TITANIC (1997) dir. James Cameron

TITANIC | 1997 ↳ Directed by James Cameron

The Heart of the Ocean TITANIC (1997) dir. James Cameron

TITANIC (1997) Dir. James Cameron

LEONARDO DI CAPRIO and KATE WINSLET in TITANIC (1997) dir. JAMES CAMERON

I KNEW THERE WAS SOMETHING THERE

a Bi Awakening Movie ™️ must have characters of different genders who are hot and cool. and also chaotic vibes. and that’s it

The one part of Titanic I will absolutely never recover from is at the very end:

Jack, the person she loved most is the one waiting for her up the stairs at the clock. As you get closer to Jack, the other people Rose was more familiar with and/or cared for her are the ones standing nearest to him, with Jack’s third class friends she met and danced with being toward the bottom of the stairs and Fabrizio is even leaning on the rail with his foot on the first step (hon. mention to Mr. Murdoch who saw Jack and Rose cavorting on deck and smiled and laughed about it).

But you know who the only other character is that’s not only fully on the staircase, but several steps up from everyone else?

Mr. Andrews 🥺

He was the only one of Rose’s first-class peers to show her respect, value her intelligence, and show genuine concern about her making it off Titanic alive.

And it both warms my heart and tears me apart that next to Jack, he was clearly the next closest person she held dear. And I know everyone smiles and greets her as she walks by but Thomas Andrews just looks so fucking proud of her. He’s so proud that she made it out and lived her life.

So I think it’s safe to say that in return, Thomas Andrews was the one who cared for Rose the most, aside from Jack.

When she walks in and people start noticing her, you can see Fabrizio speaking to Mr. Andrews before spotting Rose and gesturing toward her, and UGH they both just look so happy to see her.

So I know the end is up for interpretation on whether it’s a dream or she died. But personally I choose to believe she passed peacefully in her sleep and was finally reunited with the people she cared about most, who had been patiently waiting for the last 84 years for her to rejoin them.

Excuse me while I go cry now 🥹

Rewatching Treasure Planet (great movie, watch it) made realize something about the way that stories convey information to their audiences. There's been a lot of discussion on the overuse of plot twists and how many stories prioritise surprising their audience over telling decent stories. However, if you instead reveal the "twist" to the audience before it becomes known to the characters, you can build tension and stakes. Treasure Planet comes right out and tells you that Long John Silver is the main villain almost immediately after his introduction (And even before he's introduced we're warned about a cyborg, so you'd have to be pretty dense to not put 2 and 2 together and realize he's a bad guy). So when the audience watches him and Jim bond and grow closer, it builds tension for when Jim finds out and it highlights the tragedy of their friendship, because we all know it's not going to end well. Then, after the truth is revealed, stakes are created because we want the friendship between Jim and Silver to be repaired, because we know it was real, but we don't know if can be after what Silver's done. And all of this would have been lost if Silver's true nature had been a cheap plot twist. The tragedy would be completely overshadowed by the surprise and betrayal, and any investment in their relationship would have been built on the false impression that Silver was a good guy.

Another good example of this is Titanic. Even if you were somehow ignorant of the ship's sinking, the film makes sure you know that it sank with its framing device of Old Rose telling her story to people salvaging the Titanic's wreak. And Titanic's plot structure could only possibly work if you know the ship is going to sink. I'm not just talking about building tension, tragedy, and stakes for the characters like with the above example, I mean that if you didn't know that the Titanic was going down walking into the film, the abrupt shift from romance to suspense-disaster would be an increadibly tough pill to swallow. But it works because we expect it. You don't walk into a film called Titanic without expecting the damn boat to sink.

However, the sad thing about both of these examples, is that despite all the benefits that came from telling the audience these things ahead of time, I think the main reason the creators didn't make them plot twists was because they couldn't have. Treasure Island is the single most influential piece of pirate media out there, and you'd have to have been living under a rock for over a century to not know the Titanic sank. So, the writers had to work around the fact that these important turning points in the narratives were common knowledge, and they wound creating incredible stories as a consequence.

I want to see more of this style of writing in stories where the writers aren't forced to do it. We've clearly seen that you can tell some really damn good stories by giving information to the audience before the characters learn it, and I just wish more works would do that instead of trying to surprise people with shocking twists.

titanic (1997) dir. james cameron

TITANIC | 1997 ↳ Directed by James Cameron

SMOKING IN PERIOD DRAMA

Titanic (1997) Boardwalk Empire (2010-2014) Peaky Blinders (2013-2022) The Great Gatsby (2013) The Pursuit of Love (2021) Atonement (2007) Inglorious Basterds (2009) The Godfather Part II (1972) Mad Men (2007-2015) Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood (2019)

KATE WINSLET and LEONARDO DICAPRIO as Rose DeWitt Bukater and Jack Dawson in TITANIC (1997) dir. James Cameron.

Had fun with Shang Tsung ships on Tumblr...again...although iceberg is not really a ship

Listen, Rose. You're gonna get out of here, you're gonna go on and you're gonna make lots of babies, and you're gonna watch them grow. You're gonna die an old... an old lady warm in her bed, not here, not this night. Not like this, do you understand me? Winning that ticket, Rose, was the best thing that ever happened to me... it brought me to you. And I'm thankful for that, Rose. I'm thankful. You must do me this honor. Promise me you'll survive. That you won't give up, no matter what happens, no matter how hopeless. Promise me now, Rose, and never let go of that promise. TITANIC (1997) Dir. James Cameron