Titanic ScreenplayPage 230 31 32 33 LIZZY ROSE 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 BROCK ROSE He switched on the minicorder and sets it near her. ROSE As the underwater camera rises past the rusted bow rail, WE DISSOLVE/ MATCH MOVE to that same railing in 1912... MATCH DISSOLVE: 34 SHOT CONTINUES IN A GLORIOUS REVEL as the gleaming white superstructure of Titanic rises mountainously beyond the rail, and above that of the buff-colored funnels stand against the sky like the pillars of a great temple. Crewmen move across the boat deck, dwarfed by the awesome scale of the steamer. Southampton, England, April 10, 1912. it is almost noon on sailing day. A crowd of hundreds blackens the pier next to Titanic like ants on a jelly sandwich. IN FG a gorgeous burgundy RENAULT TOURING CAR swings into frame, hanging from a loading crane. It is lowered toward HATCH #2. 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. A white RENAULT, leading a silver-gray DAIMLER-BENZ, pushes through the crowd leaving a wake in the press of people. Around the handsome cars people are streaming to board the ship, jostling with hustling seamen and stokers, porters and barking WHITE STAR LINE officials. 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 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 Cal turns and gives his hand to Rose's mother, RUTH DE-WITT BUKATER, who descends from the touring car behind him. Ruth is a 40ish society empress, from one of the most prominent Philadelphia families. She is a widow, and rules her household with an iron will. CAL RUTH CAL Cal speaks with the pride of a host providing a special experience. This entire entourage of rich Americans is impeccably turned out, a quintessential example of the Edwardian upper class, complete with servants. Cal's VALET SPICER LOVEJOY, it tall and impassive, dour as an undertaker. Behind him emerge TWO MAIDS, personal servants to Ruth and Rose. A WHITE STAR LINE PORTER scurries toward them, hurried by last minute loading. PORTER Cal nonchalantly hands the man a fiver. The porters eyes dilate. Five pounds was a monster tip in those days. CAL PORTER Cal never tires of the effects of money on the unwashed masses. LOVEJOY 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 a 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, Roses maid, hustles behind them, laden with bags of her mistress's most recent purchases... things too delicate for the baggage handlers. Cal leads, weaving between vehicles and handcarts, hurrying passengers (mostly second class and steerage) and well wishers. Most of the first class passengers are avoiding the smelly press of the dockside crowd by using an elevated boarding bridge, twenty feet above. 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. DANIEL 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 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 MAN The Cockney father pushes on, after his kids, shouting. CAL RUTH CAL ROSE CAL ROSE Cal guides them out of the path of a horse-drawn wagon loaded with two tons of OXFORD MARMALADE, in wooden cases, for Titanic's Victualling Department. CAL Rose looks up as the hull of Titanic looms over them... a great iron wall, Bible black and severe. Cal motions her forward, and she enters the gangway to the D Deck doors with a sense of overwhelming dread. OLD ROSE (V.O.) CLOSE ON CAL'S HAND IN SLOW-MOTION as it closes possessively over Rose's arm. He escorts her up the gangway and the black hull of Titanic swallows them. OLD ROSE (V.O.) 35 CUT TO: 36 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 the art scene in Paris. He is also very self-possessed and sure-footed for 20, having lived on his own since 15. The TWO SWEDES continue their sullen argument, in Swedish. OLAF SVEN JACK Jack takes the card and slips it into his hand. ECU JACK'S EYES. They betray nothing. CLOSE ON FABRIZIO licking his lips nervously as he refuses a card. ECU STACK in the middle of the table. Bills and coins from four countries. This has been going on for a while. Sitting on top of the money are two 3RD CLASS TICKETS for RMS TITANIC. The Titanic's whistle blows again. Final warning. JACK Fabrizio puts his cards down. So do the Swedes. Jack holds his close. JACK FABRIZIO JACK He slaps a full house down on the table. JACK FABRIZIO The table explodes into shouting in several languages. Jack rakes in the money and the tickets. JACK FABRIZIO/JACK 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 winning the lottery. JACK FABRIZIO PUBKEEPER JACK They run for the door. PUBKEEPER CUT TO: 37 38 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 vast wall of the ships 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 stars to swing down from the gangway doors. JACK Flushed and panting, he waves the tickets. MOODY JACK MOODY 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 He hands the tickets back, eyeing Fabrizio’s Mediterranean looks suspiciously. JACK Jack and Fabrizio whoop with victory as they run down the white-painted corridor... grinning from ear to ear. JACK CUT TO: 39 40 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: 41 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, Fabrizio joins in, adding his voice to the swell of voices, feeling the exhilaration of the moment. FABRIZIO CUT TO: 42 43 CUT TO: 44 IN A LONG LENS SHOT the prow of Titanic FILLS FRAME behind the lead tug, which is dwarfed. The bow wave spreads before the mighty plow of the liners hull as it moves down the River Test toward the English Channel. CUT TO: 45 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 cubical, 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 CUT TO: 46 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 CAL A porter wheels Cal's private safe (which we recognize) into the room on a handtruck. CAL 47 TRUDY Cal appears in the doorway of the bedroom. CAL 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: 48 Titanic stands silhouetted against a purple post-sunset sky. She is lit up like a floating palace, and her thousand portholes reflect in the calm harbor waters. The 150 foot tender Nomadic lies-to alongside, looking like a rowboat. The lights of Cherbourg harbor complete the postcard image. CUT TO: 49 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 her bags. WOMAN OLD ROSE (V.O.) At 45, MOLLY BROWN is a tough talking straightshooter who dresses in the finery of her genteel peers but will never be one of them. OLD ROSE (V.O.) CUT TO: 50 51 The ship glows with the warm creamy light of late afternoon. Jack and Fabrizio stand right at the bow gripping the curved 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: 52 ON THE BRIDGE, CAPTAIN SMITH turns from the binnacle to FIRST OFFICER WILLIAM MURDOCH. CAPTAIN SMITH Murdoch moves the engine telegraph lever to ALL AHEAD FULL. 55 IN THE ENGINE ROOM the telegraph clangs and moves to "All Ahead Full". CHIEF ENGINEER BELL On the catwalk THOMAS ANDREWS, the shipbuilder, watches carefully as the engineers and greasers scramble to adjust valves. Towering above them are twin RECIPROCATING engines, four stories tall, their ten-foot-long connecting rods surging up and down with the running of the massive crankshafts. The engines thunder like the footfalls of marching giants. 54 55 56 57 FIRST OFFICER MURDOCH SMITH 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 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 break, jumping clear of the water and then dive back, crisscrossing in front of the bow, dancing ahead of the juggernaut. FABRIZIO 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 ship rolls endlessly forward underneath. Over the bridge wing, along the boat deck until her funnels come INTO FRAME beside us and march past like the pillars of heaven, one by one. We pull back, 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.) CUT TO: 59 CLOSE ON J. BRUCE ISMAY, managing director of the White Star Line. ISMAY He indicates a handsome 39 year old Irish gentleman to his right, THOMAS ANDREWS, of Harland and Wolff Shipbuilders. 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 MOLLY The waiter arrives to take orders. Rose lights a cigarette. RUTH CAL Cal takes the cigarette from her and stubs it out. CAL Molly is watching the dynamic between Rose, Cal and Ruth. MOLLY ISMAY ROSE Andrews chokes on his breadstick, suppressing laughter. RUTH ROSE She stalks away. RUTH MOLLY CAL CUT TO: 60 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 leaning 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 Jacks shoulder. He nods appreciatively. TOMMY RYAN, a scowling young Irish emigrant, watches as a crewmember comes by, walking three small dogs around the deck. One of them, a BLACK FRENCH BULLDOG, is among the ugliest creatures on the planet. TOMMY Jack looks up from his sketch. 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 gazing 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 Home | Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
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