Titanic Screenplay
Page 9
CUT TO:
234
EXT. BOAT DECK, STARBOARD SIDE
Murdoch, at Collapsible Am is no longer in control. The crowd is threatening to rush the boat. They push and jostle, yelling and shouting at the officers. The pressure from behind pushes them forward, and one guy falls off the edge of the deck into the water less than ten feet below.
TOMMY
Give us a chance to live, you limey bastards!
Murdoch fires his Webley twice into the air, then points it at the crowd.
MURDOCH
I'll shoot any man who tries to get past me.
Cal steps up to him.
CAL
We had a deal, damn you.
Murdoch pushes him back, pointing the pistol at Cal.
MURDOCH
Get back!
A man next to Tommy rushes forward, and Tommy is shoved from behind. Murdoch SHOOTS the first man, and seeing Tommy coming forward, puts a bullet into his chest.
Tommy collapses, and Fabrizio grabs him, holding him in his arms as his life flows out over the deck.
Murdoch turns to his men and salutes smartly. Then he puts the pistol to his temple and... BLAM! He drops like a puppet with the strings cut and topples over the edge of the boat deck into the water only a few feet below.
Cal stares in horror at Murdoch's body bobbing in the black water. The MONEY FLOATS out of the pocket of his greatcoat, the bills spreading across the surface.
The crew rush to get the last few women aboard the boat.
PURSER MCELROY
(calling above the confusion)
Any more women or children?!
THE CHILD crying in the alcove. Cal scoops her up and runs forward, cradling her in his arms.
CAL
(forcing his way through the crowd)
Here's a child! I've got a child!
(to McElroy)
Please... I'm all she has in the world.
McElroy nods curtly and pushes him into the boat. He spins with his gun, brandishing it in the air to keep the other men back. Cal gets into the boat, holding the little girl. He takes a seat with the women.
CAL
There, there.
CUT TO:
235
INT. FIRST CLASS SMOKING ROOM
Thomas Andrews stands in front of the fireplace, staring at the large painting above the mantle. The fire is still going in the fireplace.
The room is empty except for Andrews. An ashtray falls off the table. Behind him Jack and Rose run into the room, out of breath and soaked. They run through, toward the aft revolving door... the Rose recognizes him. She sees that his lifebelt is off, lying on a table.
ROSE
Won't you even make a try for it, Mr. Andrews?
ANDREWS
(a tear runs down his cheek)
I'm sorry that I didn't build you a stronger ship, young Rose.
JACK
(to her)
It's going fast... we've gotta keep moving.
Andrews picks up his lifebelt and hands it to her.
ANDREWS
Good luck to you. Rose.
ROSE
(hugging him)
And to you, Mr. Andrews.
Jack pulls her away and they run through the revolving door.
CUT TO:
236
EXT. BOAT DECK AND VARIOUS LOCATIONS
The band finishes the waltz/ Wallace Hartley looks at the orchestra members.
HARTLEY
Right, that's it then.
They leave him, walking forward along the deck. Hartley puts his violin to his chin and bows the first notes of "Nearer My God to Thee". One by one the band members turn, hearing the lonely melody.
Without a word they walk back to their places. They join in with Hartley, filling out the sound so that it reaches all over the ship on this still night. The vocalist begins: "If in my dreams I be, nearer my God to thee..."
THE HYMN PLAYS OVER THE FOLLOWING SEQUENCE:
237
A seaman pulls off his lifebelt and catches up to Captain Smith as he
walks to the bridge. He proffers it, but Smith seems to stare right through
him. Without a word he turns and goes onto the bridge. He enters the enclosed
WHEELHOUSE and closes the door. He is alone, surrounded by the gleaming
brass instruments. He seems to inwardly collapse.
238
IN THE FIRST CLASS SMOKING ROOM Andrews stands like a statue. He pulls
out his pocketwatch and checks the time. Then he opens the face of the
mantle clock and adjusts it to the correct time: 2:12 a.m. Everything must
be correct.
239
IN CAL’S PARLOR SUITE water swirls in from the private promenade deck.
Rose's paintings are submerged. The Picasso transforms under the water's
surface. Degas' colors run. Monet's water lilies come to life.
240
DOWNANGLE on two figures lying side by side, fully clothed, on a bed
in a FIRST CLASS CABIN. Elderly Ida and Isador Straus stare at the ceiling,
holding hands like young lovers. Water pours into the room through a doorway.
It swirls around the bed, two feet deep and rising fast.
241
IN A STEERAGE CABIN somewhere in the bowels of the ship, the young IRISH
MOTHER, seen earlier stoically waiting at the stairs is tucking her two
young children into bed. She pulls up the covers, making sure they are
all warm and cozy. She lies down with them on the bed, speaking soothingly
and holding them.
CUT TO:
242
EXT. BOAT DECK/ BRIDGE IN A WIDE SHOT we see a wave travel up the boat
deck as the bridge house sinks into the water.
243
ON THE PORT SIDE Collapsible B is picked up by the water. Working frantically,
the men try to detach it from the falls so the ship[ won't drag it under.
Colonel Gracie hands Lightoller a pocket knife and he saws furiously at
the ropes as the water swirls around his legs. The boat, still upside down,
is swept off the ship. Men start diving in, swimming to stay with it.
244
IN COLLAPSIBLE A Cal sits next to the wailing child, whom he has completely
forgotten. He watches the water rising around the men as they work, scrambling
to get the ropes cut so the ship won't drag the collapsible under.
Fabrizio removes the lifebelt from Tommy's body and struggles to put it on as the water rises around him.
245
CAPTAIN SMITH, standing near the wheel, watches the black water climbing
the windows of the enclosed wheelhouse. He has the stricken expression
of a damned soul on Judgment Day. The windows burst suddenly and a wall
of water edged with shards of glass slams into Smith. He disappears in
a vortex of foam.
246
Collapsible A is hit by a wave as the bow plunges suddenly. It partially
swamps the boat, washing it along the boat deck. Over a hundred passengers
are plunged into the freezing water and the area around the boat becomes
a frenzy of splashing, screaming people.
As men are trying to climb into the collapsible, Cal grabs an oar and pushes them back into the water.
CAL
Get back! You'll swamp us!
Fabrizio, swimming for his life, gets swirled under a davit. The ropes and pulleys tangle around him as the davit goes under the water, and he is dragged down. Underwater he struggles to free himself, and then kicks back to the surface. He surfaces, gasping for air in the freezing water.
247
WALLACE HARTLEY sees the water rolling rapidly up the deck toward them.
He holds the last note of the hymn in sustain, and then lowers his violin.
HARTLEY
Gentlemen, it has been a privilege playing with you tonight.
CUT TO:
248
EXT. A-DECK AFT, PORT SIDE
Jack and Rose run out of the PALM COURT into a dense crowd. Jack pushes his way to the rail and looks at the state of the ship. The bridge is under water and there is chaos on deck. Jack helps her put her lifebelt on. People stream around them, shouting and pushing.
JACK
Okay... we keep moving aft. We have to stay on the ship as long as possible.
They push their way aft through the panicking crowd.
CUT TO:
249
EXT. FORWARD FUNNEL
Collapsible A is whirled like a leaf in the currents around the sinking ship. It slams against the side of the forward funnel.
CAL
(to the crew in the boat)
Row! Row you bastards!
250
NEARBY: Fabrizio is drawn up against the grating of a STOKEHOLD VENT
as water pours through it. The force of tons of water roaring down into
the ship traps him against it, and he is dragged down under the surface
as the ship sinks. He struggles to free himself but cannot.
Suddenly there is a concussion deep in the bowels of the ship as a furnace explodes and a blast of hot air belches out of the ventilator, ejecting Fabrizio. He surfaces in a roar of foam and keeps swimming.
CUT TO:
251
EXT. A-DECK/ B-DECK/ WELL DECK, AFT
Jack and Rose clamber over the A-Deck rail. Then, using all his strength, he lowers her toward the deck below, holding on with one hand, She dangles, then falls. Jack jumps down behind her.
They join a crush of people literally clawing and scrambling over each other to get down the narrow stairs to the well deck... the only way aft.
Seeing that the stairs are impossible, jack climbs over the B-Deck railing and helps Rose over. He lowers her again, and she falls in a heap. BAKER JOUGHIN, now three sheets to the wind, happens to be next to her. He hauls Rose to her feet. Jack drops down and the three of them push through the crowd across the well deck. Near them, at the rail people are jumping into the water.
The ship GROANS and SHUDDERS. The man ahead of Jack is walking like a zombie.
MAN
Yeah, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death--
JACK
You wanna walk a little faster through that valley, fella?
CUT TO:
252
EXT. FORWARD FUNNEL
The stay cables along the top of the funnel snap, and they lash like steel whips down into the water. Cal watches as the funnel topples from it's mounts. Falling like a temple pillar twenty eight feet across it whomps into the water with a tremendous splash. People swimming underneath it disappear in an instant.
Fabrizio, a few feet away, is hurled back by a huge wave. He comes up, gasping... still swimming. The water pouring into the open end of the funnel draws in several swimmers. The funnel sinks, disappearing, but--
Hundreds of tons of water pour down through the 30 foot hole where the funnel once stood, thundering down into the belly of the ship. A whirlpool forms, a hole in the ocean, like an enormous toilet-flush. T.W. McCawley, the gym instructor, swims in a frenzy as the vortex draws him in. He is sucked down like a spider going down a drain.
Fabrizio, nearby, swims like Hell as more people are sucked down behind him. He manages to get clear. He's going to live no matter what it takes.
CUT TO:
253
INT. BOAT DECK FOYER/ GRAND STAIRCASE
Water roars in through the doors and windows, cascading down the stairs like rapids. John Jacob Astor is swept down the marble steps to A-Deck, which is already flooded... a roiling vortex. He grabs the headless cherub at the bottom of the staircase and wraps his arms around it.
Astor looks up in time to see the 30 foot glass dome overhead EXPLODE INWARD with the wave of water washing over it. A Niagara of sea water thunders down into the room, blasting through the first class opulence. It is the Armageddon of elegance.
CUT TO:
254
OMITTED
255
INT. BELOWDECKS
The flooding is horrific. Walls and doors are splintered like kindling. Water roars down corridors with pile-driver force.
The CARTMELL FAMILY are at the top of a stairwell, jammed against a locked gate like Jack and Rose were. Water boils up the stairwell behind them. Bert Cartmell shakes the gate futiley, shouting for help. Little Cora wails as the water boils up around them all.
CUT TO:
256
EXT. STERN
Rose and Jack struggle to climb the well deck stairs as the ship tilts. Drunken Baker Joughin puts a hand squarely on Rose's butt and shoves her up onto the deck.
JOUGHIN
Sorry, miss!
Hundreds of people are already on the poop deck, and more are pouring up every second. Jack and Rose cling together as they struggle across the tilting deck.
257
As the bow goes down the STERN RISES. IN BOAT TWO, which is just off
the stern, passengers gape as the giant bronze propellers rise out of the
water like gods of the deep, FILLING FRAME behind them.
People are JUMPING from the well deck, the poop deck, the gangway doors. Some hit debris in the water and are hurt or killed.
258
OMITTED
259
OMITTED
260
EXT. STERN
ON THE POOP DECK Jack and Rose struggle aft as the angle increases. Hundreds of passengers, clinging to every fixed object on deck, huddle on their knees around FATHER BYLES, who has his voice raised in prayer. They are praying, sobbing or just staring at nothing, their minds blank with dread.
Pulling himself from handhold to handhold, Jack tugs Rose aft along the deck.
JACK
Come on, Rose. We can't expect God to do all the work for us.
They struggle on, pushing through the praying people. A MAN loses his footing ahead and slides toward them. Jack helps him up.
261
THE PROPELLERS are twenty feet above the water and rising faster.
262
JACK AND ROSE make it to the stern rail, right at the base of the flagpole.
They grip the rail, jammed in between other people. It is the spot where
Jack pulled her back onto the ship, just two nights... and a lifetime...
ago.
Above the wailing and sobbing, Father Byles' voice carries, cracking with emotion.
FATHER BYLES
... and I saw new heavens and a new earth. The former heavens and the former
earth had passed away and the sea was no longer.
The lights flicker, threatening to go out. Rose grips Jack as the stern rises into the night sky ablaze with stars.
FATHER BYLES
I also saw a new Jerusalem, the holy city coming down out of heaven from
God, beautiful as a bride prepared to meet her husband. I heard a loud
voice from the throne ring out this is God's dwelling among men. He shall
dwell with them and they shall be his people and He shall be their God
who is always with them.
Rose stares about her at the faces of the doomed. Near them are the DAHL FAMILY, clinging together stoically. Helga looks at her briefly, and her eyes are infinitely sad.
Rose sees a young mother next to her, clutching her five year old son, who is crying in terror.
MOTHER
Shhh. Don't cry. It'll be over soon, darling. It'll all be over soon.
FATHER BYLES
He shall wipe every tear from their eyes. And there shall be no more death
or mourning, crying out or pain, for the former world has passed away.
CUT TO:
INT. SHIP -- VARIOUS
As the ship tilts everything not bolted down inside shifts.
263
CUPBOARDS burst open in the pantry, showering the floor with tons of
china. A PIANO slides across the floor, crashing into a wall. FURNITURE
tumbles across the smoking room floor.
264
ON THE A-DECK PROMENADE passengers lose their grip and slide down the
wooden deck like a bobsled run, hundreds of feet before they hit the water.
TRUDY BOLT, Rose's maid, slips as she struggles along the railing and slides
away screaming.
265
AT THE STERN the propellers are 100 feet out of the water and rising.
Panicking people leap from the poop deck rail, fall screaming and hit the
water like mortar rounds. A man falls from the poop deck, hitting the bronze
hub of the starboard propeller with a sickening smack.
266
SWIMMERS LOOK UP and see the stern towering over them like a monolith,
the propellers rising against the stars. 110 feet. 120.
267
AT THE STERN RAIL a man jumps. IN HIS POV we fall seemingly forever,
right past one of the giant screws. The water rushes up--
CUT TO:
EXT. TITANIC/ BOAT 6
268
TRACKING SLOWLY IN on Ruth as the sounds of the dying ship and the screaming
people come across the water.
269
REVERSE/ HER POV: IN A WIDE SHOT we see the spectacle of the Titanic,
her lights blazing, reflecting in the still water. It's stern is high in
the air, angled up over forty five degrees. The propellers are 150 feet
out of the water. Over a thousand passengers cling to the decks, looking
from a distance like a swarm of bees.
The image is shocking, unbelievable, unthinkable. Ruth stares at the spectacle, unable to frame it or put it into any proportion.
MOLLY BROWN
God Almighty.
The great liner's lights flicker.
CUT TO:
270
INT. ENGINE ROOM
In darkness Chief Engineer Bell hangs onto a pipe at the master breaker panel. Around him men climb through tilted cyclopean machines with electric hand-torches. It is a black hell of breaking pipes, spraying water, and groaning machinery threatening to tear right out of its bedplates.
Water sprays down, hitting the breaker panel, but Bell will not leave his post. CLUNK. The breakers kick. He slams them in again and-- WHOOM! a blast of light! Something melts and arcing fills the engine room with nightmarish light--
CUT TO:
271
EXT. TITANIC
WIDE SHOT. The lights go out all over the ship. Titanic becomes a vast black silhouette against the stars.
IN COLLAPSIBLE C: BRUCE ISMAY has his back to the ship, unable to watch the great steamer die. He is satatonic with remorse, his mind overloaded. He can avert his eyes, but he can't block out the sounds of dying people and machinery.
A loud CRACKING REPORT comes across the water.
CUT TO:
272 EXT. BOAT DECK
Near the third funnel a man clutches the ship's rail. He stares down as the DECK SPLITS right between his feet. A yawning chasm opens with a THUNDER of breaking steel.
LOVEJOY is clutching the railing on the roof of the Officers' Mess. He watches in horror as the ship's structure RIPS APART right in front of him. He gapes down into a widening maw, seeing straight down into the bowels of the ship, amid a BOOMING CONCUSSION like the sound of artillery. People falling into the widening crevasse look like dolls.
The stay cables on the funnel part and snap across the decks like whips, ripping off davits and ventilators. A man is hit by a whipping cable and snatched OUT OF FRAME. Another cable smashes the rail next to Lovejoy and it rips free. He falls backward into the pit of jagged metal.
Fires, explosions and sparks light the yawning chasms as the hull splits down through nine decks to the keel. The sea pours into the gaping wound--
CUT TO:
273
INT. ENGINE ROOM
It is a thundering black hell. Men scream as monstrous machinery comes apart around them, steel frames twisting like taffy. Their torches illuminate the roaring, foaming demon of water as it races at them through the machines. Trying to climb, they are overtaken in seconds.
CUT TO:
274
EXT. TITANIC - NIGHT
The STERN HALF of the ship, almost four hundred feet long, falls back toward the water. On the poop deck everyone screams as they feel themselves plummeting. The sound goes up like the roar of fans at a baseball stadium when a run is scored.
Swimming in the water directly under the stern a few unfortunates shriek as they see the keel coming down on them like God's bootheel. The massive stern section falls back almost level, thundering down into the sea and pushing out a mighty wave of displaced water.
275
Jack and Rose struggle to hold onto the stern rail. They feel the ship
seemingly RIGHT ITSELF. Some of those praying think it is salvation.
SEVERAL PEOPLE
We're saved!
Jack looks at Rose and shakes his head, grimly.
276
Now the horrible mechanics play out. Pulled down by the awesome weight
of the flooded bow, the buoyant stern tilts up rapidly. They feel the RUSH
OF ASCENT as the fantail angles up again. Everyone is clinging to benches,
railings, ventilators... anything to keep from sliding as the stern lifts.
The stern goes up, past 45 degrees, then past sixty.
277
People start to fall, sliding and tumbling. They skid down the deck,
screaming and flailing to grab onto something. They wrench other people
loose and pull them down as well. There is a pile-up of bodies at the forward
rail. The DAHL FAMILY falls one by one.
JACK
We have to move!
He climbs over the stern rail and reaches back for Rose. She is terrified to move. He grabs her hand.
JACK
Come on! I've got you!
Jack pulls her over the rail. It is the same placed he pulled her over the rail two nights earlier, going the other direction. She gets over just as the railing is going HORIZONTAL, and the deck VERTICAL. Jack grips her fiercely.
The stern is now straight up in the air... a rumbling black monolith standing against the stars. It hangs there like that for a long grace note, its buoyancy stable.
Rose lies on the railing, looking down fifteen stories to the boiling sea at the base of the stern section. People near them, who didn't climb over, hang from the railing, their legs dangling over the long drop. They fall one by one, plummeting down the vertical face of the poop deck. Some of them bounce horribly off deck benches and ventilators.
Jack and Rose lie side by side on what was the vertical face of the hull, gripping the railing, which is now horizontal. Just beneath their feet are the gold letters TITANIC emblazoned across the stern.
Rose stares down terrified at the black ocean waiting below to claim them. Jack looks to his left and sees Baker Joughin, crouching on the hull, holding onto the railing. It is a surreal moment.
JOUGHIN
(nodding a greeting)
Helluva night.
The final relentless plunge begins as the stern section floods. Looking down a hundred feet to the water, we drop like an elevator with Jack and Rose.
JACK
(talking fast)
Take a deep breath and hold it right before we go into the water. The
ship will suck us down. Kick for the surface and keep kicking. Don't let
go of my hand. We're gonna make it Rose. Trust me.
She stares at the water coming up at them, and grips his hand harder.
ROSE
I trust you.
Below them the poop deck is disappearing. The plunge gathers speed... the boiling surface engulfs the docking bridge and then rushes up the last thirty feet.
278
IN A HIGH SHOT, we see the stern descend into the boiling sea. The name
TITANIC disappears, and the tiny figures of Jack and Rose vanish under
the water.
Where the ship stood, now there is nothing. Only the black ocean.
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