This June 2025 documentary just launched on Netflix (and that streaming platform only) and is a detailed insight into the Titan submersible implosion of 18th June 2023.
As you may recall, this dominated the news for weeks. But now the dust has settled and a thorough (still ongoing) investigation has revealed what went wrong, Titan: The OceanGate Submersible Disaster is able to reveal often horrifying insights into Stockton Rush’s business.
Exploring a Predictable Implosion in the OceanGate Submersible Disaster
Titan: The OceanGate Submersible Disaster reveals a lot about OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush. Unsurprisingly, he was from a very privileged background and generally flags up he was ambitious, smart, but arrogant in his desire to become a “swinging big dick”.
His words, not ours, in regards to the big name billionaires worldwide.
Titan wasn’t doing anything new, there had been “tourist” trips down to the Titanic before. The wreck of the famous ship was discovered on 1st September 1985 and submersibles have successfully visited the wreck ever since.
Right up until OceanGate, headed by CEO Rush. Below is the marketing for the business.
As the documentary explores, Rush was intent on using a carbon fibre hull—this went against all established engineering practices for this type of submersible.
Many members of staff at OceanGate attempted to warn Rush (particularly whistleblower David Lochridge—the former operations director), but Rush ignored concerns, sacked dissenters, and even threatened to aggressively sue others.
Rush does come across as arrogant in the documentary, with total conviction he could do no wrong.
Later in the documentary, there’s one terrifying sequence where Rush is alone in his submersible, test diving it, listening to the very loud cracking noises of his carbon fibre hull and commenting, “That’ll get your attention!”
The OceanGate Submersible Disaster makes it pretty clear the implosion of the Titan was inevitable. It made it to the Titanic around 10 times prior to imploding, but these can’t be considered “successful” as the craft was always doomed. Had it made it to the surface again in June 2023, it would have imploded on another trip. 5 people died on the June 23rd, 2023 voyage.
Directed by Mark Monroe, this is an at times very alarming film to watch.
It’s a sobering documentary, but one that doesn’t offer any major revelations—anyone following the news stories in 2023 will know most of the information presented. The film could have explored the technical side in closer detail, but what it does instead is present many former OceanGate employees and allow them to tell their story.
Remembering the Global Reaction to OceanGate
Director James Cameron hit the news during the OceanGate disaster, being a submersible specialist who has built his own craft. Of course, he’s been to the wreck of the Titanic many times.
His expertise on this industry is very impressive, but as with the Titan documentary he makes the major issue clear—Stockton Rush ignored proper engineering procedures and was long viewed as a maverick in the industry.
Think back to June 2023 and the event led to global news coverage. That sparked political debate regarding the incident, as we believe over $6 million was spent on the search party.
On 14th June 2023, a migrant boat (Adriana) sank off the coast of Greece and over 500 people died. This gathered far less press attention and resources to the billionaire-laden OceanGate—summing up everything wrong with modern life.
Wading into the mix was former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson. He penned an article about this. This one totally went over his head, unsurprisingly, and he failed to pick up how the OceanGate issue directly compared to Titanic.
But then Johnson, like Stockton Rush, is from a highly privileged background and doesn’t understand what daily life is for most people.
Titanic represented a nail in the coffin for British Empire pomposity—steam rolling into an icefield at breakneck speed, ignoring all safety warnings, and getting 1,000+ people killed.
If Stockton Rush had pushed “out the frontiers of human knowledge” by following the established engineering excellence established by human knowledge, he’d still be helming OceanGate.
As it stands, the business has permanently ceased all operations.
