James Cameron says he has scientifically proved that Leonardo DiCaprio’s character Jack could not have survived Titanic’s infamous “floating door” scene with Kate Winslet’s Rose.

In an interview with Postmedia, Cameron said that he had commissioned “a scientific study to put this whole thing to rest and drive a stake through its heart once and for all”. Jack’s fate has aroused considerable discussion since the film’s release in 1997; Rose escapes the catastrophic sinking of the ill-fated ocean liner by climbing on to a wooden panel while Jack dies of hypothermia in the freezing sea as the panel is supposedly unable to also bear his weight.