History Film / ANightToRemember

* DistressCall: The ''Carpathia'''s radio operator is on the ball, and his equally diligent captain turns the ship around to race to the ''Titanic''. However, when the Titanic fires distress rockets, hoping to alert a nearby ship, the Californian wonders why the Titanic is firing rockets, and believes they may be signalling to another ship.

* ForWantOfANail:
** The appalling death toll could have been prevented if lifeboats were provisioned on the basis of passengers and if ships had to maintain a 24 hour radio watch - the ''Californian'' was visible on the horizon but their only radio operator had finished his shift and gone to bed.[[note]]Both points are arguable, however. Even if ''Titanic'' had been equipped with another 20 lifeboats, there simply would not have been enough time to launch them all. There is also [[https://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/californian-incident.html some debate]] as to whether ''Californian'' could have reached ''Titanic'' in time to make a difference. On top of that according to the Admiralty report, many of the steerage passengers were in the part of the ship flooded first and never had any chance to survive. Others would not be parted from all their worldly goods and rejected getting into the lifeboats without their luggage.[[/note]]
** Lightoller muses about the "If onlys" towards the end of the movie, citing the failure to provide lifeboats for everyone, and the failure of the ''Titanic'' to slow down.

** Due to the expansion of Lightoller into the film's lead, he's made a bit softer than his real-life counterpart, and some of the things we see him do, such as firing the gun to prevent it from being stormed by panicked passengers, were actually done by other officers. Most of them are minor however, and author Walter Lord admitted that he had no problem with the artistic licenses, since they were minor, and he understood that Lightoller needed a few extra moments to solidify himself as the film's lead.

* HistoricalHeroUpgrade: While there's no fair way to deny most of the crew and officers acted heroically (no matter what [[Film/{{Titanic 1997}} The Other Movie]] depicted) and while if even half Lightoller's autobiography is true the man was a certifiable hero, the movie takes it just a bit too far, showing him launching lifeboats he had nothing to do with and in places he couldn't have been.

* TakeThat: One of the taglines of the film was 'The Real Story of the RMS ''Titanic''', a jab at the less-than accurate 1953 ''Film/{{Titanic|1953}}'' film. Sylvia Lightoller, widow of the real life Charles Lightoller, remarked in an interview that "the film is really the truth and has not been embroidered," though there is still some artistic licence made both for dramatic effect and to avoid [[NoHistoricalFiguresWereHarmed legal action]]. Mrs. Lightoller also served as one of the film's consultants alongside Fourth Officer Joseph Boxhall.

* HeroicSacrifice: We're shown several scenes where crewmen die trying to keep the ship afloat and operational for as long as is humanly possible. Several passengers are shown giving up their places in lifeboats so others may have them.

* HistoricalVillainUpgrade: Surprisingly averted. This is the only ''Titanic'' film other than the 1979 mini-series ''S.O.S. Titanic'' that does not hold Bruce Ismay responsible for the sinking or portray him holding any type of influence over Captain Smith and forcing him to sail the ship full speed into an ice field just to "make headlines."

* DistressCall: The ''Carpathia'''s radio operator is on the ball, and his equally diligent captain turns the ship around to race to the ''Titanic''.