Titanic
Titanic
Titanic
Cast:
JAMES CAMERON
1 BLACKNESS
Then two faint lights appear, close together... growing brighter. They
resolve into two DEEP SUBMERSIBLES, free-falling toward us like express
elevators.
One is ahead of the other, and passes close enough to FILL FRAME, looking
like a spacecraft blazing with lights, bristling with insectile
manipulators.
CUT TO:
Next to him on one side is BROCK LOVETT. He's in his late forties, deeply
tanned, and likes to wear his Nomex suit unzipped to show the gold from
famous shipwrecks covering his gray chest hair. He is a wiley, fast-talking
treasure hunter, a salvage superstar who is part historian, part adventurer
and part vacuum cleaner salesman. Right now, he is propped against the CO2
scrubber, fast asleep and snoring.
On the other side, crammed into the remaining space is a bearded wide-body
named LEWIS BODINE, sho is also asleep. Lewis is an R.O.V. (REMOTELY
OPERATED VEHICLE) pilot and is the resident Titanic expert.
CUT TO:
A pale, dead-flat lunar landscape. It gets brighter, lit from above, as MIR
ONE enters FRAME and drops to the seafloor in a downblast from its
thrusters. It hits bottom after its two hour free-fall with a loud BONK.
CUT TO:
ANATOLY
(heavy Russian accent)
We are here.
5 MINUTES LATER: THE TWO SUBS skim over the seafloor to the sound of
sidescan sonar and the THRUM of big thrusters.
6 The featureless gray clay of the bottom unrols in the lights of the subs.
Bodine is watching the sidescan sonar display, where the outline of a huge
pointed object is visible. Anatoly lies prone, driving the sub, his face
pressed to the center port.
BODINE
Come left a little. She's right in front of us, eighteen meters. Fifteen.
Thirteen... you should see it.
ANATOLY
Out of the darkness, like a ghostly apparition, the bow of the ship
appears. Its knife-edge prow is coming straight at us, seeming to plow the
bottom sediment like ocean waves. It towers above the seafloor, standing
just as it landed 84 years ago.
THE TITANIC. Or what is left of her. Mir One goes up and over the bow
railing, intact except for an overgrowth of "rusticles" draping it like
mutated Spanish moss.
TIGHT ON THE EYEPIECE MONITOR of a video camcorder. Brock Lovett's face
fills the BLACK AND WHITE FRAME.
LOVETT
The image pans to the front viewport, looking over Anatoly's shoulder, to
the bow railing visible in the lights beyond. Anatoly turns.
ANATOLY
CUT WIDER, to show that Brock is operating the camera himself, turning it
in his hand so it points at his own face.
LOVETT
Brock resumes his serious, pensive gaze out the front port, with the camera
aimed at himself at arm's length.
LOVETT
It still gets me every time... to see the sad ruin of the great ship
sitting here, where she landed at 2:30 in the morning, April 15, 1912,
after her long fall from the world above.
Anatoly rolls his eyes and mutters in Russian. Bodine chuckles and watches
the sonar.
BODINE
7 Mir Two drives aft down the starboard side, past the huge anchor while
Mir One passes over the seemingly endless forecastle deck, with its massive
anchor chains still laid out in two neat rows, its bronze windlass caps
gleaming. The 22 foot long subs are like white bugs next to the enormous
wreck.
LOVETT (V.O.)
Dive nine. Here we are again on the deck of Titanic... two and a half miles
down. The pressure is three tons per square inch, enough to crush us like a
freight train going over an ant if our hull fails. These windows are nine
inches thick and if they go, it's sayonara in two microseconds.
8 Mir Two lands on the boat deck, next to the ruins of the Officer's
Quarters. Mir One lands on the roof of the deck hous nearby.
LOVETT
Bodine slips on a pair of 3-D electronic goggles, and grabs the joystick
controls of the ROV.
9 OUTSIDE THE SUB, the ROV, a small orange and black robot called SNOOP
DOG, lifts from its cradle and flies forward.
BODINE (V.O.)
SNOOP DOG drives itself away from the sub, paying out its umbilical behind
it like a robot yo-yo. Its twin stereo-video cameras swivel like insect
eyes. The ROV descends through an open shaft that once was the beautiful
First Class Grand Staircase.
Snoop Dog goes down several decks, then moves laterally into the First
Class Reception Room.
SNOOP'S VIDEO POV, moving through the cavernous interior. The remains of
the ornate handcarved woodwork which gave the ship its elegance move
through the floodlights, the lines blurred by slow dissolution and
descending rusticle formations. Stalactites of rust hang down so that at
times it looks like a natural grotto, then the scene shifts and the lines
of a ghostly undersea mansion can be seen again.
12 Its lights play across the floor, revealing a champagne bottle, then
some WHITE STAR LINE china... a woman's high-top "granny shoe". Then
something eerie: what looks like a child's skull resolves into the
porcelain head of a doll.
Snoop enters a corridor which is much better preserved. Here and there a
door still hangs on its rusted hinges. An ornate piece of molding, a wall
sconce... hint at the grandeur of the past.
13 THE ROV turns and goes through a black doorway, entering room B-52, the
sitting room of a "promenade suite", one of the most luxurious staterooms
on Titanic.
BODINE
LOVETT
Stay off the floor. Don't stir it up like you did yesterday.
BODINE
BODINE
The remains of a pillared canopy bed. Broken chairs, a dresser. Through the
collapsed wall of the bathroom, the porcelain commode and bathtub took
almost new, gleaming in the dark.
LOVETT
SEVERAL ANGLES as the ROV deploys its MANIPULATOR ARMS and starts moving
debris aside. A lamp is lifted, its ceramic colors as bright as they were
in 1912.
LOVETT
BODINE
LOVETT
ON THE SCREEN, in the glare of the lights, is the object of their quest: a
small STEEL COMBINATION SAFE.
CUT TO:
THE SAFE, dripping wet in the afternoon sun, is lowered onto the deck of a
ship by a winch cable.
Everyone crowds around the safe. In the background Mir Two is being lowered
into its cradle on deck by a massive hydraulic arm. Mir One is already
recovered with Lewis Bodine following Brock Lovett as he bounds over to the
safe like a kid on Christman morning.
BODINE
LOVETT
You rolling?
CAMERAMAN
Rolling.
Brock nods to his technicians, and they set about drilling the safe's
hinges. During this operation, Brock amps the suspense, working the lens to
fill the time.
LOVETT
Well, here it is, the moment of truth. Here's where we find out if the
time, the sweat, the money spent to charter this ship and these subs, to
come out here to the middle of the North Atlantic... were worth it. If what
we think is in that same... is in that safe... it will be.
Lovett grins wolfishly in anticipation of his greatest find yet. The door
is pried loose. It clangs onto the deck. Lovett moves closer, peering into
the safe's wet interior. A long moment then... his face says it all.
LOVETT
Shit.
BODINE
You know, boss, this happened to Geraldo and his career never recovered.
LOVETT
CUT TO:
Technicians are carefully removing some papers from the safe and placing
them in a tray of water to separate them safely. Nearby, other artifacts
from the stateroom are being washed and preserved.
LOVETT
You send out what I tell you when I tell you. I'm signing your paychecks,
not 60 minutes. Now get set up for the uplink.
BUELL
LOVETT
How it's going? It's going like a first date in prison, whattaya think?!
Lovett grabs the phone from Buell and goes instantly smooth.
LOVETT
Hi, Dave? Barry? Look, it wasn't in the safe... no, look, don't worry about
it, there're still plenty of places it could be... in the floor debris in
the suite, in the mother's room, in the purser's safe on C deck...
(seeing something)
Hang on a second.
A tech coaxes some letters in the water tray to one side with a tong...
revealing a pencil (conte crayon) drawing of a woman.
Brock looks closely at the drawing, which is in excellent shape, though its
edges have partially disintegrated. The woman is beautiful, and beautifully
rendered. In her late teens or early twenties, she is nude, though posed
with a kind of casual modesty. She is on an Empire divan, in a pool of
light that seems to radiate outward from her eyes. Scrawled in the lower
right corner is the date: April 14 1912. And the initials JD.
The girl is not entirely nude. At her throat is a diamond necklace with one
large stone hanging in the center.
Lovett grabs a reference photo from the clutter on the lab table. It is a
period black-and-white photo of a diamond necklace on a black velvet
jeller's display stand. He holds it next to the drawing. It is clearly the
same piece... a complex setting with a massive central stone which is
almost heart-shaped.
LOVETT
CUT TO:
16 INSERT
A CNN NEWS STORY: a live satellite feed from the deck of the Keldysh,
intercut with the CNN studio.
ANNOUNCER
Treasure hunter Brock Lovett is best known for finding Spanish gold in
sunken galleons in the Caribbean. Now he is using deep submergence
technology to work two and a half miles down at another famous wreck... the
Titanic. He is with us live via satellite from a Russian research ship in
the middle of the Atlantic... hello Brock?
LOVETT
Yes, hi, Tracy. You know, Titanic is not just A shipwrick, Titanic is THE
shipwreck. It's the Mount Everest of shipwrecks.
CUT TO:
PULL BACK from the screen, showing the CNN report playing on a TV set in
the living room of a small rustic house. It is full of ceramics, figurines,
folk art, the walls crammed with drawings and paintings... things collected
over a lifetime.
LOVETT (V.O.)
I've planned this expedition for three years, and we're out here recovering
some amazing things... things that will have enormous historical and
educational value.
But it's no secret that education is not your main purpose. You're a
treasure hunter. So what is the treasure you're hunting?
LOVETT (V.O.)
I'd rather show you than tell you, and we think we're very close to doing
just that.
The old woman's name is ROSE CALVERT. Her face is a wrinkled mass, her body
shapeless and shrunken under a one-piece African-print dress.
But her eyes are just as bright and alive as those of a young girl.
Rose gets up and walks into the living room, wiping pottery clay from her
hands with a rag. A Pomeranian dog gets up and comes in with her.
ROSE
REPORTER (V.O.)
Your expedition is at the center of a storm of controversy over salvage
rights and even ethics. Many are calling you a grave robber.
LOVETT
Nobody called the recovery of the artifacts from King Tut's tomb grave
robbing. I have museum-trained experts here, making sure this stuff is
preserved and catalogued properly. Look at this drawing, which was found
today...
The video camera pans off Brock to the drawing, in a tray of water. The
image of the woman with the necklace FILLS FRAME.
LOVETT
...a piece of paper that's been underwater for 84 years... and my team are
able to preserve it intanct. Should this have remained unseen at the bottom
of the ocean for eternity, when we can see it and enjoy it now...?
ROSE
CUT TO:
CUT TO KELDYSH. The Mir subs are being launched. Mir Two is already in the
water, and Lovett is getting ready to climb into Mir One when Bobby Buell
runs up to him.
BUELL
LOVETT
Bobby, we're launching. See these submersibles here, going in the water?
Take a message.
BUELL
CUT TO:
LOVETT
BUELL
Rose Calvert.
LOVETT
ROSE
I was just wondering if you had found the "Heart of the Ocean" yet, Mr.
Lovett.
Brock almost drops the phone. Bobby sees his shocked expression...
BUELL
LOVETT
(to Rose)
Alright. You have my attention, Rose. Can you tell me who the woman in the
picture is?
ROSE
CUT TO:
CUT TO:
21 EXT. KELDYSH - DAY
Brock and Bodine are watching Mir 2 being sweng over the side to start a
dive.
BODINE
She's a goddamned liar! A nutcase. Like that... what's her name? That
Anastasia babe.
BUELL
They're inbound.
Brock nods and the three of them head forward to meet the approaching helo.
BODINE
She says she's Rose DeWitt Bukater, right? Rose DeWitt Bukater died on the
Titanic. At the age of 17. If she'd've lived, she'd be over a hundred now.
LOVETT
BODINE
Okay, so she's a very old goddamned liar. I traced her as far back as the
20's... she was working as an actress in L.A. An actress. Her name was Rose
Dawson. Then she married a guy named Calvert, moved to Cedar Rapids, had
two kids. Now Calvert's dead, and from what I've heard Cedar Rapids is
dead.
The Sea Stallion approaches the ship, BG, forcing Brock to yell over the
rotors.
LOVETT
CUT TO:
Lovett, Buell and Bodine watch as the HELICOPTER CREW CHIEF hands out about
ten suitcases, and then Rose is lowered to the deck in a wheelchair by
Keldysh crewmen. Lizzy, ducking unnecessarily under the rotor, follows her
out, carrying FREDDY the Pomeranian. The crew chief hands a puzzled Keldysh
crewmember a goldfish bowl with several fish in it. Rose does not travel
light.
HOLD ON the incongruous image of this little old lady, looking impossibly
fragile amongst all the high tech gear, grungy deck crew and gigantic
equipment.
BODINE
CUT TO:
LOVETT
ROSE
Yes. Very nice. Have you met my granddaughter, Lizzy? She takes care of me.
LIZZY
ROSE
Oh, yes.
Brock glances at Bodine... oh oh. Bodine rolls his eyes. Rose finishes
arranging her photographs. We get a general glimpse of them: the usual
snapshots... children and grandchildren, her late husband.
ROSE
There, that's nice. I have to have my pictures when I travel. And Freddy of
course.
ROSE
CUT TO:
Rose looks at the drawing in its tray of water, confronting herself across
a span of 84 years. Until they can figure out the best way to preserve it,
they have to keep it immersed. It sways and ripples, almost as if alive.
28 Rose smiles, remembering. Brock has the reference photo of the necklace
in his hand.
LOVETT
Louis the Sixteenth wore a fabulous stone, called the Blue Diamond of the
Crown, which disappeared in 1792, about the time Louis lost everything from
the neck up. The theory goes that the crown diamond was chopped too...
recut into a heart-like shape... and it became Le Coeur de la Mer. The
Heart of the Ocean. Today it would be worth more than the Hope Diamond.
ROSE
LIZZY
ROSE
It is me, dear. Wasn't I a hot number?
LOVETT
I tracked it down through insurance records... and old claim that was
settled under terms of absolute secrecy. Do you know who the claiment was,
Rost?
ROSE
LOVETT
Nathan Hockley, right. Pittsburgh steel tycoon. For a diamond necklace his
son Caledon Hockley bought in France for his fiancee... you... a week
before he sailed on Titanic. And the claim was filed right after the
sinking. So the diamond had to've gone down with the ship.
(to Lizzy)
LIZZY
LOVETT
If your grandma is who she says she is, she was wearing the diamond the day
Titanic sank.
(MORE)
LOVETT (CONT'D)
(to Rose)
And that makes you my new best friend. I will happily compensate you for
anything you can tell us that will lead to its recovery.
ROSE
I don't want your money, Mr. Lovett. I know how hard it is for people who
care greatly for money to give some away.
BODINE
(skeptical)
You don't want anything?
ROSE
LOVETT
Deal.
Over here are a few things we've recovered from your staterooms.
ROSE
This was mine. How extraordinary! It looks the same as the last time I saw
it.
She turns the mirror over and looks at her ancient face in the cracked
glass.
ROSE
ROSE
My mother's brooch. She wanted to go back for it. Caused quite a fuss.
LOVETT
CUT TO:
BODINE
BODINE
The bow's struck in the bottom like an axe, from the impact. Here... I can
run a simulation we worked up on this monitor over here.
Lizzy turns the chair so Rose can see the screen of Bodine's computer. As
he is calling up the file, he keeps talking.
BODINE
We've put together the world's largest database on the Titanic. Okay,
here...
LOVETT
ROSE
BODINE
She hits the berg on the starboard side and it sort of bumps along...
punching holes like a morse code... dit dit dit, down the side. Now she's
flooding in the
BODINE (cont'd)
forward compartments... and the water spills over the tops of the
bulkheads, going aft. As her bow is going down, her stern is coming up...
slow at first... and then faster and faster until it's lifting all that
weight, maybe 20 or 30 thousand tons... out of the water and the hull can't
deal... so SKRTTT!!
The animation then follows the bow section as it sinks. Rose watches this
clinical dissection of the disaster without emotion.
BODINE
The bow pulls out of its dive and planes away, almost a half a mile, before
it hits the bottom going maybe 12 miles an hour. KABOOM!
The bow impacts, digging deeply into the bottom, the animation now follows
the stern.
BODINE
The stern implodes as it sinks, from the pressure, and rips apart from the
force of the current as it falls, landing like a big pile of junk.
Cool huh?
ROSE
Thank you for that fine forensic analysis, Mr. Bodine. Of course the
experience of it was somewhat less clinical.
LOVETT
Her eyes go back to the screens, showing the sad ruins far below them.
A VIEW from one of the subs TRACKING SLOWLY over the boat deck. Rose
recognizes one of the Wellin davits, still in place. She hears ghostly
waltz music. The faint and echoing sound of an officer's voice, English
accented, calling "Women and children only".
33 Rose is shaken by the flood of memories and emotions. Her eyes well up
and she puts her head down, sobbing quietly.
LIZZY
ROSE
No!
Her voice is surprisingly strong. The sweet little old lady is gone,
replaced by a woman with eyes of steel. Lovett signals everyone to stay
quiet.
LOVETT
She looks from screen to screen, the images of the ruined ship.
ROSE
LOVETT
ROSE
It's been 84 years... and I can still smell the fresh paint. The china had
never been used. The sheets had never been slept in.
ROSE
Titanic was called the Ship of Dreams. And it was. It really was...
As the underwater camera rises past the rusted bow rail, WE DISSOLVE /
MATCH MOVE to that same railing in 1912...
MATCH DISSOLVE:
34 EXT. SOUTHAMPTON DOCK - DAY
On the pier horsedrawn vehicles, motorcars and lorries move slowly through
the dense throng. The atmosphere is one of excitement and general
giddiness. People embrace in tearful farewells, or wave and shout bon
voyage wishes to friends and relatives on the decks above.
The Renault stops and the LIVERIED DRIVER scurries to open the door for a
YOUNG WOMAN dressed in a stunning white and purple outfit, with an enormous
feathered hat. She is 17 years old and beautiful, regal of bearing, with
piercing eyes.
It is the girl in the drawing. ROSE. She looks up at the ship, taking it in
with cool appraisal.
ROSE
I don't see what all the fuss is about. It doesn't look any bigger than the
Mauretania.
A PERSONAL VALET opens the door on the other side of the car for CALEDON
HOCKLEY, the 30 year old heir to the elder Hockley's fortune. "Cal" is
handsome, arrogant and rich beyond meaning.
CAL
You can be blase about some things, Rose, but not about Titanic. It's over
a hundred feet longer than Mauretania, and far more luxurious. It has
squash courts, a Parisian cafe... even Turkish baths.
Cal turns and fives his hand to Rose's mother, RUTH DEWITT BUKATER, who
descends from the touring car being him. Ruth is a 40ish society empress,
from one of the most prominent Philadelphia families. She is a widow, and
rules her household with iron will.
CAL
(indicating a puddle)
RUTH
CAL
A WHITE STAR LINE PORTER scurries toward them, harried by last minute
loading.
PORTER
Sir, you'll have to check your baggage through the main terminal, round
that way--
Cal nonchalantly hands the man a fiver. The porter's eyes dilate. Five
pounds was a monster tip in those days.
CAL
(MORE)
CAL (CONT'D)
See my man.
PORTER
LOVEJOY
These trunks here, and 12 more in the Daimler. We'll have all this lot up
in the rooms.
The White Star man looks stricken when he sees the enormous pile of steamer
trunks and suitcases loading down the second car, including wooden crates
and steel safe. He whistles frantically for some cargo-handlers nearby who
come running.
Cal breezes on, leaving the minions to scramble. He quickly checks his
pocket watch.
CAL
He indicates the way toward the first class gangway. They move into the
crowd. TRUDY BOLT, Rose's maid, hustles behind them, laden with bags of her
mistress's most recent purchases... things too delicate for the baggage
handlers.
They pass a line of steerage passengers in their coarse wool and tweeds,
queued up inside movable barriers like cattle in a chute. A HEALTH OFFICER
examines their heads one by one, checking scalp and eyelashes for lice.
They pass a well-dressed young man cranking the handle of a wooden Biograph
"cinematograph" camera mounted on a tripod. NANIEL MARVIN (whose father
founded the Biograph Film Studio) is filming his young bride in front of
the Titanic. MARY MARVIN stands stiffly and smiles, self conscious.
DANIEL
Look up at the ship, darling, that's it. You're amazed! You can't believe
how big it is! Like a mountain. That's great.
Mary Marvin, without an acting fiber in her body, does a bad Clara Bow
pantomime of awe, hands raised.
Cal is jostled by two yelling steerage boys who shove past him. And he is
bumped again a second later by the boys' father.
CAL
Steady!!
MAN
Sorry squire!
CAL
RUTH
CAL
All part of my charm, Ruth. At any rate, it was my darling fiancee's beauty
rituals which made us late.
ROSE
CAL
I couldn't let you wear black on sailing day, sweetpea. It's bad luck.
ROSE
Cal guides them out of the path of a horse-drawn wagon loaded down with two
tons of OXFORD MARMALADE, in wooden cases, for Titanic's Victualling
Department.
CAL
Here I've pulled every string I could to book us on the grandest ship in
history, in her most luxurious suites... and you act as if you're going to
your execution.
Rose looks up as the hull of Titanic looms over them...a great iron wall,
Bible black and sever. Cal motions her forward, and she enters the gangway
to the D Deck doors with a sense of overwhelming dread.
Outwardly I was everything a well brought up girl should be. Inside, I was
screaming.
35 CUT TO a SCREAMING BLAST from the mighty triple steam horns on Titanic's
funnels, bellowing their departure warning.
CUT TO:
A VIEW OF TITANIC from several blocks away, towering above the terminal
buildings like the skyline of a city. The steamer's whistle echoes across
Southampton.
PULL BACK, revealing that we were looking through a window, and back
further to show the smoky inside of a pub. It is crowded with dockworkers
and ship;s crew.
Just inside the window, a poker game is in progress. FOUR MEN, in working
class clothes, play a very serious hand.
JACK DAWSON and FABRIZIO DE ROSSI, both about 20, exchange a glance as the
other two players argue in Swedish. Jack is American, a lanky drifter with
his hair a little long for the standards of the times. He is also unshaven,
and his clothes are rumpled from sleeping in them. He is an artist, and has
adopted the bohemian style of art scene in Paris. He is also very
self-possessed and sure-footed for 20, having lived on his own since 15.
OLAF
(subtitled)
(subtitled)
You lost our money. I'm just trying to get it back. Now shutup and take a
card.
JACK
(jaunty)
ECU STACK in the middle of the table. Bills and coins from four counrties.
This has been going on for a while. Sitting on top of the money are two 3RD
CLASS TICKETS for RMS TITANIC.
JACK
Fabrizio puts his cards down. So do the Swedes. Jack holds his close.
JACK
Let's see... Fabrizio's got niente. Olaf, you've got squat. Sven, uh oh...
two pair... mmm.
Sorry Fabrizio.
FABRIZIO
What sorry? What you got? You lose my money?? Ma va fa'n culo testa di
cazzo--
JACK
Sorry, you're not gonna see your mama again for a long time...
(grinning)
FABRIZIO
The table explodes into shouting in several languages. Jack rakes in the
money and the tickets.
JACK
Sorry boys. Three of a kind and a pair. I'm high and you're dry and...
(to Fabrizio)
FABRIZIO/JACK
L'AMERICA!!!
Olaf balls up one huge farmer's fist. We think he's going to clobber Jack,
but he swings round and punches Sven, who flops backward onto the floor and
sits there, looking depressed. Olaf forgets about Jack and Fabrizio, who
are dancing around, and goes into a rapid harangue of his stupid cousin.
Jack kisses the tickets, then jumps on Fabrizio's back and rides him around
the pub. It's like they won the lottery.
JACK
Goin' home... to the land o' the free and the home of the real hot-dogs! On
the TITANIC!! We're ridin' in high style now! We're practically goddamned
royalty, ragazzo mio!!
FABRIZIO
(MORE)
FABRIZIO (CONT'D)
(to pubkeeper)
Capito?? I go to America!!
PUBKEEPER
JACK
Come on!!
PUBKEEPER
'Course I'm sure if they knew it was you lot comin', they'd be pleased to
wait!
CUT TO:
37 OMITTED
Jack and Fabrizio, carrying everything they own in the world in the kit
bags on their shoulders, sprint toward the pier. They tear through milling
crowds next to the terminal. Shouts go up behind them as they jostle
slow-moving gentlemen. They dodge piles of luggage, and weave through
groups of people. They burst out onto the pier and Jack comes to a dead
stop... staring at the cast wall of the ship's hull, towering seven stories
above the wharf and over an eighth of a mile long. The Titanic is
monstrous.
Fabrizio runs back and grabs Jack, and they sprint toward the third class
gangway aft, at E deck. They reach the bottom of the ramp just as SIXTH
OFFICER MOODY detaches it at the top. It starts to swing down from the
gangway doors.
JACK
MOODY
JACK
(lying cheerfully)
(glances at Fabrizio)
Both of us.
MOODY
(testy)
Moody has QUARTERMASTER ROWE reattach the gangway. Jack and Fabrizio come
aboard. Moody glances at the tickets, then passes Jack and Fabrizio through
to Rowe. Rowe looks at the names on the tickets to enter them in the
passenger list.
ROWE
Gundersen. And...
(reading Fabrizio's)
Gundersen.
JACK
Jack and Fabrizio whoop with victory as they run down the white-painted
corridero... grinning from ear to ear.
JACK
39 OMITTED
The mooring lines, as big around as a man's arm, are dropped into the
water. A cheer goes up on the pier as SEVEN TUGS pull the Titanic away from
the quay.
CUT TO:
JACK AND FABRIZIO burst through a door onto the aft well deck. TRACKING
WITH THEM as they run across the deck and up the steel stairs to the poop
deck. They get to the rail and Jack starts to yell and wave to the crowd on
the dock.
FABRIZIO
JACK
Grinning, Fabrixio joins in, adding his voice to the swell of voices,
feeling the exhilaration of the moment.
FABRIZIO
CUT TO:
42 OMITTED
CUT TO:
CUT TO:
Jack and Fabrizio walk down a narrow corridor with doors lining both sides
like a college dorm. Total confusion as people argue over luggage in
several languages, or wander in confusion in the labyrinth. They pass
emigrants studying the signs over the doors, and looking up the words in
phrase books.
They find their berth. It is a modest cubicle, painted enamel white, with
four bunks. Exposed pipes overhead. The other two guys are already there.
OLAUS and BJORN GUNDERSEN.
Jack throws his kit on one open bunk, while Fabrizio takes the other.
BJORN
Where is Sven?
CUT TO:
A room service waiter pours champagne into a tulip glass of orange juice
and hands the Bucks Fizz to Rose. She is looking through her new paintings.
There is a Monet of water lilies, a Degas of dancers, and a few abstract
works. They are all unknown paintings... lost works.
Cal is out on the covered deck, which has potted trees and vines on
trellises, talking through the doorway to Rose in the sitting room.
CAL
ROSE
Picasso.
CAL
He'll never amount to a thing, trust me. At least they were cheap.
A porter wheels Cal's private safe (which we recognize) into the room on a
handtruck.
CAL
47 IN THE BEDROOM Rose enters with the large Degas of the dancers. She sets
it on the dresser, near the canopy bed. Trudy is already in there, hanging
up some of Rose's clothes.
TRUDY
It smells so brand new. Like they built it all just for us. I mean... just
to think that tonight, when I crawl between the sheets, Iill be the first--
CAL
(looking at Rose)
And when I crawl between the sheets tonight, I'll still be the first.
TRUDY
She edges around Cal and makes a quick exit. Cal comes up behind Rose and
puts his hands on her shoulders. An act of possession, not intimacy.
CAL
Rose's expression shows how bleak a prospect this is for her, now.
CUT TO:
CUT TO:
Entering the first class reception room from the tender are a number of
prominent passengers. A BROAD-SHOULDERED WOMAN in an enormous feathered hat
comes up the gangway, carrying a suitcase in each hand, a spindly porter
running to catch up with her to take the bags.
WOMAN
Well, I wasn't about to wait all day for you, sonny. Take 'em the rest of
the way if you think you can manage.
At Cherbourg a woman came aboard named Margaret Brown, but we all called
her Molly. History would call her the Unsinkable Molly Brown. Her husband
had struck gold someplace out west, and she was what mother called "new
money".
By the next afternoon we had made our final stop and we were steaming west
from the coast of Ireland, with nothing out ahead of us but ocean...
CUT TO:
50 OMITTED
The ship glows with the warm creamy light of late afternoon. Jack and
Fabrizio stand right at the bow gripping the curving railing so familiar
from images of the wreck. Jack leans over, looking down fifty feet to where
the prow cuts the surface like a knife, sending up two glassy sheets of
water.
CUT TO:
ON THE BRIDGE, CAPTAIN SMITH turns from the binnacle to FIRST OFFICER
WILLIAM MURDOCH.
CAPTAIN SMITH
IN THE ENGINE ROOM the telegraph clangs and moves to "All Ahead Full".
54 IN THE BOILER ROOMS the STOKERS chant a song as they hurl coal into the
roaring furnaces. The "black gang" are covered with sweat and coal dust,
their muscles working like part of the machinery as they toil in the
hellish glow.
55 UNDERWATER the enormous bronze screws chop through the water, hurling
the steamer forward and churning up a vortex of foam that lingers for miles
behind the juggernaut ship. Smoke pours from the funnels as--
56 The riven water flares higher at the bow as the ship's speeds builds.
THE CAMERA SWEEPS UP the prow to find Jack, the wind streaming through his
hair and--
57 Captain Smith steps out of the enclosed bridge onto the wing. He stands
with his hands on the rail, looking every bit the storybook picture of a
Captain... a great patriarch of the sea.
SMITH
She's got a bone in her teeth now, eh, Mr. Murdoch.
Smith accepts a cup of tea from FIFTH OFFICER LOWE. He contentedly watches
the white V of water hurled outward from the bows like an expression of his
own personal power. They are invulnerable, towering over the sea.
58 AT THE BOW Jack and Fabrizio lean far over, looking down.
In the glassy bow-wave two dolphins appear, under the water, running fast
just in front of the steel blade of the prow. They do it for the sheer joy
and exultation of motion. Jack watches the dolphins and grins. They breach,
jumping clear of the water and then dive back, crisscrossing in front of
the bow, dancing ahead of the juggernaut.
FABRIZIO looks forward across the Atlantic, staring into the sunsparkles.
FABRIZIO
(grinning at Jack)
THE CAMERA ARCS around them, until they are framed against the sea.
NOW WE PULL BACK, across the forecastle deck. Rising, as we continue back,
and the ships rolls endlessly forward underneath. Over the bridge wing,
along the boat deck until her funnels come INTO FRAME besides us and march
past like the pillars of heaven, one by one. We pull back and up, until we
are looking down the funnels, and the people strolling on the decks and
standing at the rail become antlike.
And still we pull back until the great lady is seen whole in a gorgeous
aerial portrait, black and severe in her majesty.
ISMAY (V.O.)
She is the largest moving object ever made by the hand of man in all
history...
CUT TO:
ISMAY
...and our master shipbuilder, Mr. Andrews here, designed her from the keel
plates up.
WIDER, showing the group assembled for lunch the next day. Ismay seated
with Cal, Rose, Ruth, Molly Brown and Thomas Andrews in the Palm Court, a
beautiful sunny spot enclosed by high arched windows.
ANDREWS
Well, I may have knocked her together, but the idea was Mr. Ismay's. He
envisioned a steamer so grand in scale, and so luxurious in its
appointments, that its supremacy would never be challenged. And here she
is...
MOLLY
Why're ships always bein' called "she"? Is it because men think half the
women around have big sterns and should be weighed in tonnage?
Just another example of the men settin' the rules their way.
RUTH
CAL
She knows.
CAL
We'll both have the lamb. Rare, with a little mint sauce.
MOLLY
So, you gonna cut her meat for her too there, Cal?
(turning to Ismay)
ISMAY
Yes, actually. I wanted to convey sheer size. And size means stability,
luxury... and safety--
ROSE
Do you know of Dr. Freud? His ideas about the male preoccupation with size
might be of particular interest to you, Mr. Ismay.
RUTH
ROSE
Excuse me.
RUTH
(mortified)
I do apologize.
MOLLY
CAL
Well, I may have to start minding what she reads from now on.
CUT TO:
60 EXT. POOP DECK / AFTER DECKS - DAY
Jack sits on a bench in the sun. Titanic's wake spreads out behind him to
the horizon. He has his knees pulled up, supporting a leather bound
sketching pad, his only valuable possession. With conte crayon he draws
rapidly, using sure strokes. An emigrant from Manchester named CARTMELL has
his 3 year old daughter CORA standing on the lower rung of the rail. She is
leaned back against his beer barrel of a stomach, watching the seagulls.
THE SKETCH captures them perfectly, with a great sense of the humanity of
the moment. Jack is good. Really good. Fabrizio looks over Jack's shoulder.
He nods appreciatively.
TOMMY
That's typical. First class dogs come down here to take a shit.
JACK
TOMMY
Jack glances across the well deck. At the aft railing of B deck promenade
stands ROSE, in a long yellow dress and white gloves.
CLOSE ON JACK, unable to take his eyes off of her. They are across from
each other, about 60 feet apart, with the well deck like a valley between
them. She on her promontory, he on his much lower one. She stares down at
the water.
He watches her unpin her elaborate hat and take it off. She looks at the
frilly absurd thing, then tosses it over the rail. It sails far down to the
water and is carried away, astern. A spot of yellow in the vast ocean. He
is riveted by her. She looks like a figure in a romantic novel, sad and
isolated.
Fabrizio taps Tommy and they both look at Jack gazin at Rose. Fabrizio and
Tommy grin at each other.
Rose turns suddenly and looks right at Jack. He is caught staring, but he
doesn't look away. She does, but then looks back. Their eyes meet across
the space of the well deck, across the gulf between worlds.
Jack sees a man (Cal) come up behind her and take her arm. She jerks her
arm away. They argue in pantomime. She storms away, and he goes after her,
disappearing along the A-deck promenade. Jack stares after her.
TOMMY
Forget it, boyo. You'd as like have angels fly out o' yer arse as get next
to the likes o' her.
CUT TO:
ANGLE BENEATH TABLE showing Rose's hand, holding a tiny fork from her crab
salad. She pokes the crab-fork into the skin of her arm, harder and harder
until it draws blood.
CUT TO:
Rose walks along the corridor. A steward coming the other way greets her,
and she nods with a slight smile. She is perfectly composed.
CUT TO:
She enters the room. Stands in the middle, staring at her reflection in the
large vanity mirror. Just stands there, then--
With a primal, anguished cry she claws at her throat, ripping off her pearl
necklace, which explodes across the room. In a frenzy she tears at herself,
her clothes, her hair... then attacks the room. She flings everything off
the dresser and it flies clattering against the wall. She hurls a
handmirror against the vanity, cracking it.
CUT TO:
Rose runs along the B deck promenade. She is dishevelled, her hair flying.
She is crying, her cheeks streaked with tears. But also angry, furious!
Shaking with emotions she doesn't understand... hatred, self-hatred,
desperation. A strolling couple watch her pass. Shocked at the emotional
display in public.
CUT TO:
Jack is kicked back on one of the benches gazing at the stars blazing
gloriously overhead. Thinking artist thoughts and smoking a cigarette.
Hearing something, he turns as Rose runs up the stairs from the well deck.
They are the only two on the stern deck, except for QUARTERMASTER ROWE,
twenty feet above them on the docking bridge catwalk. She doesn't see Jack
in the shadows, and runs right past him.
TRACKING WITH ROSE as she runs across the deserted fantail. Her breath
hitches in an occasional sob, which she suppresses. Rose slams against the
base of the stern flagpole and clings there, panting. She stares out at the
black water.
Then starts to climb over the railing. She has to hitch her long dress way
up, and climbing is clumsy. Moving methodically she turns her body and gets
her heels on the white-painted gunwale, her back to the railing, facing out
toward blackness. 60 feet below her, the massive propellers are churning
the atlantin into white foam, and a ghostly wake trails off toward the
horizon.
She leans out, her arms straightening... looking down hypnotized, into the
vortex below her. Her dress and hair are lifted by the wind of the ship's
movement. The only sound, above the rush of water below, is the flutter and
snap of the big Union Jack right above her.
JACK
Don't do it.
She whips her head around at the sound of his voice. It takes a second for
her eyes to focus.
ROSE
Jack sees the tear tracks on her cheeks in the faint glow from the stern
running lights.
JACK
ROSE
No! Stay where you are. I mean it. I'll let go.
JACK
No you won't.
ROSE
What do you mean no I won't? Don't presume to tell me what I will and will
not do. You don't know me.
JACK
You would have done it already. Now come on, take my hand.
Rose is confused now. She can't see him very well through the tears, so she
wipes them with one hand, almost losing her balance.
ROSE
JACK
I can't. I'm involved now. If you let go I have to jump in after you.
ROSE
JACK
JACK
It would hurt. I'm not saying it wouldn't. To be honest I'm a lot more
concerned about the water being so cold.
She looks down. The reality factor of what she is doing is sinking in.
ROSE
How cold?
JACK
JACK
ROSE
(perplexed)
No.
JACK
Well they have some of the coldest winters around, and I grew up there,
near Chippewa Falls. Once when I was a kid me and my father were
ice-fishing out on Lake Wissota... ice-fishing's where you chop a hole in
the--
ROSE
JACK
Sorry. Just... you look like kind of an indoor girl. Anyway, I went through
some thin ice and I'm tellin' ya, water that cold... like that right down
there... it hits you like a thousand knives all over your body. You can't
breath, you can't think... least not about anything but the pain.
(takes off his other shoe)
Which is why I'm not looking forward to jumping in after you. But like I
said, I don't see a choice. I guess I'm kinda hoping you'll come back over
the rail and get me off the hook here.
ROSE
You're crazy.
JACK
That's what everybody says. But with all due respect, I'm not the one
hanging off the back of a ship.
JACK
Rose stares at this madman for a long time. She looks at his eyes and they
somehow suddenly seem to fill her universe.
ROSE
Alright.
She unfastens one hand from the rail and reaches it around toward him. He
reaches out to take it, firmly.
JACK
ROSE
(voice quavering)
Rose starts to turn. Now that she has decided to live, the height is
terrifying. She is overcome by vertigo as she shifts her footing, turning
to face the ship. As she starts to climb, her dress gets in the way, and
one foot slips off the edge of the deck.
She plunges, letting out a piercing SHRIEK. Jack, gripping her hand, is
jerked toward the rail. Rose barely grabs a lower rail with her free hand.
QUARTERMASTER ROWE, up on the docking bridge hears the scream and heads for
the ladder.
ROSE
HELP! HELP!!
JACK
Jack holds her hand with all his strength, bracing himself on the railing
with his other hand. Rose tries to get some kind of foothold on the smooth
hull. Jack tries to lift her bodily over the railing. She can't get any
footing in her dress and evening shoes, and she slips back. Rose SCREAMS
again.
Rowe slides down the ladder from the docking bridge like it's a fire drill
and sprints across the fantail.
ROWE
Rowe runs up and pulls Jack off of Rose, revealing her dishevelled and
sobbing on the deck. Her dress is torn, and the hem is pushing up above her
knees, showing one ripped stocking. He looks at Jack, the shaggy steerage
man with his jacket off, and the first class lady clearly in distress, and
starts drawing conclusions. Two seamen chug across the deck to join them.
ROWE
(to Jack)
CUT TO:
A few minutes later. Jack is being detained by the burly MASTER AT ARMS,
the closest thing to a cop on board. He is handcuffing Jack. Cal is right
in front of Jack, and furious. He has obviously just rushed out here with
Lovejoy and another man, and none of them have coats over their black tie
evening dress. The other man is COLONEL ARCHIBALD GRACIE, a mustachioed
blowhard who still has his brandy snifter. He offers it to Rose, who is
hunched over crying on a bench nearby, but she waves it away. Cal is more
concerned with Jack. He grabs him by the lapels.
CAL
What made you think you could put your hands on my fiancee?! Look at me,
you filth! What did you think you were doing?!
ROSE
CAL
An accident?!
ROSE
ROSE
I was leaning way over, to see the... ah... propellers. And I slipped and I
would have gone overboard... and Mr. Dawson here saved me and he almost
went over himself.
CAL
GRACIE
MASTER AT ARMS
(to Jack)
Rose is begging him with her eyes not to say what really happened.
JACK
COLONEL GRACIE
Well! The boy's a hero then. Good for you son, well done!
(to Cal)
CAL
GRACIE
(low)
CAL
ROSE
Is that the going rate for saving the woman you love?
CAL
CAL
I know.
(to Jack)
Perhaps you could join us for dinner tomorrow, to regale our group with
your heroic tale?
JACK
CAL
Cal turns to go, putting a protective arm around Rose. he leans close to
Gracie as they walk away.
CAL
JACK
Lovejoy smoothly draws a silver cigarette case from his jacket and snaps it
open. Jack takes a cigarette, then another, popping it behind his ear for
later. Lovejoy lights Jack's cigarette.
LOVEJOY
Interesting that the young lady slipped so mighty all of a sudden and you
still had time to take of your jacket and shoes. Mmmm?
Lovejoy's expression is bland, but the eyes are cold. He turns away to join
his group.
CUT TO:
As she undresses for bed Rose sees Cal standing in her doorway, reflected
in the cracked mirror of her vanity. He comes toward her.
CAL
(unexpectedly tender)
CAL
I intended to save this till the engagement gals next week. But I thought
tonight, perhaps a reminder of my feeling for you...
Rose slowly opens the box. Inside is the necklace... "HEART OF THE OCEAN"
in all its glory. It is huge... a malevolent blue stone glittering with an
infinity of scalpel-like inner reflections.
ROSE
CAL
He takes the necklace and during the following places it around her throat.
He turns her to the mirror, staring behind her.
CAL
It was once worn by Louis the Sixteenth. They call it Le Coeur de la Mer,
the--
ROSE
CAL
His fingers caress her neck and throat. He seems himself to be disarmed by
Rose's elegance and beauty. His emotion is, for the first time, unguarded.
CAL
There's nothing I couldn't give you. There's nothing I'd deny you if you
would deny me. Open your heart to me, Rose.
CAMERA begins to TRACK IN ON ROSE. Closer and closer, during the following:
Finally, when Rose's eyes FILL FRAM, we MORPH SLOWLY to her eyes as the are
now... transforming through 84 years of life...
TRANSITION
Without a cut the wrinkled, weathered landscape of age has appeared around
her eyes. But the eyes themselves are the same.
OLD ROSE
After all these years, feel it closing around my throat like a dog collar.
ROSE
I can still feel its weight. If you could have felt it, not just seen it...
LOVETT
BODINE
So let me get this right. You were gonna kill yourself by jumping off the
Titanic?
(he guffaws)
That's great!
LOVETT
(warningly)
Lewis...
BODINE
(still laughing)
LOVETT
Rose, tell us more about the diamond. What did Hockley do with it after
that?
ROSE
LOVETT
Wait! Can you give us something go on, here. Like who had access to the
safe. What about this Lovejoy guy? The valet. Did he have the combination?
LIZZY
That's enough.
Lizzy takes her out. Rose's old hand reapears at the doorway in a frail
wave goodbye.
CUT TO:
As the big hydraulic jib swings one of the Mir subs out over the water.
Lovett walks as he talks with Bobby Buell, the partners' rep. They weave
among deck cranes, launch crew, sub maintenance guys.
BUELL
BROCK
BUELL
We're running thirty thousand a day, and we're six days over. I'm telling
you what they're telling me. The hand is on the plug. It's starting to
pull.
BROCK
Well you tell the hand I need another two days! Bobby, Bobby, Bobby...
we're close! I smell it. I smell ice. She had the diamond on... now we just
have to find out where it wound up. I just gotta work her a bit more. Okay?
Brock turns and sees Lizy standing behind him. She has overheard the past
part of his dialogue with Buell. He goes to her and hustles her away from
Buell, toward a quite spot on the deck.
BROCK
LIZZY
BROCK
LIZZY
(MORE)
LIZZY (CONT'D)
one year old grandmother. I came down here to tell you to back off.
BROCK
Lizzy... you gotta understand something. I've bet it all to find the Heart
of the Ocean. I've got all my dough tied up in this thing. My wife even
divorced me over this hunt. I need what's locked inside your grandma's
memory.
She looks at his hand, palm up. Empty. Cupped, as if around an imaginary
shape.
LIZZY
What?
BROCK
That's the shape my hand's gonna be when I hold that thing. You understand?
I'm not leaving here without it.
LIZZY
Look, Brock, she's going to do this her way, in her own time. Don't forget,
she contacted you. She's out here for her own reasons, God knows what they
are.
LOVETT
LIZZY
What past? She has never once, not once, ever said a word about being on
the Titanic until two days ago.
LOVETT
Then we're all meeting your grandmother for the first time.
LIZZY
LOVETT
CUT TO:
Bodine starts the tape recorder. Rose is gazing at the screen seeing THE
LIVE FEED FROM THE WRECK--SNOOP DOG is moving along the starboard side of
the hull, heading aft. The rectangular windows of A deck (forward) march
past on the right.
ROSE
The next day, Saturday, I remember thinking how the sunlight felt.
DISSOLVE TO:
MATCH DISSOLVE from the rusting hulk to the gleaming new Titanic in 1912,
passing the end of the enclosed promenade just as Rose walks into the
sunlight right in front of us. She is stunningly dressed and walking with
purpose.
IT IS SATURDAY APRIL 13, 1912. Rose unlatches the gate to go down into
third class. The steerage men on the deck stop what they're doing and stare
at her.
CUT TO:
Three boys, shrieking and shouting, are scrambling around chasing a rat
under the benches, trying to whomp it with a shoe and causing general
havoc. Jack is playing with 5 year old CORA CARTMeLL, drawing funny faces
together in his sketchbook.
FABRIZIO
HELGA
Rose, coming toward them. The activity in the room stops... a hush falls.
Rose feels suddenly self-conscious as the steerage passengers stare openly
at this princess, some with resentment, others with awe. She spots Jack and
gives a little smile, walking straight to him. He rises to meet her,
smiling.
ROSE
Hello Jack.
Fabrizio and Tommy are floored. Its like the slipper fitting Cinderella.
JACK
Hello again.
ROSE
JACK
He motions her ahead and follows. Jack glances over his shoulder, one
eyebrow raised, as he walks out with her leaving a stunned silence.
CUT TO:
Jack and Rose walk side by side. They pass people reading and talking in
steamer chairs, some of whom glance curiously at the mismatched couple. He
feels out of place in his rough clothes. They are both awkward, for
different reasons.
JACK
ROSE
JACK
That's quite a moniker. I may hafta get you to write that down.
ROSE
JACK
Jack.
ROSE
Jack... I feel like such an idiot. It took me all morning to get up the
nerve to face you.
JACK
ROSE
Here I am. I... I want to thank you for what you did. Not just for... for
pulling me back. But for your discretion.
JACK
ROSE
Look, I know what you must be thinking! Poor little rich girl. What does
she know about misery?
JACK
That's not what I was thinking. What I was thinking was... what could have
happened to hurt this girl so much she though she had no way out.
ROSE
I don't... it wasn't just one thing. It was everything. It was them, it was
their whole world. And I was trapped in it, like an insect in amber.
(in a rush)
I just had to get away... just run and run and run... and then I was at the
back rail and there was no more ship... even the Titanic wasn't big enough.
Not enough to get away from them. And before I'd really though about it, I
was over the rail. I was so furious. I'll show them. They'll be sorry!
JACK
ROSE
JACK
JACK
Is he your boyfriend?
ROSE
JACK
Gawd look at that thing! You would have gone straight to the bottom.
They laugh together. A passing steward scowls at Jack, who is clearly not a
first class passenger, but Rose just glares at him away.
JACK
So you feel like you're stuck on a train you can't get off 'cause you're
marryin' this fella.
ROSE
Yes, exactly!
JACK
ROSE
JACK
It is that simple.
ROSE
JACK
ROSE
What's this?
JACK
ROSE
May I?
The question is rhetorical because she has already grabbed the book. She
sits on a deck chair and opens the sketchbook. ON JACK'S sketches... each
one an expressive little bit of humanity: an old woman's hands, a sleeping
man, a father and daughter at the rail. The faces are luminous and alive.
His book is a celebration of the human condition.
ROSE
JACK
Some loose sketches fall out and are taken by the wind. Jack scrambles
after them... catching two, but the rest are gone, over the rail.
ROSE
JACK
JACK
I just seem to spew 'em out. Besides, they're not worth a damn anyway.
For emphasis he throws away the two he caught. They sail off.
ROSE
(laughing)
You're deranged!
ROSE
Well, well...
She has come upon a series of nudes. Rose is transfixed by the languid
beauty he has created. His nudes are soulful, real, with expressive hands
and eyes. They feel more like portraits than studies of the human form...
almost uncomfortably intimate. Rose blushes, raising the book as some
strollers go by.
ROSE
JACK
Yup. That's one of the great things about Paris. Lots of girls willing take
their clothes off.
She studies one drawing in particular, the girl posed half in sunlight,
half in shadow. Her hands lie at her chin, one furled and one open like a
flower, languid and graceful. The drawing is like an Alfred Steiglitz print
of Georgia O'Keefe.
ROSE
JACK
ROSE
(smiling)
JACK
(laughing)
ROSE
(looking up from the drawings)
JACK
I see you.
ROSE
And...?
JACK
CUT TO:
Ruth is having tea with NOEL LUCY MARTHA DYER-EDWARDES, the COUNTESS OF
ROTHES, a 35ish English blue-blood with patirician features. Ruth sees
someone coming across the room and lowers her voice.
RUTH
Oh no, that vulgar Brown woman is coming this way. Get up, quickly before
she sits with us.
Molly Brown walks up, greeting them cheerfully as they are rising.
MOLLY
RUTH
We're awfully sorry you missed it. The Countess and I are just off to take
the air on the boat deck.
MOLLY
Ruth grits her teeth as the three of them head for the Grand Staircase to
go up. TRACKING WITH THEM, as they cross the room, the SHOT HANDS OFF to
Bruce Ismay and Captain Smith at another table.
ISMAY
SMITH
ISMAY
(impatiently)
Captain, the press knows the size of Titanic, let them marvel at her speed
too. We must give them something new to print. And the maiden voyage of
Titnaic must make headlines!
SMITH
I prefer not to push the engines until they've been properly run in.
ISMAY
Of course I leave it to your good offices to decide what's best, but what a
glorious end to your last crossing if we get into New York Tuesday night
and surprise them all.
CUT TO:
Rose and Jack stroll aft, past people lounging on deck chairs in the
slanting late-afternoon light. Stewards scurry to serve tea or hot cocoa.
ROSE
You know, my dream has always been to just chuck it all and become an
artist... living in a garret, poor but free!
JACK
(laughing)
You wouldn't last two days. There's no hot water, and hardly ever any
caviar.
ROSE
(angry in a flash)
JACK
ROSE
Well, alright. There's something in me, Jack. I feel it. I don't know what
it is, whether I should be an artist, or, I don't know... a dancer. Like
Isadora Duncan.... a wild pagan spirit...
She leaps forward, lands deftly and whirls like a dervish. Then she sees
something ahead and her face lights up.
ROSE
She takes his hand and runs, pulling him along the deck toward--
DANIEL AND MARY MARVIN. Daniel is cranking the big wooden movie camera as
she poses stiffly at the rail.
MARVIN
You're sad. Sad, sad, sad. You've left your lover on the shore. You may
never see him agian. Try to be sadder, darling.
SUDDENLY Rose shoots into the shot and strikes a theatrical pose at the
rail next to Mary. Mary bursts out laughing. Rose pulls Jack into the
picture and makes him pose.
Marvin grins and starts yelling and gesturing. We see this in CUTS, with
music and no dialogue.
SERIES OF CUTS:
Rose posing tragically at the rail, the back of her hand to her forehead.
Jack, on his knees, pleading with his hands clasped while Rose, standing,
turns her head in bored disdain.
Rose cranking the camera, while Daniel and Jack have a western shoot-out.
Jack wins and leers into the lens, twirling an air mustache like Snidely
Whiplash.
CUT TO:
Painted with orange light, Jack and Rose lean on the A-deck rail aft,
shoulder to shoulder. The ship's lights come on.
ROSE
JACK
Well, then logging got to be too much like work, so I went down to Los
Angelas to the pier in Santa Monica. That's a swell place, they even have a
rollercoaster. I sketched portraits there for ten cents a piece.
ROSE
JACK
Yeah; it was great money... I could make a dollar a day, sometimes. But
only in summer. When it got cold, I decided to go to Paris and see what the
real artists were doing.
ROSE
Why can't I be like you Jack? Just head out for the horizon whenever I feel
like it.
(turning to him)
Say we'll go there, sometime... to that pier... even if we only ever just
talk about it.
JACK
Alright, we're going. We'll drink cheap beer and go on the rollercoaster
until we throw up and we'll ride horses on the beach... right in the
surf... but you have to ride like a cowboy, none of that side-saddle stuff.
ROSE
You mean one leg on each side? Scandalous! Can you show me?
JACK
ROSE
(smiling at him)
I think I would.
And teach me to spit too. Like a man. Why should only men be able to spit.
It's unfair.
JACK
They didn't teach you that in finishing school? Here, it's easy. Watch
closely.
JACK
Your turn.
Rose screws up her mouth and spits. A pathetic little bit of foamy spittle
which mostly runs down her chin before falling off into the water.
JACK
Nope, that was pitiful. Here, like this... you hawk it down... HHHNNNK!...
then roll it on your tongue, up to the front, like thith, then a big breath
and PLOOOW!! You see the range on that thing?
She goes through the steps. Hawks it down, etc. He coaches her through it
(ad lib) while doing the steps himself. She lets fly. So does he. Two
comets of gob fly out over the water.
JACK
RUTH, the Countess of Rothes, and Molly Brown have been watching them
hawking lugees. Rose becomes instantly composed.
ROSE
RUTH
Jack has a little spit running down his chin. He doesn't know it. Molly
Brown is grinning. As Rose proceeds with the introductions, we hear...
The others were gracious and curious about the man who'd saved my life. But
my mother looked at him like an insect. A dangerous insect which must be
squashed quickly.
MOLLY
Well, Jack, it sounds like you're a good man to have around in a sticky
spot--
They all jump as a BUGLER sounds the meal call right behind them.
MOLLY
Why do they insist on always announcing dinner like a damn cavalry charge?
ROSE
RUTH
The Countess exits with Ruth and Rose, leaving Jack and Molly alone on
deck.
MOLLY
JACK
Not really.
MOLLY
Well, you're about to go into the snakepit. I hope you're ready. What are
you planning to wear?
Jack looks down at his clothes. Back up at her. He hadn't thought about
that.
MOLLY
I figured.
CUT TO:
Men's suits and jackets and formal wear are strewn all over the place.
Molly is having a fine time. Jack is dressed, except for his jacket, and
Molly is tying his bow tie.
MOLLY
Don't feel bad about it. My husband still can't tie one of these damn
things after 20 years. There you go.
She picks up a jacket off the bed and hands it to him. Jack goes into the
bathroom to put it on. Molly starts picking up the stuff off the bed.
MOLLY
I gotta buy everything in three sizes 'cause I never know how much he's
been eating while I'm away.
MOLLY
CUT TO:
A steward bows and smartly opens the door to the First Class Entrance.
STEWARD
Jack plays the role smoothly. Nods with just the right degree of disdain.
CUT TO:
Jack steps in and his breath is taken away by the splendor spread out
before him. Overhead is the enormous glass dome, with a crystal chandelier
at its center. Sweeping down six stories is the First Class Grand
Staircase, the epitome of the opulent naval architecture of the time.
And the people: the women in their floor length dresses, elaborate
hairstyles and abundant jewelry... the gentlemen in evening dress, standing
with one hand at the small of the back, talking quietly.
Cal comes down the stairs, with Ruth on his arm, covered in jewelry. They
both walk right past Jack, neither one gecognizeing him. Cal nods at him,
one gent to another. But Jack barely has time to be amused. Because just
behind Cal and Ruth on the stairs is Rose, a vision in red and black, her
low-cut dress showing off her neck and shoulders, her arms seathed in white
gloves that come well above above the elbow. Jack is hypnotized by her
beauty.
JACK
ROSE
CAL
(caught off guard)
(studies him)
CUT TO:
CUT TO THE RECEPTION ROOM ON D DECK, as the party descends to dinner. They
encounter Molly Brown, looking good in a beaded dress, in her own busty
broad-shouldered way. Molly grins when she sees Jack. As they are going
into the dining saloon she walks next to him, speaking low:
MOLLY
JACK
Yeah, you just dress like a pallbearer and keep your nose up.
MOLLY
Remember, the only thing they respect is money, so just act like you've got
a lot of it and you're in the club.
As they enter the swirling throng, Rose leans close to him, pointing out
several notables.
ROSE
There's the Countess Rothes. And that's John Jacob Astor... the richest man
on the ship. His little wifey there, Madeleine, is my age and in a delicate
condition. See how she's trying to hide it. Quite the scandal.
And over there, that's Sir Cosmo and Lucile, Lady Duff-Gordon. She designs
naughty lingerie, among her many talents. Very popular with the royals.
ROSE
And that's Benjamin Guggenheim and his mistress, Madame Aubert. Mrs.
Guggenheim is at home with the children, of course.
Cal, meanwhile, is accepting the praise of his male counterparts, who are
looking at Rose like a prize show horse.
SIR COSMO
CAL
Thank you.
GRACIE
Cal's a lucky man. I know him well, and it can only be luck.
Ruth steps over, hearing the last. She takes Cal's arm, somewhat
coquettishly.
RUTH
How can you say that Colonel? Caledon Hockley is a great catch.
The entourage strolls toward the dining saloon, where they run into the
Astor's going through the ornate double doors.
ROSE
ASTOR
JACK
J.J. nods as if he's heard of them, then looks puzzled. Madeleine Astor
appraises Jack and whispers girlishly to Rose:
MADELEINE
CUT TO:
81 INT. DINING SALOON
He must have been nervous but he never faltered. They assumed he was one of
them... a young captain of industry perhaps... new money, obviously, but
still a memeber of the club. Mother of course, could always be counted
upon...
CUT TO:
CLOSE ON RUTH.
RUTH
WIDER: THE TABLE. Jack is seated opposite Rose, who is flanked by Cal and
Thomas Andrews. Also at the table are Molly Brown, Ismay, Colonel Gracie,
the Countess, Guggenheim, Madame Aubert, and the Astors.
JACK
Rose motions surreptitiously for Jack to take his napkin off his plate.
CAL
GUGGENHEIM
WAITER
(to Jack)
CAL
JACK
(to Cal)
RUTH
JACK
Well, right now my address is the RMS Titanic. After that, I'm on God's
good humor.
Salad is served. Jack reaches for the fish fork. Rose gives him a look and
picks up the salad fork, prompting him with her eyes. He changes forks.
RUTH
JACK
Well... it's a big world, and I want to see it all before I go. My father
was always talkin' about goin' to see the ocean. He died in the town he was
born in, and never did see it. You can't wait around, because you never
know what hand you're going to get dealt next. See, my folks died in a fire
when I was fifteen, and I've been on the road since. Somethin' like that
teaches you to take life as it comes at you. To make each day count.
MOLLY
COLONEL GRACIE
Here, here.
ROSE
To making it count.
Ruth, annoyed that Jack has scored a point, presses him further.
RUTH
JACK
I work my way from place to place. Tramp steamers and such. I won my ticket
on Titanic here in a lucky hand at poker.
GRACIE
CAL
Rose notices that Thomas Andrews, sitting next to her, is writing in his
notebook, completely ignoring the conversation.
ROSE
Mr. Andrews, what are you doing? I see you everywhere writing in this
little book.
Increase number of screws in hat hooks from 2 to 3. You build the biggest
ship in the world and this preoccupies you?!
ISMAY
ANDREWS
ISMAY
His blood and soul are in the ship. She may be mine on paper, but in the
eyes of God she belongs to Thomas Andrews.
ROSE
ANDREWS
Thankyou, Rose.
83 TIME TRANSITION: Dessert has been served and a waiter arrives with
cigars in a humidor on a wheeled cart. The men start clipping ends and
lighting.
ROSE
(low, to Jack)
GRACIE
(rising)
ROSE
(low)
Now they retreat into a cloud of smoke and congratulate each other on being
masters of the universe.
GRACIE
Joining us, Dawson? You don't want to stay out here with the women, do you?
JACK
CAL
Probably best. It'll be all business and politics, that sort of thing.
Wouldn't interest you. Good of you to come.
ROSE
JACK
INSERT: We see him slip a tiny folded not into her palm.
Ruth, scowling, watches him walk away across the enormous room. Rose
surreptitiously opens the note below table level. It reads: "Make it count.
Meet me at the clock".
CUT TO:
Rose crosses the A-Deck foyer, sighting Jack at the landing above. Overhead
is the crystal dome. Jack has his back to her, studying the ornate clock
with its carved figures of Honor and Glory. It softly strikes the hour.
MOVING WITH ROSE as she goes up the sweeping staircase toward him. He
turns, sees her... smiles.
JACK
Crow led and alive with music, laughter and raucous carrying on. An ad hoc
band is gathered near the upright piano, honking out lively stomping music
on fiddle, accoridon and tambourine. People of all ages are dancing,
drinking beer and wine, smoking, laughing, even brawling.
Tommy hands Rose a pint of stout and she hoists it. Jack meanwhile dances
with 5 year old Cora Cartmell, or tries to, with her standing on his feet.
As the tune ends, Rose leans down to the little girl.
ROSE
JACK
Cora scampers off. Rose and Jack face each other. She is trembling as he
takes her right hand in his left. His other hand slides to the small of her
back. It is an electrifying moment.
ROSE
JACK
The music starts and they are off. A little awkward at first, she starts to
get into it. She grins at Jack as she starts to get the rhythm of the
steops.
ROSE
Wait... stop!
She bends down, pulling off her high heeled shoes, and flings them to
Tommy. Then she grabs Jack and they plunge back into the fray, dancing
faster as the music speeds up.
CUT TO:
86 OMITTED
FABRIZIO AND HELGA. Dancing has obviated the need for a common language. He
whirls her, then she responds by whirling him... Fabrizio's eyes go wide
when he realizes she's stronger than he is.
The tune ends in a mad rush. Jack steps away from Rose with a flourish,
allowing her to take a bow. Exhilarated and slightly tipsy, she does a
graceful ballet ployer, feet turned out perfectly. Everyone laughs and
applauds. Rose is a hit with the steerage folks, who've never had a lady
party with them.
They move to a table, flushed and sweaty. Rose grabs Fabrizio's cigarette
and takes a big drag. She's feeling cocky. Fabrizio is grinning, holding
hands with Helga.
JACK
FABRIZIO
I don't know hwat she's say, she don't know what I say, so we get along
fine.
Tommy walks up with a pint for each of them. Rose chugs hers, showing off.
ROSE
Everybody else is dancing again, and Bjorn Gundersen crashes into Tommy,
who sloshes his beer over Rose's dress. She laughs, not caring. But Tommy
lunges, grabbing Bjorn and wheeling him around.
TOMMY
Bjorn comes around, his fists coming up... and Jack leaps into the middle
of it, pushing them apart.
JACK
Boys, boys! Did I ever tell you the one about the Swede and the Irishman
goin' to the whorehouse?
Tommy stands there, all piss and vinegar, chest puffed up. Then he grins
and claps Bjorn on the shoulder.
ROSE
So, you think you're big tough men? Let's see you do this.
In her stocking feet she assumes a ballet stance, arms raised, and goes up
on point, taking her entire weight on the tips of her toes. The guys gape
at her incredible muscle control. She comes back down, then her face screws
up in pain. She grabs one foot, hopping around.
ROSE
Jack catches her as she loses her balance, and everyone cracks up.
THE DOOR to the well deck is open a few inches as Lovejoy watches through
the gap. He sees Jack holding Rose, both of them laughing.
CUT TO:
The stars blaze overhead, so bright and clear you can see the Milky Way.
Rose and Jack walk along the row of lifeboats. Still giddy from the party,
they are singing a popular song "Come Josephine in My Flying Machine".
JACK/ROSE
They fumble the words and break down laughing. They have reached the First
Class Entrance, but don't go straight in, not wanting the evening to end.
Through the doors the sound of the ship's orchestra wafts gently. Rose
grabs a davit and leans back, staring at the cosmos.
ROSE
They're such small people, Jack... my crowd. They think they're giants on
the earth, but they're not even dust in God's eye. They live inside this
little tiny champagne bubble... and someday the bubble's going to burst.
He leans at the rail next to her, his hand just touching hers. It is the
slightest contact imaginable, and all either one of them can feel is that
square inch of skin where their hands are touching.
JACK
ROSE
A mistake?
JACK
ROSE
(laughing)
I did, didn't I?
(MORE)
ROSE (CONT'D)
(pointing suddenly)
JACK
That was a long one. My father used to say that whenever you saw one, it
was a soul going to heaven.
ROSE
Jack looks at her, and finds that they are suddenly very close together. It
would be so easy to move another couple of inches, to kiss her. Rose seems
to be thinking the same thing.
JACK
What would you wish for?
ROSE
She leaves the rail and hurries through the First Class Entrance.
JACK
Rose!!
But the door bangs shut, and she is gone. Back to her world.
CUT TO:
SUNDAY APRIL 14, 1912. A bright clear day. Sunlight splashing across the
promenade. Rose and Cal are having breakfast in silence. The tension is
palpable. Trudy Bolt, in her maid's uniform, pours the coffee and goes
inside.
CAL
ROSE
I was tired.
CAL
ROSE
(stiffening)
CAL
I'm not some foreman in your mills than you can command! I am your
fiancee--
Cal explodes, sweeping the breakfast china off the table with a crash. He
moves to her in one shocking moment, glowering over her and gripping the
sides of her chair, so she is trapped between his arms.
CAL
Yes! You are! And my wife... in practice, if not yet by law. So you will
honor me, as a wife is required to honor her husband! I will not be made
out a fool! Is this in any way unclear?
Rose shrinks into the chair. She sees Trudy, frozen, partway through the
door bringing the orange juice. Cal follows Rose's glance and straightens
up. He stalks past the maid, entering the stateroom.
ROSE
CUT TO:
Rose is dressed for the day, and is in the middle of helping Ruth with her
corset. The tight bindings do not inhibit Ruth's fury at all.
RUTH
You are not to see that boy again, do you understand me Rose? I forbid it!
Rose has her knee at the base of her mother's back and is pulling the
corset strings with both hands.
ROSE
Ruth pulls away from her, and crosses to the door, locking it. CLACK!
RUTH
(wheeling on her)
Rose, this is not a game! Our situation is precarious. You know the money's
gone!
ROSE
Of course I know it's gone. You remind me every day!
RUTH
Your father left us nothing but a legacy of bad debts hidden by a good
name. And that name is the only card we have to play.
Rose turns her around and grabs the corset strings again. Ruth sucks in her
waist and Rose pulls.
RUTH
I don't understand you. It is a fine match with Hockley, and it will insure
our survival.
ROSE
Rose turns to her, and we see what Rose sees-- the naked fear in her
mother's eyes.
RUTH
ROSE
It's so unfair.
RUTH
Of course it's unfair! We're women. Our choices are never easy.
CUT TO:
STEWARD
JACK
LOVEJOY
He holds out two twenty dollar bills, which Jack refuses to take.
JACK
LOVEJOY
--and also to remind you that you hold a third class ticket and your
presence here is no longer appropriate.
JACK
LOVEJOY
Gentlemen, please see that Mr. Dawson gets back where he belongs.
STEWARD
Yes sir!
(to Jack)
Come along you.
ROSE
(singing)
CUT TO:
CAL
MCCAULEY
(to Ruth)
RUTH
ANDREWS
The next stop on our tour will be bridge. This way, please.
CUT TO:
TOMMY
Jack moves furtively to the wall below the A-Deck promenade, aft.
JACK
Ready... go.
Tommy shakes his head resignedly and puts his hands together, crouching
down. Jack steps into Tommy's hands and gets boosted up to the next deck,
where he scrambles nimbly over the railing, onto the First Class deck.
TOMMY
FABRIZIO
CUT TO:
A man is playing with his son, who is spinning a top with a string. The
man's overcoat and hat are sitting on a deck chair nearby. Jack emerges
from behind one of the huge deck cranes and calmly picks up the coat and
bowler hat. He walks away, slipping into the coat, and slicks his hair back
with spit. Then puts the hat on at a jaunty angle. At a distance he could
pass for a gentlemen.
CUT TO:
HAROLD BRIDE, the 21 year old Junior Wireless Operator, hustles in and
skirts around Andrews' tour group to hand a Marconigram to Captain Smith.
BRIDE
Thankyou, Sparks.
SMITH
Not to worry, it's quite normal for this time of year. In fact, we're
speeding up. I've just ordered the last boilers lit.
Andrews scowls slightly before motioning the group toward the door. They
exit just as SECOND OFFICER CHARLES HERBERT LIGHTOLLER comes out of the
chartroom, stopping next to First Officer Murdoch.
LIGHTOLLER
CUT TO:
Andrews leads the group back from the bridge along the boat deck.
ROSE
Mr. Andrews, I did the sum in my head, and with the number of lifeboats
times the capacity you mentioned... forgive me, but it seems that there are
not enough for everyone aboard.
ANDREWS
About half, actually. Rose, you miss nothing, do you? In fact, I put in
these new type davits, which can take an extra row of boats here.
But it was thought... by some... that the deck would look too cluttered. So
I was over-ruled.
CAL
Sleep soundly, young Rose. I have built you a good ship, strong and true.
She's all the lifeboat you need.
As they are passing Boat 7, a gentlemen turns from the rail and walks up
behind the group. It is Jack. He taps Rose on the arm and she turns,
gasping. He motions and she cuts away from the group toward a door which
Jack holds open. They duck into the--
CUT TO:
Jack closes the door behind her, and glances out through the ripple-glass
window to the starboard rail, where the gym instructor is chatting up the
woman who was riding the bike. Rose and Jack are alone in the room.
ROSE
JACK
Rose, you're no picnic... you're a spoiled little brat even, but under that
you're a strong, pure heart, and you're the most amazingly astounding girl
I've ever known and--
ROSE
Jack, I--
JACK
No wait. Let me try to get this out. You're amazing... and I know I have
nothing to offer you, Rose. I know that. But I'm involved now. You jump, I
jump, remember? I can't turn away without knowin' that you're goin' to be
alright.
Rose feels the tears coming to her eyes. Jack is so open and real... not
like anyone she has ever known.
ROSE
JACK
I don't think so. They've got you in a glass jar like some butterfly, and
you're goin' to die if you don't break out. Maybe not right away, 'cause
you're strong. But sooner or later the fire in you is goin' to go out.
ROSE
JACK
ROSE
I have to get back, they'll miss me. Please, Jack, for both our sakes,
leave me alone.
CUT TO:
The most elegant room on the ship, done in Louis Quinze Versaille style.
Rose sits on a divan, with a group of other women arrayed around her. Ruth,
the Countess Rothes and Lady Duff-Gordon are taking tea. Rose is silent and
still as a porcelain figurine as the conversation washes around her.
RUTH
Of course the invitations had to be sent back to the printers twice. And
the bridesmaids dresses! Let me tell you what an odyssey that has been...
REVERSE, ROSE'S POV: A tabeau of MOTHER and DAUGHTER having tea. The four
year old girl, wearing white gloves, daintily picking up a cookie. The
mother correcting her on her posture, and the way she holds the teacup. The
little girl is trying so hard to please, her expression serious. A glimpse
of Rose at that age, and we see the relentless conditioning... the pain to
becoming an Edwardian geisha.
ON ROSE. She calmly and deliberately turns her teacup over, spilling tea
all over her dress.
ROSE
CUT TO:
ROSE
Hello, Jack.
ROSE
I changed my mind.
He smiles at her, his eyes drinking her in. Her cheeks are red with the
chill wind, and her eyes sparkle. Her hair blows wildly about her face.
ROSE
JACK
JACK
She does, and he turns her to face forward, the way the ship is going. He
presses her gently to the rail, standing right behind her. Then he takes
her two hands and raises them until she is standing with her arms
outstetched on each side. Rose is going along with him. When he lowers his
hands, her arms stay up... like wings.
JACK
Rose gasps. There is nothing in her field of vision but water. It's like
there is no ship under them at all, just the two of them soaring. The
Atlantic unrolls toward her, a hammered copper shield under a dusk sky.
There is only the wind, and the hiss of the water 50 feel below.
ROSE
I'm flying!
She leans forward, arching her back. He puts his hands on her waist to
steady her.
JACK
(singing softly)
Rose cleses her eyes, feeling herself floating weightless far above the
sea. She smiles dreamily, then leans back, gently pressing her back against
his chest. He pushes forward slightly against her.
Slowly he raises his hands, arms outstretched, and they meet hers...
fingertips gently touching. Then their fingers intertwine. Moving slowly,
their fingers caress through and around each other like the bodies of two
lovers.
Jack tips his face forward into her blowing hair, letting the scent of her
wash over him, until his cheek is agianst her ear.
Rose turns her head until her lips are near his. She lowers her arms,
turning further, until she finds his mouth with hers. He wraps his arms
around her from behind, and they kiss like this with her head turned and
tilted back, surrendering to him, to the emotion, to the inevitable. They
kiss, slowly and tremulously, and then with building passion.
Jack and the ship seem to merge into one force of power and optimism,
lifting her, buoying her forward on a magical journey, soaring onward into
a night without fear.
100 IN THE CROW'S NEST, high above and behind them, lookout FREDERICK FLEET
nudges his mate, REGINALD LEE, pointing down at the figures in the bow.
FLEET
101 JACK AND ROSE, embracing at the bow rail, DISSOLVE SLOWLY AWAY, leaving
the ruined bow of the WRECK--
CUT TO:
OLD ROSE blinks, seeming to come back to the present. She sees the wreck on
the screen, the sad ghost ship deep in the abyss.
ROSE
That was the last time Titanic ever saw daylight.
BROCK
BODINE
Don't you love it? There's Smith, he's standing there with the iceberg
warning in his fucking hand...
(remembering Rose)
... excuse me... in his hand, and he's ordering more speed.
BROCK
ROSE is ignoring this conversation. She has the art-nouveau comb with the
jade butterfly on the handle in her hands, turning it slowly. She is
watching a monitor, which shows the ruins of Suite B-52/56. PUSH IN until
the image fills frame.
TRANSITION:
... 1912. Like in a dream the beautiful woodwork and satin upholstery
emerge from the rusted ruin. Jack is overwhelmed by the opulence of the
room. He sets his sketchbood and drawing materials on the marble table.
ROSE
JACK
Hey... Monet!
He crouches next to the paintings stacked against the wall.
JACK
Isn't he great... the use of color? I saw him once... through a hole in
this garden fence in Giverny.
She goes into the adjoining walk-in wardrobe closet. He sees her go to the
safe and start working the combination. He's fascinated.
ROSE
JACK
ROSE
CLUNK! She unlocks the safe. Glancing up, she meets his eyes in the mirror
behind the safe. She opens it and removes the necklace, then holds it out
to Jack who takes it nervously.
JACK
ROSE
ROSE
104 ROSE'S BEDROOM. ON THE BUTTERFLY COMB as Rose draws it out of her hair.
She shakes her head and her hair falls free around her shoulders.
105 IN THE SITTING ROOM Jack is laying out his pencils like surgical tools.
His sketchbook is open and ready. He looks up as she comes into the room,
wearing a silk kimono.
ROSE
The last thing I need is another picture of me looking like a china doll.
As a paying customer, I expect to get what I want.
She hands him a dime and steps back, parting the kimono. The blue stone
lies on her creamy breast. Her heart is pounding as she slowly lowers the
robe.
Jakc looks so stricken, it is almost comical. The kimono drops to the floor
(this is all in cuts, lyrical).
ROSE
She poses on the divan, settling like a cat into the position we remember
from the drawing... almost.
JACK
Uh... just bend your left leg a little and... and lower your head. Eyes to
me. That's it.
Jack starts to sketch. He drops his pencil and she stifles a laugh.
ROSE
I believe you are blushing, Mr. Big Artiste. I can't imagine Monsieur Monet
blushing.
JACK
(sweating)
He does landscapes.
TIGHT ON JACK as his eyes come up to look at her over the top edge of his
sketchpad. We have seen this image of him before, in her memory. It is an
image she will carry the rest of her life.
Despite his nervousness, he draws with sure strokes, and what emerges is
the best thing he has ever done. Her pose is languid, her hands beautiful,
and her eyes radiate her energy.
TRANSITION:
106 INT. KELDYSH / IMAGING SHACK
MATCH DISSOLVE/MORPH to Rose, 101 years old. Only her eyes are the same.
OLD ROSE
My heart was pounding the whole time. It was the most erotic moment of my
life... up till then at least.
BODINE
OLD ROSE
(smiling)
CUT TO:
BACK TO 1912. Jack is signing the drawing. Rose, wearing her kimono again,
is leaning on his shoulder, watching.
ROSE
She puts the diamond back in the safe, placing hte drawing and the note on
top of it. Closes the door with a CLUNK!
CUT TO:
LOVEJOY
CAL
CUT TO:
TITANIC glides across an unnatural sea, blakc and calm as a pool of oil.
The ships lights are mirrored almost perfectly in the black water. The sky
is brilliant with stars. A meteor traces a bright line across the heavens.
110 ON THE BRIDGE, Captain Smith peers out at the blackness ahead of the
ship. QUARTERMASTER HITCHINS brings him a cup of hot tea with lemon. It
steams in the bitter cold of the open bridge. Second Officer Lightoller is
next to him, staring out at the sheet of black glass the Atlantic has
become.
LIGHTOLLER
I don't think I've ever seen such a flat calm, in 24 years at sea.
SMITH
LIGHTOLLER
It's make the bergs harder to see, with no breaking water at the base.
SMITH
Mmmmm. Well, I'm off. Maintain speed and heading, Mr. Lightoller.
LIGHTOLLER
Yes sir.
SMITH
And wake me, of course, if anything becomes in the slightest degree
doubtful.
CUT TO:
Rose, fully dressed now, returns to the sitting room. They hear a key in
the lock. Rose takes Jack's hand and leads him silently through the
bedrooms. Lovejoy enters by the sitting room door.
LOVEJOY
He hears a door opening and goes through Cal's room toward hers.
CUT TO:
Rose and Jack come out of her stateroom, closing the door. She leads him
quickly along the corridor toward the B deck foyer. They are halfway across
the open space when the sitting room door opens in the corridor and Lovejoy
comes out. The valet sees Jack with Rose and hustles after them.
ROSE
Come on!
She and Jack break into a run, surprising the few ladies and gentlemen
about. Rose leads him past the stairs to the bank of elevators. They run
into one, shocking the hell out of the OPERATOR.
ROSE
The Operator scrambles to comply. Jack even helps him close the steel gate.
Lovejoy runs up as the lift starts to descend. He slams one hand on the
bars of the gate. Rose makes a very rude and unladylike gesture, and laughs
as Lovejoy disappears above. The Operator gapes at her.
CUT TO:
Lovejoy emerges from another lift and runs to the one Jack and Rose were
in. The Operator is just closing the gate to go back up. Lovejoy runs
around the bank of elevators and scans the foyer... no Jack and Rose. He
tries the stairs going down to F-Deck.
CUT TO:
JACK
ROSE
He's an ex-Pinkerton. Cal's father hired him to keep Cal out of trouble...
to make sure he always got back to the hotel with his wallet and watch,
after some crawl through the less reputable parts of town...
JACK
115 They enter a roaring RAN ROOM, with no way out but a ladder going down.
Jack latches the deadbolt on the door, and Lovejoy slams against it a
moment later. Jack grins at Rose, pointing to the ladder.
JACK
CUT TO:
Jack and Rose come down the escape ladder and look around in amazement. It
is like a vision of hell itself, with the roaring furnaces and black
figures moving in the smoky glow. They run the length of the boiler room,
dodging amazed stokers, and trimmers with their wheelbarrows of coal.
JACK
They run through the open watertight door into BOILER ROOM SIX. Jack pulls
her through the fiercely hot alley between two boilers and they wind up in
the dark, out of sight of the working crew. Watching from the shadows, they
see the stokers working in the hellish glow, shovelling coal into the
insatiable maws of the furnaces. The whole place thunders with the roar of
the fires.
CUT TO:
COLONEL GRACIE
We're going like hell I tel you. I have fifty dollars that says we make it
into New York Tuesday night!
Cal looks at his gold pocket watch, and scowls, not listening.
CUT TO:
118 OMITTED
The furnaces roar, silhouetting the glistening stokers. Jack kisses Rose's
face, tasting the sweat trickling down from her forehead. They kiss
passionately in the steamy, pounding darkness.
CUT TO:
Jack and Rose enter and run laughing between the rows of stacked cargo. She
hugs herself against the cold, after the dripping heat of the boiler room.
They come upon William Carter's brand new RENAULT touring car, lashing down
to a pallet. It looks like a royal coach from a fairy tale, its brass trim
and headlamps nicely set off by its deep burgundy color.
Rose climbs into the plushly upholstered back seat, acting very royal.
There are cut crystals bud vases on the walls back there, each containing a
rose. Jack jumps into the driver's seat, enjoying hte feel of the leather
and wood.
JACK
ROSE
To the stars.
ON JACK as her hands come out of the shadows and pull him over the seat
into the back. He lands next to her, and his breath seems loud in the quiet
darkness. He looks at her and she is smiling. It is the moment of truth.
JACK
ROSE
He strokes her face, cherishing her. She kisses his artist's fingers.
ROSE
He kisses her, and she slides down in the seat under his welcome weight.
CUT TO:
A BRILLIANT ARC OF ELECTRICITY fills frame-- the sparks gap of the Marconi
instrument as SENIOR WIRELESS OPERATOR JACK PHILLIPS (24) rapidly keys out
a message. Junior Operator Bride looks through the huge stack of outgoing
messages swamping them.
BRIDE
Look at this one, he wants his private train to meet him. La dee da.
PHILLIPS
CUT TO:
EVANS
Stupid bastard. I try to warn him about the ice, and he says "Keep out.
Shut up. I'm working Cape Race."
GROVES
EVANS
"No seasickness. Poker business good. Al". Well that's it for me. I'm
shutting down.
As Evans wearily switches off his generator, Groves goes out on deck. PAN
oFF Him to reveal the ship is stopped fifty yards from the edge of a field
of pack ice and icebergs stretching as far as the eye can see.
CUT TO:
CUT TO:
INSIDE THE CAR, Jack's overcoat is liek a blanket over them. It stirs and
Rose pulls it down. They are huddled under it, intertwined, still mostly
clothed. Their faces are flushed and they look at each other wonderingly.
She puts her hand on his face, as if making sure he is real.
ROSE
You're trembling.
JACK
JACK
She hugs his head to her chest, and just holds on for dear life.
Well, I wasn't the first teenage girl to get seduced in the backseat of a
car, and certainly not the last, by several million. He had such fine
hands, artists' hands, but strong too... roughened by work. I remember
their touch even now.
CUT TO:
The bow sweeps under us, and the CAMERA CLIMBS toward the foremast and the
tiny half-cylinder of the crow's nest, which grows as we push in on
lookouts Fleet and Lee. They are stamping their feet and swinging their
arms, trying to keep warm in the 22 knot freezing wind, which whips capor
of their breath away behind.
FLEET
LEE
Bollocks.
FLEET
Well I can.
CUT TO:
Without hearing hte words over the roar of the furnaces, we see stokers
telling TWO STEWARDS which way Rose and Jack went. The stewards move off
toward the forward holds.
CUT TO:
Cal stands at the open safe. He stares at the drawing of Rose and his face
clenches with fury. He reads the not again: "DARLING, NOW YOU CAN KEEP US
BOTH LOCKED IN YOUR SAFE, ROSE".
Lovejoy, standing behind him, looks over his shoulder at the drawing. Cal
crumples Rose's not, then takes the drawing in both hands as if to rip it
in half. He tenses to do it, then stops himself.
CAL
CUT TO:
The two stewards enter. They have electric torches and play the beams
around the hold. They spot the Renault with its fogged up rear window and
approach it slowly.
FROM INSIDE we see the torch light up Rose's passionate handprint, still
there on the fogged up glass. One steward whips open the door.
STEWARD
Got yer!
CUT TO:
Rose and Jack, fully dressed, come through a crew door onto the deck. They
can barely stand, they are laughing so hard.
UP ABOVE THEM, IN THE CROW'S NEST, lookout Fleet hears the disturbance
below and looks around and back down to the well deck, where he can see two
figures embracing.
Jack and Rose stand in each others arms. Their breath clouds around them in
the now freezing air, but they don't even feel the cold.
ROSE
JACK
This is crazy.
ROSE
I know. It doesn't make any sense. That's why I trust it.
FLEET
LEE
FLEET
Well if that's what it takes for us two to get warm, I'd rather not, if
it's all the same.
They both have a good laugh at that one. It is Fleet whose expression falls
first. Glancing forward again, he does a double take. The color drains out
of his face.
FLEET'S POV: a massive iceberg right in their path, 500 yards out.
FLEET
Bugger me!!
Fleet reaches past Lee and rings the lookout bell three times, then grabs
the telephone, calling the bridge. He waits precious seconds for it to be
picket up, never taking his eyes off the black mass ahead.
FLEET
CUT TO:
Inside the enclosed wheelhous, SIXTH OFFICER MOODY walks unhurriedly to the
telephone, picking it up.
FLEET (V.O.)
Is someone there?
MOODY
Yes. What do you see?
FLEET
MOODY
Thankyou.
Murdoch sees it and rushes to the engine room telegraph. While signaling
"FULL SPEED ASTERN" he yells to Quartermaster Hitchins, who is at the
wheel.
MURDOCH
MOODY
132 CHIEF ENGINEER BELL is just checking the soup he has warming on a steam
manifold when the engine telegraph clangs, then goes... incredibly... to
FULL SPEED ASTERN. He and the other ENGINEERS just stare at it a second,
unbelieving. Then Bell reacts.
BELL
The engineers and greasers like madmen to close steam valves and start
braking the mighty propeller shafts, big as Sequias, to a stop.
133 IN BOILER ROOM SIX, Leading Stoker FREDERICK BARRETT is standing with
2nd Engineer JAMES HESKETH when the red warning light and "STOP" indicator
come on.
BARRETT
134 FROM THE BRIDGE Murdoch watches the burg growing... straight ahead. The
bow finally starts to come left (since the ship turns the reverse of the
helm setting).
MURDOCH'S jaw clenches as the bow turns with agonizing slowness. He holds
his breath as the horrible physics play out.
137 UNDERWATER we see the ice smashing in the steel hull plates. The
iceberg bumps and scrapes along the side of the ship. Rivets pop as the
steel plate of the hull flexes under the load.
138 IN #2 HOLD the two stewards stagger as the hull buckles in four feet
with a sound like THUNDER. Like a sledgehammer beating along outside the
ship, the berg splits the hull plates and the sea pour in, sweeping them
off their feert. The icy water swirls around the Renault as the men
scramble for the stairs.
140 IN BOILER ROOM SIX Barret and Hesketh stagger as they hear the ROLLING
THUNDER of the collision. They see the starboard side of the ship buckle in
toward them and are almost swept off their feet by a rush of water coming
in about two feet above the floor.
141 ON THE FORWARD WELL DECK Jack and Rose break their kiss and look up in
astonishment as the berg sails past, blocking out the sky like a mountain.
Fragments break off it and crash down onto the deck, and they have to jump
back to avoid flying chunks of ice.
142 ON THE BRIDGE Murdoch rings the watertight door alarm. He quicky throws
the switch that closes them.
MURDOCH
Hard a 'port!
143 BARRETT AND HESKETH hear the DOOR ALARM and scramble through the
swirling water to the watertight door between Boiler Rooms 6 and 5. The
room is full of water vapor as the cold sea strikes the red hot furnaces.
Barrett yells to the stokers scrambling through the door as it comes down
like a slow guillotine.
BARRETT
Go Lads! Go! Go!
He dives through into Boiler Room 5 just before the door rumbles down with
a CLANG.
144 JACK AND ROSE rush to the starboard rail in time to see the berg moving
aft down the side of the ship.
He feels the shudder run through the ship. And we see it in his face. Too
much of his soul is in this great ship for him not to feel its mortal
wound.
146 IN THE FIRST CLASS SMOKING ROOM Gracie watches his highball vibrating
on the table.
147 IN THE PALM COURT, with its high arched windows, Molly Brown holds up
her drink to a passing waiter.
MOLLY
Silently, a moving wall of ice fills the window behind her. She doesn't see
it. It disappears astern.
148 OMITTED
FLEET
LEE
CUT TO:
(stiffly, to Moody)
Captain Smith rushes out of his cabin onto the bridge, tucking in his
shirt.
SMITH
MURDOCH
An iceberg, sir. I put her hard a' starboard and run the engines full
astern, but it was too close. I tried to port around it, but she hi... and
I--
SMITH
MURDOCH
Together they rush out onto the starboard wing, and Murdoch points. Smith
looks into the darkness aft, then wheels around to FOURTH OFFICER BOHALL.
SMITH
CUT TO:
In steerage, Fabrizio comes out into the hall to see what's going on. He
sees dozens of rats running toward him in the corridor, fleeing the
flooding bow. Fabrizio jumps aside as the rats run by.
FABRIZIO
152 IN HIS STATEROOM Tommy gets out of his top bunk in the dark and drops
down to the floor. SPLASH!!
TOMMMY
Cor!! What in hell--?!
He naps on the light. The floor is covered with 3 inches of freezing water,
and more coming in. He pulls the door open, and steps out into the
corridor, which is flooded. Fabrizio is running toward him, yelling
something in Italian. Tommy and Fabrizio start pounding on doors, getting
everybody up and out. The alarm spreads in several languages.
CUT TO:
A couple of people have come out into the corridor in robes and slippers. A
STeWARD hurries along, reassuring them.
WOMAN
STEWARD #1
I shouldn't worry, m'am. We've likely thrown a propeller blade, that's the
shudder you felt. May I bring you anything?
THOMAS ANDREWS brushes past them, walking fast and carrying an armload of
rolled up ship's plans.
CUT TO:
Jack and Rose are leaning over the starboard rail, looking at the hull of
the ship.
JACK
ROSE
JACK
Behind them a couple of steerage guys are kicking the ice around the deck,
laughing.
CUT TO:
155 INT. STEERAGE FORWARD
Fabrizio and Tommy are in a crowd of steerage men clogging the corridors,
heading aft away from the flooding. Many of them have grabbed suitcases and
duffel bags, some of which are soaked.
TOMMY
If this is the direction the rats were runnin', it's good enough for me.
CUT TO:
Bruce Ismay, dressed in pajamas under the topcoat, hurries down the
corridor, headed for the bridge. An officious steward named BARNES comes
along the other direction, getting the few concerned passengers back into
their rooms.
STEWARD BARNES
STEWARD BARNES
CAL
Yes there is, I have been robbed. Now get the Master at Arms. Now you
moron!
CUT TO:
SMITH
SHIP'S CARPENTER JOHN HUTCHINSON enters behind him, out of breath and
clearly unnerved.
HUTCHINSON
She's making water fast... in the forepeak tank and the forward holds, in
boiler room six.
ISMAY enters, his movements quick with anger and frustration. Smith glances
at him with annoyance.
ISMAY
SMITH
ISMAY
SMITH
(glaring)
Excuse me.
CUT TO:
Strokers and firemen are struggling to draw the fires. They are working in
waist deep water churning around as it flows into the boiler room, ice cold
and swirling with grease from the machinery. Chief Engineer Bell comes
partway down the ladder and shouts.
BELL
CUT TO:
The gentlemen, now joined by another man, leans on the forward rail
watching the steerage men playing soccer with chunks of ice.
GENTLEMAN
I guess it's nothing too serious. I'm going back to my cabin to read.
A 20ish YALE MAN pops through the door wearing a topcoat over pajamas.
YALEY
Rose and Jack come up the steps from the well deck, which are right next to
the three men. They stare as the couple climbs over the locked gate.
A moment later Captain Smith rounds the corner, followed by Andrews and
Carpenter Hutc