Why Rose Should Have Ended Up With Cal In Titanic, According To Billy Zane

Titanic Cal Rose

We all know Titanic as the classic romantic and tragic tale of a young woman who loses the love of her life on a fatal shipwreck. It's one of the most well-known love stories from the past 20 years with one of the saddest endings. Who could ever forget Jack (Leonardo DiCaprio) plunging to his watery grave after keeping Rose (Kate Winslet) alive on a door that definitely only had room for one person? Still, there's been a question lingering in the minds of viewers for years now and finally, someone had the courage to stand up and ask, why didn't Rose end up with Cal, her rich fiancé who looked down on the poor and was an all around garbage person? That person is Billy Zane, the man who played Cal in Titanic, and he still wishes the two had ended up together.

During his appearance on Today, Billy Zane proposed an alternate ending to the film. He wishes that his character, Caledon Hockley, had ended up with Rose after reuniting on the rescue ship. The actor feels that his character wasn't all bad and was really just misunderstood throughout the entire movie. He said:

I think he found redemption in the end, and I wish he had found her on [the rescue ship] Carpathia and was able to right his wrongs. He was a little misunderstood. I wasn't the iceberg.

Cal certainly wasn't the iceberg. He was just the guy who framed Jack for theft, had him arrested, treated Rose like he owned her and then chased the two of them through a flooding ship with a gun. He was just your classic misunderstood romantic underdog. As for being redeemed at the end, he did save a little girl and get her on to one of the last lifeboats. Of course, that was so he could use her as a living ticket so that he himself could also get on one of those boats. Maybe James Cameron hid a secret "nice guy" arc for Cal in the movie and no one has noticed it yet.

If Cal had found Rose (who was hiding from him, I believe) at the end, then maybe the movie would have turned out differently. She wouldn't have gone on to have a new life with a new family and he wouldn't have killed himself. Cal wasn't the nicest guy on that boat, but you do need to feel a little pity for him. He had to compete with someone who looked like Leonardo DiCaprio, after all.

Matt Wood

Matt has lived in New Jersey his entire life, but commutes every day to New York City. He graduated from Rowan University and loves Marvel, Nintendo, and going on long hikes and then greatly wishing he was back indoors. Matt has been covering the entertainment industry for over two years and will fight to his dying breath that Hulk and Black Widow make a good couple.