James Cameron sought out to make his depiction of the sinking of the RMS Titanic as accurate as possible, conducting an exhaustive amount of research into not only the ship but Edwardian Era society. Given the scientific understanding of the disaster at the time, he certainly succeeded beyond what any filmmaker could hope to achieve, and this film is rivalled only by A Night to Remember as the most accurate depiction of the sinking.
Nevertheless, in his own words, he often spent his time thinking as a screenwriter rather than a historian, resulting in many of the following historical inaccuracies. He also said that some of the myths were included, despite having been disproven by the 1990s, because "audiences would expect to see them."
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Anachronisms
- Jack mentions having gone ice-fishing on Lake Wissota when he was younger. Lake Wissota is a man-made lake that didn't exist until 1917.
- A very minor one with Lovejoy's nickel-plated Colt M1911. While the M1911 came out in 1911, it's highly unlikely it would have found its way in Lovejoy's hands, especially fancied up as it is, as widespread sales only began in 1913. The hammer on the gun is also one from the M1911A1, which came out in 1924. A Colt M1902 or M1903 would be more likely at that time.
- The Statue of Liberty is seen at the end with the gold torch installed in 1986 for its centenary.
Characters
- Thomas Andrews is generally described as the designer of the ship, and depicted as blaming himself for its faults. In reality, Andrews was the shipwright - the actual designer was a man named Alexander Carlisle.
- As one of the most prevailing myths surrounding the sinking, Ismay also remarks that Captain Smith is due to retire at the end of the voyage. While this has become a staple of Titanic folklore, there is no contemporary evidence that Smith intended to retire after the voyage; he even commented that he looked forward to commanding Britannic once she was completed.
- Margaret Brown was never referred to as "Molly" during her lifetime; her friends called her "Maggie" instead, and after the sinking, she was usually known as "the Unsinkable Mrs. Brown." The "Molly" nickname only stuck on after her death, in due part to the 1960 musical and its 1964 film adaptation starring Debbie Reynolds.
- Though he only makes a handful of appearances, Third Officer Herbert Pitman is shown to be clean-shaven, even though he had a moustache at the time of the sinking.
- Ismay is depicted having lunch in the Palm Court with Rose and Cal's party, when he actually ate by himself in an alcove.
- Perhaps most infamously, there is no evidence that First Officer William Murdoch shot panicking passengers while loading the last lifeboats, or that he committed suicide. A number of survivors did report that an officer shot himself late in the sinking, but the incident, and the identity of the officer in question, are impossible to verify; meanwhile all of the surviving officers deny seeing an officer shoot passengers and then himself.note Murdoch is believed to have drowned in the disaster. Contemporary sources tell that it actually was the captain that wielded the gun (a known folk song of the time states this point, written not long after the disaster).
- The Syrian family is used in a darkly humorous way to show the plight of steerage passengers who didn't know English and were left to figure out what was going on by themselves.note Surprisingly, this depiction is incorrect. The people listed as "Syrians" on the Titanic's passenger list were overwhelmingly urban, westernized Lebanese who were fluent in French or English, and quite a few of them had already been to America and knew the drill. Most survived the sinking. A better choice would have been Bulgarians, of which none survived.
- Robert Hichens is depicted as a tall, lean man with a cockney accent. The real Hichens was 5'6", stocky of build, and from Cornwall. He's also depicted as saying "shut that hole in your face" to Molly Brown; in reality, those words were spoken by a steward in lifeboat 8 to another woman.
- Thomas Andrews was born in Ireland, but he grew up in an upper-class Anglican family and therefore spoke with a typical English RP accent. In the film he nonetheless speaks with an Irish accent (and Victor Garber doesn't even get that accent right as he makes Andrews sound more like he comes from Dublin than Ulster).
- Fang Lang, a Chinese steerage passenger rescued alive from the water after the sinking (as depicted in a Deleted Scene), is seen traveling alone when Jack and Fabrizio enter the ship, and again sometime after the crash. In reality, Lang was part of a group of eight Chinese men who, at the time the movie was produced, were believed to have boarded the ship with the intention of working as stokers in the Caribbean.note Nearly all others made it into Collapsible C, the same lifeboat boarded by Bruce Ismay.
- In the extended Carpathia scene, Ismay undergoes a "walk of shame," with many of the survivors staring at him while clearly blaming him for the sinking. He was actually brought to the cabin of the ship's doctor after coming on board, remained there in a state of near shock, and did not emerge until they arrived in New York.
- Trudy is among those who perish in the sinking. In reality, all of the female servants in first class survived.
Ship
- Two important scenes ("I'm the king of the world!" and "I'm flying, Jack!") take place on the forecastle head, at the very bow of the ship. In real life this area was out of bounds to passengers. Although this rule was apparently not strictly enforced (at least one passenger, Helen Candee
, reported sneaking up there at sunrise) it clearly just doesn't exist at all in the movie as Jack and Fabrizio go there in full view of several crewmembers, and the notice forbidding passengers from accessing the area is missing. - Thomas Andrews' tour of the ship for Rose, Cal, and Ruth goes to the bridge and he mentions that they'll be seeing the engine room, both of which were out of bounds. While Andrews had more access than the average passenger, it's unlikely an exception would have been allowed for a simple recreational tour, and in the background there are clearly two other passengers on the bridge as well. The only indication of this rule is when Cal and Lovejoy storm through the bridge as a shortcut across the ship and James Moody feebly protests "Sir, you can't come through here!".
- Due to concerns about lice and such, Third-Class passengers were also not allowed in the First-Class section and vice-versa, so Jack dining in First Class and Rose partying in Third Class would both have been impossible. This is the real reason for the infamous "locked gates" that prevented Third Class passengers from accessing the boats: the strict separation of classes meant that only Third Class had to go through the health inspection in New York. Third Class had their own deck space fore and aft, including both well decks. However, the Boat Deck was only for First and Second Class outside of an emergency, and since Titanic had never had a proper lifeboat drill most of Third Class had no idea how to get there - coupled with the fact that a lot of them couldn't speak or read English very well (if at all) and so wouldn't understand the panicked directions they would have been given by the stewards - hence the crushing mortality rate.
- When Jack tries to see Rose at the Sunday services, he is descending down the Grand Staircase when he says hi to Thomas Andrews, meaning he had gone the long way through the first class facilities. It's unthinkable that he wouldn't have been spotted and stopped well before arriving at D Deck.
- Tickets for the Titanic were not transferable. Indeed, the prop tickets used for filming, being faithful reproductions, even state this (see this image◊). Jack and Fabrizio shouldn't have been able to board with Sven and Olaf's tickets. But then, when James Moody allows them to board, he does only glance at the tickets anyway.
- Also, it states that Sven paid a total of £12 for the ticket. Third class tickets cost £7. For £12, Sven could have booked a cabin in second class.
- Cal, Rose, and Ruth are stated to be staying in the parlor suite B-52, 54, 56, as that is where Lovejoy says to bring their luggage. In real life, this was occupied by J. Bruce Ismay.
- When Jack and Fabrizio are looking for their cabin, the Irish mother and Helga's family can be seen in the hallway. The third class cabins in the bow were for single men, while accommodations for single women and women with children were located in the stern. Families that included men were located amidships, separating the two groups. This arrangement dates back to the earliest days of ocean liners, with the theory being that the men travelling with their families would provide some buffer of protection to unaccompanied women.
- In a deleted scene, Rose clearly unlocks the door to her suite and tosses a key on the table. Lovejoy later unlocks the door while looking for her. Passengers were not issued keys to their cabins, as they were all kept unlocked.note
- The first level of the Grand Staircase has one more step than the original had, including the landing below the clock.
- The Palm Court did not serve full meals, only beverages and light snacks like pastries and sandwiches. Cameron probably chose this as the venue rather than the First-Class Dining Saloon or the À la Carte Restaurant so that Jack could plausibly happen to get a clear view of Rose, since the veranda overlooked the poop deck.
- "Eternal Father, Strong to Save" was not used in the Sunday service for first class, but in a second class prayer service later in the day. The hymn used in the first class service was "O God Our Help in Ages Past."
- The ship's orchestra did not perform during dinner in the First Class Saloon. They performed for the restaurants, along with teatime and after-dinner concerts.
- The master-at-arms' office was around the middle line of the ship and therefore had no portholes. However, the room serving the same function on the Olympic, the Titanic's big sister, was located at the periphery and did have a porthole, and the film depicts it this way rather than how it was on the Titanic. Obviously this change was made to stoke up tension by having the water on the porthole serving as Death's Hourglass.
- The First Class Dining Saloon did not have lamps on the tables. Cameron added those for the purely practical reason that they improved the scene lighting and lit the actors' faces.
- Cal boasts to Ruth that there are several thousand tons of Hockley steel in Titanic, located in "all the right parts." The steel was actually manufactured by the Scottish firm D. Colville & Company, Motherwell Works.
- The flooring in first-class dining saloon is shown as draped over with a carpet unlike in real life where linoleum flooring was actually used. In fact, one of the artefacts retrieved from the debris field were pieces of linoleum dislodged from the saloon.
- The film treats the Titanic with more fanfare and applause than it enjoyed in real life, as most portrayals of the ship do. It was Olympic, the twin, that received uproarious acclaim when it first set sail. Titanic was indeed called things like the "ship of dreams", and though it had the same dimensions as Olympic, Ismay's description of it as the largest manmade mobile object ever is technically true due to its greater gross tonnage. Nonetheless Titanic was seen as little more than a glorified clone. In fact, there is so little photography of Titanic's interior (even the famous Grand Staircase never had any photos taken of it) as the promoters simply used existing photographs from Olympic to represent Titanic, which was so similar that it would have been pointless to do another photography session. The film acts like Titanic is the only child of White Star Line, with no mention of her twin at all. The filmmakers had in fact intended to recycle the Titanic set for a scene of Olympic answering Titanic's distress call (as happened in real life) but they would have had to refit it to account for Olympic's exposed promenade deck, and the scene was deemed too unimportant to merit that much work.
- The Honor & Glory sculptures likely didn't have a clock installed like on Olympic, as no sign of it is seen on the wreck, and there are accounts by some survivors that recall only seeing a mirror in place of a clock.
Voyage
- Captain Smith personally greeted the First Class passengers as they came on board, but does not appear doing that in the film.
- The departure from Southampton is portrayed very smoothly, omitting the near-collision with the SS City of New York which delayed the ship by an hour (and some would say was a bad omen).
- As is common in many depictions of the sinking, J. Bruce Ismay is portrayed as encouraging Captain Smith to push the ship to full speed so that they get to New York a day early. In reality, Ismay and the rest of the White Star executives knew they could never compete with Cunard's faster ships, and they wanted to focus on luxury and comfort. Ismay was apparently interested in beating the record set by Olympic on her maiden voyage in 1911, and was apparently pushing for more speed to test Titanic's performance, but the Blue Riband — the speed record for an Atlantic crossing — was never a consideration. That said, Titanic was performing very well and there was talk on board of a potential early arrival.
- In addition, J. Bruce Ismay remarks that the last four boilers are still unlit before pressuring Captain Smith into increasing the ship's speed. At the British inquiry, Leading Fireman Frederick Barrett testified that the day before the disaster, eight of the boilers were unlit.
- The last thing Captain Smith says to Second Officer Lightoller before retiring for the night is to maintain their current speed and heading. In reality, his last order before the collision was to be alerted if their situation became uncertain. This line actually does appear in the script, but was ultimately cut from the film.
- In the deleted Californian scene, after getting Phillips's rude reply, Cyril Evans listens to the end of his current message to Cape Race, then shuts down for the night. Evans actually kept working until 11:30, ten minutes before the collision.
- In addition, he is depicted as taking offense to the rude reply, while the real Evans would testify at the British Enquiry that he took no offense to the statement and that it was common language amongst wireless operators at the time. It's probably not helped by they fact that Phillips's reply is wrong, as in real life he tapped "DDD" (a shorthand for "stop transmitting") rather than saying "keep out, shut up, I'm working Cape Race!", which would have been needlessly rude and unnecessarily long winded and tedious.
Sinking
- In general, everything from the moment Titanic hits the iceberg to the moment it goes under is far too brightly lit, using either studio lighting or special effects to blow up the entire ship like a Christmas tree or using blue-tinged Hollywood Darkness for scenes without. Titanic sank on a moonless night, so the iceberg would have appeared as a dark blob in the distance, and lighting onboard the ship would have emitted a soft, yellow hue in certain designated areas, which got progressively worse as the ship's electrical power steadily failed during the sinking. This poor visibility is also why there was disagreement about whether the ship sank in one piece or if it broke apart prior to the discovery of the wreckage site. Of course, you can't have an entertaining film if the audience can't really see what's going on.
- The Titanic likely listed (tilted) on the port side due to the heavy flooding on that side of the vessel.
- Whether or not the band actually played "Nearer, My God, To Thee" as Titanic went down is a matter of speculation. Survivors mostly described them playing upbeat music to help keep everyone calm, with hardly any specific tunes cited; Harold Bride claimed he heard "Autumn", presumably meaning Archibald Joyce's then-popular dance song "Songe d'Autumne", while Archibald Gracie fervently denied they played the hymn in his account of the sinking, written not long after the disaster. In the film's defense, band leader Wallace Hartley had once told a friend in casual conversation that if he were ever to find himself on a sinking ship and knew he was going to die, that's the tune he would choose to spend his final moments playing.
- The film plays the "Bethany" version of the hymn (nearly all depictions do so except A Night to Remember, which uses the "Horbury" version). As a British Methodist, Wallace Hartley was familiar with the "Horbury" and "Propior Deo" versions and is unlikely to have played the "Bethany" version.
- A common misconception of the sinking is that the ship sucked people down when it fully sank beneath the surface. This was busted by MythBusters. Many survivors described it as like riding an elevator. In fact, the chief baker (the last person to 'leave' the ship) didn't even get his hair wet.
- About two minutes pass between Frederick Fleet sighting the iceberg and the collision. In reality, the elapsed time was roughly forty seconds. In addition, Titanic scraped the iceberg for only seven seconds, whereas the collision lasts about a minute.
- Thomas Andrews is shown feeling the vibration of the iceberg collision while in his cabin and realizing that something is wrong. Reportedly, he didn't notice anything was wrong until Captain Smith sent for him. Andrews's cabin was on A Deck, where the impact was barely felt.
- All of the stokers are shown fleeing the boiler rooms as the watertight doors close, even those who are in rooms that have not yet flooded. In reality, the stokers remained at their posts to make sure the boilers were fully vented; otherwise, they may have exploded when they came in contact with the freezing water. In addition, all of the boiler rooms had escape ladders to the upper decks, so no one was trapped when the doors were closed.
- The watertight doors are shown slowly closing all the way down with one stoker getting under one with only a few inches of clearance. While the real doors did close slowly in the beginning so men can get out of the way, they would actually slam shut at about 18-24 inches of clearance like a guillotine. With this and the aforementioned escape ladders in mind, running through a closing watertight door would be a fatally stupid mistake.
- After the collision, Captain Smith orders a full stop. In reality, he ordered half ahead while the damage inspection was carried out, then ordered a full stop.
- In his damage report, Thomas Andrews says that the first five compartments have been breached (the forepeak, the three cargo holds, and Boiler Room 6). Boiler Room 5 was also breached. However, in fairness, the damage in Boiler Room 5 was quickly contained, and it was the damage to Boiler Room 6 that doomed the ship.
- Contrary to what is portrayed in the film, Third-Class passengers were not deliberately locked below decks by the crew during the sinking. Some stewards did make it difficult for passengers to leave steerage since they didn't understand their orders, but at no point in the voyage were the doors locked (doors with locks were required by law at the time, but locking them was not). Stewards did block a number of stairways and doors, but this was intended to allow them to shepherd the Third Class passengers to the boat deck without them getting lost. This is apparently referenced in the scene where Jack and the others break down the locked gate, as the steward tells them to head for the main stairwell and they'll be able to find their way up from there. Overall, there was a serious lack of communication among the stewards overseeing Third Class that prevented many passengers from getting to the lifeboats; however, while it may not be clear from the film, in real life more women and children from Third Class survived the sinking than men from both First and Second Class combined.
- Captain Smith tells wireless operators Phillips and Bride to start sending the distress call CQD. In a deleted scene, right after he leaves, Bride suggests that they use the new distress call SOS, as it might be their only chance to use it. Phillips did not start using SOS until about half an hour later.
- When Captain Smith goes to the operators, Phillips is surprised when he orders a distress signal sent. Smith actually went to the wireless room just before midnight to tell them to prepare to send out a distress signal, then came back fifteen minutes later with Titanic's coordinates.
- The coordinates that Captain Smith gives Phillips, 41°46’ N, 50°14’ W, were actually calculated after the distress signal started being sent.
- Also, when Bride informs Captain Smith that Carpathia is heading for them, the crew are still getting the lifeboats ready. In reality, Carpathia confirmed that they were on their way at 12:40 am, the same time that Lifeboat 7 was launched.
- In a deleted scene, Isidor Straus tries to convince Ida to board a lifeboat. This occurs after we see Cal and Lovejoy deciding to go back to the cabin for some "insurance." In reality, the Strauses were offered a seat in Lifeboat 8, which departed before Lifeboat 6 (the one Rose nearly boards with Molly Brown and Ruth), and that was when they decided to die together.
- In addition, during this scene, Lifeboat 10 has reached the water and Lightoller is clearing out luggage to make room in Lifeboat 12. The aft portside boats were launched in reverse order, first 16, then 14, 12, and finally 10.
- Fourth Officer Joseph Boxhall is the officer who shouts "Bloody pull faster and pull!" during the final moments of the sinking. However, he left the ship on Lifeboat 2, which was one of the emergency cutters located directly behind the bridge and was on the port side with the other even-numbered boats. His vantage point of the sinking is shown to be on the aft starboard quarter, which is where the odd-numbered Lifeboats 9 through 15 would have gone.
- The ship's engineers are depicted struggling to keep the ship's lights on just moments before it breaks in half, keeping with the tradition that all of them died inside the ship when it sank. In reality, though, they managed to get to the decks when it was clear there was nothing more they could do, although they all died regardless.
- Rose mentions that there were only six people out of fifteen hundred left on board who were rescued from the water. Actually, it was about forty. This can be justified by her only knowing of six, or only six people in her particular batch. Most of the survivors who were actually on the ship as it went down managed to make their way to one of the two collapsible boats, such as Jack Thayer or Charles Joughin, though it's possible she wasn't including those who climbed aboard the remaining boats in the count.
- Speaking of Charles Joughin, in a Deleted Scene he's shown having made it on Collapsible B. In reality, there wasn't enough room for Charles so he had to wait in the water before he was let on, by the time there was enough room, lifeboat 14 had already arrived and began picking people from the water. Joughin swam to the lifeboat and was saved, without actually climbing on Collapsible B.
- Rose mentions only one lifeboat came back, whereas in reality, two lifeboats returned. The first was lifeboat 4, who rescued 7 crewmembers from the water, 2 of them died inside the lifeboat. Much later, lifeboat 14 returned, having wasted a lot of time transferring passengers into other lifeboats in order to make room. They rescued 3 or 4 passengers, one of whom died in the lifeboat.
- Isidor and Ida Straus are depicted being in their stateroom, embracing each other on the bed, as the ship sinks. Testimony from survivors indicated that they remained in deck chairs on the Promenade. In addition, Isidor's body was recovered, which would be unlikely if they were both inside the ship, and their suite was on C Deck and would have been well underwater at the time they are last seen.
- John Jacob Astor is depicted steeling himself for the end at the top of the Grand Staircase, just before the glass roof collapses and the ocean pours in, killing everyone. In reality, he was likely crushed by the first funnel collapsing a little while before. Similar to Isidor Straus, Astor's body was later recovered from the surface which would not have been possible if he went down with the ship.
- Fifth Officer Lowe and Lifeboat 14 did not have flashlights. Apparently, Cameron knew this, but kept it in order to provide lighting.
- With the context clues given, it seems like Cal escaped on Collapsible A. In real life, this boat was partially water-filled, leaving the people who escaped in it freezing up to their knees, with quite only 13 of the approximately 47 people who climbed aboard surviving to be finally rescued by Lifeboat 14, the boat that Officer Lowe brought back to look for survivors. That obviously didn't happen in the movie, as there's no indication of Cal being on either a water-filled boat or the same one as Rose.
- The final deleted scene with wireless operators Phillips and Bride omits the fight they had with a stoker who tried to steal their life jackets.note
- The sinking's depiction did change over the years, but it was mostly agreed the Titanic's rear end wasn't that raised at such a high angle as depicted in the film. The bow section went under just shortly before the breakup, and the entire ship's stern was only halfway high when it happened.
- It was eventually agreed upon by everyone, including Cameron, that the ship broke apart between the second and third funnels, not the third and fourth like in the film. To be fair, at the time of the film's production, this was the most accurate depiction according to the knowledge available to them.
- The Titanic is depicted sinking in unusually clear seas. In reality, the ship had the misfortune of crossing an ice field created by glaciers far away. It was likely the environment had icebergs in the horizon, surrounding the area where the ship went under. Some survivors saw bergs in the horizon upon the light of day.
- The Atlantic water flooding the ship is depicted like swimming pool water, icy blue as if mixed with chlorine, when in reality the water was murkier and harsher.
- Pretty much Rose's survival considering the RL events. The few people who managed to survive long enough in the water to be rescued by the lifeboats were pretty much all muscular/stocky men with a high body mass that kept the warm and prevented them from freezing to death, most of them crewmembers. All things that don't apply to Kate Winslet, especially as Rose mentions having been the very last person picked up (Not to mention she was already soaking wet before the ship had fully sunk). Also many of the survivors who were in the water struggled with health problems for the rest of their lives and many died early (i.e. Archibald Gracie dying only eight months after the sinking) making it even more unbelievable that Rose went on to reach one hundred years of age.
