History Main / Titanic

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* ''Film/{{Titanic|1943}}'' (1943) -- made by ThoseWackyNazis!

* ''Film/{{A Night To Remember}}'' (1958)

and works of Theatre:

* ''WesternAnimation/TitanicTheLegendGoesOn''
* ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfTheTitanic''

* ''Film/TitanicII'', a film by Creator/TheAsylum.

* ''Film/{{Titanic|1943}}'' (1943)

* ''Film/{{A Night To Remember|1958}}'' (1958)

* ''Theater/{{Titanic}}'', the 1997 musical.

* ''Theater/{{Titanic}}'' the 1997 musical.

* ''Theater/{{Titanic}}''

And television series:

* ''Series/{{Titanic}}'' (1996)

There have been numerous works based on the ''Titanic'' disaster that bear the title:

[[redirect:Film/{{Titanic}}]]

[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/titanic_ver2.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350: Except for the cold waters of the North Atlantic.]]


->''I'm the king of the world!''
--> --Jack Dawson, with the film's most iconic line

''The'' movie of [[TheNineties 1997]] (actually due to its December release, ''the'' movie of 1998). It was a darling of most critics at the time, a commercial splash, won 11 Oscars including Best Picture, and quickly became a source of many StockParodies. Unadjusted for inflation, it's the second-highest-grossing movie ever, recently beaten out by [[JamesCameron Cameron's]] own ''{{Film/Avatar}}''. (If you adjust for inflation, ''Titanic'' drops six slots, but even so it's still one of the highest-grossing films ever - [[CaptainObvious the seventh, in fact!]]) In all likelihood, Cameron now has enough money to raise the Titanic and fire it toward Pandora. Currently, the film is [[DeaderThanDisco facing a bit of a backlash]], due both to its being schmaltzy and [[ItsPopularNowItSucks the fact that it made loads of money]], but the same could be said of many such films. We're not going to go further than that other than to say YourMileageMayVary.

In case you don't remember '97 or you were living in a cave at that time, ''{{Titanic}}'' tells the story, in {{Flashback}}, of the two fictional StarCrossedLovers Jack Dawson and Rose [=DeWitt=] Bukater. Unfortunately, they both happen to be aboard the ill-fated ocean liner of the title, which, [[AsYouKnow as we all know]], struck an iceberg and sank on its maiden voyage in [[TheEdwardianEra 1912]]. There's also a LoveTriangle involving Rose's evil [[DisposableFiance Disposable Fiancé]] Caledon "Cal" Hockley, who decides the best solution is to literally MurderTheHypotenuse, JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope in the process. This more-or-less leads to the film's [[strike:DownerEnding]] BittersweetEnding.

[[StarMakingRole Launched the A-list careers]] of LeonardoDiCaprio and KateWinslet.
----
!!This film provides examples of:
* AccidentalAimingSkills: Rose with the axe. Not only was her aim bad, but her eyes were closed.She even hit Jack's wrist if you look carefully.But the chain broke anyway.
* ActionGirl: Rose has occasional glimpses of it when she doesn't have Jack around.
* AgeCut
* AnyoneCanDie: Once the ship starts going down, supporting characters start dropping like flies [[spoiler:including Jack himself.]]
* ArtisticLicenseAstronomy: The end scene has an inaccurate night sky that is composed of the same half-sky mirrored in the middle. This results in seeing constellations that shouldn't have been there at all in duplicate. James Cameron replied: "Last time I checked, 'Titanic' sold $1.3 billion worth of tickets, worldwide. [[SarcasmMode Imagine how many more tickets we would have sold if we'd gotten the sky right.]]" But it was still corrected for the DVD.
* AutoErotica: A thousand beds on board, and they consummate their love in the back of a ''car''?
** Well, Cal was going through the entire ship, with an idea of exactly what to look for and where to find it.
** Plus, the Ford Model T was first produced in 1908. The concept of "AutoErotica" itself was only four years old.
* AwardBaitSong: "My Heart Will Go On". And James Horner had to wait for a proper moment to present it to the [[PrimaDonnaDirector hot]]-[[BadBoss headed]] James Cameron...
* BigShutUp: Rose does this in the second half when she's had enough of her mother's self-centered attitude.
** Jack and Rose do it to a White Star employee who complains about them breaking down the door to free themselves from a sealed portion of the ship. [[IdiotBall Did he know the ship was sinking?]]
*** It's possible he in fact did ''not'' know. It's been reported, with varying degrees of credibility, that not only were many passengers unaware the ship was doomed up until the bow actually went under, but many on the lifeboats actually believed the stern section was going to remain afloat after the expansion joints broke and the ship snapped in half. When you consider the fact that there are entire '''towns''' that are nowhere near as big or populous as the ''Titanic'', and that it took around two hours for the disaster to reach its zenith...
* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Jack freezes to death, but Rose meets him again when she finally passes.]]
** Or did she? That scene [[spoiler:is called "A Promise Kept" in the DVD, so it's plausible to assume that Rose died. Though the title could refer to all those pictures seen next to her when she is in bed, showing that she promised to do all the things Jack told her to do.]] Or possibly both. Since it's not explicitly said whether she died in that moment, we'll never know unless [[WordOfGod James Cameron ever tells us]].
** According to WordOfGod, it really can be interpreted as either [[spoiler: (a) Rose lucid dreaming or (b) Rose dying and being reunited with Jack in the afterlife]].
*** It's [[TearJerker more heartwarming]] [[spoiler: if you choose B.]]
**** But even if A is true, it's pretty safe to assume that B would occur if Rose were to die.
* {{Badass}}:
** The band members certainly deserve this, at least.
** Rose, the high society waif, picking up a ''fireman's axe'' to break Jack out of his handcuffs.
* ChekhovsSkill: Earlier in the film, Jack teaches Rose how to "spit like a man," and she doesn't do too badly for a first try. Much later in the film, when the ship is sinking, Cal grabs her by the arm and refuses to let her go to Jack. So what does she do in order for him to let go of her? She goes spittin' like a man.
** It's actually a {{Throw It In}}, as Rose was scripted as simply jabbing Cal with a hatpin before Cameron realized the spitting would be a neat callback.
* ChekhovsGun: Rose and Jack's first conversation is about how the fall from the ship won't kill Rose but Jack mentions about how cold the water is. [[spoiler: Guess what ends up killing him]].
** Also literally with Lovejoy's pistol, which he shows to Cal when Cal is emptying the safe.
*** That safe itself is full to bursting with Chekhov's guns.
* CrazyCatLady: Averted. Nice old lady Rose has a cute little white Pomeranian dog, showing that she's affectionate and soft, but without the implications of a cat.
* CrazyJealousGuy: Cal
* CryingLittleKid: Played straight and subverted at the same time. Cal finds a crying, abandoned child and takes her onto a lifeboat--in the process lying that he is her father in order to get himself a seat on that same lifeboat.
** He never actually says he's her father--he says "I have a child" (true, he's certainly holding one) and "I'm all she has in the world" (apparently true as whoever was responsible for her left her sitting behind something on the deck bawling. What the Hell, Parent/Guardian?) If Cal hadn't grabbed her to use as his ticket on the lifeboat, she'd have sat 'til she drowned.
* DarkReprise: The music that plays during the sinking (aside from that played by the actual musical trio, of course) consists heavily of the main theme of the movie, but in a darker and more frantic tone.
* DawsonCasting: Kate Winslet (21 during the filming) was portraying a seventeen-year-old.
** Very unfortunately for [[HilariousInHindsight posterity]], Jack Dawson doesn't ''quite'' fall into the DawsonCasting range. The character was envisioned as 20 years old; [=DiCaprio=] was 22 years old at the time of filming.
* DemotedToExtra: Remember the blonde chick who dances with Fabrizio in 3rd class? She was written as a opposite counterpart to Rose, a girl who finds her love interest in her class and follows her strict parents' orders without question (down to refusing to go with Fabrizio once the ship begins to sink, despite the fact that he knows the way to the lifeboats better). [[spoiler: She's also the blonde girl who hangs on the railing before falling to her death]].
* {{Determinator}}: Jack didn't give up where many people did. And as a result, [[spoiler: Rose survives thanks to his efforts]].
* DiamondsInTheBuff: Kate Winslet posing for her portrait.
* DidNotDoTheResearch: Although Cameron was rumored to have been extremely picky about some fine details of the set of the Titanic, there were some things he missed...
** The big ship set that Cameron had built is not entirely accurate. They made it a bit shorter than the real ship (Most noticeable: The A-Deck promenade windows. There are quite a few missing). The funnels of Cameron's ship are also smaller than in real life, as well as the lifeboats and the davits (necessary to make the proportions of the smaller ship match again).
** Remember how Jack said he used to go to Lake Wissota? Well it was man-made. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Wissota You can guess where this is going]]. Since the construction of Lake Wissota began in 1915, Jack must be a time traveler.
*** In Cameron's defense, the scene was improvised by the actors. What Jack said was all Leo.
**** The name of the lake, however, came from Cameron. In the commentary he says that he just looked at a map and picked a lake without doing any further research.
** You see those paintings that Rose and Cal argue over? The ones we see submerged in the Stateroom as the ship goes down? They're all well known, surviving paintings by Monet and Picasso, including Picassos Le Demoiselles d'Avignon-which is currently sitting in [=MMoMA=], and which Picasso never sold in his life.
*** Might qualify as FridgeBrilliance, as back in the days before making prints and other reproductions of paintings wasn't possible due to the technology to do so not existing yet, it was fairly common practice for an artist to repaint the same painting several times so that copies could be sold. For example, there are [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunflowers_%28series_of_paintings%29 several different versions of Van Gough's Sunflowers known to exist]]. Just because we see famous paintings going down with the ship doesn't mean that they're the ones we know now, they may be copies of the ones we know. Or the ones we know may be copies of the ones we see going down with the ship.
** Molly Brown is a historical figure whose life is surrounded by myths and exaggerations (understandable, as she did lead a pretty remarkable life). Kathy Bates's version is only ''a little'' more accurate than Debbie Reynolds's. Cameron stated his intention to portray her more accurately, and yet she was still referred to as Molly (a name she never went by when she was alive), tells the story of her husband accidentally lighting a match to money hidden in their stove (Leadville wasn't using paper money when the Browns lived there), and generally portrayed as a FishOutOfWater ex-hillbilly that the wealthy secretly resent (she was extremely well-read and generally liked by everyone she met). Brown had such a huge role in helping the Titanic survivors that one wonders why Cameron didn't focus on that rather than the many fabrications that have been told about her.
*** Because RealityIsUnrealistic. So much so that had Molly been portrayed accurately on top if the other things they got right, the credibility of the whole film would've [[IncrediblyLamePun floundered.]]
** Jack states that they would be sucked down when the ship sank. Maybe he wouldn't know that, but it actually ''didn't'', for some reason. The Chief Baker (who survived) actually said it was more like riding an elevator, and he sank without even getting his hair wet.
*** Bonus points for actually SHOWING that baker riding the stern into the water alongside Jack and Kate. He also survived the longest in the water (more than 2 HOURS) because he'd had a lot of whiskey prior to this, and the inebriation helped him fend off hypothermia long enough to be pulled into a boat.
**** Alcohol ''accelerates'' hypothermia, it doesn't delay it. Being a bit on the pudgy side might have saved him, though.
**** Being drunk might (and in reality probably did) help stave off panic, which also would go a long way to surviving in that situation--he was high enough not to stop and think what an insane survival strategy it was.
*** Jack was thinking what most people were thinking. Something the size of a skyskraper was bound to displace a lot of water, and suck everything nearby down. Think about how the windows on deck broke and people were pulled into the staircase area. This is the real life reason why the lifeboats started rowing right away. They thought they would be pulled under. Though admittedly they were supposed to wait a few minutes so they could fill the lifeboats up first.
** J. Bruce Ismay is portrayed as a DirtyCoward who snuck onto a lifeboat the first chance he could. Really, he was one of the last people to leave the ship.
*** Although to be fair to the historical record, most people at the time thought he was a coward as well, because of the old maritime rule that "women and children go first" (although again to be entirely fair, numerous contemporary witnesses stress that Ismay made sure that there were no more women and children around before taking his seat), and he was heard to have demanded the ship be pushed to full speed in the inquiries set up after the disaster.
**** Apart from that, the boat that he took place in ''wasn't even half full'' by the time it was lowered into the water. As many of the life boats in fact were.
** Cameron also changed or omitted many details concerning the Titanic's departure from Southampton, probably due to RuleOfDrama. The weather was actually cloudy that day. The gigantic wave caused by ''Titanic'''s movement within the port overcame some of the piers and threatened to wash people away. The gigantic wake caused by the ''Titanic'' then caused another ship to break away from its moorings and drift dangerously close... so close that it missed the ''Titanic'' by mere ''inches.'' As an eerie piece of {{foreshadowing}}, that other ship was called the ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_New_York_%281888%29 SS New York]]''. The legend goes that some people saw that as an omen that the ''Titanic'' would never reach New York City and disembarked at the next stops.
* DisasterMovie
* [[DisposableFiance Disposable Fiancé]]: Cal.
* DomesticAbuser: Cal, Cal, a hundred times ''Cal''.
* DontComeAKnockin
* DoubleStandard: A historically justified one - if you have a Y chromosome, and you aren't a big-shot, you're likely to be summarily left behind to drown, even if there's room for you.
** Not that things were all that much better for big-shots with Y chromosones mind; only a third of men in in First Class survived.
* DownerEnding: For most of the people on the ship.
* TheDragon: Lovejoy, Cal's valet and bodyguard.
* DrivenToSuicide:
** Rose is talked down from this by Jack.
** Rose reveals at the end of the film that [[spoiler:Cal committed suicide after losing his fortune in the [[TheGreatDepression 1929 Stock Market crash]].]]
** William Murdoch - but this isn't historically accurate.
* TheEdwardianEra: 1912 scenes.
* EnforcedMethodActing: The water during filming was deliberately cold, so Leo shouting "Oh shit, this is cold!" is real as well as Kate's gasp when she gets chest-deep in the water. The scene where Jack and Rose are swept away by a rush of water in the hallway is also real.
* EpicMovie
* FaceCam
* FaceDeathWithDignity:
** ''"No sir, we're dressed in our best and going down as gentlemen."''
*** ''"But we would like a Brandy!"''
** The band. Made all the more touching when you remember that this particular movie death is a reconstructed historical fact.
** The couple portrayed holding each other in bed as the room floods are Isidor and Ida Straus. This was based on actual events, where Ida refused to leave her husband when offered a lifeboat seat. They gave her seat to their maid, and remained on the ship together.
** Part this, part HeroicBSOD, Captain Edward J. Smith decides to face death at the helm of [[{{Retirony}} the ship that would have been his last command.]]
* FakeAmerican: Kate Winslet as Rose [=DeWitt=] Bukater.
* FakeIrish: Victor Garber (Jewish Canadian) as Belfastman Thomas Andrews.
* FanService: While teenage girls and their mothers squee over LeonardoDiCaprio, their boyfriends/brothers and fathers have to settle for... KateWinslet naked. Sounds fair.
* {{Fiery Redhead}}: Rose has traces of this.
* {{Flashback}}
* FlippingTheBird: Rose to Lovejoy, as she and Jack are escaping him in the elevator.
* FollowTheLeader: ''PearlHarbor'', which has a similar romance-against-epic-tragedy-of-the-20th-century concept, and like most following works, has almost no understanding of why it worked here. It works in both directions too - Cameron decided to make ''Titanic'' after seeing the 1958 movie ANightToRemember, to the extent that they have a ''lot'' of scenes in common.
* ForeignCussWord: From some Swedish background passengers--"Jävla helvete, det är vatten på golvet!" ("Bloody hell, there's water on the floor!")
** Fabrizio curses quite a bit in Italian, especially when [[spoiler:Tommy]] dies.
* FootFocus: Although not bare; during the scenes where Rose is planning to jump off the back of the ship. Her beaded heels, his dirty big ol' boots...
** Old Rose too near the end of the film.
** The dance sequence during the ship holding scene. Rose's stocking feet are shown a few times.
* ForegoneConclusion:
** The ship sinks; you'll know this even if you're totally clueless about history as the sunken ruins are shown and discussed in the opening.
** Rose survives, since it's her who is telling the story 84 years later. That certainly cuts some of the tension in that scene by the flooding hallway.
* {{Foreshadowing}}: You could make a drinking game out of how many times the cast mentions that it would be very, very bad if the ''Titanic'' sinks.
* FourthDateMarriage: "When the ship docks, I'm getting off with you" Rose announces to Jack after having known him for what, two days?
* GallowsHumour:
** "I intend to write a StronglyWordedLetter to the White Star Line about all this."
** "Music to drown by. Now I know I'm in first class."
** "If this is the way the rats are goin' that's good enough for me."
* GorgeousPeriodDress: For the first class, at least.
* GrandeDame: Rose's mother and a number of the other female passengers is tragic variations on the character type, while "Molly" Brown is a subversion.
* HerHeartWillGoOn: TropeNamer.
* HeroicBSOD: Captain Smith realizes just how many people there are still on board while almost all of the boats are gone.
** Ship designer Andrews, having apologized to Rose for "not building you a stronger ship", stands alone in the stateroom and had taken off his life vest. He takes a moment to adjust with almost loving gentleness a timepiece on the mantle. Based on real-life account of a witness who last saw Andrews in the stateroom just staring at a clock as the ''Titanic'' reached its death throes.
* HiddenDepths: Everyone considers Ripley and Sarah Connor to be the best symbols of feminism in Cameron's work, but [[http://bigdamnpictures.blogspot.com/2010/10/james-camerons-feminist-trilogy.html what about our plucky heroine Rose?]]
** Ripley belongs to Ridley Scott, from the original ''Alien'' -- as do most of the strongest female characters of the 80s and 90s.
*** Except that in ''Alien'', Ripley was only meant to be the FinalGirl. She only blossomed into a feminist icon in James Cameron's ''Aliens''.
* HistoricalInJoke / ItWillNeverCatchOn: Rose collects Picasso paintings and has read the works of Sigmund Freud, who nobody has heard of.
** Jack and Rose ''finally'' make out in the back seat of a car held in storage (yes, there really was one on the Titanic... but it may not have been fully assembled). As cars were still novelties in 1912, the implication is that Jack and Rose are the first young couple [[AutoErotica to use a car]] for love-making ''ever''.
* HistoricalVillainUpgrade: William Murdoch goes from an upstanding officer to shooting two men trying to rush the lifeboats. Second Officer Lightoller becomes a nervous martinent instead of a hero who kept a couple dozen people alive on an overturned life raft. J. Bruce Ismay is shown displaying total disregard for safety by pushing for a speed record ''White Star already knew it couldn't win.'' The entire purpose of the three massive luxury ships was to beat Cunard and other rivals on luxury and technological novelties, not speed, as they knew they couldn't do that. Pretty much all the crew except Smith (who ironically held the most responsibility for not understanding how to captain a vessel Titanic's size) are depicted as incompetant at best and outright negligent or cruel at worst.
* HollywoodKiss: Jack and Rose.
* HonorBeforeReason - The fathers and husbands ''doing whatever it takes'' to let their wives and children live ''even if they freeze and drown'', which also happened ''in RealLife.''
* InfantImmortality: Averted. Hard. Remember that young French mother with her baby asking Captain Smith where she should go? Yeah... [[HumanPopsicle don't worry, you'll see them again...]]
** About three times you also see a curly-headed girl named Cora, who doesn't look much older than 7. [[spoiler: You don't see her death on-screen, but in the final scene where Rose is surrounded by all those who perished on the Titanic, she's the first person you see.]] A deleted scene shows her and her parents, crying and screaming, being submerged by water. Cameron explains it was cut because it was just a bit too upsetting.
* InsertCameo
* IWasQuiteALooker: "Wasn't I a dish?"
* ItHasBeenAnHonor: The band.
* ItsAllJunk [[spoiler:The "Heart of the Ocean" now really ''is'' the heart of the ocean.]] Also, passengers are seen hauling luggage and other prized possessions with them to the lifeboats early on, but once the danger becomes obvious the only things people struggle to take along are life vests.
* {{Jerkass}}: Cal.
* JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope: Cal.
* LargeHam: Billy Zane, it's what he's good at.
* LoveTriangle: Jack, Rose and Cal.
* MacGuffin: The Heart of the Ocean.
* [[ManicPixieDreamGirl Manic Pixie Dream Guy]]: Jack. A shining example of the ManicPixieDreamGirl trope done well, regardless of gender, and extra rare as the character is male.
* {{Melodrama}}: Some would argue.
* MurderSuicide: William Murdoch shoots and kills a fictional third class Irish passenger, then commits suicide from guilt. This is a HistoricalVillainUpgrade, as the real William Murdoch was regarded as a hero and was last seen helping passengers.
* MurderTheHypotenuse: Quite literally, Cal's plan to get Rose back.
* NamesTheSame: ''Titanic: TheMusical'', which predates the film by several months.
* NeverHeardThatOneBefore: All the times people use the fact that the ending is obvious as a way to put down the film.
* TheNineties: 1996 scenes
* NippleAndDimed: Subverted: Kate Winslet nude for Jack's painting of Rose only earned a PG-13. Reportedly, Cameron worked with the editors and the MPAA to determine just how many seconds he could get away with and keep it PG-13.
* NostalgiaHeaven: [[spoiler:Rose apparently dies and goes to the ''Titanic'' as it once was.]]
* NotAGame
* OhCrap: Andrews, Ismay, and Captain Smith poring over the blueprints of the ship after the collision with the iceberg, each coming to the realization that the ship will sink and there is nothing they can do to stop it.
** [[http://www.wearysloth.com/Gallery/ActorsE/5333-23805.gif This]] image of Benjamin Guggenheim [[hottip:*:who was willing to go down with the Titanic]]witnessing the water rise within the ship as it is sinking.
* OlderThanTheyLook: Many people only hope I can look as good as Rose does when they hit the big 100. The actress who played Rose was 86 at the time of filming, however.
* OohMeAccentsSlipping: There are Irish characters in this film. And you will be in stitches when they start talking.
* OopsIDroppedTheKeys: Rose and Jack are [[spoiler:trapped underneath the ship by a metallic gate as it floods]]. One of the cabin crew fumbles the keys while trying to help, before uttering this line and running away. Cue Jack attempting multiple times to retrieve them and open the gate while the [[spoiler:freezing cold water rises]].
* [[OutrunTheFireball Outrun the Waterfall]]
* PimpedOutDress
* PrettyInMink: This was likely more for historical accuracy than anything else. Also, a poster for "Ghosts of the Abyss" showed a woman wearing an ermine cape and muff.
* RealityIsUnrealistic: There have been constant complaints about how hard to believe is that the lights were on up to the ship's breaking in two, or that the guys in the machine room kept working while the ship sank, how they "screwed up" the turning orders, or even that the Statue of Liberty shouldn't be there; well, [[DidNotDoTheResearch when you do the proper research]], it turns out that all these things happened in RealLife and the movie got them right.
* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: The captain and Mr. Andrews.
* {{Retirony}}: As mentioned above, most rumors agree ''Titanic'' was supposed to be Captain Edward J. Smith's last command before retirement.
* RichSuitorPoorSuitor: Jack vs. Cal.
* SayMyName: Ye gods. Make a DrinkingGame out of the number of times Jack and Rose say each other's names, (Rose saying Jack's name = 80 times/Jack saying Rose's name = 50 times) and you'll be dead by the first hour. Start at the ship sinking, and you'll be dead within ''minutes''.
* ScrewTheMoneyIHaveRules: TakeThat, Cal!
* ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney: Cal ''tries'' to play this. Doesn't work. However, there's also a deleted scene of a possible RealLife case where a wealthy couple (in that lifeboat with ''twelve people in it'') bribe the oarsmen to not go back and pick up survivors.
** To be precise, it was Lord and Lady Duff-Gordon.
* ScienceMarchesOn: The breaking up of the ship is now thought to not have happened as depicted in the movie.
** Also, the French Blue (the royal diamond that in the film was recut into the [[MacGuffin Heart of the Ocean]]) was real, and newly-discovered records and a lead jeweler's model of it have shown that in all probability it was, as theorized, cut down after its theft into what is now known as the Hope Diamond.
* SecondFaceSmoke: Rose does this to her mother.
* SheCleansUpNicely: Applies more to Jack, but there you go.
* ShoutOut: Rose mentions the Cunard Line's ''RMS Mauretania'', one of ''Titanic'''s rivals on the Transatlantic Route.
** At least two of Ken Marschall's paintings are reconstructed into shots in the film
* ShownTheirWork:
** Cameron and the set designer's conducted ''exhaustive'' research on the ship, from the measurements of the individual rooms, to the carpet designs to the china patterns, even going to Harland and Wolff - the builders themselves - to look up rare blueprints and never-before-seen photographs to make sure they had every possible detail. In fact, [[http://www.transatlanticdesigns.com/about.html Ken Marschall]]-the foremost expert on the Titanic design and the painter of almost every painting of either the Titanic wreck or the sinking in the past 30 some-odd years (seriously, he seems to be on-call whenever a documentary needs a painting) is quoted saying that he didn't call their set a set, to him it ''was'' the Titanic.
*** According to one of the tie-in books, Cameron personally logged more time with the (now-sunken) ship than did her ''actual passengers''.
** In fact, the movie set may even have provided an alternative theory to why the Grand Staircase is missing from the wreck: when the set was flooded during filming, the staircase set piece (which was supposedly built just like it was in real life) began to break away from its framework. If the construction of the set is accurate, then it may suggest that the real Grand Staircase simply floated out of the ship during the sinking, rather than being eaten by microbes afterward.
** Furthermore, there has been some debate as to why Funnel No. 1 fell first, when there were many reasons in the design that would have made that impossible: The funnels were designed to lean backwards, so they should have fallen forward at the same time if at all, or they should have fallen to the side, but only if the ship was listing considerably. During filming, they discovered that in order to place Collapsible Boats C and D into position, some of the guy-wires, that hold the funnels in place, had to have been removed, thus removing needed support later on as the ship went down by the bow furthermore.
** It is, however, worth noting that Cameron and the others ''were'' pretty good in designing the sets. The ship sank so fast, it sucked people down when it was described as riding an elevator.
** The Swedes who loses their tickets to Jack not only speak fluent Swedish, but also use an appropriate accent for a working class person in the early 1900's.
* SignificantSketchbook: Rose first sees Jack as he is sketching on the deck, and he shows her some of the drawings. Later, there is the famous scene where she requests that Jack sketch her in the nude (her, not Jack).
* {{Spectacle}}: The film is heavily reliant on this for its emotional impact; it loses a ''lot'' when not seen in a movie theater.
* SpiritedYoungLady: Rose
* StarCrossedLovers: Jack and Rose
* StiffUpperLip
* StronglyWordedLetter: Jack quips that he's going to write one to White Star.
* TechnologyPorn: Who gets more screen time, Kate Winslet or the ''Titanic''?
** Well, the film is named after the most vital participant, the ship herself.
* [[ThatManIsDead That Woman is Dead]]: Rose.
* TimeshiftedActor: Kate Winslet and Gloria Stuart as Rose
* ThrowItIn:
** Jack saying to Rose "Lie down on the bed, I mean couch" was entirely accidental, but James Cameron thought that was natural, so he left it in.
** Apparently Leonardo [[EnforcedMethodActing didn't know how cold the water was]] when he jumped into it...thus the line "Holy shit, that's cold!"
** All the crewers aboard the research ship and its submarine are, well, actual research-ship-and-submarine crewmembers. Cameron hired the ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akademik_Mstislav_Keldysh Akademic Mstislav Keldysh]]'' to visit the wreck, and kept them on payroll for use as set and extras once the production phase started.
* UptownGirl: Rose [=DeWitt=] Bukater hated the uptown life so much that she contemplated suicide though it took a few scenes before she sums up the nerve to leave Cal for working class Jack.
* UnreliableNarrator: Old Rose, if we assume all the 1912 scenes are visual representations of the story she's telling to her granddaughter and the research vessel crew. If they are meant to be this, Old Rose describes scenes and conversations for which she wasn't even present, including scenes known to be historically inaccurate ("Molly" Brown's argument with a crewman in her lifeboat, Smith and Ismay in any way discussing racing for the record, an idea that had been discarded before Titanic even launched) and all the scenes with the lifeboats and Cal's leaving the ship, and which she couldn't possibly know about since it's implied she never spoke with anyone in those scenes who survived again. Since the film as a rule averts DidNotDoTheResearch this could be an example of Rose making up details or coloring events (or padding the movie.) That, or she's lying about not contacting anyone (and since the real Maggie Brown was in fact a charity patron of actors in New York, it's entirely possible Rose ran into her again.)
** This troper personally thinks that what the audience saw is what actually happened, while in the [[FramingDevice present]], Rose's granddaughter and the crew were getting a much more abridged, purely Rose-centric version of what we're seeing.
** Also...she's almost 101 years old. [[FridgeBrilliance It's not exactly unreasonable for her memory of the events to be a bit distorted.]]
* VillainousBreakdown: Cal, on account of being such a {{Yandere}}. By the end of the scene, he's ''giggling'' when he realizes the irony of him losing the Heart of the Ocean.
* WhatCouldHaveBeen: Like ''{{Avatar}}'', this was written as a 4 hour-long movie and cut down to a 3 hour-long film.
** Cameron originally wanted Drew Barrymore to play Rose, but execs told him that she wouldn't be right for the role.
** Johnny Depp also admitted in an interview that he was offered the lead role in the movie but turned it down, and considers it a big regret.
** Cameron offered the role of Old Rose to [[KingKong Fay Wray]], who turned it down thinking it would have been "a tortuous experience altogether."
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: The fate of a surprising number of minor characters and extras can be known either by [[AllThereInTheManual reading the script]] or really paying attention to the background in the movie. Or looking into a real Historical book, in case they are not fictional. The drunk cook that Rose meets on the stern just before the ship went under? [[http://www.titanicinquiry.org/BOTInq/BOTInq06Joughin01.php Charles Joughin]], who really was a cook, and who really did go back to his cabin to drink after the lifeboats were gone. He was one of the very few survivors that were taken from the water.
* XanatosSucker: In the universe of this film, it was quite literally ''Jack and Rose's fault'' that ''Titanic'' sank. How so you ask? Had the two young lovers NOT made such a loud and passionate scene kissing on the deck and attracted the attention of BOTH lookouts on the crow's-nest, they would have spotted the iceberg 15 seconds earlier, screamed for help 15 seconds earlier and allowed the ship to steer clear by a WIDE margin.
* {{Yandere}}: Cal.
* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: As a reward for all his previous loyalty, Cal leaves Lovejoy to die when the ship starts to sink.
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<<|{{Film}}|>>

* HeyItsThatGuy:
** [[Film/TheLordOfTheRings King Theoden]] is TheCaptain.
** [[Series/HoratioHornblower Lieutenant Hornblower]] has been demoted to command of a lifeboat. (Or, if you prefer, it's [[Film/FantasticFour Reed Richards]], or possibly [[Film/KingArthur Lancelot]].)
** [[Series/{{Alias}} Jack Bristow]] is undercover as an Irish shipbuilder.

** [[Series/Alias Jack Bristow]] is undercover as an Irish shipbuilder.

* XanatosSucker: In the universe of this film, it was quite literally ''Jack and Rose's fault'' that Titanic sank. How so you ask? Had the two young lovers NOT made such a loud and passionate scene kissing on the decks and attracted the attentios of BOTH lookouts on the Crow's-Nest, they would have literally spotted the iceberg 15 seconds earlier, screamed for help 15 seconded earlier and allowed the ship to dodge intime by a WIDE margin.

** About 3 times you also see a tan, curcly headed girl named Cora, who doesn't look much older than 7. [[spoiler: You don't see her death on-screen, but in the final scence where Rose is surrounded by all those who perished on the Titanic, she's the first person you see.]] A deleted scene shows her and her parents, crying and screaming, being submerged by water. Cameron explains it was cut because it was just a bit too upsetting.

** Part this, part HeroicBSOD, Captain Edward J. Smith decides to face death at the helm of [[{{Retirony}}the ship that would have been his last command.]]