Goofs
Crew or equipment visible
The skids of the camera helicopter are reflected in the window of the helicopter taking Rose and her granddaughter out to the research ship.Share this
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Anachronisms (23) |
Audio/visual unsynchronised (10) |
Boom mic visible (1) |
Character error (3) |
Continuity (65) |
Crew or equipment visible (11) |
Errors in geography (5) |
Factual errors (33) |
Incorrectly regarded as goofs (21) |
Plot holes (1) |
Revealing mistakes (30) |
Spoilers (7)
Anachronisms
[acknowledged by the James Cameron] Jack claims to have gone ice fishing on Lake Wissota, near Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin. Lake Wissota is a man-made reservoir which wasn't created until 1917.
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The pipe frames supporting the third class berths have set-screw speed rail fittings, not developed until 1946.
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A close-up of Captain Smith reveals that he is wearing modern contact lenses.
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The button on the left side of Jack's borrowed jacket is a "Kingsdrew" button, first made in 1922.
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The gauges in the engine room are fitted with sweated tubing fittings, a plumbing technique not available when the ship was constructed. The fittings should have been threaded brass.
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The gun Cal uses is in fact a model 1911A1, a modified version of the 1911 that didn't appear until 1926. The main distinguishing feature is its curved mainspring housing (bottom part of the grip), which on the 1911 is straight. Even if it were the standard 1911, that model had only been used by the military for a few months, and was not yet available in the nickel plating shown; the civilian version had only been available for about a month.
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The world map on the wall of the radio room shows countries with present-day borders.
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When Rose is arriving in New York, she looks at the Statue of Liberty, which is the same color as now (green). But if you visit the Statue of Liberty, you'll find a plate telling you that the original color was brown, and it took over 35 years for it to change color. The Statue of Liberty was placed there in 1886, so in 1912 it should have still been partly brown. Also, the flame was replaced in 1986 (for its 100th anniversary) with a gold flame. The film shows the Statue holding a torch with a gold flame, not the original.
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Filtered cigarettes did not come out until the mid-'40s.
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Rose has modern acrylic nails as she writes the note to Cal that accompanies the drawing.
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While the officers are searching the hold for Jack and Rose, they use a flashlight with pure white light 7000k, not the yellowish light 2500k from a normal flashlight. Such lights were not available at that time. The light was a PEAKBEAM short-arc light, the tale-tell circle in the middle of the beam for the lamp-holder shows this.
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When Jack is handcuffed to the steel pipes in the Master-at-Arms' office, the pipe fittings are of welded steel construction. Electric arc welding was not used until the late 1920's. Pipes would have been flanged and threaded.
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The Afghan hound depicted during the movie was a beautiful specimen of today but quite different from one from the 1912 era - these dogs were very sparsely coated and much coarser in build - still uniquely beautiful but quite a contrast to today's Afghans.
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When Jack and Fabrizio are running to board the Titanic, Jack has a rucksack, standard issue Swedish Army gear, circa 1939.
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The underwater shots of the propellers are incorrect. The famous photo of the ship in dry dock and the men standing under the propellers clearly shows that the propellers were bolted together which giant nuts as was the practice at that time. The underwater shots of the propellers show smooth metal (no bolt heads/nuts) suggesting welding, which didn't get mastered until WWII.
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Rose mentions Sigmund Freud's ideas on the male preoccupation with size to Bruce. Freud did not publish the work relating to this until 1920 in "The Pleasure Principle." Also, up until 1919, Freud relied solely on data from females.
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According to historians, nobody on the ship referred to Margaret Brown as "Molly", her nickname at the time was actually "Maggie".
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In the scene when Jack is shown in the Master-at-Arms' office from the outside of the ship through a porthole, the hull appears to be of a smooth, modern welded construction. In fact, the Titanic's hull was constructed of overlapping plates held in place with round headed rivets.
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When Jack and Rose are at the lifeboat and Cal says, "Get on the boat rose", you can see 2 red TV tower lights flashing in the distant background over the ship's cabin.
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When Rose and her mother are at tea on the last Sunday of the voyage, Mrs. DeWitt-Bukater can be heard complaining to the other ladies about Rose's selection for bridesmaid's dresses and the color. She can be heard to reference the "daughter of the Duchess of Marlborough". In 1912, the Duchess of Marlborough was American débutante Consuelo Vanderbilt Marlborough who was the first wife to the 9th Duke of Marlborough whom she married in November of 1895. While the Duke and Duchess separated in 1906, they were not formally divorced until 1921. In 1912, Consuelo Vanderbilt Marlborough was still the Duchess of Marlborough of record. As such, she and the Duke had two sons but no daughters and neither of their sons was of marriageable age in 1912 and the eldest son, John Spencer-Churchill, the Tenth Duke of Marlborough did not inherit the dukedom until 1934.
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When Jack and Rose are talking about going to the Santa Monica Pier, Jack says that they will "ride on the roller coaster until we throw up" but the Roller Coaster was not added to the pier until 1916.
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When the 1st class passengers are attending a church service, they are singing 'Eternal Father, Strong to Save' which was a hymn at the time. However, they are heard singing the US Episcopal Church version which was not created until 1940.
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Rose pays Mr. Dawson with a Roosevelt dime, for the picture drawing of herself. During the time-frame of the movie, the Mecury dime was in circulation.
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Audio/visual unsynchronised
When Rose and Jack are on the ship as it is going down vertically, Jack says "Hold on!" about a second before his lips move.
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While on deck, Jack asks, "Do you love the guy or not?" The shot changes to show Rose's reaction. Jack's jaw can be seen moving, as if he's asking the same question again, but he's not heard.
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When they find their rooms in steerage and Jack introduces himself to the Swedish men, Fab takes the top bunk. Jack turns to Fab and says "Who says you get top bunk, huh?" but his mouth never moves then or later to actually say it.
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When Jack throws the cigarette in the water, it disappears before it reaches to the end of the screen.
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As the ship is sinking, the string players walk away, but one remains. As he begins to play, two others return. One is a double bass, but the sound of a double bass is not heard within the piece.
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After the Titanic sinks, a lifeboat returns to look for survivors. The officer in the boat is shouting and his voice is echoing, for it to echo it would have to hit a surface and reflect back but as it is the middle of the Atlantic and there is nothing to echo back from.
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Second Officer Lightoller shouts, "Hold on to her! Pull her in!" when a woman ready to board a lifeboat is nearly pushed overboard, yet his mouth does not move.
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After the collision with the iceberg, the Captain orders all engines to be stopped. However, the telegraph bells are only heard once, meaning that the other engine would still be in full reverse, which it clearly isn't.
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In the church service, the pianist can be seen hitting the keys, but not moving his hands to change chords or hit any other notes.
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When escaping from steerage, when Tommy says if that's the way the rats are going, that's good enough for him, his mouth doesn't appear to b moving, at least not in synch with the dialogue he is heard saying.
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Boom mic visible
When old Rose is seated in her stateroom aboard the salvage ship with Lizzy her granddaughter and he comes in to ask if her stateroom's all right and if there's anything she'd like. She replies, "Yes, I'd like to see my drawing," and behind her on the wall you can see the large banana shaped shadow of the boom dip down for her line and up again.
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Character error
When Lewis Bodine is talking about the moment the iceberg hit the Titanic he states that it "punched holes like Morse code...below the water line" in the hull; however, this is not the case. There were many possible factors in the sinking but the closest to Bodine's statement is that when the iceberg hit, it 'popped' the rivets, causing the hull to open and let the water in.
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During the last scene at the Grand Staircase, after Jack turns around and smiles at Rose, he keeps looking at the camera after it turns to reveal Rose.
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At the beginning of the movie, when Jack is playing poker with Fabrizzio and 2 others, Fabrizzio turns over his hand and says he has nothing ("niente"). However, about 45 seconds earlier, his cards can be seen (when he says "Jack, you are pazzo. You bet everything we have"). He has two Sixes in his hand, which would give him a Pair.
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Continuity
When Captain Smith orders, "Take her to sea, Mr. Murdoch - let's stretch her legs," they are standing to the right of the wheelhouse looking forward with the sun coming from their left. When Murdoch walks into the wheelhouse to carry out the order, the sun is behind him.
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During the scene of the ship rising vertical immediately after it has split apart, there is a shot of the stern being pulled in by the bow, then there is a close-up shot of the deck at a 45 degree angle. It appears to not be moving (however, passengers are still sliding off), and there is no water on the hull visible.
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Jack takes Rose and Molly's arms to go into dinner. They start walking, but in the next shot they are still standing apart.
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The length of Rose's fingernails throughout the movie.
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When the dinner party is breaking up, Cal throws the matches at Jack. Cal then passes Jack's shoulder twice as he's throwing the matches.
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Young Rose's shoes are clearly off in one wide shot as she stands on the railing of the ship. As they cut to her before she turns around, when you can see her entire body, you can clearly see in two shots her toes outlined by black nylons clutching the rail, and NOT her heels as seen previously in other shots before and afterward when she slips on her gown going back over the rail to safety.
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When Jack and Fabrizio first take to the bow of the ship, while dolphins are swimming along with it, they show them at the helm with the ship flying along but then on the close up of Jack looking down, his hair is stiff and unmoved, not a breath of wind, which would be impossible on a ship flying onward at sea in the afternoon.
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When Rose is on deck, with Jack, looking at his sketchings, the hair around her face alternates between perfect ringlets and wind-blown straight.
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The angle that the surface of the rising water has to the objects around should be nearly the same from scene to scene. Frequently one sees the ship already tipping at a high angle on the outside and in the cabins the surface of the water is still parallel to the ceiling. That could not happen while the ship remained rigid.
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Jack's hair when he is dancing with Rose below decks.
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As Rose and Cal begin their breakfast together on the promenade deck, Rose picks up her cup of coffee, then picks it up again when we see her from behind.
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After Jack and Rose take a shortcut through the engine room to escape Cal's manservant, there is no soot on Rose's pale blue gown.
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The size and shape of the clay pot Rose is making.
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The last watertight door that is shown is at first pale, then suddenly it gets dark, and it goes pale again when it closes.
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In the scene with Jack and Rose having sex in the car, the pass-through window between the seats through which Rose pulls Jack is open when he goes through it, and then in the next shot is closed without ever seeing him close it.
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The safe that was opened on deck was much bigger than the one shown being used eighty years earlier.
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When Jack is held prisoner in the Master-at-Arms' office you can see from time to time in the background a two-berth room. The top berth is neatly kept but later on even though Jack is alone and handcuffed and Rose in the two occasions she comes into that office never enters that room you can see that there is a pillow lying across the bed's border.
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A small sign "crew only," helps Rose to find her way to free Jack from the handcuffs. It is located on the archway of the corridor, but it was not there when Jack and Rose had come at the same spot (the elevator's hall at E deck) a few hours before fleeing from Lovejoy.
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When the smokestack is falling, the back of it comes out of the water. In the scene directly after, it is still coming out of the water.
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When the Titanic is in port, the sun appears to come from several different angles. Compare the following: The shadow of the crewman loading the car, the shadows of people walking up the gangplank, the shadow of the sun's rays in the steam, the shadows that Rose and family cast on the gangplank, and the sunlight on the yellow building when they first enter Titanic.
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When storming out of his room claiming to be robbed, parts of Cal's bangs are hanging in front of his face but when he turns around to see the steward his hair is tucked back smoothly.
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At the dinner scene and the party scene below decks that follows, Rose's gloves disappear, reappear, then disappear again.
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There is a small mole on Rose's face; when she boards the ship, it is shown on one side of her face (the film was flopped), and later in the movie it jumps to the other side.
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When they get Cal's safe on the deck of the Keldysh, a crewman starts to grind on the hinges. In the next scene, he is standing up, just preparing to kneel down and work on the safe.
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When Rose sets the axe between the bars as she takes off her coat, the axe blade rests against two metal bars to keep it from falling into the water. The next shot showing Rose from behind now shows the axe at a completely different angle with the blade positioned against only one metal bar.
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During Jack and Rose's trip on the deck to the bow right before the sinking, she is wearing flat shoes. In the water, laying on the furniture (as Jack hangs on) she is wearing high heels.
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After the "Let's stretch her legs" scene, we can see Chief Engineer Bell increasing steam pressure by turning the regulator counterclockwise. Later, during the collision with the iceberg, we can see some worker decreasing pressure by starting to turn the regulator clockwise, yet in next shot, he is turning the regulator counterclockwise, still decreasing the pressure. Several shots later, after change to reverse, Bell is increasing pressure by turning the regulator clockwise.
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Paper money wad that First Officer Murdoch throws at Cal.
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When Jack and Fabrizio are standing at the bow Jack is holding his arm under the rope that goes up toward the look-out. In the next cut the arm is over and in the next again it's under.
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When Jack breaks down the third-class gate and frees the steerage passengers from the stairwell, you can see Tommy Ryan take Rose by the arm to get her over the fallen bench. In the next shot, he takes her arm again in the same place.
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After Jack saves Rose from jumping from the stern of the ship, the make-up under Rose's left eye appears and disappears, then reappears, as does the dress she is holding in her left hand.
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On the scene back into Rose's cabin, after Lovejoy slips the diamond into Jack's pocket, Jack's left hand in his trouser pocket changes from having the thumb in/out of it between shots.
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When Rose and her granddaughter are at their home, their Pomeranian is brown. When Rose is being lifted out of the helicopter, and when she is in her suite unpacking, the Pomeranian is white.
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When Jack and Rose first meet at the back of the ship, Rose is clearly wearing jeweled, slip-on shoes and black stockings. However, when she is lying on the deck after being rescued by Jack, she is wearing red lace up boots instead.
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In the scene right after Rose and Jack are found lying on the deck, after Jack saves Rose from her attempted suicide, where Hockley, Lovejoy, and a few others have appeared to see what the commotion was about, Rose's earrings are undeniably green at every angle, so it could not have been a lighting effect. At dinner, and standing on the railing, they were black and silver, to match her necklace she previously wore.
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When Rose is in the lifeboat looking up at Jack the smokestack behind him is lit up, but in the next scene it isn't.
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When Jack and Rose are walking on the boat deck, the sunlight changes from being on the side to being behind them.
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When Cal and Rose are having breakfast Cal puts his teacup on the saucer but in the next scene he still has it in his hand.
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When Murdoch tells quartermaster Hitchen to turn hard a starboard he passes behind Moody to the telegraph. In the next scene he passes Moody again.
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When Jack helps Rose into the car right before they have sex, a rose flower is seen in a glass vase on the wall of the car, when she pulls Jack into the back of the car with her, the rose is gone.
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When the engineers get the order to reduce the steam to the engines the wheel he is turning is black but when the chief engineer pushes him out of the way and continues to turn the wheel it is gold.
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When Rose starts to climb the railing she is holding up part of her dress, but as she continues to climb the rail she isn't.
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While Rose and Jack are having sex in the car, you can see Rose's hand leaving a mark on the rear window. Immediately after that, the camera moves inside the car, and it is clearly seen that the mark of the hand in the window is not only in a lower part but also in a different shape.
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When Rose is in the life boat, it starts to lower. However, after Cal and Jack finish their little talk, the boat is actually higher than it was when they began.
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When Jack is handcuffed to the pipes, the water levels seen through the porthole are different in each shot from the outside and inside.
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When Tommy yells, "You can't keep us locked in here like animals, the ship's bloody sinking!" his right hand is grabbing on to the gate at head level. The next shot shows Tommy with his right hand down and his left hand grabbing the gate.
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After the drawing is completed and Rose has dressed, she is not wearing her engagement ring. Several scenes from then until the final sinking, show her left hand devoid of the ring. However, when she is underwater after the stern has sunk, a scene shows the violent suction of the water pulling that ring off her finger and flying away in the vortex.
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When Rose is standing on the back of the Titanic during her attempt to commit suicide her left hand changes from holding up her dress to just holding onto the railing.
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In the beginning of the movie when the elderly Rose is placing her photographs, she places them facing her bed. Later at the end of the movie, while she is asleep, it is clear the the photographs are arranged away from her bed.
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When Officer Moody takes the call from the lookouts warning about the iceberg ahead, the clock reads 11.40pm. Four minutes later when Captain Smith arrives on the bridge, the clock still reads 11.40pm, even though four minutes have passed.
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At the beginning of the film, when old Rose is looking at the drawing, she says that she only wore The Heart of the Ocean that one time ("it was dreadfully heavy") but she tried it on it earlier when Hockley first showed it to her.
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When Rose breaks the glass to get the fire ax, all of the glass falls out. In the next shot, she reaches in for the ax and most of the glass is still in the frame.
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When Rose climbs over the railing to kill herself by jumping off the back of the ship, she has the black lace piece to her dress in her hands, but in the next shot, it's not.
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After Ruth and the Countess get up to avoid Molly Brown, Ismay is talking to the Captain about ordering more speed, he folds the note in his hands twice.
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Old Rose's hands on the butterfly clip change position in between shots.
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Brock's position on the picture of the Heart of the Ocean necklace change position in between shots.
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When Jack asks Rose to dance, Rose's hands change position from in her lap to on the table in between shots.
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When Bobby tells Brock "Trust me, you want to take this call" Bobby's hand jumps from Brock's shoulder in between shots.
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When Lovejoy tells Jack "I believe this ship may sink" Lovejoy's hands on his gun change position in between shots.
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When Jack and Rose are spitting over the side before dinner they are on the port side of the ship and the sun is setting almost directly in front of them. The ship would have to be going northwest for this to happen instead of the southwest course it should be on.
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After Rose gets out of the car, Mr. Lovejoy is in another car opening the door for Ruth and she gets out. When Cal says "and far more luxurious", Ruth is seen exiting the car again.
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When Jack sees Rose for the first time on deck, the scar next to his right eye is now on his left - a sign that the image was flopped.
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After the iceberg collision, there is a scene where Thomas Andrews passes worried by the Countess with the ship's schematics in his hands. Immediately after this scene, the ship is shown. This supposedly is happening a few minutes after the collision, so the ship must have its head slightly down in the water. In that shot, the ship's front is recognizable and it can be seen that its tail is slightly down, not its head.
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In the beginning of the movie, when the old Rose is getting off the helicopter, she is wearing a specific pair of earrings. In the next few scenes, the earrings change. After the story unfolds, they're changed back to the original pair in the scenes where she appears, including the end.
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When Murdoch orders "full astern", he moves the engine order telegraph three times before he sets it on the desired speed. Three rings on the order telegraph indicates to the engine crew that an urgent speed change is needed, rather than the usual single ring. When the camera cuts to the engine room, only one ring is heard.
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Crew or equipment visible
When Jack approaches the door to the grand staircase for the first time, the camera is reflected in the glass.
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Reflected in the glass door opened for Jack as he enters the dining room.
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Reflected in a brass panel on the front of the Renault that Jack and Rose find in the cargo hold.
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Just after the collision, as Captain Smith walks to the starboard bridge-wing to look over the side and inspect the damage, the shadow of the camera is visible in the bottom left corner.
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While Jack is telling Rose about his past, the camera moves from a shot of the ship to a shot of them walking along the deck. You can see shadows of heaps of equipment and people moving along the ship (as the lights move).
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When Rose and Jack are on the first-class promenade, where she is thanking him, the shadow of the camera is visible on the wall.
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During 'Nearer My God To Thee', when we see Thomas Andrews standing at the fireplace, when he changes the time on the clock, a few glasses fall off the mantle "from the tilt". But, you can see (at least in the 2.35:1 widescreen verison), the string that is used to pull the second glass off the mantle against his back coat.
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At the very right in one of the shots during the scene where Jack and Rose are trapped behind the third class gates as the hallway is filling up with water.
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When Rose is stepping up onto the railing during the "I'm Flying" sequence, in the wide screen version of the film you can see to the very right that the railing is ending and there is a cable visible dangling over where the railing ends.
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During the end scene of the movie when the camera returns to the grand staircase to view all of the passengers aboard, the camera tilts up to the glass of the grand staircase. The water tank release is clearly visible, it outlines one of the main window panes in the top of the frame. This was used to release the water when the set was flooded.
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The hands sketching Rose are clearly too old to belong to Jack. (They actually belong to director James Cameron.)
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Errors in geography
A strip of desert is visible between the dock and the Titanic when docked at Southampton.
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The dolphins seen in the "I'm King of the World" segment (when Jack and Fabrizio are up on the bow of the ship) are Pacific white-sided dolphins. The Titanic was in the North Atlantic.
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When Rose "flies" from the ship's bow, the sunlight is clearly falling almost exactly straight across the ship from left to right. On the evening of April 14, the ship had in fact turned to almost a due west course, placing the actual setting sun almost straight ahead and slightly to the right.
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While walking on the deck the day after Jack rescues Rose, just before she shows him her ring, if you look over the rail of the ship you can see waves coming into shore.
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An overhead shot of the ship on its way to New York shows the shadows of the masts falling to the left, but the sun is shining from the left (=south) also.
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Factual errors
The Titanic's middle propeller was powered by a Parsons steam turbine, which ran off expelled steam from the two main reciprocating engines. This meant that the turbine could only be run when a full head of steam had been generated. It would not and could not be used for maneuvering in port. Hence, the middle propeller would have been stationary when starting away from the dock.
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The reciprocating engines were controlled from a platform between the two engines about midway between the floor and the top of the cylinders, not from the engine room floor. Even if the engines were controlled from the floor level the controls would have been at the opposite end of the engines since we are looking at the aft end of the engines, and the boiler rooms are forward of the reciprocating engine room. Also, it would have been quite impossible to see those engines from the vantage point we are given since the watertight bulkhead between the reciprocating engine room and turbine engine room would prevent us from being able to stand back far enough.
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In overhead shots of the forecastle deck, the skylight for the crew's galley can be seen located to starboard. This skylight was actually on the port side.
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There was no door between boiler room 6 and the cargo area (and no access to any but authorized crew). If there had been a door, it would have entered the third cargo area aft, not the one where the Renault was stored.
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Professional radio operators hold the key with the thumb and two fingers, rather than tapping on it as shown. Tapping would produce a bad "fist" (the Morse code equivalent of a harsh voice).
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Jack is supposedly held prisoner in the Master-at-Arms' office, which is depicted as having a porthole. On the Titanic, this room was an interior room and hence would have no portholes.
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The crew of lifeboat #14 didn't have flashlights to use when looking for survivors in the water. James Cameron knew this when making the film, but used the flashlights to provide lighting.
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First Officer Murdoch is shown lowering Collapsible C lifeboat (the one with Ismay in it). It was actually Chief Officer Wilde who lowered this boat.
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Captain Smith announces that he has ordered the last remaining unlit boilers lit. Actually only 24 of the 29 boilers were ever lit. The full-speed test (all boilers lit) was to have taken place on Monday, the 15th.
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The coat worn by Captain Smith had plain anchor buttons; the actual tunics had "White Star Line" buttons.
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In several scenes when the ship's officers are outdoors on the cold night of the sinking, the rank insignia has the executive curl (the semi-circle atop one or more stripes indicating the rank) going astern (the wrong way). This would result in great embarrassment for the officers involved.
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The Titanic is shown to be at Southampton docks in brilliant sunshine. Yet, photographs from the actual event seem to show the sky overcast.
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All of the double doors on D deck, the ones passengers pass through to the elevators and to the first class dining room, are incorrect. The real ones on the Titanic all had glass and the handles were further up in the middle, attached to rectangular metal plates.
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The stern section, when visible during the Titanic's launch, is missing a porthole in the white section near the railing.
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In the scene when the iceberg passes the promenade deck, passengers are looking at the iceberg. You can see in the back the rear davit is out. At this point the only davits out were the front davits.
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Shots of the Titanic steaming at night and just prior to hitting the iceberg show a great deal of lights on the foredeck and from the cabin windows on the front of the ship facing the foredeck. In reality, Atlantic liners would not have so much light showing forward of the bridge as the glare would interfere with navigation at night.
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When the ship hits the iceberg, water is seen entering the ship's garage on E deck. E deck was not immediately flooded, as it was two decks above the point of collision.
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When Rose boards Titanic, the entrance vestibule is shown with a pair of wooden doors. When James Cameron visited the wreck two years after filming ended, he discovered that the doors were in fact inaccurately portrayed in the film.
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Passengers were not allowed at the forecastle head, or bow. The sign that declared "Passengers Not Allowed Beyond This Point" was mounted on the leeward side of the forward breakwater (both port and starboard), and was missing in the film.
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When the ship hits the iceberg, water is seen entering the ship's garage on E deck. In reality, E deck was not immediately flooded, as it was two decks above the point of collision.
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When the Titanic hits the iceberg, Thomas Andrews is shown to be in his room going over blueprints and clearly notices that something has happened. Although it is true that Andrews was in his room working on improvements for the ship when the collision occurred, he did not actually feel it himself; he was actually summoned by the crew.
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Rose runs into Andrews, who gives her directions on how to reach Jack. The directions he gives her does not correspond to the real deck plan on RMS Titanic; it would have led her to nowhere rather then the Master-at-Arms' office.
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There are many minute contradictions of history, both in events and in the technical details of the ship. This film is prey to a large number of factual errors due to the large volume of documentary evidence from the actual event.
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The closing credits state that Titanic was "Filmed in Panavision". This is incorrect. It was filmed using the Super 35 process that James Cameron has used for all of his movies and not using the Panavision anamorphic wide screen process. It was filmed, however, with Panavision cameras.
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When the dock workers at Southampton cast off Titanic's mooring lines, the heaving lines are still attached to her mooring lines. The smaller heaving lines are used only to pull a ship's larger mooring lines down to the dock when the ship arrives. Then, only the ship's mooring lines are fastened to the dock or are cast off when she departs.
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When the band starts playing "Nearer My God To Thee" at the ships final moment, they are playing the American version "Bethany". Considering the Titanic was a British vessel containing mostly British crew, it is extremely unlikely the band would know - or use - an Americanized tune. Instead they would have likely used the British version "Horbury".
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In the film, the Palm Court's wicker furniture is tan, but on the real Titanic (and seen in many archival photos), it was actually white. Also, the tables are circular (Olympic only), but on Titanic, they were square. Lastly, the walls are seen bare, but on Titanic, each wall had real climbing ivy.
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The blue diamond "Le Coeur de la Mer" is stated as having 56 carats which would put its weight at 56 * 0.2 = 11.2 grams which would be much too low for a diamond this size.
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The Titanic's (and Olympic's) First Class Dining Saloon did not have table lamps.
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In the first shot of the lifeboats being lowered during the sinking, one of the boats has "S.S. TITANIC" painted on it's bow. Although the ship was designated as "R.M.S. TITANIC" (for Royal Mail Steamship or Steamer) the lifeboats were indeed marked as "S.S. TITANIC", and several plaques taken from the lifeboats after the disaster have been saved as souvenirs.
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When the water is shown covering the clock on the Grand Staircase it is level with the 9-and-3 positions. With the angle the ship would have been as it flooded the water it would have been at either 1-and-7 or 2-and-8.
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When old Rose is about to start her story, she looks at videotape of the fireplace on the monitor. In the shot is "Snoop Dog", the submersible. "Duncan", the second submersible, was exploring another part of the wreck and wouldn't have been able to take that shot. It's actually a shot from the movie, having been used just before the discovery of the safe.
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At the end of the film after Jack has died, a lifeboat is seen coming back to search for people. In reality, it was Margret Brown that got people to go back. Additionally, it was lifeboat #6 that went back, not #14 and Margret Brown is not seen in the lifeboat that has come back even though according to history, Margret Brown was the one who was in Lifeboat #6 when they came back to look for people.
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Incorrectly regarded as goofs
"Eternal Father Strong To Save" is sung during the worship service. While Robert Nelson Spencer wrote two verses in 1937, the lines quoted in the film were quoted in a book published in 1921 and were probably written much earlier.
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Some artifacts recovered from the wreck of the Titanic included a number made of paper, which were saved by being in leather bags or such; it is therefore possible for Jack's sketch of Rose to have survived as shown.
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The tugs that assisted the Titanic away from the Southampton dock did belong to the company known today as the Red Funnel Line, but they had not yet adopted that nickname or colour scheme. As shown in the film, the actual tugs had beige funnels.
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Although the Titanic's fourth smokestack was not an exhaust avenue for the ship's engines, it was used as an outlet for the Titanic's massive kitchen. Since the Titanic used coal stoves, some smoke would have been coming out of the fourth smokestack. In one of the flyovers of the ship, it is possible to see that most of the top of the fourth smokestack is sealed.
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It is often claimed that there is a tattoo visible on Rose's arm when she attempts suicide. It is actually a moon-shaped black dot - some embellishment that has come loose from her robe, clearly visible in closer shots.
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Although her fingers partially obscure it, the coin that Rose gives to Jack is generally agreed to be a Barber dime, minted 1892-1916, not a modern dime as some viewers have incorrectly asserted. The Barber dime is distinctive because the portrait of Liberty on the head of the coin faces the right, not the left.
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The credits explain that some dramatic license has been taken; this is apparent with several minor characters. For example, Benjamin Guggenheim's mistress, Madame Aubert, never dined in the First-Class Dining Salon; she took all of her meals in the a-la-carte restaurant on B Deck.
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When Rose is considering jumping off the ship at the beginning of the movie, she is not wearing the necklace she had on at dinner. Her hair is also different. In fact, there was a scene that was cut from the movie where Rose runs back to the parlor suite, tears off her necklace, lets her hair down, and in a fit of rage, destroys some of the items in her bedroom before running to the stern to attempt suicide.
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The diamond in the film, "Le Coeur de la Mer", is supposed to be a diamond owned by Louis XVI and lost during the French Revolution, which Lovett also refers to as the "Blue Diamond of the Crown". In one early scene Lovett mentions to Rose that "today it would be worth more than the Hope Diamond". Since that 56 ct. heart-shaped diamond is believed to be the source of the 45.5 ct. oval Hope Diamond, that makes sense. Further, since the source of the Hope Diamond is not certain, it's an acceptable fiction that it came from somewhere else and that the stone we see is the original, heart-shaped diamond.
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All accounts of the sinking by survivors report that the lights went out, flickered back on for a second, then went out for good before the ship broke in two, all of which is correctly shown in the movie. In fact, many survivors disputed that the ship broke apart at all before sinking. Naturally when the lights go out that quickly not everyone's eyes adjusted to the dark fast enough. Even though it has since been proven that the ship did break before sinking, one would imagine that there would be no room for dispute if the lights had stayed on until the ship broke.
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When the ship is shown at night, there appears to be a smaller version of the ship along side it. In fact, this is a tender ship.
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By 1912 color photography was beginning to pass beyond the experimental stage; the Autochrome plate, for instance, had been introduced in 1907. While the general public, or even most photographers, would still hardly be likely to take pictures in color, the owner of the fabulous Heart of the Ocean diamond might well have wanted to record it for posterity, cost no object, in all its colorful glory.
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The painting by Norman Wilkinson in the first class smoking room is actually an exact reproduction of "Plymouth Harbour," which went down on the Titanic, and not the Olympic's "Approach to the New World," a depiction of New York harbor. A few years back, black and white sketches of "Plymouth Harbour" were found and an exact copy was painted by his son for the Southampton Maritime Museum. The Museum confirms that the picture as shown is an accurate copy.
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During the overhead shot of the Titanic splitting in half, a victim slides upwards. If the person was sliding down as the ship broke, their momentum would allow them to keep sliding.
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There were a number of roller coasters in Santa Monica, as early as 1904; in any case, Jack tends to embellish his stories.
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Jack and Fabrizio's third-class cabin correctly contains two sets of bunk beds, or 4 berths.
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When Brock is filming from the inside of the submarine, he's supposed to be well under water, by the wreck of the Titanic. The light outside the window is coming from the submersible's outside lights.
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The paintings shown in Rose's cabin, apparently by Pablo Picasso, Claude Monet, and Edgar Degas, have been the subject of much criticism, supposedly because these paintings are originals that never traveled on Titanic, or because they were too large to fit aboard the ship. In truth, the paintings are just imitations of the styles of each artist. The painting by Picasso is not the famed Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, but merely a painting in the same style.
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When Murdoch finishes loading one of the lifeboats he says "Ready on the left", and "lower away" but doesn't say "Ready on the right". When lowering a lifeboat the officer would say "Ready on the left" then "Ready on the right" and finally "Lower away". However, just after he calls "Ready on the left", he turns and sees Bruce Ismay in the lifeboat. Obviously stunned, he pauses before resigning himself to continue, and simply calls "Lower away".
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When the ship is bearing down on the iceberg, the officer orders the helmsman to put the helm hard to starboard and later hard to port. In each case the helmsman appears to do exactly the opposite. However, prior to the advent and mass popularity of the automobile, a ship's wheel was rigged such that to turn the ship left (port), the wheel was turned clockwise (or as we would consider it, to the right). It was only after a generation of drivers had grown up driving cars that the shipping industry began rigging their wheels to conform.
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When Rose and Jack meet up before the first class dinner, Jack kisses Rose's hand and says, "I saw that on Nickelodeon once and I always wanted to do it." He is referring not to the TV company (created in 1977 under the name Pinwheel) but to a theatre company, founded in 1888.
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Plot holes
At the beginning of the movie it is not logically revealed how the expedition crew of Brock Lovett was able to recover the safe of Cal Hockley. The safe was found in a remote and highly inaccessible area of the ship by an underwater robot which could hardly lift some wood which covered the safe. Therefore it is hard to believe they they were able to pull that heavy safe out of the Titanic.
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Revealing mistakes
Near the end of the movie, when the Titanic is nearly vertical, a man, who is sliding down the ship, hits one of the capstans and it bends showing that it is clearly made of rubber.
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When Rose punches the crewman who is dragging her down the hall, you can see the blood (from the blood pack) on his hand before it reaches his face. (Can be seen better in slow motion)
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In the shot where Rose "flies," the faces of Jack and Rose are lit from a different angle, though still from the left.
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As the Titanic is sinking and begins to pitch forward, you can see passengers sliding forward across the deck. In one short scene, you can see a few people hit what's supposed to be a large metal reel. When they hit it, it crinkles, revealing that it's made of foam.
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In some shots it is visible that people who hang or fall off the Titanic cast shadows on the Titanic's hull, although the only source of light was Titanic itself.
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After Jack and Rose reunite the crying boy with his father in the flooded hallway outside the room where Rose frees Jack, there is a dimly lit, slow-motion shot of the two running toward the camera, but it is clearly not them; it is their stunt doubles.
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During the ship flyover, if you look closely you see a lady in a burgundy coat walking, but her feet aren't touching the ground. She is floating.
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When Cal is shooting at Jack and Rose, Cal's shot hits a pineapple-shaped decorative item on the top of the base banister. In the next shot, we see the pineapple neatly blown apart with no bullet marks and vertical scorch marks from the pyrotechnic that was apparently used to blow it in half in the preceding shot.
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In order to show the correct side of the ship when it's docked, the image was flipped in post-production. As a result, there are an inordinate number of left-handed people waving from the deck of the ship.
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As the the lifeboat occupants scan the bodies with their electric torches, looking for survivors, the pools of light cast on the water do not match where they point the torches. The pools of light are obviously coming from off-screen spotlights, and the torch-bearers are frantically moving the torches around to try to point to where the spotlights are pointing.
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In several instances, when people are standing on the rail, they appear to be crudely "pasted" in front of the sky.
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In the last underwater shot during the collision with the iceberg, an obviously fake hull is visible. The hull is sharply cut, and there is some object behind it.
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Rose's hair defies the law of gravity when she is atop the sinking ship. Her hair should be hanging down or at least moving in the cold wind as the scene suggests, but it is perfectly still and horizontal to the sinking ship.
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When Jack is drawing the portrait of Rose, she says "I believe you are blushing, Mr. Big Artiste", and you can clearly see that there is nothing on the paper.
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The Swedish spoken by the card-playing man (who is later close to punching Jack as he wins the tickets) is obviously learned for the occasion by the actor and barely intelligible, although it reveals that he is angry because his friends are staking the tickets. The actor playing his friend, however, is certainly a native speaker, and defends his actions by saying that he is trying to win the tickets back.
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When Cal arrives and gets out of his car, he looks ahead in amazement. Except Titanic is visible behind him though the car's door, and from this angle we can see that the entire rear of the ship is just scaffolding.
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The Rose "drawing" that's found and cleaned with great care that was in the safe is a noticeably different version than the "drawing" Jack is sketching. Notice how the face, lips, eyes, hands and overall picture is much different than Jack's sketch.
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In the scene where Cal chases Rose and Jack down into the flooding dining room, all the windows are burnt out with bright white light. These are outside windows and it is the middle of the night.
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Rose's hair changes shades throughout the scene where she attempts suicide, partially due to the lighting but also due to the changes from the stunt double.
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During the flyover scene of the ship not only is the crew's skylight on the wrong side, but if you pay attention, the entire ship is flipped. For example you can see the entrance to the gymnasium on the port side (It should be starboard) and also the stairs leading up to the docking bridge is on the port side.
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In the scene where Jack meets Rose at the grand staircase and is meeting the other first class passengers, the blue screen is visible in the windows behind him.
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When Rose and Jack (among others) are standing on the ship as it is sinking and they are about the go into the water, the size of the waves compared to the people don't match up. It looks as if the people were pasted there next to normal-sized waves.
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When the radio operator sends out the "CQD" message, the pattern of dots and dashes he makes with the key is not intelligible Morse code.
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When Jack is handcuffed to the pipe and Rose uses the axe to free him, one can see, especially in slow motion, that the axe hits the back of Jack's hand and not the handcuffs.
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When the Titanic is leaving, the newsreel cameraman is cranking the camera left-handed; hand-cranked cameras are all right-handed, but the scene was filmed mirror image and reversed.
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There is dirt on the lens (right side of screen) during the dining room scene angle on Jack.
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In the black and white shots of the Titanic in port on sailing day, there is a shot of a blond woman in a straw hat leaning over a railing to wave enthusiastically at the dock (she waves towards the Titanic's port side). However, in the color flashback scene of sailing day, this same woman is waving towards the starboard side of the ship (out to sea). The color shot was not reversed during editing.
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After the ship has sunk, as rescue crews are searching for survivors, their call outs are clearly sounding as if they are echoing. At sea, with virtually nothing to echo off of, there would be no such echo sound.
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As passengers were climbing into lifeboats and the ship's officer was loading the Webley pistol, the first round inserted into the cylinder clearly had a firing pin indentation in the primer. This is standard protocol when using dummy rounds as props.
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As the camera pulls back from Jack's "king of the world" shot and performs a flyover of the ship, we see the officer who comes out to report the ship's speed to Captain Smith walking very uncannily with a very deliberate and exceptionally large gate. This is because, instead of using a live areal camera to capture the footage, Cameron chose to use 3D motion capture footage of individual characters performing actions and added them in post production. During the motion capture shoot, the actor playing the officer would have been shot walking without a particular goal or destination in mind.
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Spoilers
Continuity
The water is shown to be coming above the clock twice: once when the water is heading toward the ceiling when Mr. Astor is coming up the stairs, and again after the first funnel lands on Fabrizio.Share this
Continuity
After the sinking, Jack and Rose are in the water and try to climb on a large lump of wood. When it rolls over and we see the sky again, all the stars are gone. The stars come and go like this continuously between shots for a while after this.Share this
Continuity
First Officer William Murdoch is seen trying to free one of the collapsible lifeboats after he has supposedly shot himself.Share this
Continuity
After Rose wakes in the water, ice is seen on Jack's upper lip; in the side angle it's not there.Share this
Incorrectly regarded as goofs
While the whistle Rose grabs from the dead man is metal, cold, and wet, the man had only just died, which would presumably leave him warm enough to keep the whistle from freezing. And once Rose starts using it, what's left of her body heat would warm it in fairly short order (unlike, say, a fencepost, which is too large to warm). Therefore, it's reasonable that it wouldn't freeze to her mouth either.Share this
Revealing mistakes
When Rose is floating on the wooden plank and singing to herself, there is a shot of the stars in the sky. The stars on the left hand side of the screen are arranged symmetrically, revealing that the sky is artificial and the image has been mirrored.Share this
Revealing mistakes
When Rose "lets Jack go" into the water, just before his eyes go under, you can see his eye flinch.Share this
