Titanic told the story of Jack and Rose but left a couple of questions about Jack’s backstory, such as why he was in England.

Titanic introduced the audience to Rose and Jack, who met on board the Titanic and quickly fell in love, and while the movie gave a tragic closure to their relationship, it left many questions about their lives before boarding the Titanic, such as why was Jack in England. James Cameron is known for his big-budget productions, and while most of them have been from the sci-fi genre, one of his most ambitious projects was the disaster drama Titanic, based on the real-life tragedy of the RMS Titanic in 1912.

Although Titanic took a true story as its main setting, the movie tells the fictional story of two fictional characters, and through them, it also introduces characters based on real-life passengers of the ship. Titanic follows first-class young woman Rose DeWitt Bukater (Kate Winslet) and third-class passenger Jack Dawson (Leonardo DiCaprio), who over the course of four days meet, get to know each other, fall in love, and defend their romance from those who look down upon them. Even though Rose and Jack came from opposite lifestyles and social classes, they found what they were looking for in each other, but these differences left a couple of questions.

As old Rose (played by Gloria Stuart) is the one who tells her story with Jack to Brock Lovett (Bill Paxton) and company, Titanic offers a bit of information on Rose’s backstory, such as her being engaged to Cal Hockley (Billy Zane) because her father left her and her mother, Ruth (Frances Fisher), with nothing, so her marriage would have saved them from bankruptcy and would have allowed them to keep their social status (something very important to Ruth). However, when it comes to Jack, very little is known about him except that he’s a struggling artist traveling the world, but it seems strange that a broke young man like him was in England – and there are a couple of reasons why he could have been on the other side of the world.

Jack Dawson was a poor, young artist who tried to make a living by drawing portraits, and the reason why he ended up on board the Titanic was that he and his best friend Fabrizio (Danny Nucci) won their tickets in a very lucky hand of poker. Once in the Titanic, Jack opened up to Rose and told her he worked on a squid boat in Monterey, a pier in Santa Monica where he drew portraits for 10 cents a piece, and he also spent some time in Paris, and he kept many drawings of the women he met in France. However, Jack doesn’t reveal how or why he ended up in England, and while there are some who believe he started traveling through Europe after the death of his parents, that doesn’t seem to fit with what he told Rose about his different jobs in the US. It’s implied that Jack simply found a way to keep traveling through Europe with Fabrizio (after all, he was talented and charming), but the mystery of why was Jack Dawson in England has made way for some interesting theories.

The most notable theory on why was Jack in England suggests that Jack was a con artist and a thief, and that way, he could have easily moved from one place to another. The theory suggests Jack and Fabrizio worked together to scam others, including the Swedish men they were playing against for the tickets, and Jack was lying when he said they got “nothing to lose”, and only said it to make the Swedish men believe they could easily win. While the reason why Jack was in England in Titanic isn’t something that can change his story in the movie and his relationship with Rose, it’s one of those questions that can add to his story but is unlikely that it will be answered.

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