Power Ranking the 25 Best Things About ‘Titanic’

People keep doubting James Cameron, yet here we are. Avatar: The Way of Water, a sequel to a film that was deemed to have little cultural impact, is still humming along at the box office, recently becoming the fourth-highest-grossing movie of all time. The achievement is all the more impressive when you consider that two of the three films above The Way of Water also belong to Big Jim. Now, one of those movies is about to return to theaters, adding to its staggering $2 billion–plus box office haul. That’s right, folks: Just in time for Valentine’s Day, it’s time to reboard the RMS Titanic.

After celebrating its 25th anniversary in December, Cameron’s Titanic is getting a wide rerelease that’s been remastered in 4K. Given the romantic nature of the holiday and the hold this film had on teenage girls in the ’90s, I wouldn’t be surprised if it made another killing at the box office. After all, Titanic has all the hallmarks of a highly rewatchable (no Ringer crossover pun intended) movie: sparkling chemistry between swoon-worthy leads, jaw-dropping set pieces, memorable dialogue, historical intrigue, and enough behind-the-scenes drama to occupy a 24-hour news cycle on TMZ. In other words, contrary to its eponymous ocean liner, Titanic’s cultural legacy remains unsinkable.

To commemorate the 25 years since Titanic’s release, I’ve put together a comprehensive and unimpeachable list of the 25 best things about the film. (A quick note: Not everything that’s included on the best-of list is necessarily good, but is instead deemed an essential component of the Titanic experience, which is a roundabout way of justifying why Billy Zane’s repulsive character is going to show up in this blog.) From third-class dance parties to Celine Dion’s Oscar-winning banger, these are the Titanic power rankings.

25. Charles Joughin

While Titanic incorporates several real-life figures into its ensemble, arguably the most fascinating individual is kept to a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment toward the end of the movie. As Rose (Kate Winslet) and Jack (Leonardo DiCaprio) brace for the inevitable—the stern of the ship sinking below the freezing-cold water—they are joined by someone in a chef outfit taking a swig from his flask:

Setting aside the very relatable reaction to a life-threatening scenario, this man is Charles Joughin (Liam Tuohy), the chief baker aboard the ship. But his skills in the kitchen aren’t what make Joughin so noteworthy; rather, it’s how he survived. Not only was Joughin one of the last people on the Titanic before the entirety of the ship was submerged, but he remained in the frigid water for roughly two hours until help arrived. As to how Joughin made it through the ordeal, he claimed to have gotten drunk during the sinking. (Naturally, Joughin’s experience was featured on an episode of Drunk History.) An inebriated dude paddling around in the Atlantic probably would’ve undercut the tragic end to Rose and Jack’s love story, so I can understand why Cameron relegated Joughin to a brief cameo in the film. But Joughin’s unbelievable account of survival stands the test of time and gives new meaning to the term “liquid courage.”

24. The Random Passenger Who Doink’d a Titanic Propeller

Through much of Titanic, Cameron is empathetic to the unspeakable devastation the passengers were faced with, which makes this random person’s death via gigantic propeller all the more confounding:

There’s absolutely no reason why this anonymous man needed to die in such an absurd fashion, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t think about this scene all the time. I counted nine full flips before the poor guy hits the water—Olympic divers of the world, eat your heart out.

23. Fabrizio

It’s almost impossible to focus on anything else when Leo’s perfectly sculpted face appears on-screen for the first time, but after countless Titanic rewatches, I’ve grown quite fond of Jack’s Italian best bud, Fabrizio (Danny Nucci). The duo scores tickets for the voyage by winning a lucky (cursed?) hand of poker, which leads Fabrizio to enthusiastically shout, “I go to America!” with an affectation that sounds like a cross between Borat and the greater Nintendo universe. He might not be breaking the news of soccer transfers like another notable Italian man named Fabrizio, but I’ve never seen someone rock suspenders this hard:

Arrivederci, Fabrizio, it make-a me very sad that you never had a chance to see America for yourself.

22. Rose and Jack Distracting the Iceberg Lookouts

After getting hot and heavy in an old-timey town car (more on that later), Rose and Jack return to the deck of the ship on the fateful night of April 14, 1912. The Titanic is mere moments away from hitting a colossal iceberg, and while the ship was destined to sink on its maiden voyage, Cameron’s movie also implies the young lovers inadvertently played a small part in the tragedy. You see, right before the ship’s two lookouts alert the crew of the impending iceberg, they catch a glimpse of Jack and Rose passionately making out:

It’s highly unlikely those extra seconds the lookouts spent creeping on the couple would’ve given the Titanic enough time to steer clear of the iceberg, but I still appreciate Cameron warning audiences about the dangers of being horny when you’re on the clock. (Jeffrey Toobin silently nods his head in agreement over Zoom.)

21. The Person Who Laced the Titanic Crew’s Chowder with PCP

Big Jim is such a notoriously difficult director to work with that past crew members have created T-shirts that read: “You can’t scare me, I work for James Cameron.” The kind of on-set tension Cameron creates could explain the strangest incident in Titanic’s tumultuous production: the time the crew’s lobster chowder was spiked with PCP. Initially, Cameron believed he and the affected workers were experiencing a bad reaction to shellfish, but it soon became clear that everyone who ate the chowder was high out of their minds. As set decorator Claude Roussel explained to Vulture, the “grips were going down the hallway doing wheelies in wheelchairs” after they were sent to Nova Scotia’s Dartmouth General Hospital. (I would give up my life savings for footage of the Titanic crew tripping balls in the hospital.)

Despite the local authorities conducting a criminal investigation, no culprit was ever found—as a result, the real motive behind the spiked chowder remains a mystery. My money is still on a disgruntled worker wanting to get revenge on Cameron, but considering the filmmaker told my Ringer colleague Alan Siegel that he worked on notes for The Terminator while he was high on ecstasy, I wouldn’t be surprised if the PCP trip gave our guy some inspiration for the Avatar franchise.

20. Molly Brown Giving Jack an Epic Makeover

While almost all the first-class passengers introduced in Titanic are insufferable snobs, one worthy outlier is Molly Brown (Kathy Bates). Looked down on by other elites because she comes from “new money,” Molly is no stranger to the disdain Jack will face after being invited to dine in first class for saving Rose’s life when she nearly jumped off the ship. Knowing that Jack wouldn’t be properly dressed for the occasion—a perfect opportunity for the wealthy passengers to judge him—Molly lends him one of her son’s suits. Unsurprisingly, Jack looks mighty spiffy in it:

After surviving the sinking, the real-life Molly went on to fight for the rights of women and the working class in the United States. If nothing else, Cameron’s favorable portrayal of Molly, and the manner in which she goes out of her way to help out a decent person with little means like Jack, feels very on-brand.

19. Jack Crushing the First-Class Dinner

Of course, Brown giving Jack a nice suit is one thing; making it through the dinner without being embarrassed is another challenge entirely. But while Jack was undoubtedly overwhelmed by the occasion—Molly does give him an assist on how to approach all the cutlery—he passes the test with flying colors. Brushing off snide remarks from Rose’s mother, Ruth (Frances Fisher), and husband-to-be, Cal (Billy Zane), like Wonder Woman deflecting bullets with her bracelets, Jack charms the rest of the table by regaling them with tales of his resilience, which culminated with him securing passage aboard the Titanic by winning a lucky hand at poker. By the end of the evening, Jack is far and away the coolest person in the room, and whatever Cal hoped to achieve by inviting him backfired spectacularly:

18. Rose Partying in Third Class

Given how smooth and endearing Jack is from the moment we meet him, it’s not too far-fetched that he’d find a way to fit in among the first-class passengers. But what really underlines that Jack and Rose were meant for each other is when the latter proves she can just as easily hang with the folks in third class. Following Jack after dinner to steerage, Rose chugs beer, tap-dances, and makes it clear to everyone in attendance that she knows how to party. Best of all, Rose’s attempt at impressing her new pals is by balancing her entire weight on her big toes:

In another life, Rose would’ve given Natalie Portman a run for her money in Black Swan.

17. Rose’s Hand Smacking the Car Glass

It’s one of the most enduring images of Titanic: While Jack and Rose consummate their love in a car, she presses her hand against the foggy glass. Clearly, whatever Jack is doing is working wonders:

First off: Congrats on the sex, you lovebirds. More importantly, I’d like to revive a recent discussion on our Titanic Rewatchables podcast about this scene: What, uh, position were these two in? Jack is nowhere to be seen, which seems like an impossibility given the constraints inside the car and the angle of the shot. That’s why I firmly believe Jack was showing off his skills as a [clears throat] cunning linguist when the film cuts to Rose’s hand. No need to beat around the bush the next time someone asks what’s going on in this scene; Jack’s doing plenty of that himself (sorry).

16. “It’s Been 84 Years”

Even if you never watched Titanic, anyone who’s spent time on the internet has surely come across the immortalized GIF of old Rose (Gloria Stuart) relaying how long it’s been since her experience on the ship:

There is perhaps no greater sign of Titanic’s enduring significance in pop culture than the abundance of memes that persist after all these years, and old Rose may be the most versatile of them all. In fact, I definitely used the old Rose meme when Cameron finally announced a release date for his long-gestating Avatar sequel. (Assuming humanity still exists in the year 2081, the 84th anniversary of Titanic will have a field day with this meme.)

15. James Cameron Filming the Actual Titanic Wreck

Before becoming the first person to make a solo descent into the Mariana Trench in a submersible he helped design, Cameron did something slightly more modest with his interests as an ocean explorer: He secured footage of the real Titanic for his movie. There’s a genuine sense of awe when Titanic captures the titular ship, which is no less spectacular to behold even as it lies at the bottom of the Atlantic:

Cameron’s cinematic accomplishment has also given him bragging rights among his peers in the field of ocean exploration. As the filmmaker recounted in a recent GQ profile, private equity investor Victor Vescovo once emailed Cameron to share that he watched Titanic while diving at the Titanic wreck—an ill-advised attempt at one-upping someone whose ego is so massive that no iceberg could ever hope to sink it. “Yeah,” Cameron responded, “but I made Titanic at the Titanic.” Just as nobody should doubt the commercial power of a Big Jim blockbuster, it’s never a good idea to challenge him to an ocean-themed dick-measuring contest.

14. The Massive Titanic Replica

One of the reasons that Cameron has repeatedly broken his own record for the most expensive movie ever made is because he’s rarely one to compromise. To that end, it wasn’t enough to film the Titanic wreck on the ocean floor: The movie needed a replica ship to pass for the real thing. Make no mistake, there were plenty of state-of-the-art visual effects that helped bring the film’s version of the Titanic to life, but there’s no substitute for the jaw-dropping sight of the replica at various points during the sinking. I highly recommend checking out the behind-the-scenes footage from Titanic, if only to appreciate the mind-blowing process of making a blockbuster at such an unprecedented scale:

13. Cal Being the Absolute Worst

You gotta hand it to Billy Zane: He understood the assignment. As Cal, the heir to a Pittsburgh steel fortune, Zane is a cruel, entitled man-child who believes that women—especially his fiancée—should do as they’re told. Anytime Rose shows even the tiniest sign of agency, he responds violently, like when he flipped over their breakfast table because she dared to party in steerage instead of going back to her room after dinner:

Rose nearly jumped off the Titanic upon realizing that she’d be stuck with Cal for the rest of her life, and it’s hard to blame her. (As for how Cal responds to Jack saving Rose from falling, he merely offers him $20 at the nudging of another first-class passenger.) Cameron has crafted many memorable villains over the course of his filmmaking career—mostly in the form of macho military types or greedy businessmen—but there may be none more loathsome than Cal. Which brings us to …

12. Rose Hocking a Loogie in Cal’s Face

One of the underrated pleasures in a Cameron joint is that the villains always get their comeuppance, and typically under violent circumstances. (I’m not ashamed to admit I hooted and hollered when Payakan the space whale ripped off the lead poacher’s arm during The Way of Water’s action-packed climax.) But while it’s revealed that Cal does suffer a karmic fate befitting his awful behavior—he loses his fortune in the Wall Street Crash of 1929 before shooting himself, per old Rose—one of the most satisfying moments in the film is Rose hocking a loogie in his face. Jack taught her well:

11. Jack as the King of the World

One of the defining images of Titanic is Jack spreading his arms and shouting “I’m the king of the world!” while he and Fabrizio admire the view from the bow of the ship. (Right before the iconic line, Fabrizio jokes, “I can see the Statue of Liberty already—very small, of course!” with all the panache of an Italian Borat.) This scene will always have a place in the highlight reel of DiCaprio’s distinguished career, which makes it even more astonishing that Cameron made the line up on the spot.

As the director explained in a 2019 interview with BBC’s Radio 1, he felt that nothing from the script was working in the scene as intended. With little light remaining during the day’s shoot, Cameron suggested the line to DiCaprio, who apparently wasn’t all that enthused about the ad-lib. “Just fucking sell it!” Cameron told his star over a walkie-talkie, and the rest is history. Credit where it’s due: DiCaprio did, in fact, fucking sell it.

10. James Cameron as the King of the World

Unfortunately, while viewers swooned over DiCaprio shouting that he’s king of the world, the quote wasn’t nearly as well received when Cameron tried it at the 1998 Academy Awards after winning Best Director. “I now realize what was wrong with my choice to do that,” Cameron explained to Vanity Fair in 2018. “It wasn’t the exact content of the line as much as the fact that I was quoting my own movie. … There’s a hubris in assuming that everybody in the audience has seen your movie, even though you won.” Props to Cameron for owning up to the cringey nature of his acceptance speech; nevertheless, the secondhand embarrassment is still palpable to this day.

9. Rose and the Floating Debris

If there’s one thing that Cameron would go back and fix about Titanic, my money is on the size of the debris that Rose floats on at the end of the film. Narratively speaking, it’s the perfect sequence: Jack realizes that they both can’t fit on the debris, and as Rose lies on it, they hold hands while she promises to never give up and never let go. The only problem is that nitpicky viewers believe Rose was too quick to let Jack freeze to death, and there was plenty of room for both of them:

The whole situation was the subject of a MythBusters episode and was recreated by Cameron for a recent special on National Geographic. But whether or not it’s proven that Rose and Jack could’ve both fit on the wreckage completely misses the point. This scene in the film isn’t about a painstaking commitment to scientific accuracy; instead, audiences should be emotionally invested in the tragic end to a love story for the ages. Put another way: While they’re floating in the water, Rose briefly looks up at the night’s sky, which, according to astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, didn’t have the correct star field. Tyson sent a “snarky email” to Cameron explaining the astrological error, and the filmmaker actually changed the stars for the latest version of the movie. No offense, but if you’re the type of viewer who cares about the size of floating debris, you’re no better than a professional buzzkill like Tyson.

8. Old Rose Chucking the Heart of the Ocean Into, Well, the Ocean

Old Rose spends the majority of Titanic telling her story to a group of explorers searching for the Heart of the Ocean, an absurdly valuable diamond she briefly wore when Jack sketched her nude (more on that shortly). It’s only at the very end of the film that audiences realize Rose had the Heart of the Ocean in her possession the whole time. So what will old Rose do: give the Heart of the Ocean to her granddaughter so that her family will be financially secure for countless generations? Use the money spent on selling the diamond to support charitable causes around the world? Give it up to a museum that would appreciate its historical significance? Nope, she’s gonna toss that shit right into the Atlantic:

Centenarians are a wild bunch, man.

7. The Band

Maybe the only true story more inspiring than the drunken chef who survived the frigid Atlantic waters is the fate of the Titanic’s eight-member band. Led by Wallace Hartley, who was portrayed by Jonathan Evans-Jones in the film, the band continues to play music as the ship sinks in an effort to keep the passengers calm—including, by most historical accounts, the Christian hymn “Nearer, My God, to Thee.” The bravery of the band playing into their final moments is treated with appropriate gravitas by Cameron, contrasting the solemnity of the music with the chaos surrounding the men:

“Gentlemen, it has been a privilege playing with you tonight,” Hartley says to his bandmates; indeed, it was a privilege listening to them. Is it weird to admit the band’s send-off makes me just as emotional as Jack’s death?

6. Céline Dion’s “My Heart Will Go On”

Is there anything that needs to be said? Just listen to this masterpiece again.

Of course “My Heart Will Go On” won Best Original Song at the Oscars; of course it’s one of the bestselling singles of all time; of course it’s the perfect track to remix with famous sports moments. For this song alone, I hope Canada has given Céline Dion the country’s equivalent to the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

5. Jack Drawing Rose Like One of His French Girls

Let’s be honest: This was a deal breaker for some parents allowing their kids to watch Titanic, and for a certain generation of moviegoers, it was the first time they ever saw a boob. (I’ll never tell, your honor!) But there’s a lot to admire about this scene for what it means to the characters, especially Rose. Being sketched in the nude while wearing the Heart of the Ocean isn’t just an unforgettable memory because it was sensual: It represented Rose exerting control over her life after being put into a box by Cal and her overbearing mother. Jack also deserves some props for keeping his composure—I don’t think I could blog if my crush was sitting next to me in their birthday suit:

Sexy vibes notwithstanding, the sketch itself has plenty of import within the context of the movie—it’s what Bill Paxton’s treasure hunter, Brock Lovett, initially unearths from the wreck—as well as outside of it. The original sketch, which was actually drawn by Cameron, was sold over a decade ago at an undisclosed fee. (The highest bid was reportedly $16,000, but the final selling price was never revealed.) Personally, I think it’s priceless.

4. Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio

Winslet and DiCaprio weren’t exactly unknown when the actors got cast in Titanic; for one, DiCaprio appeared as the colead in Romeo + Juliet the previous year. But Titanic brought their stardom to a whole new level. There was a period at the turn of the century when you could make a compelling case that Leo was the biggest heartthrob on the planet—to say nothing of his immense talents as an actor. (When DiCaprio finally won an Oscar for The Revenant, we collectively breathed a sigh of relief, and not just because the dude inhaled raw bison liver for the role.)

Winslet, meanwhile, established herself as a generational force in her own right. Since Titanic, Winslet’s done a bit of everything, from Emmy-winning performances in Mildred Pierce and Mare of Easttown to acclaimed big-screen work as far-ranging as Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Steve Jobs. (Winslet even reunited with Cameron for The Way of Water in a mo-cap role that required her to hold her breath underwater for long periods of time—her personal best was OVER SEVEN MINUTES.) Cameron was already responsible for several masterpieces (The Terminator, Aliens, Terminator 2: Judgment Day) by the time he made Titanic, so it’s safe to say that nobody’s stock soared higher after the movie’s release than Winslet’s and DiCaprio’s, and they remain close friends to this day.

I still kinda ship them, though:

3. James Cameron Attempting to Drown the Titanic Ensemble

Big Jim has always had a way with water (heh), and Titanic is no exception. But he might’ve taken that passion a bit too far by putting the movie’s ensemble through the waterlogged wringer once the Titanic hits that dreaded iceberg. Perhaps it goes somewhat unnoticed because audiences are hooked on the love story between Rose and Jack, but either these extras are really good at acting, or they’re out here fighting for their lives once a maniacal director unleashes an honest-to-God tidal wave on them:

Cameron’s instincts as a filmmaker have rarely let him down—he’s the undisputed box office GOAT for a reason—but something tells me he wasn’t thinking too much about what the cast and crew would endure through this faithful recreation of a sinking ship. (Could someone who nearly drowned be responsible for the PCP chowder? Like the modern theologian Kevin Garnett once said, anything is possible!) In any case, the next time you revisit Titanic, take a beat to appreciate the sheer scale of Cameron’s endeavor, which [checks notes] appears to include an entire reservoir’s worth of water tearing through the ship:

2. Rose’s Photos

If Rose having to literally let go of Jack in the Atlantic and swim to safety wasn’t enough to make you reach for a box of tissues, maybe this will. After old Rose finishes sharing her story and carelessly tosses a prized diamond into the ocean at the end of Titanic, we get a glimpse of her experiences over the decades through the framed photos she brings with her:

Rose held up her promise to Jack by leading a life of adventure and fulfillment, and NO I’M NOT CRYING! YOU’RE THE ONE WHO’S CRYING!

1. Rose and Jack Reuniting at the Grand Staircase

As its historic run of 15 consecutive weeks atop the box office demonstrated, Titanic endures because it holds up to repeat viewings, and I think much of that has to do with its ending. While Cameron rips the audience’s heart out with Jack’s death, the film culminates on a happier note with the somewhat ambiguous sequence where a young Rose reunites with Jack at the ship’s grand staircase, surrounded by the majority of the passengers and crew. (It’s also worth noting that the antagonistic characters from the ensemble, such as Cal, are nowhere to be found.) Seeing as the ending happens just as old Rose drifts off to sleep, it could be read as the character dreaming about Jack, though I prefer the theory that she has just passed away after sharing her life’s story and has joined her true love in the afterlife:

No matter how you interpret this moment, one thing’s undeniable: It slaps. If you’ve never watched the ending of Titanic with a crowd that’s fully invested in the story, it’s got the same raucous energy as a World Cup match—only people are cheering and clapping over the power of love. It’s beautiful, it’s perfect, and if I were to die tomorrow, I would also like to kiss my soulmate while a bunch of ghosts applaud joyously.