The Greatest Mystery of ‘Titanic’ Is Who Spiked the Crew’s Chowder With PCP

The big picture

• It is estimated that there are between 50 and 80 members
  Titanic
  's cast and crew were hospitalized after their catering was laced with PCP.
• Despite investigations, the culprits behind the PCP soup remain unknown, leaving the incident shrouded in mystery.
• The strange backstage debacle continues
  Titanic
  has added to the film's legendary status, and recent efforts may shed light on who was responsible for the test.

From dominating the 70th Academy Awards with 11 wins to spinning Leonardo DiCaprio i Kate Winslet in family names, Titanic has gone down in history as a pop culture phenomenon for many reasons. Even before it hits theaters, James CameronThe 1997 epic became legendary thanks to a tense and unwieldy production that notoriously went over budget and over schedule, making its record-breaking performance at the box office all the more impressive. But maybe some lesser known trivia around Titanic it's a weird behind-the-scenes debacle which took place in the summer of 1996 on one of the film's Canadian sets. So scandalous was the incident that local authorities conducted a thorough investigation into what happened, but decades after the fact, inquiring minds and many of the actors involved are still scratching their heads.

Dozens of 'Titanic' crew members unknowingly ingested PCP

Phencyclidine, or PCP, is one hell of a drug. A mixture of anesthetics, depressants, hallucinogens and stimulants, the drug induces a wide variety of effects and sensations ranging from euphoria and delusions to anxiety and paranoia. These effects were on full display on the night of August 8, 1996 in Halifax, Nova Scotia. In accordance with vulturewhile he was busy shooting one of Titaniccontemporary sequences of the canadian province james cameron along with a handful of actors and a crew of filmmakers were unknowingly dosed with PCP after their catering went up. with the notorious substance. In accordance with Vanity Fairthe contaminated food was some kind of soup, but whether it was clams, shellfish, or lobster remains a matter of dispute.

Shortly after taking a lunch break near midnight, the cast and crew of the film began to sense that something was wrong. “When we got back from eating, about 30 minutes in, that's when I started noticing something was wrong,” said one crew member. Marilyn McAvoy remember In accordance with vulture, another crew member suddenly asked his co-workers, “Are you all right? Why not. I feel like I'm on to something, and believe me, I'd know it.” Moments later, James Cameron and Titanic an extra could be heard addressing the same concern, with Cameron saying, “There's something in me! Get it out!” Fearing that he had ingested a shellfish toxin, Cameron immediately forced himself to vomit, but others who did not act so quickly would not be so lucky.

An estimated 50 to 80 people were taken to a local hospital

The mysterious situation quickly turned into chaos and dozens people were admitted to Dartmouth General Hospital in Halifax in the early hours of the morning. While some of the sick cast and crew enjoyed the experience of being drugged, others panicked as nurses, thinking food poisoning was to blame, administered liquid charcoal to their patients. “People are moaning and crying, crying, collapsing on tables and gurneys,” Cameron recalls. By set decorator Claude Roussel“the grips were wheeling down the hall in wheelchairs” while I was cinematographer Caleb Deschanel he led the crew members in what Cameron has described as “a highly vocal conga line”. Bill Paxtoninstead, he fled the chaotic scene and returned to the movie is ready to drink a case of beer. “That seemed to help me,” she revealed Los Angeles Times.

As the hours ticked by at Dartmouth General Hospital, TitanicVictims affected by PCP had no choice but to, for better or for worse, get over their highs. As Marilyn McAvoy recalls, people were sectioned off into “cubicles with curtains around us, but nobody wanted to stay in their cubicles. People had a lot of energy.” But as the sun came out and people began to descend amidst playing hacky sack, crew members began to leave the hospital and return to Titanichas gone to sleep For Jake Clarke, one of the few crew members lucky enough to have skipped the PCP-laced catering, James Cameron and Bill Paxton were spotted on set at four in the morning. “His eyes were beet red, like incredibly,” he recalls. “Jim had a bottle of whiskey, and Bill Paxton had a bag of joints because he was a real smoker.” For his part, Cameron emerged from the chaos happy to have been given one more day to film the sequence that was interrupted. When the company finally wrapped up the Canadian leg of Titanicproduction of Local authorities launched an investigation into the incident, but those looking for the responsible party would ultimately be disappointed.

No One Knows Who Spiked the Chowder on the Set of 'Titanic'

On August 27, 1996, the Nova Scotia Department of Health officially determined that the individuals had ingested PCP weeks earlier. The day after they published their findings, local authorities announced an investigation, and news of the ordeal hit the Hollywood press two weeks later. In the years since the members of TitanicThe cast and crew were dosed with angel dust, various theories have been floated as to who was responsible and what the intent was. Some have claimed it was the act of a disgruntled crew member or caterer, while others claim it was a prank made in poor taste. “We had fired a crew member the day before because they were causing trouble with the caterers,” Cameron said. Vanity Fair. “So we think the poisoning was this idiot's plan to get back into the caterers, who of course we promptly fired the next day.”

For Vanity Fairthe case was officially closed on February 12, 1999. Although a 10-page report was compiled that included redacted statements, The Halifax Police Department did not identify any suspects. Decades later, however, the incident resurfaced thanks to the efforts of Tricia Ralph. In accordance with the guardian, Ralph, an information and privacy commissioner, has issued an order to Halifax authorities to publish the full extent of his findings. Only time will tell if new information comes to light that reveals who dosed Titaniccast and crew members off guard. Meanwhile, the stranger-than-fiction debacle that took place behind the scenes of one of cinema's biggest blockbusters will only grow in legendary stature.

Titanic is available to stream on Paramount+ in the US

WATCH PARAMOUNT+