Most Titanic Movie Viewers Didn’t Notice These Mistakes

Most Titanic Movie Viewers Didn’t Notice These Mistakes

Titanic was a difficult film to make for everyone involved, especially with all of the set problems, such as people falling ill and Kate Winslet nearly drowning. Despite the difficulties, filmmaker James Cameron did an excellent job. That is, unless you consider the errors that found their way into the film. These faults, which ranged from historical inaccuracies and continuity errors to visible cameramen, went overlooked by spectators at first, but we can no longer ignore them.

In reality, Jack and Rose would never have met.

Because this historical fact effectively defeats the movie’s entire thesis, we can understand why it was finally omitted for the benefit of the plot. In truth, Jack and Rose would have never met because she was a first-class traveler and he was a third-class passenger.

That distinction wasn’t only about class back then; it was also about preventing illness spread from lower-class guests (yikes, we know). That means Jack would be unable to reach the first-class deck and save Rose.

Where did he go ice fishing?

Jack tells Rose a narrative in order to prevent her from jumping into the ocean and taking her own life. In that narrative, he claims he went ice fishing in Lake Wissota, a lake near Chippewa Falls, to warn her of how cold the water would be.

Now, this is an intriguing story, primarily because it makes no sense. The Chippewa River was dammed in 1918, resulting in Lake Wissota, which was built six years after the Titanic sank. So, did Jack arrive from the future, or was he simply fabricating a story to keep Rose from jumping?

glass or no glass?

There are a number of faults like this in Titanic (which we shall cover later), but this is one of the most apparent. When Rose breaks a window in the lower decks with an axe, she makes sure to remove all of the glass from the frame so it doesn’t cut her when she walks through.

So far, everything makes sense, right? However, a few seconds later, we see that some of the glass had found its way back onto the window she broke. This minor blunder drew a lot of attention from onlookers.

A futuristic anthem

The participants in the church are singing the most beautiful hymn – a Navy Hymn called Eternal Father – during a scene that takes place on Sunday morning. “Save those who risk the eagle’s wing, And preserve them by thy watchful care; From every peril in the skies,” says the hymn they’re singing.

Despite the fact that the Wright brothers flew their first plane before the Titanic accident, this verse was not written until 1937. In fact, the first American aviation unit was not deployed until 1913, a year after the Titanic sank.

Houdini’s ruse

Although Houdini was able to successfully unlock himself underwater, this does not guarantee that anyone else can. In the chilly ocean water, Jack and Rose had to unlock a metal gate underwater. What were the chances of that? Not in the least.

The time it would have taken to unlock a gate with a key while fumbling in icy water would have been enough to render your fingers useless. In reality, neither of them could have made this work.

Rose wore a dress that was far too light.

Kate Winslet not only nearly drowned while filming Titanic, but she also developed hypothermia, which we can understand. While the rest of the ensemble wore a suit to protect them from the freezing waters, James Cameron insisted on Winslet not wearing one because it would have been too cumbersome and impractical.

Rose’s paper-thin dress wouldn’t have kept her warm enough, and she probably wouldn’t have been able to get on that door in the first place.

Misadventures in the boiler room

The sequence in which Jack and Rose find themselves in the boiler room and share a passionate kiss is one of the most romantic scenes in the film (or any film, for that matter). In principle, that sounds nice, but in practice, it would have been quite different.

Their brief foray into the boiler room would have left them both covered in soot, a black powder created by the boilers’ combustion. It’s possible that this made their romantic moment less enticing.

The vehicles were meant to be secured.

In a classic love scene, Jack and Rose sneak into one of the Titanic’s passenger cars and have their way with one other, judging by the amount of steam in the car. But how were the two going to get one of the cars open?

In reality, there were cars on board the ship, but they were all locked. They didn’t want some random folks to get into their cars and contaminate them, for some reason. Unless car hijacking was one of Jack’s specialties, they’d have to get a room, as the saying goes.

Check out her lipstick.

As we all know, the film is set in 1912, the year of the Titanic accident. Rose’s rich status meant she wouldn’t have worn the iconic red lipstick worn by Kate Winslet in the film at the time. She probably wouldn’t have put on any makeup at all.

In England at the period, wearing cosmetics  was connected with suffragettes and lower-class females without a “proper” upbringing. Kate, on the other hand, looks really lovely in that lipstick.

Wires that are visible

Stuntmen have one of the most complicated and underappreciated tasks on set, as what they perform requires a great deal of bravery. Setting up the stunts necessitates being cautious not to damage the stuntman while also not revealing the stunt to the audience.

A man is dragged into a hole which has formed  on the deck of the Titanic in one scene. And you can plainly see cables tied to the actor tugging him under throughout that sequence, especially if you slow down and look frame by frame. Doesn’t it shatter the illusion a little?

Rose severed Jack’s hand.

Allowing someone to use an axe to release you from handcuffs would be insane, especially when that person closes their eyes before firing the shot. And if you look closely at Rose’s axe swing, you’ll notice she wasn’t supposed to make that shot. If it weren’t for the movie magic, she would hit Jack just where his wrist is, thus removing his hand. That would also liberate him from his restraints, but in a far more painful manner.

Artistic creations

When you watched this movie, we’re sure you were most concerned about what would happen to the iconic paintings on board by Picasso and Monet. They were lost in the wreckage after sinking with the ship.

These artworks may have been on display in real life by that time, but they were not on the ship. They were safe and sound in the hands of the artists who created them. Wouldn’t it have been a pity if Monet’s Waterlilies had been lost?

It’s a long time, 37 seconds.

Rose is persuaded by Jack to get off the ledge in one of the film’s earlier moments – just as she slips and has just Jack  grab onto her hand while dangling above the sea. Holding someone up for a whole 37 seconds isn’t simple, thus Rose’s chances were slim.

She wasn’t likely doing any arduous labour because she was a wealthy woman in the 1910s, her outfit would have made it more difficult, and she was dangling – which would have made holding her for that long nearly impossible. But what would the film be about if she died at that point?

The kid with the mysterious smile

Sometimes an extra may completely derail a scene. It happened in far too many films to list, including Titanic. Third-class passengers attempt to escape to the upper deck as the ship slowly sinks and the decks fill with water. However, as the crew attempts to maintain them below, they are greeted by shut gates. Everyone is terrified, with the exception of one child who is actually… smiling? Even if he wasn’t aware of what was going on, the sight of all these adults yelling and crying would be enough to upset any child.

They didn’t consider it ‘unsinkable.’

The fact that the Titanic is so large and powerful that it is unsinkable is made a big deal in the film. The captain believed it, the crew believed it, and the passengers believed it as well. In reality, however, it wasn’t quite like that. Of course, the ship was remarkable, but it was not thought to be “unsinkable,” partly because it would be ludicrous. Why should a ship be unsinkable simply because it is enormous and attractive? This legend arose after the accident and persisted long enough to be depicted in the film.

An extra traveller

There are other instances in the film where crew members are visible in the frames, but this is the most egregious oversight. We travel through the ship as Jack is received in first class, seemingly viewing everything through Jack’s eyes as we continue onward. However, as we approach the glass doors, it becomes clear that we are not in Jack’s shoes at all. It’s a cameraman with a large camera who can be seen in the mirror and who was never edited out.

That Sigmund Freud reference

Rose is chatting to the Titanic’s managing director, Bruce Ismay, at one point in the film, when she brilliantly delivers an insult to his manhood. She suggests that he would be interested in Sigmund Freud’s study on men’s obsession with size, implying that building such a massive ship is plainly meant to compensate for one’s lack of stature. This is a little nasty (but still humorous), but the timing is incorrect. These concepts had been formulated by Sigmund Freud by that time, although they were only published in 1919. Was she a close friend of Sigmund Freud’s?

Rose’s beauty mark shifts from one side to the other.

Because the ship had to look to be moving in the right direction, there were numerous difficulties in filming Titanic and getting it right. Many of the shots had to be reversed to look right, which created its own set of issues. One of them is Rose’s beauty mark, which shifts from one side to the other. Another blunder occurred as a result of spotting a left-handed crank camera. They didn’t create those in 1912 since the majority of photographers were right-handed and it made more sense to cater to them.

Constellations that are not accurate

Neil DeGrasse Tyson, a well-known astrophysicist, identified this plot hole. Following his viewing of the film, he noted that the constellations depicted in the film are not compatible with what the passengers on the Titanic would have seen in real life, given their vantage point. He then sent Cameron the proper version before releasing the 3D version of the film to repair the error — though we doubt many people were aware of it in the first place.

Several CGI blunders

Despite his desire to incorporate as many physical effects as possible, Cameron had to resort to CGI for several of the film’s most complicated scenes. This resulted in a slew of issues, including unrealistic shadows, vanishing things that appear and disappear from the ship’s deck, and pipes that change shape throughout the film. This is the risk of employing computer-generated imagery in a picture (particularly in the 1990s), but it’s nonetheless disappointing that those weren’t left on the editing room floor.

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A Statue of Liberty that is green in colour.

We see Rose looking up at the majestic Statue of Liberty, which looks to be green with a golden flame, when she eventually arrives in New York after surviving the disaster. Today, this makes logical sense, but back in 1912, it didn’t. The statue wasn’t actually green back then, but it was closer to its original brown tint. It took almost 35 years for the statue’s hue to change to what it is now. The golden flame, which was added in 1986 to commemorate the statue’s 100th anniversary, was likewise a late addition; the original flame was lit from within.

One savage punch

Back in the 1990s, it was a great challenge to make fighting and action sequences look realistic, so we grimace now when we see old movies and see how badly they did it. There’s a scene in Titanic where Rose clocks a crewman who’s attempting to pull her to safety. In her defence, she was attempting to inform him that someone was trapped, but he just replied, “It’s okay.” “It’s fine,” he says, dragging her away. We see blood on his hands (but not on his face) as she strikes him, and when he “wipes” his face with his bloodied hand, the blood rubs off on his face, making him appear to be bleeding. It was a good attempt, but it wasn’t particularly successful.

Jack is eager to take a ride on the rollercoaster.

Even though he had just won his tickets in a poker game, Jack had huge plans for his return to America. He talks longingly about what he expects to do once they arrive on board the ship. He claims he wants to ride the roller coaster at the Santa Monica Pier because, after all, who wouldn’t? Except that this attraction did not exist in 1912. After carousel builder Charles I.D. Looff purchased the site for an amusement pier, he built the Blue Streak Racer roller coaster.

Not so in the past.

This historical mistake dealt a disservice to the real-life Officer William Murdoch, the RMS Titanic’s first officer. In the film, he is depicted shooting multiple passengers while under duress before eventually killing himself. There is no historical evidence that he performed either of these acts, but it was a serious defamation of his reputation. After discovering his error, James Cameron apologised publicly to Rupert Murdoch’s family in the DVD commentary.

The capstan that had become brittle

For a film of this scale, Cameron used a lot of practical effects, and he made sure that many of the closeup shots will hold up well in the future as opposed to CGI. However, if you look closely, you’ll discover that it produced some very visible problems. Props were employed to replicate a capstan, which is a revolving cylinder used to wind ropes. When a passenger falls to the bottom of the deck, he is hit by one of these gigantic monsters. It was obviously impossible to make it out of metal, therefore it was fashioned of foam. However, this meant that once the wrinkle was  hit, we could see it.

The sun is rising.

To James Cameron’s credit, he did his utmost to make sure the ship’s voyage was as realistic as possible. However, because we know the Titanic’s true course, we can discern when he was mistaken. Jack and Rose are spitting over the deck during sundown, right before supper, in the famous deck-spitting scene. Because they’re on the ship’s port side, it’s sailing north-west, despite the fact that it’s actually travelling south-west. We understand that it’s a minor annoyance, but it’s still a mistake.

Shattered windows

When the Captain is on the bridge and watches the water smashing through the glass as it gives in, it is one of the most emotional scenes in the movie. Cameron reshot the sequence from multiple different angles to create a dramatic effect since he thought it was a striking shot. The water, on the other hand, came in at a different angle each time it was taken. While the windows break in a specific order in one view – one, two, three, four – the windows break in a different order in the following angle – one, two, four, three.