It’s been 20 years since Titanic came out, and people are still enraged about the film’s ending. A refresher for the three people who’ve never seen Titanic: As the ship is sinking, Rose (Kate Winslet) and Jack (Leonardo DiCaprio) seek refuge on a wooden door that can fit only one person. In an act of true love, Jack puts Rose on it and sacrifices himself. It’s cinematic, emotional, and also very polarizing: Several people have attempted to prove Jack could’ve easily fit on the door with Rose. The film’s director, James Cameron, denies this, but the debate rages on. We hear the people’s battle cry loud and clear: Jack should’ve lived!
Unless Jack never actually exists—as this bonkers Reddit theory suggests. BuzzFeed recently resurfaced this year-old hypothesis, which claims Jack was just a figment of Rose’s imagination. Say what?!
The Reddit user suggests Rose was so miserable aboard the Titanic—her fiancé, Cal (Billy Zane), is the actual worst—that she created Jack as an escape. (And because Jack is the literal antithesis of Cal, this sort of makes sense.) It gets weirder: The Redditor writes it’s no coincidence Jack and Rose’s first encounter happens when she’s about to jump off the boat. He appears, quite literally, to save Rose and help her reclaim her life. (It’s almost as if he’s her guardian angel, like Clarence in It’s a Wonderful Life.) This could explain why Jack’s language in the film is so encouraging and emphatic: His sole purpose is to help Rose find the confidence to live fully on her own terms. (“If you don’t break free, you’re going to die,” he says to Rose at one point.)
The final nail in the coffin, according to this theory, is the fact that there’s no record of Jack ever riding the Titanic. When asked about his lack of receipts many years later, Rose said, “No, there wouldn’t be [any trace], would there? He exists now…only in my memory.” (This nail is slightly flawed, though: Jack boards the Titanic using a man named Sven’s ticket after winning it in a poker game. He’s not a ghost; he’s just slick.)
So is this theory true? Probably not, but that doesn’t make it any less fun or interesting. Now we’re waiting for the inevitable theory that places Titanic in the Marvel Universe. It’s definitely coming.
