Neil deGrasse Tyson thinks Jack didn’t try hard enough to survive in 'Titanic'
It's not entirely Rose's fault
It's not entirely Rose's fault
It's not entirely Rose's fault
Most fans of the movie love a good Titanic theory, especially when it involves Jack, Rose, and that room-for-one-and-one-only piece of a door. A new one has been suggested by none other than astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson.
Speaking to this week, Neil deGrasse Tyson points out that Jack oddly stopped being himself the moment he made contact with the Atlantic Ocean. According to deGrasse Tyson, “Whether or not he could have been successful, I would’ve tried more than once. You try once. ‘Oh, this is not gonna work. I will just freeze to death in the water.’ No, excuse me. No! The survival instinct is way stronger than that in everybody, especially in that character. He’s a survivor, right? He gets through. He gets by.”
It’s true, Jack’s journey to the ocean liner came after years of being on his own (from Chippewa Falls and the streets of Paris). And as he later recalls at dinner, “Just the other night I was sleeping under a bridge and now here I am on the grandest ship in the world having champagne with you fine people.”
deGrasse Tyson is right on the money. Jack had always been a survivor, and his survival skills should have kicked in when he found himself in the freezing waters.
Mythbusters tried to prove some years ago that Jack actually could have joined Rose on the Carpathia if they had tied their lifejackets to the bottom of the door for buoyancy. On the episode, James Cameron said that wasn't the point - "The script says Jack dies. He has to die." Earlier this year, Cameron the Mythbusters theory, saying that it would have been too much work to pull off in 28-degree water.
Titanic turns 20 on Dec. 19.