Netflix Documentary ‘Titan: The OceanGate Disaster’ Investigates the OceanGate Tragedy

Netflix is revisiting one of the most haunting deep-sea disasters in recent memory. Nearly two years after the Titan submersible vanished during a dive to the Titanic wreck site, a new documentary promises to explore the events and decisions that led to its catastrophic implosion.

Titled Titan: The OceanGate Disaster, the film comes from Story Syndicate, the team behind Gone Girls and Britney v Spears. Mark Monroe directs, with a premiere set for June 6 at the Tribeca Festival. The documentary will then hit Netflix on June 11.

The Titan submersible, operated by OceanGate, disappeared in June 2023 while descending into the North Atlantic. The vessel was carrying five passengers, including OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush. After a tense four-day search, debris was found on the ocean floor, confirming the vessel had imploded. The mission had launched from Newfoundland on June 18.

The official synopsis reads: “Titan: The Oceangate Disaster delves into the psyche of billionaire OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush and explores his relentless quest to bring oceanic exploration to the masses, at any cost. Through exclusive access to whistleblower testimony, pivotal audio recordings, and footage from the company’s early days, the film provides an unprecedented look at the technical challenges, moral dilemmas, and shockingly poor decisions that culminated in the catastrophic expedition. Titan examines the doomed underwater endeavor that forced the world to reconsider the price of unchecked ambition in the depths of the ocean.”

In the documentary, interviewees pull no punches in assessing Rush’s motives and mindset. “There was no way of knowing when Titan would fail,” says one participant. “But it was a mathematical certainty that it would fail.” Another states, “He wanted fame.” One goes further: “I thought Stockton was a borderline psychopath.”

Bonnie Carl, OceanGate’s former finance and HR director, offers a firsthand account of the company’s internal dynamics. She recalled in her 2024 testimony before the U.S. Coast Guard’s Marine Board of Investigation, “Bonnie is going to be our next lead pilot,” Rush once said. “Are you nuts? I’m an accountant.” She also claimed former operations director David Lochridge had warned that Titan was “unsafe” before it ever descended.

Director James Cameron, who knew Titan victim Paul-Henri Nargeolet personally, publicly condemned the mission in 2023. “I’m struck by the similarity of the Titanic disaster itself… to take place at the same exact site… I think it’s just astonishing,” he said. “For him to have died tragically in this way is almost impossible for me to process.”

Titan: The OceanGate Disaster will be available globally on Netflix starting June 11. The documentary promises an unflinching look at a voyage that shocked the world and the warning signs that came long before it happened.

FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL MEDIA

Facebook Instagram Twitter(X) YouTube TikTok