James Cameron Is Finally Ready To Admit That Jack Could Have Survived ‘Titanic’ After All

For years, James Cameron has shot down theories that Jack could’ve survived at the end of Titanic had Rose just let him on the door that she was using a raft. In fact, Cameron touted back in December that he had done a “scientific test” that would arrive in February and put the matter to rest.

“We took two stunt people who were the same body mass of Kate and Leo and we put sensors all over them and inside them and we put them in ice water and we tested to see whether they could have survived through a variety of methods and the answer was, there was no way they both could have survived,” Cameron told The Toronto Sun. “Only one could survive.”

Well, that test has arrived in the form of the NatGeo special, Titanic: 25 Years Later with James Cameron, and it appears that the Avatar director may have oversold the results. After running a few simulations, Cameron learned that Jack could’ve survived on the raft with Rose and held off hypothermia until help arrived hours later. Via Rolling Stone:

“Final verdict: Jack might have lived,” confesses a smirking Cameron, “but there’s a lot of variables.”

“In a well-lit experiment in a test pool, we can’t possibly simulate the terror, the adrenaline, all the things that would have worked against them,” he continues. “[Jack] didn’t get to run a bunch of different experiments to see what worked the best. Jack’s survival might have come at the cost of her life.”

He adds, “Based on what I know today, I would have made the raft smaller so there’s no doubt.”

You can watch a preview of the NatGeo special that airs February 5 below: