Filmmaker James Cameron did everything he could to make up for the tragedy of the sinking of the RMS Titanicincluding multiple visits to the remains of the underwater wreck, but in the new documentary Titanic: 25 Years Later with James Cameron, the director revealed something he may have misunderstood. In the special, per Weekly entertainmentCameron used replica models, pyrotechnics, and computer simulations to determine that two major components of the ship’s sinking were both possible, even though neither of these things could have happened, leading him to admit that, despite not knowing which of these elements is more likely , this contradiction means he got the movie “half right”.

In the movie, the TitanicThe bow of the ship sank underwater after colliding with an iceberg, but when the angle of the sinking became so severe, the weight of the ship caused the aft half to break and splash horizontally into the ocean. With the two halves of the ship still attached, the sinking of the bow pulled the stern down so that it sank vertically.

“The film Titanic shows what we believe was an accurate representation of the ship’s final hours. We showed it sank bow-first, with the stern lifted high into the air, before the sheer weight broke the ship in half,” Cameron shares in the special. got that right.”

He continued, “I can’t say that this actually happened, but I’d like to consider it a possibility because then I don’t have to remake the freaking movie!” and confessed that it was “as accurate as I could make it at the time”.

The special determined that the stern could have fallen back into the water and the stern could have sunk vertically, but not both.

“We found out that you can sink the stern vertically and you can drop the stern back with a big splash, but you can’t have both,” Cameron noted. “So the movie got it wrong on one point or another — I tend to think it’s wrong on the ‘stern dropback’ because of what we’re seeing at the bow of the wreck.”

He added, “I think we can rule out the possibility of a vertical sinking of the stern, and I think we can rule out the possibility of it falling back as well as going vertical. We were about right in the movie.”

While details like this, or the debate over whether Rose could have made room for Jack to float on a piece of rubble and survive, are often approached from a movie mindset, Cameron clarified that the commitment to accuracy is more about the 1500 lives to honor those lost in the tragedy.

“You always have to grab yourself a little by the scruff of the neck and remind yourself that a real tragedy has happened,” said the director. “It happened to real people and it still resonates through time in this very powerful way.”

National Geographic’s Titanic: 25 Years Later with James Cameron now streaming on Hulu.

What do you think of the filmmaker’s comments? Let us know in the comments!