List of films about the RMS Titanic
The RMS Titanic has been featured in numerous films, TV movies and TV episodes. This list includes the 1997 film Titanic which is one of the highest-grossing films. On television, the Titanic has been featured in genres ranging from epic dramas to short cartoon parodies.
Theatrically released cinema dramas and documentaries
| Year | Title | Director | Cast | Notes |
| 1912 | Saved from The Titanic | Étienne Arnaud | Dorothy Gibson Alec B. Francis | Co-written by and starring Titanic survivor Dorothy Gibson and released only twenty-nine days after the sinking. Now a lost film following a studio fire in which the last known prints were destroyed. Only a few production stills remain. |
| 1912 | La hantise | Louis Feuillade | Renée Carl René Navarre | French silent film |
| 1912 | In Nacht und Eis | Mime Misu | Waldemar Hecker Otto Rippert Ernst Rückert | , also called Der Untergang der Titanic. Silent film produced in Germany; believed to be lost, but was rediscovered in 1998 from a collector's copy. |
| 1929 | Atlantic / Atlantik | Franklin Dyall Madeleine Carroll | A highly fictionalized account, retitled Titanic: Disaster in the Atlantic in American home video releases; the first sound film made about the disaster, and a pioneering sound-on-film release, being produced in three languages: English, German, and French. The German version was the first full-length German sound film and was a major hit there. Filmed aboard the White Star liner RMS Majestic. The title of the film, Atlantic, is also the name of the ship in the film, as the White Star Line refused to give the filmmakers permission to use the word Titanic in the film. | |
| 1933 | Cavalcade | Frank Lloyd | Diana Wynyard Clive Brook Margaret Lindsay John Warburton | This drama film was based on the eponymous play by Noël Coward. Two fictional main characters perish in the sinking. |
| 1943 | Titanic | Werner Klingler Herbert Selpin | Sybille Schmitz Hans Nielsen E.F. Fürbringer | A 1943 German Nazi propaganda film casting a fictitious German First Officer on the Titanic as the hero and the British as villains. The first film to use singularly the name Titanic and intermix fictional subplots and characters with historical persons on board the ship. Filmed on board the German liner SS Cap Arcona which was later mistakenly sunk by the RAF with civilian loss of life greatly exceeding that of the Titanic. |
| 1953 | Titanic | Jean Negulesco | Clifton Webb Barbara Stanwyck Robert Wagner Audrey Dalton | American dramatic film centered on an estranged couple sailing on the Titanic during its ill-fated maiden voyage |
| 1958 | A Night to Remember | Roy Ward Baker | Kenneth More Ronald Allen Robert Ayres Honor Blackman | British docudrama based on the eponymous book by Walter Lord starring Kenneth More as the ship's Second Officer Charles Lightoller. Regarded as one of the most historically accurate Titanic disaster films, with the notable exception of not featuring the ship breaking in half. Some effects scenes were 'borrowed' from the 1943 German film. |
| 1964 | The Unsinkable Molly Brown | Charles Walters | Debbie Reynolds Harve Presnell Ed Begley | American musical film about the life of Molly Brown, which culminates in her voyage aboard the Titanic. The screenplay by Helen Deutsch is based on the Richard Morris book of the 1960 musical. The scene of the Titanic hitting the iceberg is from the 1953 film and the scene of the ship sinking is colorized footage from A Night to Remember. |
| 1980 | Raise the Titanic | Jerry Jameson | Jason Robards Richard Jordan David Selby Anne Archer Alec Guinness | Although adapted from Clive Cussler's popular novel Raise the Titanic!, this movie was poorly received by critics and proved to be a box office bomb, failing to recover its $40 million budget. |
| 1992 | Titanica | Stephen Low | Cedric Smith / Leonard Nimoy | 95-minute IMAX documentary film largely focused on the discovery and exploration of the wreck of the Titanic. Two survivors are featured: Frank Goldsmith's recollections, and Eva Hart is interviewed. The original 95 min. version was narrated by Cedric Smith, with Ralph White and Anatoly Sagalevitch, two of the researchers who went down to the wreck. 65 and 40 min. edited versions were released in 1995, narrated by Leonard Nimoy. |
| 1997 | Titanic | James Cameron | Leonardo DiCaprio Kate Winslet Billy Zane Kathy Bates Frances Fisher Gloria Stuart | This American romantic epic disaster film combines fictional main characters with some portrayals of passengers and crew based on historical figures. The film became one of the most expensive films ever made, costing approximately US$200 million, topped the list of highest-grossing films for twelve years and won 11 Academy Awards. Re-released in 2012 in formats which include IMAX 3D; often billed as Titanic in 3D. Re-released in Dolby Vision in 2017 for the 20th anniversary. Actual footage of the wreck is included in the opening scenes. |
| 1997 | The Chambermaid | Bigas Luna | Aitana Sánchez-Gijón Olivier Martínez Romane Bohringer | French-Spanish-Italian romantic film about a stevedore who falls in love with one of the Titanic chambermaids. From the French novel by Didier Decoin La femme de chambre du Titanic . |
| 1999 | The Legend of The Titanic | Kim J. Ok Orlando Corradi | Jane Alexander Sean Patrick Lovett Francis Pardeilhan Gregory Snegoff | An animated fantasy tale about the sinking of the RMS Titanic, an international co-production between North Korea, the United States, Italy and Spain. This family-friendly retelling of the most notable maritime disaster of all time spawned a rival and a sequel. |
| 2000 | Camillo Teti, Kim Lox | Lisa Russo Gisella Matthews Kenneth Belton Gregory Snegoff | A Spanish-Italian animated film about the sinking of the RMS Titanic. Also released as Titanic: The Animated Movie. | |
| 2003 | Ghosts of the Abyss | James Cameron | Bill Paxton James Cameron Dr. Lori Johnston | 3-D IMAX documentary film released by Walt Disney Pictures and Walden Media, featuring deep-sea exploration of the wreck. |
| 2004 | In Search of The Titanic | Kim J. Ok | Jane Alexander Rodolfo Bianchi Fabio Boccanera | A North Korean-Italian sequel to the animated film The Legend of the Titanic. Also known as Tentacolino. |
| 2018 | Holmes & Watson | Etan Cohen | Will Ferrell John C. Reilly | In the final climax of this comedy film, two detectives prevent a plot to assassinate Queen Victoria by detonating a bomb on board the Titanic. The Titanic was actually conceived and built a decade after Queen Victoria died. |
Television movies and notable episodes
| Year | Title | Director | Cast | Notes |
| 1956 | "A Night to Remember" Kraft Television Theatre | George Roy Hill | Bradford Dillman Neil North | Live TV adaptation of Walter Lord's 1955 book of the same name; narrated by Claude Rains. |
| 1957 | "The Unsinkable Molly Brown" Telephone Time | Erle C. Kenton | Cloris Leachman | Short segment from the TV version of John Nesbitt's Passing Parade series. Leachman would again play the same role in S.O.S. Titanic. |
| 1959 | "Night of April 14th" ' | John Newland | Patrick Macnee Barbara Lord Isobel Elsom | Purported docudrama relating stories of premonitions and nightmares preceding the disaster. The scene of the Titanic hitting the iceberg is from the 1937 drama film History Is Made at Night of the fictional ocean liner SS Princess Irene. |
| 1961 | "I Heard You Calling Me" Way Out | Daniel Petrie | Constance Ford Neil Fitzgerald Anthony Dawson | A woman planning to elope with a married man is invited on a free ocean cruise – by the ghost of the man's mother, who died on the Titanic. |
| 1966 | The Time Tunnel | Irwin Allen | James Darren Robert Colbert | In the first episode of the series, the time travelers arrive on board the Titanic one day before the pending disaster. They try to warn the captain, but disbelieving them, he has them locked up and they narrowly avoid going down with the ship. Some footage and sets from the 1953 film are included in the episode. |
| 1971 | "Lone Survivor" Night Gallery | Gene Levitt | John Colicos Torin Thatcher Hedley Mattingly | This story in the anthology series was written by Rod Serling. A survivor in a Titanic lifeboat is discovered – three years after the event, by the Lusitania. |
| 1973 | "Miss Forrest", "A House Divided" Upstairs, Downstairs | Bill Bain; Christopher Hodson | Rachel Gurney Patsy Smart Meg Wynn Owen David Langton Simon Williams Gordon Jackson Jean Marsh | The series' 3rd season opens with "Miss Forrest" where it is learned that two main characters are aboard the Titanic. Mistress Lady Marjorie Bellamy and her maid, Miss Roberts are both presumed dead. In the next episode, "A House Divided", it is learned that the maid survives, but is in emotional shock. Eventually she relates how her mistress died on the Titanic. |
| 1979 | S.O.S. Titanic | William Hale | David Janssen Cloris Leachman | Depiction of the doomed 1912 voyage from the perspective of three distinct groups of passengers in First, Second, and Third Class. Some characters are based on historical figures. Shorter version released theatrically in Europe. The scenes of the ship sinking are colorized footage from A Night to Remember. Some scenes were filmed aboard the TSS Manxman and the RMS Queen Mary. This was the first Titanic film to be released in color. |
| 1983 | "Voyagers of the Titanic" Voyagers! | Winrich Kolbe | Jon-Erik Hexum Meeno Peluce | Bogg and Jeff find themselves aboard the doomed Titanic. Although failing to prevent the disaster, they save the Mona Lisa from being lost with the ship. Footage of the ship sinking was cut from the opening from Raise The Titanic. Also contains colorized footage of the iceberg and the Titanic from the 1953 film, stock footage of the RMS Queen Mary and some scenes filmed aboard the Queen Mary. |
| 1984 | Titanic - Nachspiel einer Katastrophe | Lutz Büscher | Hans Korte Volkert Kraeft Arthur Brauss | , German TV courtroom drama centered on the United States Senate inquiry into the sinking of the RMS Titanic. |
| 1996 | Titanic | Robert Lieberman | Peter Gallagher George C. Scott Tim Curry | This two-part television drama was the first depiction to show the Titanic splitting in two. |
| 1996 | No Greater Love | Richard T. Heffron | Kelly Rutherford | Romance in which a young woman takes charge of her young siblings, upon losing her fiancé and parents in the disaster. Based on the Danielle Steel novel of the same name. The scenes of the ship sinking include footage from S.O.S. Titanic; as in that film, some scenes were filmed aboard the Queen Mary. |
| 1999 | "A Flight to Remember" Futurama | Peter Avanzino | Billy West Katey Sagal John DiMaggio | The Planet Express team take a cruise on the largest starship ever built: the Titanic, which is torn in half and sucked into a black hole on its maiden voyage. |
| 2000 | Britannic | Brian Trenchard-Smith | Edward Atterton Amanda Ryan Jacqueline Bisset John Rhys-Davies | This television film is mostly about the sinking of the Titanics sister ship HMHS Britannic, but includes a Titanic survivor's flashback showing the Titanic sinking. |
| 2005 | ' | William Lyons | Charles Dance Gordon Langford Rowe Charles Lawson Damian O'Hare Christopher Wright | A 70-minute docudrama. The story focuses on the lives of the men who built Titanic and her sister ship RMS Olympic. |
| 2007 | "Voyage of the Damned" Doctor Who | James Strong | David Tennant Kylie Minogue | A luxury space cruiser called the Titanic, a pastiche of the ocean liner, crashes into the TARDIS. The Doctor works with a waitress to prevent a collision with Earth. In another episode entitled "Turn Left", the Titanic crashes into London, killing millions. |
| 2008 | "The Cursed Tuba Contingency" The Middleman | Jeremiah Chechik | Matt Keeslar Natalie Morales | To avert dire consequences, the Middleman and Wendy must prevent a tuba from the Titanic from being played. In a flashback of the ship's sinking, footage from the 1943 film is used. |
| 2010 | "The Mutants Are Revolting" Futurama | Raymie Muzquiz | Billy West Katey Sagal John DiMaggio | In the sewers of New New York, the Planet Express crew discover the wreck of the Land Titanic, the largest articulated bus ever built, which sailed down Fifth Avenue in 2912 and struck a mail box and sank into the ground. |
| 2010 | "Episode One" Downton Abbey | Brian Percival | The first series opens with news of the Crawley family heir's death aboard the Titanic. Also referenced in Episode Six of Season 2. | |
| 2011 | "My Heart Will Go On" Supernatural | Phil Sgriccia | Jared Padalecki Jensen Ackles Misha Collins | An angel changes history by averting the sinking of the Titanic, with unforeseen consequences. |
| 2012 | Saving The Titanic | David Wilmot Ciarán McMenamin Owen McDonnell | 90-minute PBS docudrama. The story of the selfless engineers who kept the Titanics essential electricity running during the tragedy. Renamed as Heroes of the Titanic for UK broadcast on History. | |
| 2012 | Titanic | Jon Jones | Linus Roache Geraldine Somerville | Four-part television drama based around characters present on the ship during its sinking. Shows the Titanic splitting in two at a much shallower angle, in accordance with a new breakup theory. |
| 2012 | ' | Ciaran Donnelly | Neve Campbell Derek Jacobi | 12-part television drama, telling the story of the construction of the ship. Contains numerous, mostly regarding the construction timeline. |
| 2012 | Marion Milne | Jeremy Akerman John Dunsworth | 90-minute docudrama on the lives of those who survived the sinking. | |
| 2015 | "Stewie, Chris, & Brian's Excellent Adventure" Family Guy | Joe Vaux | Seth MacFarlane Alex Borstein Seth Green | In the second half of the episode, Stewie, Brian, and Chris end up on the Titanic'' during their time travel adventure and manage to leave the ship during the sinking. |