James Cameron’s Titanic has many memorable scenes, and one of those, starring a secondary character, references another Titanic movie. Even though he’s now mostly known for his work in the sci-fi genre, one of James Cameron’s most impressive projects is the 1997 movie Titanic, which at the time was the most expensive movie ever made and was the highest-grossing film of all time for many years. Titanic is based on the real-life tragedy of the RMS Titanic in 1912, but its main story and characters are fictional, though thanks to them, the audience meets many others that were based on real-life passengers of the ship.
Titanic tells the story of Rose DeWitt Bukater (Kate Winslet), a first-class young woman, and Jack Dawson (Leonardo DiCaprio), a third-class passenger, who meet onboard the ship. Over the course of four days, Jack and Rose fall in love and defend their romance from those who look down upon them, mostly those from the first-class side of the ship. However, Jack and Rose had a couple of allies, such as Molly Brown (Kathy Bates) and Thomas Andrews (Victor Garber). The latter was at the front and center of one of the most heartbreaking scenes in Titanic, which is a reference to another Titanic movie: A Night To Remember.
Mr. Andrews’ Final Moments In Titanic Mirror Those In A Night To Remember
Thomas Andrews is one of Titanic’s characters based on a real-life person, and he was the ship’s builder, so he was among those responsible for the ship's luxuries and for making the ship one of the largest and safest – and as such, he was well aware that there weren’t enough lifeboats. Andrews was famously believed to have stayed in the first-class smoking room until the ship sank, though this has been refuted as other reports said Andrews stayed in the smoking room for a while and later continued assisting with the evacuation, throwing deck chairs into the ocean for passengers to use as floating devices, and finally left the ship at the last moment.
However, the image of Andrews waiting alone for the Titanic to sink in the smoking room is widely popular, so much so that it was included in A Night To Remember, the 1958 docudrama based on the 1955 book of the same name by Walter Lord. A Night to Remember included one scene where Mr. Andrews (Michael Goodliffe) is all by himself in the smoking room after realizing that his “unsinkable” ship is, in fact, sinking. A steward asks Mr. Andrews if he’s not going to try to save himself, but he remains quiet and rests both hands on the mantle while staring into the clock. James Cameron recreated this scene in Titanic, with Rose approaching Mr. Andrews and asking if he’s not going to give it a try. The last time the audience sees Mr. Andrews in James Cameron’s Titanic is during the montage while the band plays and scenes from different parts of the ship are shown, among them Mr. Andrews resting his hands on the mantle and changing the clock’s time.
Why A Night To Remember Is Considered The Definitive Titanic Movie
A Night to Remember was a box office failure, but it was a critical success. The movie has been described as “the definitive cinematic telling of the story” of the Titanic and is widely regarded as the most accurate depiction of it by historians and survivors (except for not featuring the ship breaking in half, which at the time wasn’t confirmed). A Night To Remember has also been praised for its depiction of social classes aboard the ship, and even though some of the once historically accurate elements of it have now been confirmed to be wrong (such as Mr. Andrews staying in the smoking room), it’s still considered the definitive telling of the Titanic’s tragedy. It’s not surprising, then, that James Cameron took a lot of inspiration from it, taking dialogues and scenes from it and adapting them to his own story.