Titanic Trivia

--Opening

The whole movie except the present day scenes and the opening and ending credits are two hours and 40 minutes long which was the exact time it took for the Titanic to sink. The collision scene with the iceberg lasted 37 seconds in the movie and in real life.

While filming in Nova Scotia - somebody (the suspicion was an ex-employee) put a hallucinogenic (PCP or angel dust) into the clam chowder that was served to the cast and crew. People started doing crazy things - the director of photography led a conga line, another crew member started to demand to see a priest, the assistant director started taking to Cameron while talking into her walkie talkie - even though she was right in front of him! Cameron realized what happened and induced vomiting on himself. About 50 people went to the hospital but all were eventually fine.

--Loading Scene

The Swedish phrases that Sven and Olaf exchange during the card game translate into the following: Olaf: "Idiot!" Sven: "Shut up!" Olaf: "You damn chicken brain! I can't believe you're betting our tickets!" Sven: "We lost our money, I'm just trying to win them back!"/.../Olaf (when grabbing Jack by the throat): "You damn scoundrel!" Olaf (after punching Sven in the face): "You damn idiot! What the hell are we gonna do?! I'm gonna kill you!"

There were 150 core extras that stayed with the crew through the entire filming. They each had their own backstories that attempted at duplicating the backstories of the real Titanic. They had a 3 hour long tutorial on mannerism and such of 1912 that ran continually in the wardrobe department. It was called Titanic Etiquette: A Time Traveler's Guide".

--The staircase

The staircase was a bit bigger than the original - the reason? Because people in 1997 are taller than people in 1912 and thus they would have looked out of place on a smaller staircase.

--Spitting Scene 

Egg white was used for the initial spitting sequence, but petroleum jelly was used in the sequence where Rose spits on Cal.

---Sketching Scene

Kate Winslet broke the ice with Leonardo DiCaprio by flashing him when she first met him.

When Rose is being sketched, it is actually the director (James Cameron)'s hands during post-production editing. The director is left-handed which then mirror images on film so that the shots look like they were right handed like DiCaprio. 

--Flying Scene

This was filmed with a real sunset. They only had 8 days where they could use their setup for filming this scene and everyday something happened that it wasn't right. On the eighth day - the sky was cloudy and everybody assumed it wouldn't happen but then there was a break in the clouds and they filmed it so fast the camera wasn't completely focused but it was the perfect shot so that was the one they went with.

--Boiler Room

In the scene in the beginning where the captain orders full-speed ahead and the shot moves down into the boiler room, the set was really just about three boilers, but the filmmakers had huge mirrors installed to visualize a great big long room. (In this scene you can see workers shoving in coal, and about 20 feet down the room you can see the mirror image of the workers).

--Collision Scene

When the water is crashing into the Grand Staircase room - they only had one chance to film it. Ater the one shot - the entire set and furniture were destroyed.

---Post Sinking

The scenes of after the sinking were filmed in a 350,000 gallon tank.

The frozen dead people were made by taking real actors and putting a power on them that crystallized when wet. Then they had wax on their hair and clothes to look wet too.

Most of the extras jumped off the ship into only three feet of water but there was a place where it was deeper. They would jump into their by aiming for life jackets or deck chairs placed so they knew where it was deep enough to land. 

The paneling that Rose floats on is an actual artifact that can be found in a museum in Halifax.

Rose was not allowed to wear a wetsuit during the sinking scenes. As a result - she got hypothermia and almost quit the production.

In the scene where the lifeboats are rowing to the Carpathia, there is a brief scene that shows Fifth Officer Lowe waving a green flare and shouting something, but for dramatic reasons the diologue is muted. If you were to read his lips, you can tell he is saying "Come on, put your backs into it, men. We've been saved! Row!"

When the stern of the ship is vertical, Chef Baker Joughin (Liam Tuohy, in white) is drinking from a flask. Joughin was one of few to survive the freezing water, allegedly due to the alcohol (but this is disputed as unlikely since alcohol is known to accelerate hypothermia, not to help resist cold). The scene was added after Liam showed the flask to James Cameron explaining that it was a family heirloom as old as the Titanic itself.