The new Netflix documentary about the disastrous final voyage of the Titan submersible contains such an exhaustive list of ill-advised decisions that it’s difficult to pick the single worst one. But it’s easy to name the most cruelly ironic choice: Stockton Rush, the CEO of OceanGate and the pilot of the Titan, was so singularly focused on reaching the wreck of the Titanic — the ship that famously sunk after it was declared unsinkable — that he renamed his own Cyclops 2 craft Titan. A few years later, it joined the Titanic at bottom of the Atlantic.
If an author were to write that detail into a novel about a hubristic businessman’s downfall, every editor on the planet would reject it as too on the nose to be believable. But such disbelief is a sensible reaction to a lot of Netflix’s Titan: The OceanGate Submersible Disaster, and to the evidence it presents about Rush and his company’s apparent disregard of countless warning signs along the way to this extremely preventable tragedy. (Rush and four passengers were killed when the Titan imploded on a journey to the Titanic wreckage on June 18, 2023.)
The documentary, directed by Mark Monroe, details the OceanGate CEO’s refusal to get his ship “classed” (or certified as safe by an independent body) and his desire to cut corners and bend rules at every turn. (Passengers on the Titan were referred to as “mission specialists,” we’re told, because that allowed OceanGate to skirt certain regulations about deep-sea diving on a technicality.) Employees who raised concerns about Rush’s actions were told to quit or be fired.
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One former OceanGate executive who took their fears public was then sued by Rush, who came from generational wealth and could trace his family back to two signers of the Declaration of Independence, until they had no choice but to settle and withdraw their complaint. That whistleblower, David Lochridge, appears in the documentary, along with numerous other ex-OceanGate employees who recount their initial impressions of Rush as a charismatic evangelizer for deep-sea exploration — followed by their gradual realization that his ambition to become the Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos of the sea led him to ignore the mounting proof that the Titan’s experimental carbon-fiber hull was not sturdy enough to withstand the enormous pressure at the bottom of the Atlantic.
Rush held a degree in engineering, but you didn’t need to be a brilliant scientist to observe the Titan’s problems. Archival footage featured in the documentary (backed up by interviews with OceanGate alums) shows and describes the horrifying noises the ship’s hull would emit during its underwater voyages. (One concerned worker was told the hull just needed to be “seasoned” properly, as if traveling to a depth of several thousand meters is as simple as prepping a cast-iron skillet.)
Mark Monroe previously directed HBO’s two-part documentary about Pete Rose. These two back-to-back projects suggest a particular interest in blustery men who believe so strongly in their own abilities (and their own press clippings) that they begin to believe they can do no wrong. Monroe’s Rose miniseries was particularly good at juxtaposing Rose’s excuses with the facts of his case, and at exposing how his various stories about whether he bet on baseball changed over time. So many movies from Lawrence of Arabia to Iron Man valorize iconoclastic men who charge ahead in spite of the risks. Not Monroe’s docs.
Even as some OceanGate employees raised alarms and quit, others remained steadfastly dedicated to Rush’s vision; at least one person compares the corporate culture at the company to a cult. The more Rush pushed on, the more he looked like a success, an illusion amplified by breathless press reports on his progress. In 2022, just a few months before Titan’s final voyage, CBS News sent journalist David Pogue to take a ride on the craft and to report on the experience for CBS Sunday Morning. Interviewed by Monroe, Pogue says he was relatively unconcerned about the danger at the time; if Rush wanted publicity, he reasoned, the ship must be safe.
The madness of putting one’s blind faith in someone just because they are rich or appear successful is a reason to watch this film regardless of your curiosity about deep-sea exploration or this particular incident. Rush’s hunger for fame cost him and four other people their lives. But the men Rush admired are still here, and they keep arguing against regulations in the name of faster and cheaper “innovation.” Titan: The OceanGate Submersible Disaster is a scary but timely reminder that safety rules are not just a wasteful bureaucratic byproduct. Most of the time, they’re designed to save lives — even those of people who seem determined to throw theirs away.
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