James Cameron: Filmmaker extraordinaire or intrepid explorer?

Film director James Cameron (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

“I was just excited to see what was down there, like a kid in the car going to Disneyland” — James Cameron

On 26 March 2012, James Cameron made a solo submersible dive to the deepest frontier of the Pacific Ocean at a record-breaking 10,908 metres, deeper than any human being has ever been before. He spent three hours there collecting samples and readings, and his work led to the discovery of three new species of sea creatures.

The public may know Cameron as the king of the box-office, a filmmaker who pushes the technological boundaries, who does deep-sea diving as a hobby. If you ask him, he would say they have it backwards — he is an inventor and explorer who happens to make movies.

In an industry where records are broken every weekend, Cameron has been on top of the box-office for a nearly unbroken stretch of 25 years with Titanic (1997) and Avatar (2009). Both movies had troubled productions, went massively over budget, and prompted concerns that the studio 20th Century Fox would be bankrupted. Both movies redefined success on an unimaginable scale, and now the common refrain in Hollywood is “never bet against James Cameron”.

However, Cameron’s one true love is the ocean. You can trace the throughline of Cameron’s obsession in his filmography. He made The Abyss (1989) about a deep-sea oil crew who discover something unexpected in the depths of the ocean. The cast and crew spent months shooting in two tanks, one of which was the largest tank ever built at the time.

While the movie was obviously made by someone who has a fascination for the ocean, the more interesting document is the behind-the-scenes segment called Under Pressure: Making 'The Abyss' (1993). The one-hour documentary details the new methods Cameron had to devise to shoot underwater for extended periods — including new cameras, wetsuits, special effects, safety protocols, etc. The documentary also charts the trials and tribulations of the crew, which would be a recurring feature of all his productions going forward. Under Pressure is arguably more of a tension-filled thrill ride than the movie itself.

But Cameron wasn’t done with the ocean. His next foray into the water was Titanic (1997). By his own admission, it was “not because I particularly wanted to make the movie. I wanted to dive to the shipwreck.” Much has been said about the meticulousness of the production, and the attention to detail that Cameron brought to the film. Titanic was a groundbreaking success, but Cameron wasn’t satisfied with his exploration of the actual wreck, he had to go back again.

Model of the Deepsea Challenger which Cameron used for his record-breaking dive. (Photo: ©Raimond Spekking via Wikimedia Commons)

In 2005, Cameron made a documentary called Last Mysteries of the Titanic, where he revisited the wreck and technology had evolved enough that he could explore the inner reaches of the ship using small robots (the maritime equivalent of aerial drones). In a particularly interesting sequence, one of the robots captures the image of a clock on a mantlepiece. Cameron gets visibly excited because he had recreated that same clock in the movie after having seen a photograph of it, and almost a decade later he gets the opportunity to validate his work.

At the age of 57, Cameron teamed up with National Geographic to dive to the Challenger Deep, the deepest spot in the Mariana Trench. Samples from his time spent at the bottom of the ocean are fueling oceanic research even today. In Cameron’s words, “This quest was not driven by the need to set records, but by the same force that drives all science and exploration… curiosity.”

Now, Cameron is bringing together all of his knowledge and experience to the world of Avatar. The next installment in the Pandora saga is called Avatar: The Way of Water. He has spent years designing the world, and the creatures, most of which have some basis in reality. His sense of wonder hasn’t diminished and his desire to share that wonder with the world hasn’t changed. Cameron is an explorer first, then a scientist, and finally a storyteller and filmmaker. That’s not to say that the storytelling is any less important, Cameron sees it as a way to inspire the next generation — “Imagination feeds exploration. You have to imagine the possible before you can go and do it.”