The main antagonist in Titanic was Rose’s fiancé, Cal Hockley, who was at the front and center of a deleted scene that would have changed how the audience saw him. Back in 1997, James Cameron surprised critics and viewers with a movie that was very different from what he had done before and the type of projects he’s mostly known for: Titanic, a disaster drama movie that, at the time of its release, was the most expensive movie ever made, and which went on to become the highest-grossing movie ever for many, many years.
Based on the real-life tragedy of the RMS Titanic in 1912, Cameron’s Titanic tells the story of Rose DeWitt Bukater (Kate Winslet) and Jack Dawson (Leonardo DiCaprio), two passengers from opposite social classes who fall in love aboard the ship during its ill-fated maiden voyage. Over the course of four days, Jack and Rose meet, fall in love, and fight to defend their relationship from those who looked down on it, while also fighting to survive once the ship starts sinking. Because the sinking of the Titanic isn’t enough, Jack and Rose also have to keep themselves safe from Cal Hockley (Billy Zane), Rose’s fiancé who isn’t going to let her go with a third-class passenger.
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Rose arrives at the Titanic with Cal and her mother, Ruth DeWitt Bukater (Frances Fisher), while Jack wins his ticket in a poker game minutes before the Titanic sails. Their different social statuses are enough reason for Cal to not like Jack, but this only grows once Jack saves Rose from jumping off the ship and is later invited to have dinner with them in the first-class dining room, which serves as a bonding experience for Rose and Jack. Cal’s pride and arrogance are such that he even tries to kill Jack and Rose while the Titanic sinks, but a deleted scene would have changed how Cal is seen as it would have humanized him a bit after the ship sank.
Cal survived the sinking of the Titanic by posing as the father of an abandoned child and thus securing a spot in one of the lifeboats, while Rose and Jack fought for their lives, and only Rose was rescued from the ocean hours later. Towards the end of Titanic, Rose is seen in the RMS Carpathia with the rest of the rescued passengers, where she changed her name to “Rose Dawson”, and she only mentions Cal when she tells Lovett and company that she heard he killed himself in 1929. Cal is briefly seen in the Carpathia casually looking for Rose, but an extended version of it hints at him actually being concerned about his fiancée’s fate. The deleted scene shows Ruth looking for Rose in the Carpathia and then Cal as well, who is relieved to see a red-haired woman he believes to be Rose, but she wasn’t. This brief moment shows that Cal cared about Rose, but unfortunately, his pride and jealousy were bigger than his love and care for her.
When looking at the whole scene at the Carpathia at the end of Titanic, it’s understandable why various parts of it were cut, as they messed with the pace of the movie, and seeing a sensitive side of Cal so late into the movie would have completely messed with his villainous image. Cal Hockley was cruel and his actions against Rose and Jack are unjustifiable, so it was for the better that a somewhat “softer” side of him right at the end of Titanic was cut.
