‘Mythbusters’ dumps cold water on James Cameron’s ‘Titanic’

James Cameron was obsessive in the amount of detail he put into his mega-blockbuster, “Titanic.” But leave it to the “Mythbusters” guys to find one major flaw in the film.

On Sunday’s episode, the “Mythbusters” team of Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage set out to see if the tragic hypothermia death of Jack (Leonardo DiCaprio) at the end of the film could have been avoided. According to the team, Jack didn’t have to die.

In the final moments of the film, Jack and Rose (Kate Winslet) are floating in the icy waters of the North Atlantic with only a board to keep them afloat. However, the board isn’t buoyant enough to support both of them, so Jack selflessly allows Rose to stay on the board and out of the water, while he freezes to death.

But when the “Mythbusters” guys tried it themselves, getting into the water of San Francisco Bay with a board the same size as the one Rose used, they found that they could both remain mostly out of the water, so long as they used the life preserver Rose was wearing to give the board extra buoyancy. They were then able to remain mostly out of the water for over an hour, long enough to be rescued and live to love another day.

However, when presented with this evidence, Cameron had just one thing to say. “I think you guys are missing the point,” he said. “The script says Jack died. He has to die.”

Earlier this year, it was revealed that astrophyisicist Neil deGrasse Tyson had ribbed Cameron about the inaccuracy of the star configuration in the night sky in the film. So when Cameron ravamped the movie for its 3D re-release in 2012, he took the time to redo the stars.

But when it comes to the size of the board that saved Rose’s life, but not Jack’s, Cameron would not make an allowance.

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Join Patrick Kevin Day on Google+ or Twitter. Email: patrick.day@latimes.com

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