passes away. Over a series of photographs, we understand she kept the promise to Jack to live a good life.

In death, her soul sinks to the bottom of the ocean towards the wreckage of the Titanic. In one quick motion, the wreckage turns into a fully restored Titanic. The bellman opens the door to the grand staircase where everyone who died that fateful night remains. They greet her with open arms and warm smiles.

At the top of the stairs is her love, Jack. He extends his hand, they kiss, and the crowd around them cheers.

This is the key to a happy ending. Even though our two main characters die in the film, there is hope that if you make a promise to love someone forever, in death you will be reunited with them.

Thus, Rose and Jack are reunited. And she will spend the rest of eternity with the man she loved.

Love concurs all is what American audience took away from this film. The spectacle of this ocean liner on the open water, the special effects of it's sinking, and the humanistic horror of that night is a bonus.

It was all secondary to this: true love lasts forever.

It did in Jack and Rose's case. And it does many more.