Remember the Titanic Door That Saved Rose (But Not Jack)? It Just Sold for $718,750
Remember Titanic, the action-packed romantic disaster film by James Cameron?
The prop door that Rose clung to while saying goodbye to her leading man just sold for an impressive $718,750.
The “unsinkable” ship has sparked many debates online, as “there’s a magic about Titanic that transcends reality” according to Carolyn Spencer Brown, editor of CruiseCritic.com.
Discussions range from the cinematic brilliance of the filmmaker to how the victims should be honored and why the expedition to retrieve the ship’s radio equipment must be prevented at all costs. However, few debates have lasted as long and elicited such strong opinions as the Titanic door.
Even a quarter of a century later, many audience members believe that the large door that kept Kate Winslet’s character out of the icy waters could also have kept her lover, Jack, safe. Freezing, but safe until help could come along.
Throughout the years, people have suggested various ways in which the two might have survived the disaster. Even Mythbusters came up with an episode that explored the concept. According to the show, they could have both used the door as a flotation divide by strapping Rose’s life jacket under the door. By increasing its buoyancy, the door could have supported most of the couple’s weight.
The obsession “never seems to end with people” said the Canadian filmmaker and visionary. “The Titanic has this kind of enduring, almost mythic, novelistic quality. And it has to do with, I think, love and sacrifice and mortality”, he ruminated.
He put the infamous theory and online chatter to rest by recreating the scenario using two people roughly the same height and weight as Rose and Jack. The National Geographic documentary entitled Titanic: 25 Years Later With James Cameron established that Jack would have died from hypothermia. The wooden door would not have been able to support the actors’ collective weight. However, if Jack and Rose kept their upper bodies entirely out of the freezing water by using the door, Jack would have “made it until the lifeboat got there.”
Well, one lucky fan can now test the hypothesis firsthand. The iconic set piece was sold by Heritage Auctions’ in Planet Hollywood for a whopping $718,750.
The fateful piece of balsa wood from Titanic was the highest-grossing item! Upon finalizing the transaction, Heritage Auctions reminded the public that the “floating door” was actually part of the door frame above the first-class lounge entrance.
Other coveted props sold included Winslet’s chiffon dress from the film’s finale ($125,000), the braided kangaroo leather bull-whip from 1984’s Indiana Jones’s and The Temple of Doom ($525,000), and the ax wielded by Jack Nicholson in The Shining ($125,000).
Bill Murray’s translucent polyester red rose bowling ball that was used to win a million-dollar tournament from Kingpin sold for $350,000. Meanwhile, the black symbiote suit seen on Tobey Maguire in Spider-Man 3 fetched ($125,000).
Last but certainly not least, the modified can of shaving cream used by Wayne Knight to store the stolen dinosaur embryos in Jurassic Park went for $250,000.
