Titanic Screenplay
Page 10
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279
EXT. OCEAN/ UNDERWATER AND SURFACE
Bodies are whirled and spun, some limp as dolls, others struggling spasmodically, as the vortex sucks them down and tumbles them.
280
Jack rises INTO FRAME F.G. kicking hard for the surface... holding tightly
to Rose, pulling her up.
281
AT THE SURFACE: a roiling chaos of screaming, thrashing people. Over
a thousand people are now floating where the ship went down. Some are stunned,
gasping for breath. Others are crying, praying, moaning, shouting... screaming.
Jack and Rose surface among them. They barely have any time to gasp for air before people are clawing at them. People driven insane by the water, 4 degrees below freezing, a cold so intense it is indistinguishable from death by fire.
A man pushes Rose under, trying to climb on top of her... senselessly trying to get out of the water, to climb onto anything. Jack PUNCHES him repeatedly, pulling her free.
JACK
Swim, Rose! SWIM!
She tries, but her strokes are not as effective as his because of her lifejacket. They break out of the clot of people. He has to find some kind of floatation, anything to get her out of the freezing water.
JACK
Keep swimming. Keep moving. Come on, you can do it.
All about them there is a tremendous wailing, screaming and moaning... a chorus of tormented souls. And beyond that... nothing but black water stretching to the horizon. The sense of isolation and hopelessness is overwhelming.
CUT TO:
282
OMITTED
283
EXT. OCEAN Jack strokes rhythmically, the effort keeping him from freezing.
JACK
Look for something floating. Some debris... wood... anything.
ROSE
It's so cold.
JACK
I know. I know. Help me, here. Look around.
His words keep her focused, taking her mind off the wailing around them. Rose scans the water, panting, barely able to draw a breath. She turns and... SCREAMS.
A DEVIL is right in front of her face. It is the black FRENCH BULLDOG, swimming right at her like a seamonster in the darkness, it's coal eyes bugging. It motors past her, like it's heading for Newfoundland.
Beyond it Rose sees something in the water.
ROSE
What's that?
Jack sees what she's pointing to, and they make for it together. It is a piece of wooden debris, intricately carved. He pushes her up and she slithers onto it belly down.
But when Jack tries to get up onto the thing, it tilts and submerges, almost dumping Rose off. It is clearly only big enough to support her. He clings to it, close to her, keeping his upper body out of the water as best be can.
Their breath floats around them in a cloud as they pant from the exertion. A MAN swims toward them, homing in on the piece of debris. Jack warns him back.
JACK
It's just enough for this lady... you'll push it under.
MAN
Let me try at least, or I'll die soon.
JACK
You'll die quicker if you come any closer.
MAN
Yes, I see. Good luck to you then.
(swimming off)
God bless.
CUT TO:
284
EXT. COLLAPSIBLE A/ OCEAN
The boat is overloaded and half-flooded. Men cling to the sides in the water. Others, swimming, are drawn to it as their only hope. Cal, standing in the boat, slaps his oar in the water as a warning.
CAL
Stay back! Keep off!
Fabrizio, exhausted and near the limit, makes it almost to the boat. Cal CLUBS HIM with the oar, cutting open his scalp.
FABRIZIO
You don't... understand... I have... to get... to America.
CAL
(pointing with the oar)
It's that way!
CLOSE ON FABRIZIO as he floats, panting, each breath agony. You see the spirit leave him.
FABRIZIO'S POV: Cal in SLOW MOTION, yelling and wielding the oar. A demon in a tuxedo. The image fades to black.
CUT TO:
285
EXT. OCEAN
JACK AND ROSE still afloat amid a chorus of the damned. Jack sees a ship's officer nearby, CHIEF OFFICER WILDE. He is blowing his whistle furiously, knowing the sound will carry over the water for miles.
JACK
The boats will come back for us, Rose. Hold on just a little longer. They
had to row away for the suction and now they'll be coming back.
She nods, his words helping her. She is shivering uncontrollably, her lips blue and her teeth chattering.
ROSE
Thank God for you Jack.
People are still screaming, calling to the lifeboats.
WOMAN
Come back! Please! We know you can hear us, For God's sake!
MAN
Please... help us. Save one life! SAVE ONE LIFE!
CUT TO:
286
EXT. LIFEBOATS / OCEAN IN BOAT 6: Ruth has her ears covered against
the wailing in the darkness. The first class women in the boat sit, stunned,
listening to the sound of hundreds screaming.
HICHENS
They'll pull us right down I tell ya!
MOLLY
AW knock it off, yer scarin' me. Come on girls, grab your oars. Let's go.
(nobody moves)
Well come on!
The women won't meet her eyes. They huddle into their ermine wraps.
MOLLY
I don't understand a one of you. What's the matter with you? It's your
men back there! We got plenty a' room for more.
HICHENS
If you don't shut that hole in yer face, there'll be one less in this boat!
Ruth keeps her ears covered and her eyes closed, shutting it all out.
287
IN BOAT ONE: Sir Cosmo and Lucille Duff Gordon sit with ten other people
in a boat that is two thirds empty. They are two hundred yards from the
screaming in the darkness.
FIREMAN HENDRICKSON
We should do something.
Lucille squeezes Cosmo's hand and pleads to him with her eyes. She is terrified.
SIR COSMO
It's out of the question
The crewmembers, intimidated by a nobleman, acquiesce. They hunch guiltily, hoping the sound will stop soon.
TWENTY BOATS, most half full, float in the darkness. None of them make a move.
CUT TO:
288
EXT. OCEAN Jack and Rose drift under the blazing stars. The water is
glassy, with only the faintest undulating swell. Rose can actually see
the stars reflecting on the black mirror of the sea.
Jack squeezes the water out of her long coat, tucking it in tightly around her legs. He rubs her arms. His face is chalk white in the darkness. A low MOANING in the darkness around them.
ROSE
It's getting quiet.
JACK
Just a few more minutes. It'll take them a while to get the boats organized
Rose is unmoving, just staring into space. She knows the truth. There won't be any boats. Behind Jack she sees that Officer Wilde has stopped moving. He is slumped in his lifejacket, looking almost asleep. He has died of exposure already.
JACK
I don't know about you, but I intend to write a strongly worded letter
to the White Star Line about all this.
He laughs weakly, but it sounds like a gasp of fear. Rose finds his eyes in the dim light.
ROSE
I love you Jack.
He takes her hand.
JACK
No... don't say your good-byes, Rose. Don't you give up. Don't do it.
ROSE
I'm so cold.
JACK
You're going to get out of this... you're going to go on and you're going
to make babies and watch them grow and you're going to die an old lady,
warm in your bed. Not here. Not this night. Do you understand me?
ROSE
I can't feel my body.
JACK
Rose, listen to me. Listen. Winning that ticket was the best thing that
ever happened to me.
Jack is having trouble getting the breath to speak.
JACK
It brought me to you. And I'm thankful, Rose. I'm Thankful.
His voice is trembling with the cold which is working its way to his heart. But his eyes are unwavering.
JACK
You must do me this honor... promise me you will survive... that you will
never give up... no matter what happens... no matter how hopeless... promise
me now, and never let go of that promise.
ROSE
I promise.
JACK
Never let go.
ROSE
I Promise. I will never let go, jack. I'll never let go. 
She grips his hand and they lie with their heads together. It is quiet now, except for the lapping of water.
CUT TO:
289
EXT. LIFEBOATS / OCEAN - NIGHT
Fifth Officer Lowe, the impetuous young Welshman, has gotten boats 10, 12 and Collapsible D together with his own boat 14. A demon of energy, he's had everyone hold the boats together and is transferring passengers from 14 into the others, to empty his boat for a rescue attempt.
As the women step gingerly across into the other boats, Lowe sees a shawled figure in too much of a hurry. He rips the shawl off, and finds himself staring into the face of a man. He angrily shoves the stowaway into another boat and turns to his crew of three.
LOWE
Right, man the oars.
CUT TO:
290
EXT. OCEAN / BOAT 14
The beam of an electric torch plays across the water like a searchlight as Boat 14 comes toward us.
ANGLE FROM THE BOAT as the torch illuminates floating debris, a poignant trail of flotsam: a violin, a child's wooden soldier, a framed photo of a steerage family. Daniel Marvin's wooden Biograph camera.
Then, their white lifebelts bobbing in the darkness like signposts, the first bodies come into the torches beam. The people are dead but not drowned, killed by the freezing water. Some look like they could be sleeping. One seaman throws up. Lowe sees a mother floating with her arms frozen around her lifeless baby.
LOWE
(the worst moment of his life)
We waited too long.
CUT TO:
291
EXT. OCEAN
IN A HOVERING DOWNANGLE we see Jack and Rose floating in the black water. The stars reflect in the mill pond surface, and the two of them seem to be floating in interstellar space. They are absolutely still. Their hands are locked together. Rose is staring upwards at the canopy of stars wheeling above her. The music is transparent, floating... as the long sleep steals over Rose, and she feels peace.
CLOSE on Rose's face. Pale, like the faces of the dead. She seems to be floating in a void. Rose is in a semi-hallucinatory state. She knows she is dying. Her lips barely move as she sings a scrap of Jack's song:
ROSE
"Come Josephine in my flying machine..."
ROSE'S POV: The stars. Like you've never seen them. The Milky Way a glorious band from horizon to horizon.
A SHOOTING STAR flares... a line of light across the heavens.
TIGHT ON ROSE again. We see that her hair is dusted with frost crystals. Her breathing is so shallow, she is almost motionless. Her eyes track down from the stars to the water.
Then the lookout flashes his torch toward her and the light flares across the water, silhouetting the bobbing corpses in between. It flicks past her motionless form and moves on. The boat is 50 feet away, and moving past her. The men look away.
Rose lifts her head to turn to Jack. We see that her hair has frozen to the wood under her.
ROSE
(barely audible)
Jack.
She touches his shoulder with her free hand. He doesn't respond. Rose gently turns his face toward her. It is rimed with frost.
He seems to be sleeping peacefully.
But he is not asleep.
Rose can only stare at his still face as the realization goes through her.
ROSE
Oh, Jack
All hope, will and spirit leave her. She looks at the boat. It is further away now, the voices fainter. Rose watches them go.
She closes her eyes. She is so weak, and there just seems to be no reason to even try.
And then... her eyes snap open.
She raises her head suddenly, crackling the ice as she rips her hair off the wood. She calls out, but her voice is so weak they don't hear her. The boat is invisible now, the torch light a star impossibly far away. She struggles to draw breath, calling again.
292
IN THE BOAT Lowe hears nothing behind him. He points to something ahead,
turning the tiller.
293
ROSE struggles to move. Her hand, she realizes, is actually frozen to
Jack's. She breathes on it, melting the ice a little, and gently unclasps
their hands, breaking away a tin tinkling film.
ROSE
I won't let go. I promise.
She releases him and he sinks into the black water. He seems to fade out like a spirit returning to some immaterial plane.
Rose rolls off the floating staircase and plunges into the icy water. She swims to Chief Officer Wilde's body and grabs the whistle. She starts to BLOW THE WHISTLE with all the strength in her body. Its sound slaps across the still water.
294
IN BOAT 14 Lowe whips around at the sound of the whistle.
LOWE
(turning the tiller)
Row back! That way! Pull!
Rose keeps blowing as the boat comes to her. She is still blowing when Lowe takes the whistle from her mouth as they haul her into the boat. She slips into unconsciousness and they scramble to cover her with blankets...
DISSOLVE TO:
295
INT. IMAGING SHACK / KELDYSH
EXTREME CLOSEUP of Rose's ancient, wrinkled face. Present day.
OLD ROSE
Fifteen hundred people went into the sea when Titanic sank from under us.
There were twenty boats floating nearby and only one came back. One. Six
were saved from the water, myself included. Six out of fifteen hundred.
As she speaks THE CAMERA TRACKS slowly across the faces of Lizzy and the salvage crew on KELDYSH. Lovett, Bodine, Buell, the others... the reality of what happened here 84 years before has hit them like never before. With her story Rose has put them on Titanic in its final hours, and for the first time, they do feel like graverobbers.
Lovett, for the first time, has even forgotten to ask about the diamond.
OLD ROSE
Afterward, the seven hundred people in the boats had nothing to do but
wait... wait to die, wait to live, wait for an absolution which would never
come.
DISSOLVE TO:
296
EXT. LIFEBOATS / OPEN SEA - PRE-DAWN
MATCHING MOVE as the camera tracks along the faces of the saved.
DISSOLVE TO: ANOTHER BOAT, and then ANOTHER, seeing faces we know among the survivors: Ismay in a trance, just staring and trembling... Cal, sipping from a hip flask offered to him by a black-faced stoker... Ruth hugging herself, rocking gently.
297
IN BOAT 14: CLOSE ON ROSE, lying swaddled. Only her face visible, white
as the moon. The man next to her jumps up, pointing and yelling. Soon everyone
is looking and shouting excitedly. In Rose's POV it is all silent, SLOW
MOTION.
IN A SLOW-MOTION SILENCE we see Lowe light a green flare and wave it as everyone shouts and cheers. Rose doesn't react. She floats beyond all human emotion.
DISSOLVE TO:
299
EXT. LIFEBOATS/ OCEAN/ CARPATHIA MONTAGE - DAY
IMAGES DISSOLVE into one another: a ships hull looming, with the letters CARPATHIA visible on the bow... Rose watching, rocked by the sea, her face blank... seamen helping survivors up the rope ladder to the Carpathia's gangway doors... two women crying and hugging each other inside the ship... ALL SILENT, ALL IN SLOW-MOTION. There is just music, so gentle and sad, part elegy, part hymn, art aching song of love lost forever.
THE IMAGES CONTINUE to music... Rose, outside of time, outside of herself, coming into Carpathia, barely able to stand... Rose being draped by warm blankets and given hot tea... BRUCE ISMAY climbing aboard. He has the face and eyes of a damned soul.
As Ismay walks along the hall, guided by a crewman toward the doctors cabin, he passes rows of seated and standing widows. He must run the gauntlet of their accusing gazes.
CUT TO:
300
EXT. DECK/ CARPATHIA - DAY
It is the afternoon of the 15th. Cal is searching the faces of the widows lining the deck, looking for Rose. The deck of Carpathia is crammed with huddled people, and even the recovered lifeboats of Titanic. On a hatch cover sits an enormous pile of lifebelts.
He keeps walking toward the stern. Seeing Cal's tuxedo, a steward approaches him.
CARPATHIA STEWARD
You won't find any of your people back here, sir. It's all steerage.
Cal ignores him and goes amongst this wretched group, looking under shawls and blankets at one bleak face after another.
Rose is sipping hot tea. Her eyes focus on him as he approaches her. He barely recognizes her. She looks like a refugee, her matted hair hanging in her eyes.
ROSE
Yes, I lived. How awkward for you.
CAL
Rose... your mother and I have been looking for you--
She holds up her hand, stopping him.
ROSE
Please don't. Don't talk. Just listen. We will make a deal, since that
is something you understand. From this moment you do not exist to me, nor
I for you. You shall not see me again. And you will not attempt to find
me. In return I will keep my silence. Your actions last night need never
come to light, and you will get to keep the honor you have so carefully
purchased.
She fixes him a glare as cold and hard as the ice that changed their lives.
ROSE
Is this in any way unclear?
CAL
(after a long beat)
What do I tell your mother?
ROSE
Tell her that her daughter died with the Titanic.
She stands, turning to the rail. Dismissing him. We see Cal stricken with emotion.
CAL
You're precious to me, Rose.
ROSE
Jewels are precious. Goodbye, Mr. Hockley.
We see that in his way, the only way he knows, he does truly love her.
After a moment, he turns and walks away.
OLD ROSE
That was the last time I ever saw him. He married, of course, and inherited
his millions. The crash of 28 hit his interests hard, and he put a pistol
in his mouth that year. His children fought over the scraps of his estate
like hyenas, or so I read.
301
ANGLE ON ROSE, at the railing of the Carpathia, 9pm April 18th. She
gazes up at the Statue of Liberty, looking just as it does today, welcoming
her home with her glowing torch. It is just as Fabrizio saw it, so clearly,
in his mind.
302
LATER CARPATHIA DISGORGES THE SURVIVORS at the Cunard pier, Pier 54.
Over 30,000 people line the dock and fill the surrounding streets. The
magnesium flashes of the photographers go off like small bombs, lighting
an amazing tableau.
Several hundred police keep the mob back. The dock is packed with friends and relatives, officials, ambulances, and the press--
Reporters and photographers swarm everywhere... 6 deep at the foot of the gangways, lining the tops of cars and trucks.. it is the 1912 equivalent to a media circus. They jostle to get close to the survivors, tugging on them as they pass and shouting over each other to ask them questions.
Rose is covered with a woolen shawl and walking with a group of steerage passengers. Immigration officers are asking them questions as they come off the gangway.
IMMIGRATION OFFICER
Name?
ROSE
Dawson. Rose Dawson.
The officer steers her toward a holding area for processing. Rose walks forward with the dazed immigrants. The BOOM! of photographer's magnesium flashes cause them to flinch, and the glare is blinding. There is a sudden disturbance near her as two men burst through the cordon, running to embrace an older woman among the survivors, who cries out with joy. The reporters converge on this emotional scene, and flashes explode.
Rose uses this moment to slip away into the crowd. She pushes through the jostling people, moving with purpose, and none challenges her in the confusion.
OLD ROSE
Can you exchange one life for another? A caterpillar turns into a butterfly.
If a mindless insect can do it, why couldn't I? Was it any more unimaginable
than the sinking of the Titanic?
TRACKING WITH HER as she walks away, further and further until the flashes and the roar are far behind her, and she is still walking, determined.
CUT TO:
303
INT. IMAGING SHACK/ KELDYSH
Old Rose sits with the group in the imaging shack, lit by the blue glow of the screens. She holds the haircomb with the jade butterfly on the handle in her gnarled hands.
BODINE
We never found anything on Jack. There's no record of him at all.
OLD ROSE
No, there wouldn't be, would there? And I've never spoken of him until
now, not to anyone.
(to Lizzy)
Not even your Grandfather. A woman's heart is a deep ocean of secrets.
But now you all know there was a man named Jack Dawson, and that he saved
me, in every way that a person can be saved.
(closing her eyes)
I don't even have a picture of him. He exists now only in my memory.
CUT TO:
304
OMITTED
305
EXT. OCEAN FLOOR/ TITANIC WRECK
The Mir submersibles make their last pass over the ship. We hear Yuri the pilot on the UQC:
YURI
Mir One returning to surface.
The sub rises off the deck of the wreck, taking it's light with it, leaving the Titanic once again in it's fine and private darkness.
CUT TO:
306
EXT. KELDYSH DECK
A desultory wrap up party for the expedition is in progress. There is music and some of the (co-ed) Russian crew are dancing. Bodine is getting drunk in the aggressive style of Baker Joughin.
Lovett stands at the rail, looking down into the black water. Lizzy comes to him, offering him a beer. She puts her hand on his arm.
LIZZY
I'm sorry.
BROCK
We were pissin' in the wind the whole time.
Lovett notices a figure move through the lights far down at the stern of the ship.
LOVETT
Oh shit.
CUT TO:
307
EXT. KELDYSH STERN DECK
Rose walks through the shadows of the deck machinery. Her nightgown blows in the wind. Her feet are bare. Her hands are clutched at her chest, almost as if she is praying.
ON BROCK AND LIZZY running down the stairs from the top deck, hauling ass.
ROSE reaches the stern rail. Her gnarled fingers wrap over the rail. Her ancient foot steps up on the gunwale. She pushes herself up leaning forward. Over her shoulder, we see the black water glinting far below.
BROCK AND LIZZY run up behind her.
LIZZY
Grandma, wait!! Don't--
ROSE TURNS her head, looking at them. She turns further, and we see she has something in her hand, something she was about to drop overboard.
It is the "Heart of the Ocean".
Lovett sees his holy grail in her hand and his eyes go wide. Rose keeps it over the railing where she can drop it anytime.
ROSE
Don't come any closer.
LOVETT
You had it the entire time!?
FLASH CUT TO: A SILENT IMAGE OF YOUNG ROSE walking away from Pier 54. The photographers' flashes go off like a battle behind her. She has her hands in her pockets. She stops, feeling something, and pulls out the necklace. She stares at it in amazement.
BACK ON KELDYSH, Rose smiles at Brock's incomprehension.
ROSE
The hardest part about being so poor, was being so rich. But every time
I thought of selling it, I thought of Cal. And somehow I always got by
without his help.
She holds it out over the water. Bodine and a couple of the other guys come up behind Brock, reacting to what is in Rose's hand.
BODINE
Holy shit.
LOVETT
Don't drop it Rose.
BODINE
(a fierce whisper)
Rush her.
LOVETT
(to Bodine)
It's hers, you schmuck.
(to her)
Look, Rose, I... I don't know what to say to a woman who tries to jump
off the Titanic when it's not sinking, and jumps back on when it is...
we're not dealing with logic here, I know that... but please... think bout
this for a second.
ROSE
I have. I came all the way here so this could go back where it belongs.
The massive diamond glitters. Brock edges closer and holds out his hand...
BROCK
Just let me hold it in my hand, Rose. Please. Just once.
He comes closer to her. it is reminiscent of Jack slowly moving up to her at the stern of Titanic.
Surprisingly, she calmly places the massive stone in the palm of his hand, while still holding onto the necklace. Brock gazes at the object of his quest. An infinity of cold scalpels glint in its blue depths. It is mesmerizing. It fits in his hand just like he imagined.
BROCK
My god.
His grip tightens on the diamond.
He looks up, meeting her gaze. Her eyes are suddenly infinitely wise and deep.
ROSE
You look for treasure in the wrong place, Mr. Lovett. Only life is priceless,
and making each day count.
His fingers relax. He opens them slowly. Gently she slips the diamond out of his hand. He feels it sliding away.
Then, with an impish little grin, Rose tosses the necklace over the rail. Bodine gives a strangled cry and rushes to the rail in time to see it hit the water and disappear forever.
BODINE
Aww!! That really sucks, lady!
Brock Lovett goes through ten changes before he settles on a reaction... HE LAUGHS. He laughs until tears come to his eyes. Then he turns to Lizzy.
LOVETT
Would you like to dance?
Lizzy grins at him and nods. Rose smiles. She looks up at the stars.
308
IN THE BLACK HEART OF THE OCEAN, the diamond sinks, twinkling end over
end, into the infinite depths.
CUT TO:
309 INT. ROSE'S CABIN/ KELDYSH
A GRACEFUL PAN across Rose's shelf of carefully arranged pictures:
Rose as a young actress in California, radiant... a theatrically lit studio publicity shot... Rose and her husband, with their two children... Rose with her son at his college graduation... Rose with her children and grandchildren at her 70th birthday. A collage of images of a life lived well.
THE PAN STOPS on an image filling frame. Rose, circa 1920. She is at the beach, sitting on a horse in the surfline. The Santa Monica pier, with it's rollercoaster is behind her. She is grinning, full of life.
We PAN OFF the last picture to Rose herself, warm in her bunk. A profile shot. She is very still. She could be sleeping, or maybe something else.
CUT TO:
BLACKNESS
310
THE WRECK OF THE TITANIC looms like a ghost out of the dark. It is lit
by a kind of moonlight, a light of the mind. We pass over the endless forecastle
deck to the superstructure, moving faster than subs can move... almost
like we're flying.
WE GO INSIDE, and the echoing sound of distant waltz music is heard. The rust fades away from the walls of the dark corridor and it is transformed... WE EMERGE onto the grand staircase, lit by glowing chandeliers. The music is vibrant now, and the room is populated by men in tie and tails, women in gowns. It is exquisitely beautiful.
IN POV we sweep down the staircase. The crowd of beautiful gentlemen and ladies turn as we descend toward them. At the bottom a man stands with his back to us... he turns and it is Jack. Smiling he holds his hand out toward us.
IN A SIDE ANGLE Rose goes into his arms, a girl of 17. The passengers, officers and crew of the RMS Titanic smile and applaud in the utter silence of the abyss.
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