“Why is ego and arrogance more important than safety? The irony is not lost on me, that titanic sank for exactly the same reason. History repeats itself.”

Genre: Disaster Documentaries
Release Date: 2025
Where I Watched: HBOMAX/Discovery GO

Gist: Stockton Rush, a man with more money than God, and the inability to hear warnings like a toddler, decides he’s gonna start up “see the Titanic” submarine tours. But with zero serious consideration of the consequences if things were not up to safety specifications. So in 2023 things went bad. Very, very bad.

Gotta say: I remember being glued to social media when the Titan went down. And how I was horrified, yet unsurprised, when the Titan wreckage was found. My heart still breaks for young Suleman Dawood, a teen who just wanted to make his dad happy by going on Titan with his dad. But I was not prepared for the sheer deluge of warning bells that Disaster unveils. I only wish the crew had had this knowledge before they were locked into that sub.

Unlike Rush and his project, Ddirector Pamela Gordon did so much research. I was astounded; she managed to present so much information even my Titan-addicted self hadn’t seen. Seriously, look at the folks they interviewed for this documentary. These people say things like “ridiculous and unsafe”, “failings and hubris”, “it was obvious it was going to fail”, and “everything was conspiring against the sub”. And these sentiments were known by Rush. But he did not care.

Listening to Remotely Operated Vehicle expert Antonella Wilby break down in tears of heartbreak and frustration as she recounts how she desperately tried to warn Rush and his associates made my heart break for her. Then I got angry again when the doc shows how the sub was left outside over the winter, even after the strain of the hull had been noticed.

Then, the discussion of the day itself truly begins. Lieutenant Kelly Steele, a Titan investigator with the USCG, paints a somber picture of that day, and the pain in her eyes as she tries to comprehend that voyage was an emotional gut punch.

The link between the tragedies of the Titanic and the Titan is brought up several times, and it’s a solid one. (See: the opening quote of this review.) Unfortunately, hindsight is 20/20. Sadly, after watching this documentary? I don’t think Rush would have listened, or cared.

This is a brutally succinct, emotionally devastating look at the disaster. Let’s hope that unlike now Rush didn’t learn from the Titanic, people will pay attention to this documentary and temper hubris with consideration.

Come for: An in-depth look at the disaster we were all sucked into.
Stay for: A look at exactly how disgustingly arrogant and self absorbed Rush was.