James Cameron has explained that your best realistic shot at surviving the Titanic disaster is not clinging to random debris like Jack, but timing your jump to a lifeboat at the last moment. His logic blends what is now known about hypothermia, human behavior in disasters and the actual launch procedure of the ship’s boats.​

According to Cameron, if you were a solo second‑class passenger turned away from the lifeboats, the key would be to stay on the ship until a boat was being lowered right beside you. Instead of leaping early into open water, you would wait on the rail, then jump into the freezing sea at the exact moment the lifeboat cast off, close enough that you could swim a very short distance to it. In water around −2°C (about 28°F), that brief immersion would be dangerous but survivable if you were pulled out quickly, whereas prolonged exposure like Jack’s is essentially a death sentence.​

Cameron also points out the psychological factor: with hundreds of witnesses still watching from the decks, the passengers and crew in the lifeboat would almost certainly feel compelled to haul you aboard rather than let you drown in front of them. Once the boat had rowed away into the dark, however, your chances would plummet; no one would see or hear you, and the cold would kill within minutes. This is why he argues that Jack’s only real shot would have been a calculated, risky jump toward a departing lifeboat, not trying to double up on the door with Rose — tests Cameron later commissioned showed only one person could safely stay on that raft without both succumbing to hypothermia.