Throughout Titanic, Jack and Rose sang a special song that wasn’t given any context in the final cut of the movie, but a deleted scene explains why it was so special to them. James Cameron is one of the biggest names in the film industry all thanks to the various genres he has explored in his movies – from sci-fi with The Terminator to action comedy with True Lies and even horror with Piranha II: The Spawning. In 1997, he dived into the genres of disaster films and epic romance with Titanic, his most ambitious project at the time.
Based on the accounts of the sinking of the RMS Titanic in 1912, Titanic tells the story of Rose DeWitt Bukater (Kate Winslet) and Jack Dawson (Leonardo DiCaprio), two passengers from different social classes who fall in love aboard the ship during its ill-fated maiden voyage. The story jumps from the present (1997) to 1912 throughout the movie as old Rose tells the story of her short-lived but intense romance with Jack, and there was an important detail in their story that suffered the consequences of post-production and was left without an explanation.
At two different but equally important points in Titanic, Jack and Rose sing “Come Josephine In My Flying Machine”, though not in the same cheerful way as Blanche Ring did in 1910 and many other versions after that. The first and perhaps the most memorable time this song shows up in Titanic is when Rose meets Jack on the bow to make him know that she has chosen to stay with him rather than with her fiancé Cal Hockley (Billy Zane), making way for the famous “I’m flying!” scene, after which Jack starts singing the song in a much softer version. The song appears again in the final act of the movie, when Rose is floating in the water, waiting for a lifeboat to come close and save them, and given the context, it’s a much sadder and melancholic version of the song. The final cut makes these scenes a bit strange as they pretty much sing that specific song just because, but a deleted scene shows why it was so significant to them.
After Jack saved Rose from jumping off the ship, Cal invited him to dine with them in first-class in an attempt to “show his gratitude”. As interesting as it was to see Jack blending in with the rest, it was clear that neither he nor Rose was comfortable in that environment, so he invited her to have some real fun with the rest of the third-class passengers. This was the bonding experience that changed everything for Rose, and in the final cut of the movie, she’s seen having fun with Jack and the rest and then it immediately cuts to the next morning, with Rose and Cal having breakfast. There was a scene between those two moments that showed Rose and Jack leaving the third-class party and walking back to the first-class area while cheerfully singing “Come Josephine In My Flying Machine”. The singing stops when they reach the first-class part of the ship, where they talk about what they wish for but can’t have.
While it’s easy to see why the scene was cut, as it messes with the pace and doesn’t offer much aside from the context for the song, at the same time it would have added another layer of emotion to Jack and Rose’s story. Seeing them cheerfully singing “Come Josephine In My Flying Machine” after their first party together, then singing it softly when they finally get together, and one final time now in a much sadder tone is a simple way to chronicle their relationship, and it would have explained why they sang the song during those important moments in their story, as it was their song. While this deleted scene from Titanic doesn’t really affect the arcs of Jack and Rose, it explains an important detail about their romance and adds more emotion to it.