Heartwarming / Titanic (1997)

"Come Josephine in my flying machine..."

• The ending.
  • At the beginning of their relationship, Jack tells Rose that they will go to an amusement park and then ride horses down a beach "but none of that sidesaddle stuff." At the end of the film, one of Rose's pictures that we see is her sitting on a horse, one leg on each side, on a beach, with an amusement park in the background.
  • Then we have the last scene itself. Rose and Jack are not only reunited, but they are surrounded by all the characters who perished on the ship. Most prominent are Tommy, Fabrizio, William Murdoch and Thomas Andrews (but sharp-eyed viewers can pick out additional characters such as the band, Trudy Bolt, Cora and her family, John Jacob Astor, Benjamin Guggenheim and his valet, Father Thomas Byles and Captain Smith among others). To see all those souls reunited on the ship of dreams is both this and a Tear Jerker.
  • Not only do we see all these people, but they're all mixed together. First, second and third class, officers and crew and staff, all happily intermingled like would not have been possible during the voyage.
  • From a theatrical standpoint, the ending is almost like a curtain call, with the cast returning on stage for a final bow. Even the cast themselves didn't expect this to make it into the film.
• Rose's relationship with Trudy the maid, in an extended cut of the "Picasso scene", while she helps Rose off with some pieces of clothes Trudy squees over how she will be the first "in those sheets" with Rose amusingly chuckling in response. The two sound like teenage girl friends getting excited over a movie or school event.
  • Later on Trudy is consoling Rose after Cal threw a tantrum during breakfast, with Rose helping and apologizing for Cal's behavior before she gets upset, there is a clear emotional connection between the two.
• The father/daughter relationship that Rose and Thomas Andrews seem to develop throughout the movie is actually quite sweet. Even more so when you consider the fact that Rose's real father was probably a Jerkass who left his wife and daughter with a mountain of debt.
  • Also Thomas Andrews is probably the nicest character in the movie after Jack. When Jack shows up in first class looking for Rose, he smiles and bids him hello. He also speaks of his ship with great pride, but never brags about it. And then when the sinking begins, his first thought is helping out with the evacuation in any way he can.
    • "I'm sorry I didn't build you a stronger ship, Young Rose." In actuality, Titanic lasted a good forty minutes beyond what Andrews said she had at the outside — He said "two at most" and Titanic gave him — them — almost three. She was a good boat.
    • The goodbye between them is this too. After she realizes he'll be staying with the ship, she hugs him.
      Mr Andrews: (gives Rose a life jacket) Good luck to you, Rose.
      Rose: And to you.
  • The Real Life Thomas Andrews was every bit as nice as his movie counterpart. He was described by friends and colleagues as a kindhearted and hard-working man who adored his wife and young daughter. And although it wasn't required at the time, Andrews had strongly suggested that the Titanic be outfitted with 46 lifeboats (instead of the 20 it ended up with during the sinking) as well as a double hull and watertight bulkheads that went up to B deck, all in the best interests of passenger safety. He was overruled by president of the White Star Line, Bruce Ismay hence his cowardice reputation after the sinking.
• Murdoch sees Jack and Rose having fun from a distance, and smiles affectionately at how in love they are.
• As the boiler room is flooding and the watertight doors are shutting down, Leading Fireman Barret escapes only after all his men go first.
• When Rose is looking for Jack, Thomas Andrews is searching cabins for any stragglers. Rose finds him and asks where Jack is likely being held. Andrews is initially confused as to why she's asking to go to a part of the ship that's already flooded, but when she says it's going to take longer without his help, he tells her where she needs to go.
• The band has finished playing its last song, and three members finally decide to go... and then the remaining member starts playing one last song, and the other three come back and join in.
  • A sailor offers his own lifejacket to the captain. He turns it down and goes to the wheel to go down with the ship, not wanting to burden his men anymore.
  • Finally, when Mr. Andrews, who designed the ship, decides the same, telling Rose "I'm sorry I couldn't build you a stronger ship."
  • And also, as the water comes rushing up at the musicians: "Gentlemen, it has been a privilege playing with you tonight."
• And the elderly couple embracing on the bed. Truth in Television: The couple is Ida and Isador Straus, who died together on the Titanic after Isador refused a place on the lifeboats on the "women and children first" principle, and Ida refused to be parted from her husband of forty-one years, opting to give her spot to her maid, Ellen Bird. Even more heartwarming? Ellen had only been hired a few days before boarding the Titanic. Particularly this bit: Ida even gave Ellen her fur coat saying she "wouldn't be needing it anymore." After being rescued, Ellen tried to return the coat to the family only to be told by the Strauses' oldest daughter that she should keep it.
  • A deleted scene shows Ida refusing to get into the lifeboat.
    Ida: We've been together for forty years. And where you go, I go. Don't argue with me, Isidor. You know it does no good. (Isidor nods and hugs her)
• One scene doubles as a Funny Moment: After Rose leaves her lifeboat to stay with Jack, he embraces her and exclaims "Rose! You're so stupid!"
• In the extended Carpathia sequence, the way Fifth Officer Lowe personally helps Rose aboard and hands her a warm drink.
• The party in third class is a joyful scene from start to finish; everyone's having fun and dancing the night away, filled with optimism about the future...
  • The party Rose has Jack attend in first class is itself heartwarming in a way, if only for one reason; just how polite the others are acting towards Jack. With the exception of Ruth and Cal, they all treat him with respect despite knowing he's a poor drifter and he easily charms the pants off everyone with just his wit and his kind nature. Rose even gets the table to toast his "making it count" speech easily, with Colonel Gracie giving an enthusiastic "Hear, hear!" and Molly Brown practically beaming at Jack's idealism as he wins over the entire table.
• The deleted scene in which Jack escorts Rose back to first class after the party. They sing the popular song "Come Josephine in My Flying Machine," laughing as they stumble on the lyrics, stargazing, and being supportive. It's a cute scene of, basically, two kids having a fun night.
• The friendship between Molly Brown and Jack. Being a nouveau riche upper class passenger (neither her nor her husband were rich until her husband's mining business struck big) she knows what it's like to not be born into wealth and not fitting with those who've lived in upper class their whole life. Like Rose, she decides to take Jack under her wing during the dinner party and advises him throughout the dinner so he doesn't feel more out of place than he feels.
  • As well as his friendship with Tommy, who becomes like an older brother to him.
    • The friendship between him and Fabrizio has clearly lasted a long time, and the two seem to understand each other despite speaking two different languages.
• When Rose first begins telling her story, the salvagers are impatient and just want to know where the diamond is, but, by the end, they are tearfully listening in rapt fascination to her story for its own sake, regardless of the diamond.
• Rose's time with Jack on the Titanic is a fond memory for her, even though it ends with him dying.
  Lewis: We never found anything on Jack. There were no records of him at all.
  Rose: Oh, no. There wouldn't be, would there? And I've never spoken of him until now. But now you know there was a man named Jack Dawson and that he saved me in every way that a person can be saved.
• As the sinking begins in earnest,
• Chief baker Charles Joughin, the guy in all white drinking from a flask. Early in the crisis, he occupies himself by pitching wooden chairs over the railing so that anyone in the water can use them as flotation aids. He’s seen a few minutes earlier during a segment when Rose and Jack are trying to reach the stern, and Rose has to leap down off a ledge falling to her knees amongst panicking passengers scrambling to the higher rising part of the ship. He politely says, “I’ve got you miss” as he gently helps Rose to her feet before she can be trampled. When the stern is taking its final plunge, can be seen trying to pull a passenger over the railing so he won't fall, and manages to succeed just before the ship goes under. Furthermore, according to accounts, that's what he really did during the sinking: helping out people when he wasn't drinking. Even in that time of crisis and panic passengers are still trying to look out for each other.
• "I'll never let go, Jack. I promise." And Rose proves it by letting go...
• In a deleted scene Cal searches the Carpathia for Rose, when he thinks he sees her he immediately rushes up to her. It certainly does not excuse his behavior throughout the film but it does show that, in spite of everything, he may have actually cared for her.
• During the final moments of the ship, Father Thomas Byles is shown desperately praying while a crowd of people reach for him and cling to him. This man knows that there's nothing he can do to save anyone's lives, so he stays with them and prays for them. You can hear his voice trembling with fear as he clings to the deck, and he's close to breaking out crying himself, but he continues to recite prayers to his desperate congregation, speaking the Hail Mary aloud, and speaking from the Book of Revelations:
  Father Byles: And God shall wipe away all the tears from their eyes, and there shall be no more death; neither shall there be sorrow or crying; neither shall there be any more pain. For the former world has passed away.
  • Even more heartwarming is that it happened on the real ship and all three priests onboard refused lifeboats to comfort the doomed.
• Jack recognizing Monet's paintings in the suite, showing that he and Rose have similar taste in art. This continues the concept of Jack being Cal’s polar opposite, as the latter considered the paintings a waste of money.
• In one of the few likable moments that she actually has throughout the entire movie, Ruth kisses Rose on the cheek at the end of the corset-lacing scene, hinting that she loves her daughter very much, regardless of the disparaging conversation they had earlier.
• Officer Lowe, hearing the people crying for help in the water after Titanic has sunk, visibly makes a decision and declares that he's going to go back to try and help. Even if, in the end, he and the other men in the rescue boat only managed to save six people out of fifteen hundred, they still came back when all the other boats refused to, and it's thanks to them that Rose survives.
• In the deleted scenes shows one of the lifeboats searching the bodies for survivors, one of the survivors found crouching on debris is a Chinese man. Now, keep in mind the time period that takes place here, it would not be out of place for the lifeboat to pass him by to look for more "eligible" survivors, but they don't do that. Instead, they hurry to the guy and help him into the lifeboat. Shows just how far survivors are to help each other out. Like many things listed here, this one is Truth in Television.
• At the beginning, when the elderly Rose boards the Keldysh and is examining the finds from the safe, she marvels at items that she used to have on the ship. While the sinking was a traumatic event, she clearly had plenty of happy memories of her brief but impactful time aboard the Titanic.
• Jack and Fabrizio seeing the pod of dolphins as the ship is putting to sea, matching her speed of 21 knots.
  • Plus Captain Smith sees them and smiles at the young lads' joy.
• Colonel Gracie takes every opportunity to demonstrate how to be a proper gentleman. He readily believes that Jack saved Rose from falling over the stern, congratulates him on being a hero, and prods Cal into giving him something as a reward. Later during dinner, Gracie enthusiastically responds to Jack's philosophy on life and invites him to a brandy following the meal. When the ship starts sinking, he is shown guiding women to the lifeboats and offers to help guide Jack's group.
• "My Heart Will Go On," Céline Dion's Award-Bait Song to end all award bait songs. There's a reason it's called the "love theme" from Titanic and not just the "theme": it's a song that's aching with love and can speak to anyone who's been separated from something they loved, be it romantic, platonic or familial. Even after the Hype Backlash of the late 90s, it's still a powerhouse of a song.
  • It's subtle, but after "My Heart Will Go On" finishes in the credits, the sweeping, optimistic "Southampton" theme plays once more.
• It seems minor, but after Rose is rescued when she is asked her what her name is, she replies Rose Dawson, meaning she felt they were married in spirit if not in actual fact.
• The day after Rose's attempted suicide, she tells Jack that he must be wondering what some "poor little rich girl" could have to be miserable about. Instead, Jack says that he merely wondered, "What could have happened to this girl to make her feel like she had no way out?" This is exactly the kind of compassionate response that someone like Rose would need to hear. It's not uncommon for people with mental health issues, such as depression and suicide contemplation, to browbeat themselves over being "weak," but it's not true and it doesn't help the situation. Rather than judging her, Jack just wants to help.
• In a deleted scene, Guggenheim shakes hands with Astor once it's clear neither of them are going to survive.
  • The Astor family were known to be anti-Semitic (JJ’s stance is unclear), whilst Guggenheim was Jewish. Seeing them shake hands and acknowledge each other with respect adds another layer to this gut-wrenching scene. The fact that both know how death is unbiased in who it takes probably helped as well.
• From what we hear, Rose did move on as Jack ordered her to while dying; she was Happily Married to Mr. Calvert. While she never told him about her first love Jack, or the rest of her traumatic backstory, they had a long life together as the photographs reveal. One of those pictures shows her riding a horse in front of what appears to be the Santa Monica pier, something she and Jack talked about doing when they reached America. She had several sons, and one of those sons eventually had her granddaughter Lizzy.
• Rose is revealed to be a Doting Grandparent to Lizzy Calvert. Lizzy has returned the favor by being The Caretaker to "Nana" as she affectionately calls her. In the Deleted Scene where Rose reveals that she has the jewel, Lizzy worries about Nana being out on the deck, briefly panicking that she was about to jump.
• It's a small moment, but when Cal learns from Thomas Andrews that the ship will sink, he immediately takes the situation seriously and his first instinct is to see Rose and Ruth into a lifeboat before himself.
  "Any room for a gentleman, gentlemen?"
• Even if Cal is already protected (or so he thinks) by his attempting to bribe Murdoch, Rose getting off the ship and onto a lifeboat is about the only thing he and Jack agree upon. Cal also gives her his coat... which he later realizes held the diamond.
• In the alternate ending, Brock realizes that Rose is going to throw the Heart of the Ocean into the sea, all he asks is just to touch it. Rose lets him do so before doing the deed.

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