Nightmare Fuel / Titanic (1997)

In this state, maybe "Ship of Nightmares" would be more appropriate...

While previous films depicted Titanic making a graceful final plunge into the depths of the sea, James Cameron sought to make his portrayal as chaotic and horrific as the actual event was. And boy, can you tell.

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• While Brock is giving his overly-sentimental narration, he mentions that if the nine-inch windows on MIR fail, "it's sayonara in two micro-seconds." This establishes just how dangerous diving to the Titanic wreck site is. Following the 2023 Oceangate Titan submersible implosion, itself attempting to reach the Titanic, this quote becomes far more prescient.
• Cora's doll is probably the creepiest thing in the movie. Especially at the beginning of the movie, when it's at the bottom of the ocean.
• When the MIR submersibles make their pass over the officers' quarters, you can distinctly hear shouting from the ship's final moments, including First Officer Murdoch calling for women and children, and an eerie snippet of the band playing Nearer, My God to Thee and its very easy to imagine that these sounds are the ghosts of Titanic reaching across time.
• During Rose's Interrupted Suicide, Jack's To the Pain description of how she'd die from hypothermia if she jumped into the ice-cold water. Doubles as Foreshadowing for how Jack himself (and a whole bunch of other people) die(s) at the end, which just makes it even worse.
  • The description is taken from a survivor of the sinking. According to some, the person in question is Second Officer Charles Lightoller.
• The second half of the movie where the ship sinks is this and Tear Jerker fuel.
• The deleted scene where Rose freaks out and trashes her room before almost being Driven to Suicide.
• The thought of what Rose’s life with Cal might have been like had she not met Jack. It counts as Nothing Is Scarier.
  • And the abuse she was already going through, that her mother must have known about, but was not going to stop because a. she might have gone through the same and thought it was normal, and b. she was so desperate to reclaim her former financial standing that she was willing to allow Rose to suffer.
  • The slap Cal gives her after Jack is arrested. It definitely sounds like it hurt, and makes you wonder what he might have done to her if the steward hadn't come in at that moment to tell them to get their life vests.
• Cal going berserk with the gun. While the scene itself is a bit over-the-top, just the thought of being chased by someone with a gun that's also taking shots at you at every turn is rather unpleasant.
  • Not to mention he does it as the Grand Staircase is already taking in water below. This was still when some people aboard were starting to realize the ship was doomed to sink, and now there's some nutjob with a gun shooting at two people and chasing them into the flooded sections. If there were passengers that weren't panicking from the sinking, they certainly were now.
• Rose and Jack being trapped behind the gate while the ship is rapidly filling with water.
• When Rose is searching the corridors below deck for help in rescuing Jack, there is one point where the lights slowly fade to out to black. Cue unsettling rumbling coming from deep inside the ship. As the lights come back on, Rose is (understandably) hyperventilating at this point.
  • When she fails to find the key, she is forced to leave a helpless Jack locked up in the flooding office. She goes to the deck above and starts calling for help only to get none. When the lights go off again, she nearly reaches a Despair Event Horizon, powerless to help Jack until she sees an axe.
  • As Rose tries to rescue Jack from the flooded office, there are various exterior shots showcasing the gradual sinking of Titanic's bow. Captain Smith can be nervously seen glancing down at the creeping water from the bridge.
  • Rose going back down a second time for Jack, at which point the water level is so high it's causing the electrical conduits in the ceiling to arc and short out. She then ditches her pink longcoat and plunges into the water. It's chest-deep, and she lets out a very loud gasp entering water that was previously described to her as being "like a thousand knives stabbing into your body at once."
  • When Rose gets ready to use the axe to free Jack, her face is pale and her lips are turning blue. Just a few minutes in the water, and she's already feeling the effects of hypothermia, which is going to kill most of those on board in just over an hour.
  • After freeing Jack, the two go into the corridor and find that the stairway to the next deck is already submerged. It shows just how rapidly the situation is changing as the ship goes under.
    Rose: This is the way out.
    Jack: We have to find another way. Come on!
• When the panic really sets in and people start fighting to get onto the lifeboats, it gets scary. One woman is accidentally knocked off the side of the ship and she's left clinging to the edge of Lifeboat 14 that's about to be launched; she nearly falls to her death, only barely being saved by people on a lower deck who are able to pull her in. Lightoller has to hold a frantic crowd of men at bay with his handgun to prevent them from rushing the lifeboat, threatening to shoot if they don't get back, and when he turns his back on them it turns out the gun was empty; as he quickly loads it, it's clear from his expression that he knows if the crowd had called his bluff, he'd likely have been ripped to pieces. One of the boats being lowered nearly crushes the one beneath it (Lifeboat 13, ironically) as the passengers scream in terror and the crew frantically cut the ropes so they can try to get away. Officer Lowe, in desperation, fires his gun in the air to keep people from trying to get onto the boat he's in charge of, only adding to the horror and frenzy. It's at this moment that Cal realizes that order on board the ship is beginning to collapse and human nature will soon take over.
  Cal: It's starting to fall apart. We don't have much time.
• Jack and a lot of other people dying of hypothermia. Especially the shot of the woman and her baby in the water.
  • The intro to that sequence is bad enough. Rose surfaces, looking for Jack, and we get a slow pan out to show nearly 1,500 people thrashing in the freezing cold water, all of them screaming and wailing in horror and pain.
  • Made even worse when we cut to the lifeboat and Molly Brown pleads for them to go back and help, tearfully telling the women "It's your men out there!" We then pan over to Ruth, who's covering her ears in an attempt to block out the screams.
  • And it becomes flat-out hellish if you think about the time passage in these moments. People are splashing about in the ice cold water, trying hard to stay afloat and screaming at the top of their lungs for the lifeboats, which at this precise moment are quite far away. Survivor accounts state that the screaming lasted for about 20 minutes after the ship vanished into the Atlantic waters. After which, they slowly faded as people fell into unconsciousness and death due to hypothermia. If the screaming of their fellow passengers and crew in the water didn't haunt the nightmares of the survivors, the deafening silence from their deathly pale bodies did.
    • Rose herself shows just how haunting it would be for one of the people who stayed in the water but managed to survive. When she comes to her senses, mostly everyone around her is dead, including Jack, and she's still freezing. No screaming, no flailing, no splashing. She's surrounded by the corpses of people she once talked to, and she herself is so cold that she can barely even speak for the lifeboat that returns. Had it not been for the deceased Officer Wilde's whistle, Rose would've died as well.
  • The young mother with her baby both dead of hypothermia becomes even worse when you realize that you actually saw them still alive earlier during the sinking. The mother is the woman frantically begging Captain Smith for help just before he locks himself in the ship's bridge, only to be ignored because the captain is already too far into his own Heroic BSoD by that point to even give her an answer.
• To some, the frozen lady with the wide-open eyes, floating in the ocean, can be this. In the scene where the crew in the lifeboats finally returned to look for survivors, she's the first corpse they pick up to see if she's alive. There's something eerie about those dead, grey eyes that are wide open, making it seem like she's staring at a ghost. There's a sound played at that very moment when you get to see her face close, that could be considered a jump-scare if you find this scene scary.
• The "Nearer, My God, to Thee" montage manages to be half-Tearjerker and half-Nightmare Fuel, often in the same shot. Towards the end, the band's music is being drowned out by the metallic groans and rushing water as the ship begins its final plunge.
  • Isidor and Ida Straus are shown embracing each other in their cabin while it floods, meaning they will drown rather than freeze.
  • The Irish mother is shown tucking her children into bed in their cabin deep within the ship. The accommodations for third class women with children were located in the stern, so if the flooding or the breakup didn't kill them, then they perished once the stern imploded.
  • Ben Guggenheim's look of pure horror when he sees the staircase begin flooding right before him sums up the living nightmare of utter horror and hopelessness that is now unfolding and those trapped aboard now face.
  • Lightoller and Wilde trying to ready their respective final collapsibles, which they had hooked up to the davits but now have no time to properly launch them as the water hits the boat deck. You can see the desperation as Fabrizio takes out a knife and tries to cut off the falls.
  • The freezing, foamy sea water overflowing onto the boat deck, with nearby debris such as deckchairs and luggage being dragged down or swept aside as the passengers and crew frantically try to escape before the water overwhelms everyone.
  • The band finishes playing the final notes of the hymn, and by then, the water is almost on top of them, having overwhelmed the officers' promenade. Bandleader Wallace Hartley can do nothing but tell his fellow musicians that it's been a privilege playing with them moments before they're overcome.
• The sequence as the Titanic makes its final plunge:
  • Captain Smith's death. True to the actual reports, he looks utterly lost in the chaos, as he realizes that this truly will be his final voyage before retirement, his passengers are going to die and there's nothing he can do to stop it. After giving some final orders to his men, he walks into the ship's bridge, locks himself in and waits. When the water comes, he's still at his post.
    • In real life, it was very different but just as horrific. According to research books, Smith is last seen with Thomas Andrews at the front of the bridge, and unlike in the movie, the two do decide to make a try for it, jumping into the water (Smith still honoring his post by not taking a seat on a lifeboat). However, both drown in the chaos.
  • When the plunge begins, the camera pans from the bridge to the stern, showing a wave of people desperately trying to get to high ground. You can clearly see the movement of over a thousand people across three distinct levels.
  • The dome of the Grand Staircase imploding, sending a violent torrent of water down upon the dozens of screaming passengers still trapped inside.
  • After that, water rushes through the lower decks, ripping doors off their hinges and smashing the walls.
  • Before this, we see the windows of the staircase implode, sucking people outside back into the ship.
  • The Deleted Scene where Cora and her parents die in steerage due to a locked gate as they scream for help. For some third class passengers unable to find their way out before the water found them, that scene was all too real. The scene was even deleted specifically because it was considered too distressing even by this film's standards.
  • The first funnel's stays (heavy, tensioned cables that held it in place) snapping in slow motion (and each with enough force to cut someone in half) as it begins to collapse and the metal can be heard raunching once again. Even Cal looks horrified at the sight and sound.
    • And if you look closer, one of the cables hits a swimmer like a giant metal whip.
  • As the Titanic sank, the various lights on the superstructure inside and outside still emitted power causing the water to illuminate a sickly green colour inside and outside the ship. The dimming lights stay on right before the ship loses power completely.
  • The moment the ship's lights go out. Half of the ship out of the water has always looked like an unsettling image.
  • Since the Titanic sank on a moonless night, it would have essentially been pitch black when the lights went out. The only reason it isn't the case here is because it wouldn't have made for a very good movie. Think about that.
  • The moment the lights went out for good, all semblance of control anyone had over the situation or hope that they'll make it out alive is absolutely gone. Once the ship went dark, the people left onboard were essentially waiting to die.
  • The groaning sound the ship makes as well. Almost like Titanic herself is alive and experiencing unimaginable pain.
  • The ship breaking in two and the passengers' screams as the stern half plunges to the surface; doubly so when you see the stern collapsing on top of those already in the water. The music playing during this moment compounds the horror.
    • The passengers in the water are not the only casualties of the break-up of the ship either. Initially, as the Titanic's stern rose higher into the air, anybody who was not holding onto something or wedged between the corridors slid across the decking until they either managed to grab ahold of something, collided painfully with an object that stopped their fall or for the vast majority fell into the water. As the ship rips apart, a few passengers have the gross misfortune of being caught right on the edge of the tear. For these unfortunate souls, the tear is uneven, leaving several sharp edges and the ship's wiring short-circuits. As gravity takes over, those on the stern that do not have a hold of anything or cannot maintain their grip due to the velocity of the fall are flung across the surface of the ship into the gaping wound and certain death.
    • Lovejoy is one such passenger, his boss having abandoned him to his fate after cowardly ducking into a lifeboat. For all his faults, it's still horrifying to see him fall into the breaking section as it splits open.
  • Any time we see passengers jumping and tumbling down the now nearly vertical ship as it begins its final plunge, and others struggling to hold on to the stern for dear life. For some, the passenger managing to hit one of the propeller blades after he jumps.
  • The ship's engineers fighting vainly to keep the ship's lights on. Not only do we see one of them electrocuted when the ship's breakers fail completely, but they are all trapped in the deepest parts of the ship, without lights and without any hope of escape, and yet they stayed at their posts to the very end. One can only imagine the hell they endured moments later when the ship broke into two.
  • The soundtrack deserves a special note too; especially "Death of Titanic". At the 6:06 mark, strange chattering and shrieking noises that sound almost demonic can be heard in the background, contrasting with the serene music. Yeesh.
    • Oh, it gets better: those are the dying screams and cries of the passengers trapped in the water. And then the music picks up tempo and rises in a horrible, droning cacophony, signifying the ship slowly making its final descent into the water.
    • The song's title is not just for drama. Not only are there well over 1500 people drowning and freezing, but the movie truly sells the idea that the RMS Titanic herself is dying. Those metal groans and straining sounds from the hull, from the flooding rooms to the break-up, help to create the impression that this once-vibrant ocean liner, established as near-heavenly, and the so-called "Ship of Dreams" is now a dying beast taking hundreds of people down with it.
  • When the ship finally sinks completely, it's mentioned that the suction created by the ship descending to the ocean floor is strong enough to drag those without life jackets down with it, even if they managed to get out. Thankfully this is only a misconception and eyewitness accounts differ, but the imagery is still premium Nightmare Fuel.
    • The "suction" effect from a large, rapidly sinking ship isn't necessarily suction, but the large amounts of air bubbles escaping from the hull as it floods. The mix of air makes the water not dense enough for a human to float in, even with a lifejacket, so even if they swim upwards, it's often not enough to reach the surface in time. In a way Jack is right and Rose needs to know this so she can survive.
  • The speed of how fast the Titanic sinks during the final plunge. Titanic held on for about two hours, but once the water floods the boat deck and drags the ship down, it only takes ten minutes for the largest moving man-made object in the world to sink. And every single nightmarish moment in that final plunge is haunting.
• The young Slovakian boy sobbing for his father, who finds him only for them to be washed away from the oncoming wave of water.
  • You could only imagine the sheer anxiety and fear that boy must've had throughout his whole scene: Likely under his father's orders, the boy waits in a slowly flooding corridor for an indefinite amount of time unsure if his father was still alive. Then suddenly, two complete strangers, despite their absolute best intentions, suddenly kidnap him. Since they didn't speak his language, he didn't bother telling them his dad was looking for him, but probably felt so helpless and uncertain in that moment to reluctantly go with them. It's only just after when Jack and Rose grab him, his father arrives at the last second and is understandably pissed at randos taking his son.
• The firemen fleeing through the watertight doors as the boiler rooms flood with water. They are likely thinking of a slow, painful death as each compartment flooded one by one.
  • This was the effect that the dramatic striking scene was trying to portray, and it did a good job. However, all of the boiler rooms had escape ladders to "Scotland Road" so nobody was really trapped in that instant.
    • However there was at least one engine room crew whose leg was stuck between watertight doors and did not survive, so it wasn't entirely exaggerated.
  • It's not shown directly, but there's an agonized scream when water is shown hitting the boilers as firemen are trying to run past it. Steam burns are not pleasant.
• The drowned corpse floating around in the water just before the scene of plates collapsing.
• The entire sequence from when the lookout spots the iceberg, and the crew desperately scramble to their posts to try to save the ship from hitting it. We know that their efforts will be in vain...
• Those that are curious enough to track down the actual distress call broadcast by Titanic during her sinking will certainly have trouble sleeping when they hear the message played out in Morse Code. If that's not enough, just imagine the countless wireless operators that heard the message, and were absolutely powerless to do anything about it.
  • Made even worse by the fact that Titanic's final message was interrupted by a fight breaking out between a fireman and the Marconi operators. Nothing more is heard from the ship. For the wireless operators listening in, this would have been like being next to someone who is afraid to die and pleading to be saved, only to die in mid-sentence.
• The Distant Reaction Shot of the distress rocket exploding above the ship... with nothing else visible on the surface, showing just how alone they are.
• The deleted scene of Cora's death can serve as both nightmare fuel and a tear jerker. The little girl and her parents were presumably lost in the labyrinth of the Titanic's corridors and by the time they find a way out the ship is rapidly flooding and when they reach a locked gate the flooding which only goes faster, engulfs the trio in mere seconds and they will drown within moments. According to James Cameron the reason the scene was deleted was because it was deemed too upsetting to see a child die in this way.
• Officer Murdoch being pushed to the point of shooting passengers as the situation gets worse. Made worse when he accidentally shoots Tommy and a trail of blood streaks right before his feet; capped off by Murdoch taking his own life upon seeing what he's done.
• Even though Rose's mother, Molly Brown and other survivors were in lifeboats they also faced the possibility of death. Think about it. No food, no water, no compass and other resources. Had the Carpathia not arrived hours after Titanic sank, the chances of the survivors being able to survive in the middle of the North Atlantic miles from land and in below freezing temperatures were extremely slim. Despite not being in the ocean, even the cold air could freeze the survivors to death as well. This can count as fridge brilliance because Jack Phillips and Harold Bride actually saved the lives of those who managed to leave on the lifeboats, though Bride himself also survived while his friend sadly didn't.
• The family who didn't speak English, with the father frantically flipping through a (presumably) English-Arabic guidebook. A nightmare for anyone traveling or living anywhere without knowing the local language.
  • It is very unlikely that the family survived. Even if they did manage to get out of the maze corridors, they were third-class passengers, and most of them didn't get to the lifeboats. This scene is the last time we see them alive. They are never seen again.
• The deleted scene in which Lovejoy hunts for Jack and Rose in the flooding dining saloon. There's no music as he slowly stalks through the room, only the increasingly loud metallic groans as Titanic sinks. Plus, he's a former Pinkerton Detective, who were famous for using excessive force. He would have killed both of them had he been given the chance, and for the moment when he finds Rose right before Jack comes up from behind him, it looks like he will.
  Lovejoy: I've been looking for you, Miss.
• When Carpathia finally arrives in the morning, the sunlight unveils several large icebergs surrounding the ship and the lifeboats. Where Titanic made her final plunge. Though it's not the focus, it's a chilly reminder of just how common these ship sinking hazards are and how close Carpathia herself came to a sinking disaster herself as she navigates through this ice field at top speed. Heck, it's reported in real life that many Titanic survivors were straight up traumatized at the sight of so many icebergs in the morning.
• The 1996 Framing Device heavily featuring the actual real life wreck, gives an ever present sense of dread to the voyage that only increases the closer the plot gets to the night of the 14th, and with each and every hint and reminder that Titanic for all her splendor and romance is in fact sailing off into tragedy.
• The fact that, Artistic License and fictional characters aside, all of this actually happened.

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