Jack Dawson (Leonardo DiCaprio)

A young, charming and talented artist who is travelling throughout  the world, painting as he goes. He wins a ticket to go on the Titanic’s first voyage in a poker game, just minutes before it leaves England.

Rose DeWitt Bukater (Kate Winslet)

A 17 year old women from a rich family who is going to marry Cal (see below), a rich and disgusting man who she hates. She feels trapped by her life situation, but is unsure how to escape.

Rose Dawson Calvert (Gloria Stuart)

The 100 year old woman who, in 1997, tells us the story of her adventures on the Titanic, as the 17 year old above, back in 1912.

Caledon Cal Hockley (Billy Zane)

An arrogant and classist businessman who inherited millions of dollars, who was planning to marry Rose.

Ruth Bukater (Frances Fisher)

Rose’s snobby mother, who insists that Rose marry Cal, simply because the Bukater family was suddenly without money after her husband died. He had left behind only “lots of debts and a good family name.”

The Unsinkable Molly Brown (Kathy Bates)

A colorful supporter of women’s rights. She was considered “new money,” because she had grown up poor, but had married a rich man.

Captain John Smith (Bernard Hill)

The captain of the Titanic, who was leading the ship on its first voyage, in what was to be his last trip as a captain before he retired.

Plot Summary

On April 15th, 1912, the Titanic, the largest and most luxurious passenger ship built until that time, struck an iceberg in the North Atlantic Ocean while on its maiden voyage from Southhampton, England to New York City. 1,517 of the ship’s 2,207 passengers died when the great ship---which was generally thought to be unsinkable---went down to the bottom of the ocean floor just two hours after striking the iceberg. Among the dead were some of the richest people alive, but in fact the majority of those who died were relatively poor people who were trapped in the bottom of the ship, in what was called the ‘steerage’ quarters.

This film tells the story of that tragic event from the point of view of Rose,

a 100 year old woman who survived the sinking, and is now looking back at what happened, 85 years later. This happens because one day, Rose recognizes a painting of herself that was being shown on TV, after it had been recovered by a group of undersea explorers who were filming the remains of the Titanic on the ocean bottom. After she sees her portrait, she and her granddaughter contact Brock, the leader of the exploration ship, so that she can tell him the story of her amazing adventure.

At the time of the sinking, Rose was a charming but spoiled 17 year old woman who was sailing back to America in order to get married to Cal Hockley, a rich, arrogant and truly disagreeable businessman who was going to eventually inherit millions of dollars. Rose was desperate to avoid this fate, but she was being pushed to do so by her mother, a snobby woman who had recently discovered that her recently deceased husband had left her and Rose without any money, despite their rich family name.

In a moment of great depression, Rose considers jumping off the Titanic, but is convinced not to do so by Jack Dawson, a charming young artist who travels around the world, painting the people that he sees. Jack has no money and is clearly not from the same social class as Rose or Cal, but over the next couple days, they quickly fall in love, which obviously does not please either Cal or Rose’s mother. Yet for Rose herself, meeting Jack is probably the best thing that would ever happen to her, for during the course of their two short days together, Jack saves her “in every way that a person can be saved.”

A Brief Note on the Titanic and Social Class: While the plot is focused on the love story between Jack and Rose, this film often explores the role of social class in the lives of the individual characters. Indeed, in real life, the passengers on the Titanic were clearly divided along class lines, and thus when the ship sunk, few of the survivors were from 3rd class steerage, which was where the poorer passengers stayed, on the lowest levels of the ship.

Did you know that Kate Winslet was not the first choice for the role of Rose in Titanic.