History Film / Titanic1997

* BloodlessCarnage: When the Titanic splits in half, the stern falls on the helpless victims in the ocean. When the stern rises, the rotors are clean and lack any blood on them.

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Jack freezes to death in the ocean water while supporting Rose on a makeshift raft, but his sacrifice is not in vain as Rose is rescued by one of the lifeboats. Once Rose arrives in New York, she adopts the name "Rose Dawson" and leaves the group of survivors to live her own life, with her mother and Cal never knowing she survived. Keeping her promise to Jack, she goes on to live live a happy, fulfilling life of adventure and love with her husband, children, and grandchildren. In the present, Lovett decides to end his expedition now that he fully understands the tragedy's scope while Rose secretly takes the Heart of the Ocean, which has been in her possession all these years, and drops it into the sea over the wreck site as closure. The film ends with Rose lying in bed surrounded by photos taken throughout the years of her life before transitioning to a scene of young Rose reuniting with Jack at the Titanic's grand staircase surrounded by all of the passengers and officers that died on the ship, implying that [[AmbiguousSituation she may have passed on and joined them in the afterlife if she's not dreaming]].]]

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Jack freezes to death, but not before he makes Rose promise to live a happy, fulfilling life of her own. Her fulfilling of this promise is made clear in the scene of Rose's death, where she passes away satisfied with her life surrounded by photos taken throughout the years of her life of happiness. Rose meets him again when she finally passes away. If you pay attention to her dream, she enters a room filled with passengers and officers (Captain Smith is visible) that died on the ship, and they all look at her as if to say "nice of you to join us" -- evidence that she dies and joins the rest of the dead on the "ship of dreams"]]. If you want to see it that way.

* CallBack: At a first-class dinner, Jack Dawson describes life as being based on luck, prompting a response from Cal Hockley that "A real man makes his own luck." During the sinking, [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney when Cal is filling his pockets with money to potentially bribe his way into a lifeboat]], he comments, "I make my own luck." His valet, Lovejoy, responds "So do I" while revealing a concealed firearm.

** The cabin that Jack and Fabrizio stay in is numbered G-60, which is entirely fictional. There were only 40 cabins on G deck.

* AsYouKnow: Played for drama.
-->'''Ruth:''' This is not a game. Our situation is precarious. You ''know'' the money's gone.\\

* IncrediblyLamePun: Subverted. When Brock is talking about the sinking of the ''Titanic'', he says "I never let it in."

* InsistentTerminology: During dinner, Ruth asks Jack how the accommodations are in ''steerage''. White Star Line had done away with using the term, which carried connotations of cramped, unsanitary, and squalid conditions. They referred to their lowest class exclusively as Third Class, and granted modest luxuries by ensuring their facilities were clean, serving three hot meals a day, and housing passengers in cabins with doors that were just as nice as Second Class cabins on other ships. Ruth's usage of the term is a subtle jab at Jack's background, while Cal's usage of "third class" demonstrates an attempt to be diplomatic and respectful (which he fails at).

** J.Bruce Ismay establishes himself as one fairly quickly (" When can we get underway, damn it!?"), and doesn't grasp how serious the situation is until Thomas Andrews pretty much has to spell it out for him.

*** The Alternate Ending does directly address in-universe ''why'' Rose never sold the Diamond: because it would mean using Cal's wealth to live. The diamond belonged to Cal, so selling it would mean Rose would be using money that belongs to Cal to help herself and her family during the point in her life when she'd left Cal and his money behind to live an independent life. Also not to mention that had she sold the diamond, her identity would've immediately been exposed to the media, and it's very clear from the way Old Rose was living, and the fact that she never told her husband, children or other grandchildren about her past life, that she did not want people knowing she was once Rose DeWitt-Bukater.

* EnormousEngagementRing: Rose tells Jack that Cal is worse than her boyfriend and shows him the engagement ring from him. He tells her that if she had jumped off the boat, she would have gone straight to the bottom.

*** The Alternate Ending does directly address in-universe ''why'' Rose never sold the Diamond: Because it would mean letting Cal 'win' and Rose couldn't bear that.

* ForeignLanguageTirade: After Jack bets all of his and Fabrizo's money and [[BaitAndSwitchComment makes it sound like they lost the bet before revealing that they won]], Fabrizio starts yelling at him in Italian

* LaserGuidedKarma: Downplayed. [[spoiler:While Cal does survive the sinking, the two things "most dear to him" -- Rose and the Heart of the Ocean -- are presumably lost forever. As mentioned above, the full dose of karma comes years later, when he loses his money in the stock market crash and kills himself.]]

The film, after a well-publicized production cycle that overran its budget and schedule with the film ending up costing $200 million to produce, casting doubts on its box office chances, was released in theaters on December 19, 1997. Its original theatrical run lasted more than nine months, not ending until October 1, 1998. It was number-one at the American box office for a still-standing record of fifteen consecutive weeks[[note]]''Film/ETTheExtraTerrestrial'' is the record holder for cumulative weeks at number one with a nonconsecutive 16 weeks[[/note]], finally knocked off by ''Film/LostInSpace'' on the first weekend of April 1998. Many of its longevity weekend records still stand today, even with over a quarter century of inflation. It was the first film in history to gross over $1 billion; in the quarter-century since, it has been joined in that lofty club by over 50 other films. But it's still one of only a handful of billion-dollar grossers to not be a sequel, or part of some pre-established franchise.[[note]The only others being ''Film/{{Avatar}}'', ''WesternAnimation/{{Zootopia}}'', ''WesternAnimation/Frozen2013'', and notably all three ended up with franchises of their own while Titanic is completely Stand-alone.[[/note]]

The film, after a well-publicized production cycle that overran its budget and schedule with the film ending up costing $200 million to produce, casting doubts on its box office chances, was released in theaters on December 19, 1997. Its original theatrical run lasted more than nine months, not ending until October 1, 1998. It was number-one at the American box office for a still-standing record of fifteen consecutive weeks[[note]]''Film/ETTheExtraTerrestrial'' is the record holder for cumulative weeks at number one with a nonconsecutive 16 weeks[[/note]], finally knocked off by ''Film/LostInSpace'' on the first weekend of April 1998. Many of its longevity weekend records still stand today, even with over a quarter century of inflation. It was the first film in history to gross over $1 billion; in the quarter-century since, it has been joined in that lofty club by over 50 other films. But it's still one of only a handful of billion-dollar grossers to be stand-alone, as opposed to being part of a series, franchise or cinematic universe.[[note]]The only others being ''Film/{{Avatar}}'', ''WesternAnimation/{{Zootopia}}'', ''WesternAnimation/Frozen2013''.[[/note]]

The film, after a well-publicized production cycle that overran its budget and schedule with the film ending up costing $200 million to produce, casting doubts on its box office chances, was released in theaters on December 19, 1997. Its original theatrical run lasted more than nine months, not ending until October 1, 1998. It was number-one at the American box office for a still-standing record of fifteen consecutive weeks[[note]]''Film/ETTheExtraTerrestrial'' is the record holder for cumulative weeks at number one with a nonconsecutive 16 weeks[[/note]], finally knocked off by ''Film/LostInSpace'' on the first weekend of April 1998. Many of its longevity weekend records still stand today, even with over two decades of inflation. It was the first film in history to gross over $1 billion; in the quarter-century since, it has been joined in that lofty club by over 50 other films. But it's still one of only a handful of billion-dollar grossers to be stand-alone, as opposed to being part of a series, franchise or cinematic universe.[[note]]The only others being ''Film/{{Avatar}}'', ''WesternAnimation/{{Zootopia}}'', ''WesternAnimation/Frozen2013''.[[/note]]

As such, ''Titanic''[='=]s story [[GenreMashup leaps and bounds across genres]], combining a historical docudrama, a ''Theatre/RomeoAndJuliet''-esque romance, and a {{disaster movie}} with the scope and resources of an {{epic|Movie}}, fueled by cutting-edge technology ahead of nearly any film that came before it. The result was the most expensive movie ever made at the time, costing more money when adjusted for inflation the the actual real life ship, before turning into the highest-grossing film ever made at the time, going on to dominate the awards season and become one of the biggest cultural touchstones in cinematic history.

As such, ''Titanic''[='=]s story [[GenreMashup leaps and bounds across genres]], combining a historical docudrama, a ''Theatre/RomeoAndJuliet''-esque romance, and a {{disaster movie}} with the scope and resources of an {{epic|Movie}}, fueled by cutting-edge technology ahead of nearly any film that came before it. The result was the most expensive movie ever made at the time, turning into the highest-grossing film ever made at the time, going on to dominate the awards season and become one of the biggest cultural touchstones in cinematic history.

* DigitalHeadSwap: The film had one of the first examples of this as Leo and Kate's faces were superimposed onto their stunt doubles in the scene where they are running down a flooded hallway. It's noticeable as the scene is done in slow motion.