Titanic sank to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean after crashing into an iceberg in April 1912. Even after 111 years of the incident, the Titanic still makes headlines and how! Ocean Gate’s Titan, a submersible vessel, imploded with 5 passengers on board while on its way to checking out the actual remains of the Titanic. The news was heavily covered by media from all over the world. So, what’s with this obsession with viewing the actual wreckage of the Titanic from over 111 years back?
Well, this sort of fascination for the Titanic wasn’t there before. It was just the unsinkable ship, which sank unfortunately. However, James Cameron’s ‘Titanic’ changed all of that. The film, which released in 1997, remained the highest grossing film in the history of Hollywood for over 12 years. The film’s massive success gave rise to people talking about the ill-fated ship even more. Up until the movie’s release, the Titanic was present in general knowledge books, but after the movie’s release, everyone wanted to know more and more about the infamous ship. From books to shows to documentaries – everything started spawning all over the world around Titanic.
The film made the incidents depicted onscreen feel so real that people felt their own selves standing atop the ship in its maiden journey across the Atlantic Ocean. It’s interesting that people, even to date, believe that Jack Dawson (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Rose DeWitt Bukater (Kate Winslet) were actually real-life people. Sadly, to burst the bubble, they weren’t. The characters were fictitious and created by none other than James Cameron. While the backdrop of the Titanic sinking in the ocean was real, the romantic story in the forefront was a fictitious one, which James Cameron created in order for the audience to build that emotional connect to the ship and its inevitable fate.
Also, the climax of the movie furthered the popularity of the film. The infamous scene of Rose and Jack in the sea clinging onto a single piece of floating wooden door. While Jack succumbs to the cold as he isn’t able to get on top of the floating wooden door, Rose lodges herself atop that door, and eventually manages to save herself. Cinephiles from all over the world keep asking even to date as to why the two couldn’t take turns on the wooden door, or why couldn’t Jack also fit on the door as it had apparently enough space to take two people. These questions were like ‘Baahubali ko Katappa ne kyun maara’ from ‘Baahubali: The Beginning’, which kept on making audience’s curiosity grow manifolds till the time ‘Baahubali: The Conclusion’ released a couple of years later.
This sudden rise in popularity in pop culture made Titanic feel even more real, and got more and more people to come in and want to check out the wreckage with their own eyes. Billionaires from across the globe started searching for options to go on this voyage, and companies like Ocean Gate spawned and helped such people with immense monetary capabilities fulfil their wishes.
James Cameron himself has been on this under ocean exploration to the Titanic wreckage a few times. He even holds the world record for the same.
While what happened on the Titan is unfortunate and tragic, it wouldn’t stop people from going on such expeditions to the Titanic wreckage. On the contrary, it would only increase its popularity, and other billionaires would want to go now, especially the ones who were probably not aware of such companies like Ocean Gate, which take people to see the wreckage.
Just as James Cameron’s ‘Titanic’ helped increase the popularity of the sunken ship, this unfortunate death of 5 people onboard the Titan will only grow the popularity of the under-ocean explorations.
