'Titanic' References Spotted in 'Avatar: The Way of the Water'

Viewers of the sequel Avatar: The Way of Water are spotting some callbacks to one of James Cameron's previous movies, but not the one you might expect.

A follow-up to 2009's Avatar, the new movie is being compared to Cameron's 1990s hit Titanic.

Despite it being 13 years since the first and second movie, the core cast from the first Avatar return for the sequel including Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldaña and Sigourney Weaver. Kate Winslet, who famously starred in the 1996 movie Titanic also reunites with director Cameron to take on a leading role in Avatar: The Way of Water.

When it comes to links to Titanic the movie, Winslet is just the tip of the iceberg, as many online are pointing out.

A climactic scene in the new Avatar movie shows some Na'vi characters struggling to stay above the water on a sinking ship, something that didn't escape the attention of some observant social media users.

@Buggher called the sequence a "beautiful reference" to Titanic, while @aldaqshy shared clips of two near-identical scenes, calling themselves a genius for spotting the parallels. However, other users were less forgiving when highlighting the similarities. "Avatar 2, what a s***. 12 years for this animated Titanic 2," wrote @prrakashhtthapaa on TikTok.

Journalist Chris Mohney also spotted the links and claimed to know the director's intentions.

"After digesting Avatar 2 my review is this: James Cameron made Titanic and decided, decades later, that he needed to make another hours long giant ship sinking set piece," he wrote.

In online reviews, some social media users have called Avatar: The Way of Water, Avatar 1 meets Titanic.

TikTok user @jarredjermaine proved that Cameron had previously used similar themes from Titanic in the first Avatar movie.

"They thought we wouldn't notice they were the same by changing one note," he wrote.

Within his video, he played snippets from the Titanic song "My Heart Will Go On" by Celine Dion and "Jake's First Flight," an orchestral piece by James Horner from Avatar.

Cameron continues his propensity for creating long cinematic masterpieces with the second Avatar movie, taking it to 192 minutes in total. This is half an hour longer than the first Avatar, and just three minutes shorter than Titanic, which may be a homage in itself.

Introducing an nautical theme into the latest Avatar is in keeping with Cameron's career. His 1989 movie The Abyss is about a sunken submarine and he has made a number of documentaries featuring the ocean. One of these, Ghosts of the Abyss, sees him and actor Bill Paxton explore the remains of the Titanic, and they were actually under water when the 9/11 attacks took place.