'Titanic' Door Prop That Kept Rose Alive Sells for $718,750

The prop piece of balsa wood from the movie “Titanic,” famously associated with the debate over whether Kate Winslet’s Rose and her lover, Jack, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, could have both fit on it, has sold at auction for $718,750, according to The Guardian.

The scene in question takes place toward the end of the film after the RMS Titanic sank, leaving Jack and Rose to swirl through the freezing waters, where they manage to find a thick door that had been ripped off its hinges aboard. 

However, after they tried unsuccessfully to both fit on the floating door, Jack allows Rose to stay on while he remained mostly submerged in the water. By the time lifeboats arrived, he had frozen to death.

In 2022, director James Cameron conducted a “scientific study” to address speculation surrounding Jack’s death in the movie, aiming to definitively settle whether it was necessary for the plot.

“We have done a scientific study to put this whole thing to rest and drive a stake through its heart once and for all,” Cameron said, according to The Toronto Sun.

“We have since done a thorough forensic analysis with a hypothermia expert who reproduced the raft from the movie and we’re going to do a little special on it that comes out in February,” he explained. “We took two stunt people who were the same body mass of Kate and Leo and we put sensors all over them and inside them and we put them in ice water and we tested to see whether they could have survived through a variety of methods and the answer was, there was no way they both could have survived.

“Only one could survive.”

And now, 2 1/2 decades later, Cameron said he has “no” regrets for the movie’s outcome.

“No, he needed to die,” he said. “It’s like Romeo and Juliet. It’s a movie about love and sacrifice and mortality. The love is measured by the sacrifice.”

Other key items sold at the Heritage Auctions’ “Treasures From Planet Hollywood” event included Winslet’s chiffon dress from Titanic’s finale, selling for $125,000, Indiana Jones’s bullwhip from “The Temple of Doom” for $525,000, and Jack Nicholson’s axe from “The Shining” for $125,000.

Additionally, Bill Murray’s red rose bowling ball from “Kingpin” fetched $350,000, Tobey Maguire’s black symbiote suit from “Spider-Man 3” sold for $125,000, Wayne Knight’s can of shaving cream from “Jurassic Park” made $250,000, and Carrie Fisher’s blaster from “Return of the Jedi” garnered $150,000.