OceanGate sub implosion doc goes deep on ‘borderline psychopath’ CEO

The shocking 2023 implosion of the OceanGate Titan submersible, which instantly killed all five passengers, is the subject of a damning new documentary from Netflix.

The first trailer for Titan: The OceanGate Disaster is heavy on testimony from those who knew the expedition company and its billionaire CEO, Stockton Rush. The American entrepreneur was one of the five passengers killed on June 18, 2023, while the compact submersible descended en route to the wreckage of the Titanic, and Rush is now in all the talking heads’ crosshairs as the villain of this tragic story.

“There was no way of knowing when Titan would fail,” notes one interviewee. “But it was a mathematical certainty that it would fail.”

While one individual interviewed for Titan says that Rush “fully believed in what he was doing, and that it would work,” another contends, “He wanted fame.” A third interviewee takes it even further: “I thought Stockton was a borderline psychopath.”

Bonnie Carl, OceanGate’s former finance and human resources director, recalls Rush once announcing, “Bonnie is going to be our next lead pilot,” to which she reacted, “Are you nuts? I’m an accountant.” Carl testified in a trial convened by the U.S. Coast Guard’s Marine Board of Investigation in 2024 that she was told by OceanGate’s former operations director, David Lochridge, that the Titan submersible was “unsafe” before its fatal voyage.

The Titan submersible launched off the coast of Newfoundland on June 18, 2023, having already made several successful dives to the Titanic wreckage site. On board were Rush; Hamish Harding, a British pilot and businessman; Paul-Henri Nargeolet, a French deep-sea explorer; Shahzada Dawood, a Pakistani-British businessman; and Suleman Dawood, Shahzada’s 19-year-old son.

The submersible’s mother ship, the MV Polar Prince, lost contact with the Titan just over an hour and a half into its descent, and a field of debris later identified as the remnants of the imploded sub was discovered four days later.

Investigations launched in the U.S. and Canada into the implosion, citing possible malfeasance on the part of OceanGate and Rush in particular, remain open.

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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,” reads the film’s official logline. “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: The OceanGate Disaster was directed by Mark Monroe, who has also helmed documentaries about UFOs, Mark Ronson, and baseball legend Pete Rose.

The film will premiere at the Tribeca Festival on June 6, and arrive on Netflix on June 11.