Titanic Screenplay

Page 3

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61
INT. FIRST CLASS DINING SALOON - NIGHT

SLOWLY PUSHING IN ON ROSE as she sits, flanked by people in heated conversation. Cal and Ruth are laughing together, while on the other side LADY DUFF-GORDON is holding forth animatedly. We don’t hear what they are saying. Rose is staring at her plate, barely listening to the inconsequential babble around her.

OLD ROSE
I saw my whole life as if I’d already lived it... an endless parade of parties and cotillions, yachts and polo matches... always the same narrow people, the same mindless chatter. I felt like I was standing at a great precipice, with no one to pull me back, no one who cared... or even noticed.

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.

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62
INT. CORRIDOR/ B DECK - NIGHT

Rose walks along the corridor. A steward coming the other way greets her, and she nods with a slight smile. She is perfectly composed.

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63
INT. ROSE’S BEDROOM - NIGHT

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 the handmirror against the vanity, cracking it.

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64
EXT. A DECK PROMENADE, AFT - NIGHT

Rose runs along the B deck promenade. She is disheveled, 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.

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65
EXT. POOP DECK - NIGHT

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 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 Atlantic into white foam, and a ghostly wake trails off toward the horizon.

IN A LOW ANGLE, we see Rose standing like a figurehead in reverse. Below her are the huge letters of the name "TITANIC".

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
Stay back! Don't any closer!

Jack sees the tear tracks on her cheeks in the faint glow from the stern running lights.

JACK
Take my hand. I'll pull you back in.

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
You're distracting me. Go away.

JACK
I can't. I'm involved now. If you let go I have to jump in after you.

ROSE
Don't be absurd. You'll be killed.

He takes off his jacket.

JACK
I'm a good swimmer.

He starts unlacing his left shoe.

ROSE
The fall alone would kill you.

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
(taking off his left shoe)
Freezing. Maybe a couple degrees over.

He starts unlacing his right shoe.

JACK
Ever been to Wisconsin?

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
I know what ice fishing is!

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 right down there... it hits you like a thousand knives stabbing 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.
(smiling)
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.

He slides one step closer, like moving up on a spooked horse.

JACK
Come on. You don't want do this. Give me your hand.

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
I'm Jack Dawson.

ROSE
(voice quavering)
Pleased to meet you, Mr. Dawson.

Rose starts to turn. Now that she has decided to live, the height is terrifying. She is overcome by vertigo as she 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
I've got you. I won't let go.

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.

Jack, awkwardly clutching Rose by whatever he can get a grip on as she flails, get her over the railing. They fall together onto the deck in a tangled heap, spinning in such a way that Jack winds up slightly on top of her.

Rowe slides down the ladder from the docking bridge like it's a fire drill and sprints across the fantail.

ROWE
Here, what is all this?!

Rowe runs up and pulls Jack off of Rose, revealing her disheveled and sobbing on the deck. Her dress is torn, and the hem is pushed 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)
Here you, stand back! Don't move an inch!
(to the seamen)
Fetch the Master at Arms.

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66
EXT. POOP DECK - NIGHT

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, stop! It was an accident.

CAL
Accident?!

ROSE
It was... stupid really. I was leaning over and I slipped.

Rose looks at Jack, getting eye contact.

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
You wanted to see the propellers?

GRACIE
(shaking his head)
Women and machinery do not mix.

MASTER AT ARMS
(to Jack)
Was that the way of it?

Rose is begging him with her eyes not to say what really happened.

JACK
Uh huh. That was pretty much it.

He looks at Rose a moment longer. Now they have a secret together.

COLONEL GRACIE
Well! The boy's a hero then. Good for you son, well done!
(to Cal)
So it's all's well and back to our brandy, eh?

Jack is uncuffed. Cal gets Rose to her feet and moving.

CAL
Let's get you in. You're freezing.

Cal is leaving without a second thought for Jack.

GRACIE
(low)
Ah.. perhaps a little something for the boy?

CAL
Oh, right. Mr. Lovejoy, A twenty should do it.

ROSE
Is that the going rate for saving the woman you love?

CAL
Rose is displeased. Mmm... what to do?

Cal turns back to Jack. He appraises him condescendingly.. a steerage ruffian, unwashed and ill-mannered.

CAL
I know.
(to Jack)
Perhaps you could join us for dinner tomorrow, to regale our group with your heroic tale?

JACK
(looking straight at Rose)
Sure. Count me in.

CAL
Good. Settled then.

Cal turns to go, putting a protective arm around Rose. He leans close to Gracie as they walk away.

CAL
This should be amusing.

JACK
(as Lovejoy passes)
Can I bum a cigarette?

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
You'll want to tie those.
(Jack looks at his shoes)
Interesting that the young lady slipped so mighty all of a sudden and you still had time to take off your jacket and shoes. Mmmm?

Lovejoy's expression is bland, but the eyes are cold. He turns away to join his group.

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67
INT. ROSE'S BEDROOM - NIGHT

As she undresses for bed Rose sees Cal standing in her doorway, reflected in the cracked mirror of her vanity. He comes towards her.

CAL
I know you've been melancholy, and I don't pretend to know why.

From behind his back he hands her a large black velvet jewel case. She takes it, numbly.

CAL
I intended to save this till the engagement gala 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
My God... Cal. Is it a--

CAL
Diamond. Yes it is. 56 carats.

HE takes the necklace and during the following places it around her throat. He turns to the mirror, standing behind her.

CAL
It was once worn by Louis the Sixteenth. They call it Le Coeur de la Mer, the--

ROSE
The Heart of the Ocean. Cal, it's... it's overwhelming.

He gazes at the image of the two of them in the mirror.

CAL
It's for royalty. And we are royalty.

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 not deny me. Open your heart to me, Rose.

CAMERA begins to TRACK IN ON ROSE. Closer and closer, during the following:

OLD ROSE (V.O.)
Of course his gift was only to reflect light back onto himself, to illuminate the greatness that was Caledon Hockey. It was a cold stone... a heart of ice.

Finally, when Rose's eyes FILL FRAME, we MORPH SLOWLY to her eyes as they are now... transforming through 84 years of life...

TRANSITION

68
INT. KELDYSH IMAGING SHACK

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, I can still feel it closing around my throat like a dog collar.

THE CAMERA PULLS BACK to show her whole face.

ROSE
I can still feel it's weight. If you could have felt it, not just seen it...

LOVETT
Well, that's the general idea, my dear.

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...

But Rose laughs with Bodine.

BODINE
(still laughing)
All you had to do was wait two days!

Lovett, standing out of Rose's sightline, checks his watch. Hours have passed. This process is taking too long.

LOVETT
Rose, tell us more about the diamond. What did Hockley do with it after that?

ROSE
I'm afraid I'm feeling a little tired, Mr. Lovett.

Lizzy picks up the cue and starts to wheel her out.

LOVETT
Wait! Can you give us something to 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. Roses old hand reappears at the doorway in a frail wave goodbye.

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69
EXT. LAUNCH AREA/KELDYSH DECK - NIGHT

As the big hydraulic jib swing one of the Mir subs out over the water. Lovett walks as he talks with Bobby Buell, the partner's rep. They weave among deck cranes, launch crew, sub maintenance guys.

BUELL
The partners are pissed.

BROCK
Bobby, buy me time. I need time.

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 Lizzy standing behind him. She has overheard the last part of his dialogue with Buell. He goes to her and hustles her away from Buell, toward a quiet spot on the deck.

BROCK
Hey, Lizzy. I need to talk to you for a second.

LIZZY
Don't you mean work me?

BROCK
Look, I'm running out of time. I need your help.

LIZZY
I'm not going to help you browbeat my hundred and one year old grandmother. I came down here to tell you to back off.

BROCK
(with undisguised desperation)
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.
(he holds out his hand)
You see this? Right here?

She looks at his hand, palm up. Empty. Cupped, as if around an imaginary shape.

LIZZY
What?

BROCK
That's the shape 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 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
Maybe she wants to make peace with the past.

LIZZY
What past? She has never 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
(looks at him hard)
You think she was really there?

LOVETT
Oh, yeah. Yeah, I'm a believer. She was there.

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70
INT. IMAGING SHACK

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.

DISOLVE TO:

71
EXT. B DECK TITANIC - DAY 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.

OLD ROSE (V.O.)
As if I hadn't felt the sun in years.

IT IS SATURDAY APRIL 13, 1912. Rose unlatches the gate going down into third class. The steerage men on the deck stop what they're doing and stare at her.

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72
INT. THIRD CLASS GENERAL ROOM The social center of life. It is stark by comparison to the opulence of first class, but is a loud, boisterous place. There are mothers with babies, kids running between the benches yelling, men playing chess, girls doing needlepoint and reading dime novels. There is even an upright piano and Tommy Ryan is noodling around on it.

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 is struggling to get a conversation going with an attractive Norwegian girl, HELGA DAHL, sitting with her family at a table across the room.

FABRIZIO
No Italian? Some little English?

HELGA
No, no. Norwegian. Only.

Helga's eye is caught by something. Fabrizio looks, does a take... and Jack, curious, follows their gaze to see...

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. It's like the slipper fitting Cinderella.

JACK
Hello again.

ROSE
Could I speak to you in private?

JACK
Uh, yes. Of course. After you.

He motions her ahead and follows. Jack glances over his shoulder, one eyebrow raised, as he walks out with her leaving a stunned silence.

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73
EXT. BOAT DECK -DAY

Jack and Rose walk side by side. They pass people reading or talking in steamer chairs, some of whom glance curiously at the mismatched couple. He feels out of place in his rough clothes. The are both awkward, for different reasons.

JACK
So, you got a name by the way?

ROSE
Rose. Rose DeWitt Bukater.

JACK
That's quite a moniker. I may hafta get you to write that down.

There is an awkward pause.

ROSE
Mr. Dawson, I --

JACK
Jack.

ROSE
Jack... I feel like such an idiot. It took me all morning to get up the nerve to face you.

JACK
Well, here you are.

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
You're welcome. Rose.

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 thought 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 thought about it, I was over the rail. I was so furious. I'll show them. They'll sure be sorry!

JACK
Uh huh. They'll be sorry. 'Course you'll be dead.

ROSE
(she lowers her head)
Oh God, I am such an utter fool.

JACK
That penguin last night, is he one of them?

ROSE
Penguin? Oh, Cal! He is them.

JACK
Is he your boyfriend?

ROSE
Worse I'm afraid.

She shows him her engagement ring. A sizable diamond.

JACK
Gawd look at that thing! You would've 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 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
So don't marry him.

ROSE
If only it were that simple.

JACK
It is that simple.

ROSE
Oh, Jack... please don't judge me until you've seen my world.

JACK
Well, I guess I will tonight.

Looking for another topic, any other topic, she indicates his sketchbook.

ROSE
What's this?

JACK
Just some sketches.

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, these are quite good! Really, they are.

JACK
Well, they didn't think too much of 'em in Paree.

Some loose sketches fall out and are taken away by the wind. Jack scrambles after them... catching two, but the rest are gone, over the rail.

ROSE
Oh no! Oh, I'm so sorry. Truly!

JACK
Don't worry about it. Plenty more where they came from.

He snaps his wrist, shaking his drawing hand in a flourish.

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!

She goes back to the book, turning a page.

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 more strollers go by.

ROSE
(trying to be very adult)
And these were drawn from life?

JACK
Yup. That's one of the great things about Paris. Lots of girls willing to 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'Keef.

ROSE
You liked this woman. You used her several times.

JACK
She had beautiful hands.

ROSE
(smiling)
I think you must have had a love affair with her...

JACK
(laughing)
No, no! Just with her hands.

ROSE
(looking up from the drawings)
You have a gift, Jack. You do. You see people.

JACK
I see you.