James Cameron’s epic retelling of the doomed voyage of the Titanic has been a crowd favorite for many years. The 1997 blockbuster grossed over $2 billion at the box office and is still popular among movie lovers today.
Filming for Titanic began on July 31, 1996, and the production team concluded shooting on March 23, 1997. Baja Studios, a movie studio complex in Mexico, served as the primary location for filming a majority of the movie. The Titanic was reconstructed by Paramount Studios and 20th Century Fox, and the replica was 10 to 15 times smaller than the original vessel. However, some exterior shots and additional scenes were created using computer graphics.
Some of Titanic’s scenes were shot in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, at the Halifax Harbour. The beginning of the movie, where Bill Paxton and Gloria Stuart’s characters search for the missing Heart of the Sea necklace, was filmed here. Additionally, the Belmont Plaza Pool, which was one of the largest pools at the time, served for some underwater shots of the Titanic’s wreckage.
The SS Jeremiah O’Brien, docked at Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco, played host to many of Titanic’s interior sequences. The insides of the SS Jeremiah were specifically redesigned to look as similar as possible to the Titanic’s interior. The vessel was built by the New England Shipbuilding Corporation in June 1943 and was used many times during World War II to complete overseas voyages. Today, it operates as a World War II museum as the National Liberty Ship Memorial.
James Cameron is known for his love of diving, and he even collaborated with a maritime expedition team to lead a voyage to the Titanic’s post-collision location in the Atlantic Ocean. Cameron expressed his excitement and gratitude for his experience diving on the wreckage, saying, For me, it was like landing on the moon. I wasn’t scared. Halfway through the first dive, we’d kind of plopped down on the deck of the ship, and there’s this moment of, ‘My God. We’re really at Titanic.’
Overall, Titanic’s remarkable production successfully brought the doomed voyage to life, allowing viewers to witness the events that took place on that tragic night in 1912. Despite the movie’s long-standing popularity, the debate over Jack and Rose’s last moments together on a floating door continues to this day.
