And this is how ‘Titanic’ almost ended. We’re glad it didn’t.
Titanic very nearly ended with a guy yelling, “That really sucks, lady!” Wouldn’t that have been a different, certainly more crass, closing to one of the most romantic films of all time?
An alternate ending for the film shows what could have happened instead, by having the older Rose (or Nana to her granddaughter, played by former Ford model Suzy Amis) try to throw that big, blue diamond off the ship.
If you need a quick refresher: the movie’s original ending shows us Rose’s fantastic life in pictures, from the ones arranged on her night table. It’s meant to give us the sense that Jack’s sacrifice wasn’t in vain, that Rose went on to live a life worth saving. And then she falls asleep, where she drifts off to join Jack forever in death. It’s absolutely tear jerking.
But it could have been a lot more…well…screamy.
This alternate ending puts Rose on board the deck of a ship with her granddaughter Lizzy and the treasure hunter Brock Lovett (Bill Paxton) and his crew, where she’s about to throw that rock off the ship. Lovett, who’d been searching for it in the remains of the wreckage loses his cool, big time, but somehow the giggling, slightly weird Rose talks him into understanding that riches aren’t things. So, he lets her throw it.
That’s when the guys on his crew absolutely lose their minds and start yelling at Rose. It’s not pretty.
Basically, this would have been the most unsettling, unsatisfying ending for the film possible. We are so, so thankful they went in a different direction.
(Image via 20th Century Fox)