James Cameron Pooh-Poohs Fan Theory That Jack Could Have Survived 'Titanic' Ending

— -- James Cameron is trying to put an end to the 20-year debate about whether there was enough room for Jack (Leonardo DiCaprio) on that plank of wood that saved Rose's (Kate Winslet) life after the ship went down. This debate now includes whether the board could hold the weight of two people.

You know the final scene of the Oscar-winning movie -- where Rose climbs on the wood door, Jack stays in the water and eventually dies. This happens before she says, "I'll never let go, Jack," but she in fact does let go and tries to scream for help. Fans have said for years that there may have been enough support for both and that he didn't have to die.

Cameron now says that's "full of s---."

In an interview with The Daily Beast, when asked if there was room, the film's director said, "We’re gonna go there? Look, it’s very, very simple: you read page 147 of the script and it says, 'Jack gets off the board and gives his place to her so that she can survive.' It’s that simple."

He then mentioned a "MythBusters" episode that allegedly debunked the idea they couldn't have both survived.

"OK, so let’s really play that out: you’re Jack, you’re in water that’s 28 degrees, your brain is starting to get hypothermia. 'Mythbusters' asks you to now go take off your life vest, take hers off, swim underneath this thing, attach it in some way that it won’t just wash out two minutes later -- which means you’re underwater tying this thing on in 28-degree water, and that’s going to take you five to ten minutes, so by the time you come back up you’re already dead," he said.

He continued, "So that wouldn’t work. His best choice was to keep his upper body out of the water and hope to get pulled out by a boat or something before he died. They’re fun guys and I loved doing that show with them, but they’re full of s---."

In the "Mythbusters" episode, Cameron himself joined in, and the conclusion was that if Jack somehow was able to take off Rose's life vest and swim underneath to support the wood board, he could have climbed on it and lived. As Cameron said in the Daily Beast interview, he would have had to spend time tying it underneath, so that it wouldn't just pop up from under the board and float away.

The show went into full detail, pronouncing Jack dead in the freezing water at 51 minutes if he hadn't tried to get on the board. But the hosts said if he had tried the maneuver with the vest, he could have lived. They felt the board by itself didn't feel too stable and it might be an issue in freezing temperatures.

Obviously, Cameron thinks otherwise.

To be fair, in the "Mythbusters" episode, Cameron says, "Maybe we screwed up and the board should have been a bit smaller, but the dude's [Jack] going down!"

For more from that "Mythbusters" episode, watch here.