Titanic Screenplay
Page 1
1
BLACKNESS
Then two fait 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.
TILTING DOWN to follow it as it descends away into the limitless blackness below. Soon they are fireflies, then stars, then gone.
CUT TO:
2
EXT./ INT. MIR ONE / NORTH ATLANTIC DEEP
PUSHING IN on one of the falling submersibles, called MIR ONE, right up
to it’s circular viewport to see the occupants.
INSIDE, it is a cramped seven foot sphere, crammed with equipment. ANATOLY MIKAILAVICH, the sub's pilot, sits hunched over his controls... singing softly in Russian.
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 chesthair. 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 up 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, who is also asleep. Lewis is am R.O.V. (REMOTELY OPERATED VEHICLE) pilot and is the resident Titanic expert.
Anatoly glances at the bottom sonar and makes a ballast adjustment.
CUT TO:
3
EXT. THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA
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 it’s
thrusters. It hits bottom after its two hour free-fall with a loud BONK.
CUT TO:
4
INT. MIR ONE
Lovett and Bodine jerk awake at the landing.
ANATOLY
(heavy Russian accent)
We are here.
4
EXT. / INT. MIR ONE AND TWO
5
MINUTES LATER: THE TWO SUBS skim over the sea floor to the sound of
sidescan sonar and the THRUM of big thrusters.
6
The featureless gray clay of the bottom unrolls 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
Do you see it? I don't see it... there!
Out of the darkness, like a ghostly apparition, the bow of a ship appears. It's knife-edge prow is coming straight at us, seeming to plow the bottom sediment like ocean wave. It towers above the sea floor, 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 "rusticals" 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
It still gets me every time. 
The image pans to the front viewport, looking over Anatoly's shoulder, to the bow railing visible in the lights beyond. Anatoly turns.
ANATOLY
Is just your guilt because of stealing from the dead.
CUT WIDER, to show that Brock is operating the camera himself, turning it in his hand so it points at his face.
BROCK
Thanks, Tolya. Work with me, here.
Brock resumes his serious, pensive gaze out the front port, with the camera aimed at himself at arms length.
BROCK
It still gets me every time... to see the sad ruin of the great ship sitting
there, 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
You are so full of shit, boss.
7
Mir Two drives aft down the starboard side, past the huge anchor while
Mir One passes over the seemingly endless forecastle deck, with it's massive
anchor chains still laid out in two neat rows, it's 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 house nearby.
LOVETT
Right. Lets get to work.
Bodine slips on a pair of 3-D electronic goggles, and grabs the joystick of the ROV.
9
OUTSIDE THE SUB, the ROV, a small orange and black robot called SNOOP
DOG, lifts from it's cradle and flies forward.
BODINE (V.O.)
Walkin' the dog.
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 POV, moving through the cavernous interior. The remains of the ornate handcarved woodwork which gave the ship it's elegance move through the floodlights, the lines blurred by slow dissolution and descending rustical 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.
MONTAGE STYLE, as Snoop passes ghostly images of Titanic's opulence:
10
A grand piano in amazingly good shape, crashes on it's side against
a wall. The keys gleam black and white in the lights.
11
A chandelier, still hanging from the ceiling by it's wire... glinting
as Snoop moves around it.
12
It's lights play across the floor, revealing a champagne bottle, them
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 it's rusted hinges. An ornate piece of molding, a wall sonce... 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
I'm in the sitting room. Heading for bedroom B-54.
LOVETT
Stay off the floor. Don't stir it up like you did yesterday.
BODINE
I'm tryin' boss.
Glinting in the lights are brass fixtures of the near-perfectly preserved fireplace. An albino Galathea crab crawls over it. Nearby are the remains of a divan and a writing desk. The Dog crosses the ruins of the once elegant room toward another DOOR. It squeezes through the doorframe, scraping rust and wood chunks loose on both sides. It moves out of a cloud of rust and keeps on going.
BODINE
I'm crossing the bedroom.
The remains of a pillared canopy bed. Broken chairs, a dresser. Through the collapsed wall of the bedroom, the porcelain commode and bathtub look almost new, gleaming in the dark.
LOVETT
Okay, I want to see what’s under that wardrobe door.
SEVERAL ANGLES as the ROV deploys it's MANIPULATOR ARMS and starts moving debris aside. A lamp is lifted, it's ceramic colors as bright as they were in 1912.
LOVETT
Easy, Lewis. Take it slow.
CLOSE ON LOVETT, watching his monitors. By his expression it is like he is seeing the Holy Grail.
LOVETT
Oh baby, baby baby.
(grabs the mike)
It's payday, boys.
ON THE SCREEN, in the glare of the lights, is the object of their quest: a small STEEL COMBINATION SAFE.
CUT TO:
14
EXT. STERN DECK OF KELDYSH - DAY
THE SAFE, dripping wet in the afternoon sun, is lowered onto the deck of a ship by a winch cable.
We are on the Russian research vessel AKADEMIK MISTISLAV KELDYSH. A crowd has gathered, including most of the crew of KELDYSH, the sub crews, and a handwringing money guy named BOBBY BUELL who represents the limited partners. There is also a documentary video crew, hired by Lovett to cover his moment of glory.
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 Christmas morning.
BODINE
Who's the best? Say it.
LOVETT
You are, Lewis.
(to the video crew)
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 safe... 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 safes 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
(to the video cameraman)
Get that outta my face.
CUT TO:
15
INT. LAB DECK, PRESERVATION ROOM - DAY
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.
Buell is on the satellite phone with the INVESTORS. Lovett is yelling at the video crew.
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 covers the phone and turns to Lovett.
BUELL
The partners want to know how it's going?
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.
Hi, Dave? Barry? Look, it wasn't in the safe... no, look, don't worry
about it, there’s 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 jeweler’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
I'll be God damned.
CUT TO:
16
INSERT
A CNN NEWS STORY: a live satellite feed from the deck of the Kelysh, 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?
BROCK
Yes, hi, Tracy. You know, Titanic is not just A shipwreck, Titanic is THE
shipwreck. It's the Mount Everest of shipwrecks.
CUT TO:
17
INT. HOUSE / CERAMICS STUDIO
PULL BACK from the screen, showing the CNN report playing on a TV set in the living room of a small rustic house. It's full of ceramics, figurines, folk art, the walls crammed with drawings and paintings... things collected over a lifetime.
PANNING to show a glassed-in studio attached to the house. Outside is a quiet morning in Ojai, California. In the studio, amid incredible clutter, an ANCIENT WOMAN is throwing a pot on a potter's wheel. The liquid red clay covers her hands... hands that are gnarled and age-spotted, but still surprisingly strong and supple. A woman in here early forties assists her.
BROCK (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.
CNN REPORTER (V.O.)
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?
BROCK (V. O.)
I'd rather tell you than show 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.
The younger woman, LIZZY CALVERT, rushes to help her.
ROSE
Turn that up please, dear.
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.
TIGHT ON THE SCREEN
BROCK
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.
BROCK
...a piece of paper that's been underwater for 84 years... and my team
are able to preserve it intact. Should this have remained unseen at the
bottom of the ocean for eternity, when we can see it and enjoy it now...?
ROSE is galvanized by this image. Her mouth hangs open in amazement.
ROSE
I'll be God damned.
CUT TO:
18
EXT. KELDYSH DECK - NIGHT
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
There’s a satellite call for you.
LOVETT
Bobby, we're launching. See these submersibles here, going in the water?
Take a message.
BUELL
No, trust me, you want to take this call.
CUT TO:
19
INT. LAB DECK / KELDYSH - NIGHT
Buell hands Lovett the phone, punching down the blinking line. The call is from Rose an we see both ends of the conversation. She is in her kitchen with a mystified Lizzy.
BROCK
This is Brock Lovett. What can I do for you, Mrs... ?
BUELL
Rose Calvert.
BROCK
... Mrs. Calvert?
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
I told you you wanted to take the call.
LOVETT
(to Rose)
Alright. You have my attention, Rose. Can you tell me who the woman
in the picture is?
ROSE
Oh yes. The woman in the picture is me.
CUT TO:
20
EXT. OCEAN - DAY
SMASH CUT TO AN ENORMOUS SEA STALLION HELICOPTER thundering across the
ocean. PAN 180 degrees as it roars past. There is no land at either horizon.
The Keldysh is visible in the distance.
CLOSE ON A WINDOW of the monster helicopter. Roses face is visible, looking out calmly.
CUT TO:
21 EXT. KELDYSH - DAY
Brock and Bodine are watching Mir Two being swung 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
A hundred and one next month.
BODINE
Okay, so she's a very old goddamned liar. I traced her back as far 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
And everybody knows about the diamond is supposed to be dead... or on this
ship. But she knows about it. And I want to hear what she has to say. Got
it?
CUT TO:
22
EXT. KELDYSH HELIPAD
IN A THUNDERING DOWNBLAST the helicopter's wheels bounce on the helipad.
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
S'cuse me, I have to go check our supply of Depends.
CUT TO:
23
INT. ROSE'S STATEROOM / KELDYSH - DAY
Lizzy is unpacking Rose's things in the small utilitarian room. Rose is placing a number of FRAMED PHOTOS on the bureau, arranging them carefully next to the fishbowl. Brock and Bodine are in the doorway.
BROCK
Is your stateroom alright?
ROSE
Yes, very nice. Have you met my granddaughter, Lizzy? She takes care of
me.
LIZZY
Yes. We met just a few minutes ago, grandma. Remember? Up on deck?
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.
(to the Pomeranian)
Isn't that right, sweetie.
BROCK
Would you like anything?
ROSE
I should like to see my drawing.
CUT TO:
24
INT. LAB DECK, PRESERVATION AREA
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.
TIGHT ON Roses ancient eyes, gazing at the drawing.
25
FLASHCUT of a man's hand, holding a conte crayon, deftly creating a
shoulder and the shape of her hair with two efficient lines.
26
THE WOMAN'S FACE IN THE DRAWING, dancing under the water.
27
A FLASHCUT of a man's eyes, just visible over the top of a sketching
pad. They look up suddenly, right into the LENS. Soft eyes, but fearlessly
direct.
28
Rose smiles, remembering. Brock has the reference photo of the necklace
in his hand.
BROCK
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 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
It was a dreadful, heavy thing.
(she points to the drawing)
I only wore it this once.
LIZZY
You actually believe this is you, grandma?
ROSE
It is me, dear. Wasn't I a hot number?
BROCK
I tracked it down through insurance records... an old claim was settled
under terms of absolute secrecy. Do you know who the claimant was, Rose?
ROSE
Someone named Hockley, I should imagine.
BROCK
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)
See the date?
LIZZY
April 14, 1912.
BROCK
If your grandma is who she says she is, she was wearing the diamond the
day the Titanic sank.
(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 the 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
(indicating the drawing)
You may give me this, if anything I tell you is of value.
BROCK
Deal.
(crossing the room)
Over here are a few things we've recovered from your staterooms.
Laid out on a worktable are fifty or so objects, from mundane to valuable. Rose, shrunken in here chair, can barely see over the table top. With a trembling hand she lifts a tortoise shell hand mirror, inlaid with mother of pearl. She caresses it wonderingly.
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
The reflection had changed a bit.
She spies something else, a silver and moonstone art-nouveau brooch.
ROSE
My mother's brooch. She wanted to go back for it. Caused quite a fuss.
Rose picks up an ornate art-nouveau HAIR COMB. A jade butterfly takes flight on the ebony handle of the comb. She turns it slowly, remembering. We can see that Rose is experiencing a rush of images and emotions that have lain dormant for eight decades as she handles the butterfly comb.
BROCK
Are you ready to go back to Titanic?
CUT TO:
29
INT. IMAGING SHACK / KELDYSH
It is a darkened room lined with TV monitors. IMAGES OF THE WRECK fill the screens, fed from Mir One and Two, and the two ROV's, snoop Dog and DUNCAN.
BODINE
Live from 12,000 feet.
ROSE stares raptly at the screens. She is enthralled by one in particular, an image of the bow railing. It obviously means something to her. Brock is studying her reactions carefully.
BODINE
The bow's stuck 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 worlds largest database on the Titanic. Okay here...
BROCK
Rose might not want to see this, Lewis.
ROSE
No, no. It's fine. I'm curious.
Bodine starts a COMPUTER ANIMATED GRAPHIC on the screen, which parallels his rapid-fire narration.
BODINE
She hit's 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 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!!
(making a sound in time with the animation)
... it splits! Right down to the keel, which acts like a big hinge.
Now the bow swings down and the stern falls back level... but the weight
of the bow pulls the stern up vertical, and the bow section detaches, heading
for the bottom. The stern bobs like a cork, floods and goes under about
2:20 a.m. Two hours and forty minutes after the collision.
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 it's 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.
(indicating the simulation)
Cool huh?
ROSE
Thank you for that fine forensic analysis, Mr. Bodine. Of course the experience
of it was somewhat less clinical.
BROCK
Will you share it with us?
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".
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