Zach Braff And Donald Faison May Not Have Won Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, But Their Titanic Door Debate Was Priceless
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Spoilers ahead for the sixth episode of Who Wants To Be a Millionaire in the 2024 TV schedule.
Weeks after Who Wants To Be a Millionaire teamed up former sitcom co-stars John Stamos and Dave Coulier, a pair of Scrubs alums joined forces to try and win money for their charities of choice. Zach Braff and Donald Faison, who are already collaborating on a Scrubs rewatch podcast, put their heads together to try and hit the $1 million mark with Jimmy Kimmel as host. Well, the two didn't quite win that $1 million, but I thought that their opposing takes on the immortal Titanic door debate were absolutely priceless.
The Titanic door debate of course refers to fan discourse over the past quarter century about whether or not Jack (Leonardo DiCaprio) really needed to die at the end of James Cameron's iconic film, since there seemed to be plenty of room on Rose's (Kate Winslet) floating door. Zach Braff and Donald Faison – who were playing Who Wants To be a Millionaire for Midnight Mission and the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, respectively – found themselves on the subject when facing the $32,000 question, which was:
After it sold at auction for over $700k, Time described a buoyant slab of balsa wood as "arguably the...third most significant character" in what film?
A. Cast Away
B. Brokeback Mountain
C. Die Hard
D. Titanic
To Zach Braff's credit, he guessed Titanic even before Jimmy Kimmel started to name the A-D options, so the issue on the table wasn't really whether Cast Away, Brokeback Mountain, or Die Hard were contenders. The debate was one that has been ongoing since the Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet-starring film released back in 1997: was there room for Jack on that door next to Rose to survive the sinking? Here's how the co-stars/friends approached it:
Braff: "When everyone debates whether there was room for Jack on the door ––"
Faison: "There was room for Jack on the door, bro."
Braff: "But James Cameron has said 'no, everyone who's saying I was wrong. It was a matter of buoyancy.'"
Faison: "Bullcrap, because he's hanging on the door the whole time like this [poses like Jack in Titanic] looking at her, man! And she threw him in the water! She threw him in the water!"
Braff: "I agree, but this has been tested. James Cameron did a whole special in a tank. I saw it."
Well, the Scrubs stars had their own takes, and I for one can't wait until this episode of Millionaire is streaming with a Hulu subscription so I can rewatch the argument again. It's really worth more than one watch, not least because of Donald Faison striking a pose to match what Jack was doing in his final moments before Rose promised to "Never let go" in the icy waters of the Atlantic Ocean... and then let him go.
Kate Winslet has shared her thoughts on people still having this debate decades after the movie came out, and James Cameron went in-depth – no pun intended – on why that door definitely couldn't have supported both Jack and Rose. He also admitted that Jack just "needed to die" for Romeo and Juliet-esque story reasons, and I definitely can't argue with that! Would Titanic be as beloved and debated today if not for Jack tragically sinking to the bottom of the ocean and a freezing Rose finding the will to live with a beautifully sad song playing over the soundtrack? Some movies just aren't meant for purely happy endings!
If Zach Braff and Donald Faison debating Jack's fate put you in the mood for three hours of Titanic action, you can find the movie streaming with a Paramount+ subscription. If they instead put you in the mood for Scrubs, all nine seasons of the beloved sitcom can be found streaming with a Peacock Premium subscription and/or Hulu subscription.
