Jack and Rose weren’t on a door in Titanic and it would have sunk

Ever since audiences became obsessed with James Cameron’s film “Titanic” and the epic love story of Jack and Rose (played by Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet), there’s been one major controversy: Could Jack Dawson have survived?

The thinking goes like this: Surely, if Rose just moved over a little, Jack could have fit on that door, too. Then they both could have survived the disaster and lived happily ever after.

As it turns out, pretty much everything we know about that ending is wrong.

First off, that wasn’t a door Rose was using to stay out of the water

Though many have called it a “door” that Rose is floating on, there’s a lot of evidence that’s not the case. In the script, the scene in question is written like this (emphasis ours):

“Jack sees what she is pointing to, and they make for it together. It is a piece of wooden debris, intricately carved. He pushes her up and she slithers onto it belly down.

But when Jack tries to get up onto the thing, it tilts and submerges, almost dumping Rose off. It is clearly only big enough to support her. He clings to it, close to her, keeping his upper body out of the water as best he can.

Their breath floats around them in a cloud as they pant from exertion. A MAN swims toward them, homing in on the piece of debris. Jack warns him back.”

In fact, Jack’s very next line after this action is directed at the man. In the script, Jack says, “It’s just enough for this lady … you’ll push it under.”

The man wants to try anyway, and Jack tells him he’ll die even quicker if he comes any closer.

Irish news outlet the Daily Edge dug even deeper and found even better evidence that it isn’t a door. It turns out that if you go to the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic in Halifax, Nova Scotia, you can view the largest fragment of debris recovered from the real Titanic.

The piece is a very familiar-looking bit of intricately carved wood taken from just over the door to the first-class lounge on the ship. In other words, it wasn’t a door at all — it was wood paneling above the door.

BuzzFeed referred to it as “a doorframe,” but it’s more specifically the top of the doorframe.

When asked if it had anything to do with the making of James Cameron’s film, the Maritime Museum of Nova Scotia says on its FAQ page, “No, not directly,” but later added that “a replica of a large piece of carved oak paneling” was built for the film based on artifacts from its collection.

“It was used in the climactic death scene in the film where the character Rose clings to floating wreckage,” it added.

OK, fine, it wasn’t a door — but couldn’t they have shared the debris together?

Physics Central reported in 2012 another good reason why Jack wouldn’t have survived if he climbed onto the piece of wood paneling: buoyancy.

Combining the forces of math and historical knowledge about the three types of wood commonly used to build fixtures on the real Titanic (teak, pine, and oak), Physics Central calculated the possibility of survival.

To survive, the estimated weight of both Jack and Rose plus the intricately carved wood piece they floated on would need to be sufficiently buoyant.

Teak would have been far too heavy, according to Physics Central, and would nearly have sunk under its own weight — let alone adding Rose or both Rose and Jack on top of it.

Pine might have allowed the two to both survive long enough for rescue. However, due to the way the panel flipped when Jack tried to grab it after Rose was clinging on, the wood was most likely oak.

Unfortunately, the size of the oak debris coupled with the weight of a sodden and hypothermic Rose on top could work, but not if you added Jack’s additional weight to it. Since the Maritime Museum confirmed that the original wood paneling was indeed oak, this solution makes the most sense.

Sorry, Jack and Rose shippers, but your ship is officially sunk.