Titanic - 2

CUT TO:

21 EXT. KELDYSH - DAY

Brock and Bodine are watching Mir 2 being sweng 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 as far back 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 everyobody who 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 down 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.

LOVETT

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.

LOVETT

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 Rose's 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.

LOVETT

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-like 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 at 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?

LOVETT

I tracked it down through insurance records... and old claim that was

settled under terms of absolute secrecy. Do you know who the claiment was,

Rost?

ROSE

Someone named Hockley, I should imagine.

LOVETT

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.

LOVETT

If your grandma is who she says she is, she was wearing the diamond the day

Titanic sank.

(MORE)

LOVETT (CONT'D)

(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 its 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.

LOVETT

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 her 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 has 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.

LOVETT

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 ROVs, Snoop Dog and DUNCAN.

BODINE

Live from 12,000 feet.

ROSE stares raptly at the screens. She is enthraled 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 struck 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 world's largest database on the Titanic. Okay,

here...

LOVETT

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 hits 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

BODINE (cont'd)

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 then 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 its 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.

LOVETT

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".

30 FLASH CUTS of screaming faces in a running crowd. Pandemonium and

terror. People crying, praying, kneeling on the deck. Just impressions...

flashes in the dark.

31 Rose Looks at another monitor. SNOOP DOG moving down a rusted,

debris-filled corridor. Rose watches the endless row of doorways sliding

past, like dark mouths.

32 IMAGE OF A CHILD, three years old, standing ankle deep in water in the

middle of an endless corridor. The child is lost alone, crying.

33 Rose is shaken by the flood of memories and emotions. Her eyes well up

and she puts her head down, sobbing quietly.

LIZZY

(taking the wheelchair)

I'm taking her to rest.

ROSE

No!

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

Tell us, Rose.

She looks from screen to screen, the images of the ruined ship.

ROSE

It's been 84 years...

LOVETT

Just tell us what you can--

ROSE

(holds up her hand for silence)

It's been 84 years... and I can still smell the fresh paint. The china had

never been used. The sheets had never been slept in.

He switches on the minirecorder and sets it near her.

ROSE

Titanic was called the Ship of Dreams. And it was. It really was...

As the underwater camera rises past the rusted bow rail, WE DISSOLVE /

MATCH MOVE to that same railing in 1912...

MATCH DISSOLVE:

34 EXT. SOUTHAMPTON DOCK - DAY

SHOT CONTINUES IN A FLORIOUS REVEAL as the gleaming white superstructure of

Titanic rises mountainously beyond the rail, and above that the

buff-colored funnels stand against the sky like the pillars of a great

temple. Crewmen move across the deck, dwarfed by the awesome scale of the

steamer.

Southanmpton, England, April 10, 1912. It is almost nnon on ailing 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

I don't see what all the fuss is about. It doesn't look any bigger than the

Mauretania.

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

You can be blase about some things, Rose, but not about Titanic. It's over

a hundred feet longer than Mauretania, and far more luxurious. It has

squash courts, a Parisian cafe... even Turkish baths.

Cal turns and fives his hand to Rose's mother, RUTH DEWITT BUKATER, who

descends from the touring car being him. Ruth is a 40ish society empress,

from one of the most prominent Philadelphia families. She is a widow, and

rules her household with iron will.

CAL

Your daughter is much too hard to impress, Ruth.

(indicating a puddle)

Mind your step.

RUTH

(gazing at the leviathan)

So this is the ship they say is unsinkable.

CAL

It is unsinkable. God himself couldn't sink this ship.

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, is a 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, harried by last minute

loading.

PORTER

Sir, you'll have to check your baggage through the main terminal, round

that way--

Cal nonchalantly hands the man a fiver. The porter's eyes dilate. Five

pounds was a monster tip in those days.

CAL

I put my faith in you, good sir.

(MORE)

CAL (CONT'D)

(curtly, indicating Lovejoy)

See my man.

PORTER

Yes, sir. My pleasure, sir.

Cal never tires of the effect of money on the unwashed masses.

LOVEJOY

(to the porter)

These trunks here, and 12 more in the Daimler. We'll have all this lot up

in the rooms.

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 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

We'd better hurry. This way, ladies.

He indicates the way toward the first class gangway. They move into the

crowd. TRUDY BOLT, Rose's 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. NANIEL 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

Look up at the ship, darling, that's it. You're amazed! You can't believe

how big it is! Like a mountain. That's great.

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

Steady!!

MAN

Sorry squire!

The Cockney father pushes on, after his kids, shouting.

CAL

Steerage swine. Apparently missed his annual bath.

RUTH

Honestly, Cal, if you weren't forever booking everything at the last

instant, we could have gone through the terminal instead of running along

the dock like some squalid immigrant family.

CAL

All part of my charm, Ruth. At any rate, it was my darling fiancee's beauty

rituals which made us late.

ROSE

You told me to change.

CAL

I couldn't let you wear black on sailing day, sweetpea. It's bad luck.

ROSE

I felt like black.

Cal guides them out of the path of a horse-drawn wagon loaded down with two

tons of OXFORD MARMALADE, in wooden cases, for Titanic's Victualling

Department.

CAL

Here I've pulled every string I could to book us on the grandest ship in

history, in her most luxurious suites... and you act as if you're going to

your execution.

Rose looks up as the hull of Titanic looms over them...a great iron wall,

Bible black and sever. Cal motions her forward, and she enters the gangway

to the D Deck doors with a sense of overwhelming dread.

OLD ROSE (V.O.)

It was the ship of dreams... to everyone else. To me it was a slave ship,

taking me back to America in chains.

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.)

Outwardly I was everything a well brought up girl should be. Inside, I was

screaming.

35 CUT TO a SCREAMING BLAST from the mighty triple steam horns on Titanic's

funnels, bellowing their departure warning.

CUT TO:

36 EXT. SOUTHAMPTON DOCKS / TITANIC - DAY

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 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

(subtitled)

You stupid fishhead. I can't believe you bet our tickets.

SVEN

(subtitled)

You lost our money. I'm just trying to get it back. Now shutup and take a

card.

JACK

(jaunty)

Hit me again, Sven.

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 counrties.

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

The moment of truth boys. Somebody's life's about to change.

Fabrizio puts his cards down. So do the Swedes. Jack holds his close.

JACK

Let's see... Fabrizio's got niente. Olaf, you've got squat. Sven, uh oh...

two pair... mmm.

(turns to his friend)

Sorry Fabrizio.

FABRIZIO

What sorry? What you got? You lose my money?? Ma va fa'n culo testa di

cazzo--

JACK

Sorry, you're not gonna see your mama again for a long time...

He slaps a full house down on the table.

JACK

(grinning)

'Cause you're goin' to America!! Full house boys!

FABRIZIO

Porca Madonna!! YEEAAAAA!!!

The table explodes into shouting in several languages. Jack rakes in the

money and the tickets.

JACK

(to the Swedes)

Sorry boys. Three of a kind and a pair. I'm high and you're dry and...

(to Fabrizio)

... we're going to--

FABRIZIO/JACK

L'AMERICA!!!

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 they won the lottery.

JACK

Goin' home... to the land o' the free and the home of the real hot-dogs! On

the TITANIC!! We're ridin' in high style now! We're practically goddamned

royalty, ragazzo mio!!

FABRIZIO

You see? Is my destinio!! Like I told you. I go to l'America!! To be a

millionaire!!

(MORE)

FABRIZIO (CONT'D)

(to pubkeeper)

Capito?? I go to America!!

PUBKEEPER

No, mate. Titanic go to America. In five minutes.

JACK

Shit!! Come on, Fabri!

(grabbing their stuff)

Come on!!

(to all, grinning)

It's been grand.

They run for the door.

PUBKEEPER

'Course I'm sure if they knew it was you lot comin', they'd be pleased to

wait!

CUT TO:

37 OMITTED

38 EXT. TERMINAL - TITANIC

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 cast wall of the ship's 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 starts to swing down from the

gangway doors.

JACK

Wait!! We're passengers!

Flushed and panting, he waves the tickets.

MOODY

Have you been through the inspection queue?

JACK

(lying cheerfully)

Of course! Anyway, we don't have lice, we're Americans.

(glances at Fabrizio)

Both of us.

MOODY

(testy)

Right, come aboard.

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

Gundersen. And...

(reading Fabrizio's)

Gundersen.

He hands the tickets back, eyeing Fabrizio's Mediterranean looks

suspiciously.

JACK

(grabbing Fabrizio's arm)

Come on, Sven.

Jack and Fabrizio whoop with victory as they run down the white-painted

corridero... grinning from ear to ear.

JACK

We are the luckiest sons of bitches in the world!

CUT TO:

39 OMITTED

40 EXT. TITANIC AND DOCK - DAY

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.

Source is Screenplays for you