| “ | I've got everything I need right here with me. I have air in my lungs and a few blank sheets of paper. I mean, I love waking up, not knowing what will happened or who I'll meet. Where I wind up. One night I'm sleeping under a bridge... now I'm on the grandest ship in the world, having champagne with you fine people. | ” |
—Jack Dawson |
Jack Dawson is the deuteragonist of the 1997 film Titanic. He was the love interest of Rose DeWitt Bukater. He was portrayed by Leonardo DiCaprio.
Biography
Aboard the Titanic
Jack Dawson is a 20-year old man who won his and Fabrizio de Rossi's third-class tickets on the Titanic in a lucky hand of poker with Olaf and Sven. He has traveled the world since he was 15 and has been to various places such as Paris. He is also a very good artist who drew many paintings. Some of these include naked girls. Jack later says girls in Paris are willing to take their clothes off.
Not much later the two meet Thomas "Tommy" Ryan, an Irish third-class passenger. As he asks Jack how much money he makes with is drawings, Jack notices 17-year old Rose DeWitt-Bukater who is a first class passenger. He does this by gazing at her elegant beauty. Tommy then comments to him that "he'll never get next to the likes of her".
Much later, Jack is laying down on a bench in the third class passengers deck area when he notices Rose running by, crying hysterically, eventually climbing over the stern railing with the intentions of killing herself by jumping off the stern railing and into the icy water below. Though Jack manages to convince her not to. However just as Jack is bringing her back she slips and falls but Jack is able to catch her and pull her to safety. Cal Hockley, her fiancee, and the Titanic crew members accuse him of attempting to rape her and interrogates him but, Rose tells him that she slipped and Jack saved her. After this Cal initially wants to pay jack money for his heroic actions but Rose insists that is not enough, which leads Cal to invite Jack to dine with them that evening, allowing him to temporarily be a first-class passenger. Cal's bodyguard, Spicer Lovejoy, questions how Jack saved her from a simple fall and still had time to take off his shoes and coat (which he had done willingly, saying he would jump in the ocean to save her).
The next day, Jack and Rose at first do not get along but soon form a tentative friendship. Jack told her that his parents were dead and showed her some of his drawings. Jack later meets Margaret "Molly" Brown, who gives him a suit to wear. Later, after the first-class dinner, Jack invites Rose to the third-class party, which Rose far more enjoys.
When they are seen at the party by Lovejoy, Ruth forbids Rose to ever see him again. She later tells him this. Jack meets up with Rose and tells her that if she doesn't break free from her family, she'll be miserable for the rest of her life and the fire he has for her will burn out. Rose tells Jack that it's not up to him to save her, and Jack says she's right, only she can make that decision and Rose reluctantly tells Jack to leave her alone. However, much later on in the day, Rose, realizing that Jack was right, changes her mind and goes to find who then brings her to the bow of the ship. There he instructs her keep her eyes closed making sure she is not peeking Jack then helps her up onto the rail of the stern. Standing behind her Jack holds her waist steadying her so she does not fall then spreading her arms out he has here open her eyes to reveal what is a sensation of flying as this is all going on he is gently singing in her ear Come Josephine bringing her arms back in they gaze into each others eyes and share their first kiss during what would be the last time Titanic ever saw daylight.
Later, Rose gets Jack to sketch a picture of her naked wearing only the Heart of the Ocean, a diamond necklace that was given to her by Cal as an engagement gift. They get caught by Lovejoy and end up running from him through out the ship. They eventually find a car in the storage deck and hide inside. After sharing a moment, the two make love in the car. During this, Rose puts her hand up onto the steamy window, leaving a hand print. Much later they go back to the top of the deck and exchange kisses again, which first officer William Murdoch witnesses as well as the lookouts. A few moments later, the lookouts spot the iceberg.
In the Sinking
An angry Cal sets up Jack to be arrested, framing him for stealing The Heart of the Ocean necklace. The first-class passengers are then brought up to the boat deck As women and children are being let off the ship as part of the "Women and children first" code. Rose refuses to get on a lifeboat and goes back to save Jack as he is left handcuffed in the flooding brig of the sinking ship. Rose manages to cut off his handcuffs using an emergency axe, and they make their way up to the top of the ship where there are only a few lifeboats left. Jack is forbidden to get on a life-boat because the officers are only letting on women and children first. Rose reluctantly gets on a lifeboat without Jack after much convincing from Cal that he and Jack are going to another lifeboat across the other side of the Titanic.
Although she is safe, Rose chooses to jump out of the lifeboat and back on to the ship desperately running as Jack is to reunite. Then as they see each other again and Cal was trying to shoot them, but they got away. Jack told Rose to hold on and he got on her back and he told her to hold her breath as they was going down. They got in the water but Rose couldn't find Jack. They finally found each other and he got her on a piece of the boat and she lay there. He told her to live a happy life and have many children and to die happy in her warm bed. She promised him this, held one another's hands. Jack later dies of hypothermia. The life boat comes by not far from her, and Rose is forced to let go. She grabs the whistle off of the body of one of the dead officers and she blows it until one of the boats looking for survivors comes by and grab her out of the water. They get her to safety and later, while on the RMS Carpathia, she saw Cal, but decided not to say anything. She told one of the people taking the names of those who survived the sinking that her name was Rose Dawson, taking Jack's last name.
Reunion
Jack is last seen in a "dream" where Rose walking up the Grand Staircase to meet him, surrounded by all those who perished in the sinking of the Titanic.