Titanic fans shocked as footage of alternative ending resurfaces

An alternative ending to the much-loved Titanic has resurfaced on social media, and many fans are grateful it did not make the final cut.

The 1997 film ended with an elderly Rose secretly revealing she still had the Heart of the Ocean necklace, the treasure the crew had been searching for.

She’s seen climbing onto the search ship’s railings in the middle of the night, dropping it into the ocean over the ship’s wreckage site.

Though it appears James Cameron filmed an alternative ending which was included on the 2005 special feature DVD release, although seemingly forgotten about.

The substitute ending sees the current-day Rose climb onto the railings, before the crew and her granddaughter realises, and run to her.

Rose reveals she had the necklace all along, and threatens to drop it into the ocean. However, before she does so, she allows treasure-hunter Brock to hold it.

Once he hands it back to her, she tosses it over her shoulder into the water, before another crew member exclaims: “That really sucked, lady”.

Brock, seemingly having had some sort of epiphany, begins to laugh maniacally.

The clip’s emergence on social media has allowed many Titanic fans their first glimpse of what could have been, although many seem relieved Cameron decided on the ending we all know and love.

Avid film fan Pat Brennan said while “hilarious”, the alternative ending would’ve “ruined” the beloved film for him.

Another questioned “what Cameron was even thinking filming [this]”, while a third said the OG version was the only one they were willing to acknowledge.

Bill Paxton, who played Brock, appeared to share the sentiments surrounding the back-up ending in a 2017 interview, saying it just did not work for the film.

Speaking to Yahoo, he added: “I would have shot heroin to make the scene work better.”

He explained the story had wrapped up by the time it came back around to the present-day, and so there was no love lost with the alternative ending.

Paxton said: “Our job was done by then. So it became very evident in the cutting. If you’re smart and you take the ego and the narcissism out of it, you’ll listen to the film. The film will tell you what it needs and what it does not need. And the baby needs tough love.”

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