MovieChat Forums > Raise the Titanic (1980) Discussion > The ship had to be raised, even if there...

The ship had to be raised, even if there was no Byzanium on board.

posted 15 years ago by sundanse99
9 replies | jump to latest

Some people watching the movie and even characters in the movie say that the ship was raised for nothing because the Byzanium mineral was not on board after being raised. Time, money and lives were lost in this effort to have the mineral before the Soviets get it. But the one thing that mostly everyone forgets is the postcard found in Arthur Brewsters bag in the holding cell. So in essence the ship would have had to be raised after all because without the postcard it would not have given the clue where the Byzanium is buried in Southby.

[–] 15 years ago

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[–] sundanse99 15 years ago

You are missing my point. There intention at first was to raise the titanic for the Byzanium. But it was not on the ship. Dirk Pitt found the postcard with the town of Southby giving him the clue as to where the mineral was. So in other words if they sent a crew to the bottom of ocean to the ship just to get the mineral and did not find it - it would have been a lost cause and they would have given up. But since the ship was raised and there was easier access to get about the ship and find clues such as the postcard, the goverment now knows where the mineral is buried. So my point is the ship would have been raised regardless.

[–] 15 years ago

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[–] sundanse99 15 years ago

In all honesty they did not. But if you remember at the end when Sandecker walks off the boat, he is under the impression that there is no Byzanium. Pitt is the only one who knows the truth. Even Seagram says the whole mission was a failure. But Pitt comes clean and pretty much states what happened and where the mineral is. So as I stated in the beginning, the ship would have had to be raised anyway with the initial intention that the Byzanium was on board. But now for the reasoning and as you pointed out, for the map/postcard.

[–] 15 years ago

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[–] Sphinxara 15 years ago

I see where both of you are coming from: they raised the Titanic because they THOUGHT they were raising the byzanium. They didn't find the byzanium, but they found the clue which led them to it. So even though they didn't KNOW about the postcard, they found it by raising the Titanic.

However, let's not forget that this is all a moot point - because in the film they decided NOT TO USE IT. What a huge travesty and deviation from the book! So by the end of the film, they had definitely wasted taxpayers' money and raisedd the wreck for nothing.

Another thing: is it actually stated that they found the postcard on Brewster's body? I suppose it's obvious that they would have, but it's only mentioned that 'they'd all seen it', so for all we know, it was included in Brewster's journal and not even found on the Titanic!

Yes, I shall certainly choose revolutionary France for my holiday again next year.

[–] etharper-1 15 years ago

Never mind that they did not use the Byzanium. Why build a defense system that can only be powered by an element so rare that the only way to lay hands on it is to raise the Titanic?

[–] 15 years ago

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[–] iain_jones 15 years ago

~Making perfect sense to me.