A new permanent display of movie memorabilia from the 1997 blockbuster Titanic features a projection of a famous line uttered by Kate Winslet's Rose: "I'll never let go."
But the exhibit's focal point evokes the line's unspoken addendum: Nor will I scoot over.
The item in question is an 8-foot-long chunk of elaborately carved balsa wood that now resides at eastern Tennessee's Titanic Museum Attraction, which rightly bills the panel in press materials as one of the most "talked-about props in Hollywood history."
In the movie, the wood panel—commonly referred to as a door, though it's not really—is a piece of debris from the sinking ship. Rose perches on the makeshift raft to avoid drowning or freezing in the icy North Atlantic Ocean, as her love interest, Jack (Leonardo DiCaprio), clings to the edge while submerged up to his neck in the frigid waters.
Many, many viewers have expressed an opinion that the famous flotsam was big enough to accommodate both young lovers, thereby saving a never-dreamier DiCaprio from the watery depths.
We refuse to relitigate the matter, preferring to let the issue of the Titanic door's suitability for two dwell among the eternal mysteries of moviedom, right up there with the question of why the car flies at the end of Grease.
For the record, the MythBusters TV show concluded in 2012 that both Jack and Rose could have survived on the piece of wood. The movie's director, James Cameron, disagrees.
You're free to subject the Titanic panel to your own scrutiny at the Titanic Museum Attraction, a repository of artifacts and replicas housed in a structure built to resemble the ship itself in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, the Great Smoky Mountains town best known as the home of Dolly Parton's Dollywood theme park. (The same company that owns the Titanic museum in Tennessee operates a sister location in Branson, Missouri, but that one doesn't have props from the movie.)
(Wood panel prop from the 1997 film Titanic, on display at the Titanic Museum Attraction in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee | Credit: Titanic Museum Attraction)
How the Titanic Door Ended Up in Tennessee—and How You Can See It for Yourself
Previously on display in a stairwell at the Planet Hollywood restaurant at Walt Disney World's Disney Springs in central Florida, the Titanic panel went up for auction earlier this year among many other iconic film props in Planet Hollywood's collection.
The Titanic door drew the highest price at the auction: $718,750—more than Indiana Jones's whip, Forrest Gump's chocolate box, and the ax from The Shining.
The panel's new owners, Herschend Family Entertainment (which also operates Dollywood), have put the prop in a special permanent exhibit amid several costumes worn by Winslet, including a life jacket autographed by the actor, as well as other memorabilia from Cameron's film.
The movie exhibit is included with regular admission at the museum, which in 2024 costs $40 for adults, $15 for kids ages 5–12. Admission is free for kids ages 4 and younger.
Reservations must be made in advance; for more information go to TitanicPigeonForge.com.
If you're interested in seeing the wood panel from the actual Titanic that Cameron reportedly based the prop on, check out the extensive permanent exhibit dedicated to the disaster at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
