Legendary director James Cameron has finally confirmed the fan theory of eagle-eyed viewers who thought they spotted a special Titanic Easter egg in his Avatar movies.
The third instalment in the blockbuster action series, Avatar: Fire and Ash, releases worldwide tomorrow (December 19) and promises to take the story of Jake Sully and his family into a darker chapter, as they confront a new hostile tribe on the planet Pandora after fleeing tragedy in The Way of Water.
Fire and Ash will show off the latest no-expense-spared filmmaking from Cameron, with huge technical feats of visual storytelling throughout the $400 million film's runtime of 195 minutes.
But if the previous iterations of the Avatar franchise are anything to go by, fans can expect to see a number of deep-cuts and references to Cameron's other movies lurking in the background. These are often so subtle that film buffs will only spot them on a second or third watch, like the huge Titanic reference in the last movie which the director confirmed recently.
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It is probably fair to say that the most famous scene in Cameron's 1997 smash hit Titanic, apart from the ship sinking, is when Jack (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Rose (Kate Winslet) find themselves clinging to a piece of wood in the dark and freezing waters of the Atlantic.
With Jack deciding to let go and give Rose a better shot at surviving the disaster, many viewers would later argue that both of the lovers could have easily fit on the large piece of driftwood.
But this iconic moment appears to be referenced in 2022's The Way of Water, with Jake, Neytiri and their two surviving children fleeing a sinking vessel, only to find themselves clinging to an object floating in the water.
At a press conference following Fire and Ash's premier, Cameron actually admitted that this was an Easter egg, in a sense.
After being asked about the moment, he said: “I can answer this question generally, I've only ever had about five good ideas in my life, I just keep repackaging them endlessly.”
Spotting an impactful cinematic technique or turn of phrase is no doubt another part of Cameron's continued success as a filmmaker, which is partly why fans keep noticing 'Easter eggs' in his work - he is not afraid to do something again if it worked the first time.
An example of this is another Titanic reference that made it into The Way of Water, the repeated line 'I see you', which is sometimes said in Na'vi as 'Oel ngati kameie' and forms an undercurrent to familial relationships in the film.
This traditional greeting on the planet 'takes on a deeper meaning' within the plot of the second movie, building to a peak when Jake says it to his son Lo'ak to signify his pride and acceptance of him.
But this line originated many years before it appeared on screen in Avatar, with Cameron first using it in Titanic as Jack gets told: "You have a gift Jack, you do. You see people."
In the emotive moment during the lauded blockbuster, Jack also tells Rose: "I see you."
This phrase clearly chimes with Cameron, who told Entertainment Tonight in 2023: "I literally was just sitting there coming up with, 'What would one tribal person say to another tribal person from a different group?'
"'I see you' was the most obvious thing.
"Like, literally just go to the most basic semiotics of it. And then I started layering in all these other meanings, and I went back and saw I’d already done that."
Topics: James Cameron, Titanic, Film and TV
William Morgan