When I first read about Titan: The Ocean Submersible Disaster premiering on the 2025 Netflix release schedule earlier this year, I made sure to watch the documentary the day it dropped. I did just that, and now I’m completely shook after using my Netflix subscription to watch a doc about the 2023 OceanGate disaster that claimed the lives of five, including the company’s founder and CEO, Stockton Rush.
Though I had a feeling the 2025 film would break my heart whenever it started to talk about the tragedy that rocked the world two years ago, I didn’t know it would affect me like this. It wasn’t just the events of that fateful day in June 2023, but instead everything that led to it, most of which could have been prevented…
Everyone But Stockton Rush Knew Something Like This Was Going To Happen (Or Maybe He Did)
I don’t want to classify Titan: The OceanGate Submersible Disaster as a true crime documentary, but it does share a lot of similarities with docs like The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley or Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief. I mean this in that it focuses on a larger-than-life figure who was so determined to be right that they overlooked everything that was going wrong around them.
Whether it was former Director of Marine Operations, David Lochridge, who was fired after bringing up a myriad of concerns about the Titan submersible, or former Director of Engineering, Tony Nissen, who was fired after refusing to sign off on a test mission, everyone seemed to know this was going to happen. But Rush, blinded by ambition and arrogance, didn’t have those concerns, which was unsettling.
The Cut-Corners, The Hubris, The Lack Of Oversight Were Startling
I thought I knew a lot about OceanGate and Rush after reading and watching countless news reports, spending time with various documentaries, and from pretty much being on the internet nonstop when the submersible imploded on its descent. However, Titan showed me that I only knew part of the story.
It was startling to watch the nearly two-hour documentary expose all the cut corners, hubris, and lack of oversight that plagued OceanGate all those years. I understand attempting to make the submersible as light and cheap as possible, but to not listen to the experts (or your own gut) when stuff starts going wrong is wild. Each tear, crack, and pop of the carbon fiber hull made my heart race and my gut sink, knowing what would happen years, months, or weeks later.
All Of This Could Have Been Prevented, And That’s The Sad Part
The worst part about everything in The Ocean Submersible Disaster is that it all could have been prevented if Rush had listened to the experts, had not been such an arrogant scientist, or had allowed the doomed submersible to be rigorously tested and inspected by a third party. That’s something that will stick with me for a very long time. Instead, the OceanGate founder brought Paul-Henri Nargeolet, Hamish Hardin, Shahzada Dawood, and Suleman Dawood, along with himself, to a watery grave at the site of the Titanic.
Another thing that I can’t help but shake after watching the documentary is the fact that OceanGate tested this submersible capable of reaching 4,000 meters below the surface with a PlayStation 3 controller (as seen in the trailer), the very same type of controller my dog destroyed alongside a copy of Titanic years ago.
