History Headscratchers / Titanic1997

** Suzy Amis, who played Rose's granddaughter, was 34 when the film was shot. Assuming the character is the same age, that would mean Rose was 67 when she was born. She could have given birth to her father in her thirties and then he fathered the granddaughter in his thirties, so the age is entirely within the realm of possibility. Not to mention it’s said that Rose got married and had kids after her stint as an actress in the 1920s. The mentions of Rose’s age would put her year of birth as 1895, so even putting her marriage and child rearing toward the earlier part of the decade, Rose would be in her mid twenties at the youngest when she had her first child, and assuming that her first child was Lizzy’s father, that would make him in his early forties at most at her birth. If he was one of Rose’s younger children, than the age gap is smaller. Plus Lizzy herself could have been one of her father’s younger children.

*** Jack wasn’t her grandfather. As for her age, given that she’s Rose’s live-in caretaker, she would have to be an adult.

** Also also, the true danger in Rose's threat in that deleted scene isn't so much the fact that Cal has a hidden secret; it's the dishonor and misery she intends to bring upon Cal regardless if he presses the subject of her returning to him. Because even if Cal gets lucky and can basically make the matter go away in public, he and Rose were still there, he and Rose still know what truly went down and how he truly behaved, and if he forces Rose to return he will have to spend his life with a woman who has that knowledge, who utterly ''detests'' him, and now has plenty of motivation to make every remaining day of his life utterly miserable. Rose is essentially saying "Leave me alone or I'll destroy your reputation among your social set, potentially have you arrested for attempted murder, and do whatever else I can to basically make myself an insufferable pain to you by spending my entire life reminding you and everyone who knows you of what an absolute contemptible bastard you turned out to be when the chips were down." It's not necessarily blackmail to keep an impenetrable hidden secret; it's her making it clear that any power-tripping flex Cal might be tempted to indulge in by forcing her to return to him will not be worth it, because she will play the 'mutually assured destruction' card by devoting her life to making sure he regrets it infinitely more than if he just walks away and pretends that he never saw her.

* According to WhatCouldHaveBeen, Cal was originally meant to find Rose aboard the Carpathia, but she would have blackmailed him into never seeing her ever again in exchange for keeping quiet about his nefarious actions aboard the Titanic. However, when Cal took Lovejoy’s gun and tried to shoot dead both Rose and Jack, there were many passengers who definitely should have seen Cal wearing a gun and trying to kill two passengers with it, so Rose’s threat would have not served at all...

** Actually if laced properly and the correct undergarments there should be no marks at all. A corset did come before the modern bra. Tightlacing is uncommon not the norm. Ruth tightening it was shorthand for her mother restricting her life style and the way she wants to live.

** In the silent era of film, stars weren't marketed nearly as much as the Golden Age of MGM. a lot of biograph films didn't even have credits. I believe a Titanic survivor actually made a film about the Titanic named Dorothy Gibson and comfortably exited the industry pretty quickly.

*** As far as him doing the same thing he actually did with Rose in regards to riding the ship down, keep in mind he only did that after first running back to the Grand Staircase to reunite with Rose after she jumps off, then gets chased by Cal deep into the depths of the ship, and then is forced to make his way back up through the stern. If Rose doesn't jump back on, Jack will likely have stayed above deck and tried to get onto one of the remaining boats, probably heading to the other side where he had previously sent Fabrizio and Tommy. From there, it's impossible to say how things would have turned out. Maybe he would have gotten shot and killed instead of Tommy. Maybe he would have been crushed by the falling funnel like Fabrizio. Maybe he would have been sucked into the Grand Staircase entrance and drowned when the dome collapsed. Maybe he would have succumbed to hypothermia earlier due to being soaked in freezing water earlier. Even if he does decide to ride the stern down, the absence of Rose leaves too many uncertain variables that it can't be said with certainty that he still would have found that pierce of wood.

** John Jacob Astor IV, the richest man on board, was forbidden from entering a lifeboat even after he argued that his young pregnant wife might need his help. As mentioned above, Isidor Strauss couldn't get in a lifeboat either, the only reason why people were willing to disregard the rule in his case was because his wife wouldn't leave without him (and ''he'' wouldn't leave as long as there were over women and children left on board). Benjamin Guggenheim decided not to even try boarding ("We're ready to go down like gentlemen!") because he knew he couldn't. Jack Thayer, aged 17, was refused entry in a boat because he was a man, and only survived because he managed to climb aboard the overturned collapsible boat B after he jumped into the water. Yeah, the rule ''definitely'' applied to First Class male passengers.

** Not just that, but he has definitive evidence that it was there, who owned it, and where it was likely to be. Titanic salvage rules state that anyone attempting salvage can't damage the ship itself. He could spend days at a time searching individual rooms for things that may or may not be there, which may or may not have survived 85 years under water, and which may have been taken. Or he can look for something extremely valuable, that is readily salable, and that he has a very good idea of it's location.

* How did Officer Lowe know who was dead and who was alive when he brought the lifeboat back to look for survivors? Most people at that point were unconscious or near unconscious. Yelling "Is anyone out there?" is not an effective way of determining who's still alive
** Actually, its a very effective method. It is one extra chance that someone might answer his calls and lets any survivors know that there is a boat nearby. In real life they didn't even have those lights with them. Poking everyone with an oar would have taken far too long.