10 Insane Reasons Movies Were Nearly Shut Down

Like any major production that has someone like James Cameron at the helm, Titanic suffered from some serious issues during production. There were a number of sick cast members and more than a few broken bones for the stunt crew, but the thing that nearly shut it down was PCP.

Phenylcyclohexyl piperidine, otherwise known as PCP, was snuck onto the set. While a drug on a movie set isn't likely to slow down production - as the '70s and '80s made perfectly clear - someone on the crew snuck it into other people's soups during lunch one day.

The hallucinogenic drug did exactly what it's supposed to do, but it also sent 50 people to the hospital. "There were people just rolling around, completely out of it. Some of them said they were seeing streaks and psychedelics."

Frankly, it was bad, but another issue came from the studio itself.

Cameron's cut was long, and the studio wasn't looking to put out a three-hour movie about the sinking of the Titanic. When Cameron heard that he went to the studio and said, "You want to cut my movie? You're going to have to fire me! You want to fire me? You're going to have to kill me!"

Needless to say, Cameron won in the end.