Titanic

Titanic is a 1997 American epic romantic disaster film directed, written, co-produced, co-edited and partly financed by James Cameron. A fictionalized account of the sinking of the RMS Titanic, it stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet as members of different social classes who fall in love aboard the ship during its ill-fated maiden voyage.

Cameron's inspiration for the film was predicated on his fascination with shipwrecks; he wanted to convey the emotional message of the tragedy and felt that a love story interspersed with the human loss would be essential to achieving this. Production on the film began in 1995, when Cameron shot footage of the actual Titanic wreck. The modern scenes were shot on board the Akademik Mstislav Keldysh, which Cameron had used as a base when filming the wreck. A reconstruction of the Titanic was built at Playas de Rosarito in Baja California, scale models, and computer-generated imagery were used to recreate the sinking. The film was partially funded by Paramount Pictures and 20th Century Fox, and, at the time, was the most expensive film ever made, with an estimated budget of $200 million.

Upon its release on December 19, 1997, the film achieved critical and commercial success. Nominated for fourteen Academy Awards, it won eleven, including the awards for Best Picture and Best Director, tying Ben Hur (1959) for most Oscars won by a single film. With an initial worldwide gross of over $1.84 billion, it was the first film to reach the billion-dollar mark. It remained the highest-grossing film of all time, until Cameron's 2009 film Avatar surpassed its gross in 2010. A 3D version of the film, released on April 4, 2012 (often billed as Titanic 3D) to commemorate the centenary of the sinking of the ship, earned it an additional $343.6 million worldwide, pushing Titanic's worldwide total to $2.18 billion. It became the second film to gross more than $2 billion worldwide (after Avatar).

Plot

In 1996, treasure hunter Brock Lovett and his team are searching the wreck of RMS Titanic for a necklace with a rare diamond, the Heart of the Ocean. They recover a safe and find inside a drawing of a nude woman wearing only the necklace. The drawing is dated April 14, 1912, the day the Titanic hit the iceberg. An elderly woman calling herself Rose Dawson Calvert and claiming to be the person in the drawing visits Lovett aboard the research vessel Keldysh and tells of her experiences as a passenger on the Titanic.

It is 1912 in Southampton, and 17-year-old first-class passenger Rose DeWitt Bukater, her fiancé Caledon "Cal" Hockley, and her mother Ruth DeWitt Bukater are boarding the Titanic. Ruth emphasizes the importance of Rose's engagement; the marriage will resolve the DeWitt Bukaters' secret financial problems. Made distraught by the engagement, Rose considers committing suicide by jumping off the ship's stern; Jack Dawson, a penniless artist, intervenes and convinces her not to jump. Discovered with Jack, Rose tells Cal she was looking over the edge and Jack saved her from falling. Cal is at first indifferent to Jack's actions, but when Rose indicates that some recognition is due, Cal offers Jack a small amount of money. After Rose mocks Cal by asking if saving her life meant so little, he invites Jack to dine with them in first class the following night. Jack and Rose develop a tentative friendship, even though Cal and Ruth are wary of the young third-class passenger. Following the dinner, Rose secretly joins Jack at a party in third-class.

Cal and Ruth both disapprove of Rose seeing Jack, so Rose attempts to rebuff Jack's continuing advances. However, she soon realizes that she prefers him to Cal, and goes to meet him during what turns out to be the Titanic's last moments of daylight ever. They go to Rose's stateroom, where she asks Jack to sketch her nude wearing only the Heart of the Ocean necklace, which was Cal's engagement present to her. Afterward, they evade Cal's bodyguard and make love in an automobile in the ship's cargo hold. Later, the pair go to the ship's forward deck, witness a collision with an iceberg, then overhear the ship's officers and designer discussing its seriousness. Rose and Jack decide to warn her mother and Cal.

Cal discovers Jack's sketch of Rose and a mocking note from Rose are in Cal's safe along with the necklace. Furious, he arranges for his bodyguard to slip the necklace into Jack's coat pocket. Accused of stealing it, Jack is arrested, taken to the Master-at-arms' office, and handcuffed to a pipe. Cal puts the necklace in his own coat pocket. Rose evades both Cal and her mother, who has managed to board a lifeboat, then frees Jack. The crew starts to launch flares to attempt to obtain help from nearby ships.

Once Jack and Rose reach the top deck, Cal and Jack encourage Rose to board a lifeboat; Cal claims that he has arranged for himself and Jack to get off safely. After she boards, Cal tells Jack the arrangement is only for himself. As Rose's boat lowers away, she realizes she cannot leave Jack and jumps back on board the Titanic to reunite with him. Infuriated, Cal takes a pistol and chases them into the flooding first-class dining saloon. After using up all his ammunition, Cal realizes, to his chagrin, that he gave his coat and the diamond to Rose. With the situation now extreme, he returns topside and boards a lifeboat by carrying a lost child in his arms.

Jack and Rose return to the top deck. All lifeboats have now departed and passengers are falling to their death as the stern rises out of the water. The ship breaks in half, and the stern rises 90 degrees into the air. As it sinks, Jack and Rose ride the stern into the ocean. Jack helps Rose onto a wooden panel only buoyant enough to support one person. Holding the edge of the panel, he assures her she will die an old woman, warm in her bed. Jack dies from hypothermia. Fifth Officer Harold Lowe has commandeered a lifeboat to search for survivors. Rose gets Lowe's attention and is saved.

Rose and the other survivors are taken by the RMS Carpathia to New York, where Rose gives her name as Rose Dawson in memory of Jack. She hides from Cal on Carpathia's deck as he searches for her. She learns later that he committed suicide after losing everything in the Wall Street Crash of 1929.

Back in the present, her story complete, Rose goes alone to the stern of Lovett's salvage vessel, takes out the Heart of the Ocean, which has been in her possession all along, and drops it into the sea over the wreck site. When she is seemingly asleep in her bed, the photos on her dresser visually chronicle that she lived a life of freedom and adventure thanks to Jack. A young Rose is then seen reuniting with Jack at the Grand Staircase of the RMS Titanic, congratulated by those who actually perished on the ship.

Cast

Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet, Billy Zane , Frances Fisher, Gloria Stuart