Titanic has an alternate ending that’s hilariously bad

Titanic has one of the most magical movie endings ever put to screen – but James Cameron dodged a bullet by leaving his alternate ending on the cutting room floor.

The 1997 Oscar-winning epic follows the unlikely love story of Rose (Kate Winslet) and Jack Dawson (Leonardo DiCaprio); he’s the pauper to her princess, destined to meet on the maiden voyage of the RMS Titanic, the ship that couldn’t be sunk – until it did.

Their romance is set against the backdrop of the boat’s fateful journey across the Atlantic Ocean, while in the present day, Brock Lovett (Bill Paxton) marshalls extraordinary technology and deep-sea experts to find the ultimate treasure: the ‘Heart of the Sea’, a priceless necklace thought to be lost in the wreckage.

The inevitable tragedy of the story paves the way for a heartrending, pitch-perfect ending – and we should all be very glad Cameron didn’t go with the alternate option.

Titanic has a hilarious alternate ending

Check out the alternate ending to Titanic below:

In the original ending, Rose (Gloria Stuart) approaches the stern of the Keldysh and steps onto the railing, before revealing the Heart of the Sea in her hand. Instead of giving it to Brock, she throws it into the ocean, and the necklace drifts down to the Titanic. She returns to bed, where she dies and drifts away to her own heaven: back on the ship, surrounded by its smiling staff and guests, and importantly, Jack is there waiting for her.

The alternate ending is quite different: as she stands on the railing, her daughter and Brock run down onto the stern, believing she’s about to kill herself. She steps down, but tells them not to come any closer, before showing them the necklace. “I’ll drop it,” she threatens.

As other crew members join them, Brock says: “Look, Rose. I don’t know what to say to a woman who tries to jump off the Titanic when it’s not sinking and then jumps back on when it is… we’re not dealing with logic here, I know that – but please, think about this for a second.”

20th Century Studios

“Oh, I’ve thought about this for years, and I’ve come all the way here to put it back where it belongs,” she says. He begs for her to let him hold it just once, and she obliges. “You look for treasure in the wrong place, Mr. Lovett. Only life is priceless, and making each day count,” Rose tells him, before flinging it into the ocean. “That really sucks, lady,” one of the men screams, but Brock starts to laugh, his worldview clearly changed by love.

Except, it’s bloody stupid, and others agree. “The alternate ending to Titanic is hilarious. This would have absolutely ruined the film for me,” one user tweeted. “The only way this could’ve been worse is if there was a shot of the jewellery reaching the bottom of the ocean and landing in the hand of a skeleton wearing Jack’s clothes lmao,” another joked.

“It’s mind-blowing to think that this didn’t just get written into a script but actually staged and FILMED. How anyone in the crew shot this without cracking up is beyond belief,” a third commented.

Even Bill Paxton wasn’t a fan of the alternate ending, telling Yahoo: “I always saw the wraparound story that I was involved with, with Suzy Amis and Gloria Stuart, we were like the gantry on the Saturn V rocket [in Apollo 13].

“We’re there to hold the rocket up. But once the rocket takes off, the gantry is forgotten and falls away. Coming back to us was a way to wrap it up and kind of tie up the old Rose’s story and all that. But you didn’t really need anything from us. Our job was done by then. So it became very evident in the cutting. If you’re smart and you take the ego and the narcissism out of it, you’ll listen to the film. The film will tell you what it needs and what it does not need. And the baby needs tough love.”

Titanic is available to stream on Netflix now.