Titanic

James Cameron (The Terminator, The Abyss) wrote and directed this $200+ million romantic drama and action-adventure disaster epic about a young couple, Rose Dewitt Bukater (Kate Winslet) and Jack Dawson (Leonardo DiCaprio) on the R.M.S. Titanic. Also aboard: John Jacob Astor (Eric Braeden) and the Unsinkable Molly Brown (Kathy Bates -- as the character who brought Debbie Reynolds a 1964 Oscar nomination in The Unsinkable Molly Brown). Spanning eight decades, Rose's Philadelphia society mother (Frances Fisher) and her granddaughter Lizzy (Suzy Amis) both appear, interlinking with the modern-day storyline: While the 100-year-old Rose searches her memories of the historic event, bounty hunter Brock Lovett (Bill Paxton) and other treasure-seekers plan to look beneath the waves for an heirloom, a 56-carat diamond necklace (named Le Coeur de la Mer by Louis the XVI). Cameron described this movie as "a human drama set against the stage of the early 20th Century. It basically takes place mostly in 1912. It has a present-day wraparound story that involves submersibles and a salvage operation. This takes one back into the 1912 story through the memory flashbacks of a survivor. Most of the story plays out in the four days leading up to the sinking." The real Titanic's blueprints were followed for the construction of the ship on soundstages in Mexico. A water tank of immense proportions was filled for the Titanic sinking shots. Other locations include Canada (Halifax, Nova Scotia), California (Escondido, Rosarito Beach, Baja). During three weeks aboard the Russian ship Academik Keldysh, underwater sequences of a submersible were filmed, and a remote underwater robot camera captured footage shot inside the real Titanic. The Titanic was also re-created as a totally digitized model for moving camera shots roaming through decks and over the complete ship. One setback on this production was reported in newspapers after 80 crew members fell ill because someone secretly peppered their lobster chowder with PCP/angel dust, resulting in illness and hallucinations.