Like so many people in June 2023, I was glued to coverage of the OceanGate Titan submersible after disaster struck the five-man crew en route to the Titanic wreckage. Two years after their tragic deaths, Titan: The Oceangate Submersible Disaster hit the 2025 Netflix schedule, and I was really interested in learning more about what happened. Then I discovered a second documentary on the implosion, and it affected me even more, especially because of one truly chilling moment.
The story of the Titan disaster played out like a real-life nightmare in 2023: On June 18, the doomed submersible descended into the Atlantic Ocean carrying OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, Titanic expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet, businessmen Hamish Harding and Shahzada Dawood, and Dawood’s 19-year-old son Suleman. Until these documentaries hit the 2025 movie calendar, I didn’t realize how much it led to the ultimate implosion that killed all five, and the option available with a Max subscription has been especially hard to shake.
Two Documentaries On The 2023 Titan Submersible Implosion Are Streaming Now
Implosion: The Titanic Sub Disaster was the first of the two released, airing May 28 on the Discovery Channel and streaming on Discovery+ and HBO Max. Netflix (which boasted several great documentaries in 2024) then released its own Titan implosion documentary a few weeks later on June 11 — Titan: The Oceangate Submersible Disaster. Watching Netflix’s Titan doc was unnerving, to be sure, but it was footage from Discovery’s Implosion that really shook me.
Actual Audio Of The Suspected Implosion Chilled Me To My Core
Both documentaries feature past interviews with Stockton Rush, as well as some who worked for him and those running the U.S. Coast Guard’s investigation. Implosion: The Titanic Sub Disaster, however, puts more focus on the Titan’s final voyage and implosion. In fact, it even plays a clip in which you can hear what is suspected to be the implosion.
Not only do we hear the bang that occurred just over 90 minutes after the Titan began its dive — as if that weren’t unsettling enough — we also see Stockton Rush’s wife’s reaction to the noise. Wendy Rush served as the director of communications for OceanGate, so she was running comms for her husband’s dive — the company’s 88th.
In footage shown to investigators over a laptop on the Implosion documentary, she’s speaking to a colleague when they hear a noise that investigators described as sounding like a door slamming. Wendy looks up and says:
What was that bang?
There’s a nervous smile on her face, and then she apparently received what would be the Titan’s final message, reporting they’d “dropped two weights,” with investigators doing that math for how long it takes sound to travel through water. To that point, Wendy Rush had received a ping from her husband’s sub every 5 to 10 seconds, but nothing else would come from the Titan.
One mark of a good documentary, in my opinion, is how much actual footage there is of the subject in question, as well as credible sources who were directly involved. Both Implosion: The Titanic Sub Disaster and Titan: The OceanGate Submersible Disaster (streaming with a Netflix subscription) have both of those in spades, but to hear the alleged moment that the craft’s carbon-fiber hull imploded was something I was not expecting, and honestly, it’s not something I’ve been able to get out of my head.
The Coast Guard investigators seemed shocked, too. After they watched the footage a couple of times, Jason Neubauer wiped his eyes as he said:
That is, I mean you figure, the fatal moment, you know, for all of them. It’s very sobering.
That portion of the documentary may have been the most tense for me, but I was really taken aback by Implosion overall.
There Was Some Overlap Between The Two, But I Thought Implosion: The Titanic Sub Disaster Was More Impactful
Both the Implosion documentary on Max and Netflix’s Titan: The OceanGate Submersible Disaster used footage of OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush; they both included testimony from the ongoing Coast Guard investigation, as well as interviews with several former OceanGate employees to make their point.
In both cases, their point seemed to be that this was a preventable disaster, not an accident. Stockton Rush ignored warnings from multiple people; he took steps to ensure he was not hindered by safety regulations; he fired people who tried to blow the whistle; and he very likely knew such a tragedy was all but inevitable. Still, he pressed on, accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars from each passenger and put civilians (including a teenager) in his sub.
While The OceanGate SubmersibleDisaster on Netflix focused a lot on the company’s chain of command, showing how employees came to work for Stockton Rush and how and why they eventually left, The Titanic Sub Disaster featured the experiences of many who had been a part of previous dives.
That included Discovery Channel host Josh Gates, who had planned to feature the submersible on Expedition Unknown. However, when everything went wrong on their dive, Gates said he felt it would be irresponsible to promote what Stockton Rush was doing, and the episode was scrapped.
It also had the harrowing recollection of a safety diver, who became emotional as he recalled helping 19-year-old Suleman Dawood into the sub. And as for actual footage from June 18, 2023, we watch — for 15 uninterrupted seconds — an aerial shot of the Titan descending for the last time.
Watching Both Documentaries Gives A Fuller Picture Of The Titan Disaster
Even though I liked the documentary that can be streamed on HBO Max better, I still recommend watching the Netflix one as well. It’s interesting to see how each filmmaking crew approached the event, especially because — as previously mentioned — they used some of the same footage and talked to some of the same people.
In fact, watching both back-to-back made for a more well-rounded experience, because they also each include many aspects not covered in the other. My recommendation is to watch both (starting with Netflix’s Titan: The OceanGate Submersible Disaster) if you are interested in learning more about what went wrong on — and leading up to — that fateful day two years ago. But if you only have time or interest for one, make it Implosion: The Titanic Sub Disaster on Discovery+ and Max.
