‘Titanic’ Director James Cameron Details How to Survive the Sinking Ship

While Jack Dawson’s death has been a hot topic for more than two decades, with many believing Rose had room to share that floating door, director James Cameron explained exactly how he’d survive the ill-fated ship.

“If you were traveling by yourself as a second-class passenger on Titanic when it hit an iceberg, what would you have done?” Cameron, 71, was asked during a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter.

According to Cameron, he’s run through various scenarios many times with “Titanic experts.”

The Avatar director went on to posit that by standing near the side of ship early in the evacuation, while lifeboats are being loaded, one could jump into the 28-degree water and swim to a lifeboat, “as long as the boat wasn’t too far away,” the outlet reported.

“Most people wouldn’t have had the courage to jump into the water,” Cameron explained. “They couldn’t quite believe that the ship was really going to sink. But if you knew for sure it was going to sink and you weren’t on a lifeboat, you jump in the water next to the boat the second it casts off. Once they rowed away, you were screwed.”

“Are they going to let you drown when Titanic is still there and everybody is watching? No, they’d pull you in, and the officers would go, ‘Well, f**k, there’s nothing I can do about that,’” he continued, adding that Boat Four, in particular, “would be a good one for this.”

More than 1,500 passengers died when the Titanic sank on April 15, 1912, after hitting an iceberg in the North Atlantic. Cameron’s 1997 film starring Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio won 11 Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Director.