Titanic Page #2

BODINE:

I'm in the sitting room. Heading for bedroom B-54.

LOVETT:

Stay off the floor. Don't stir it up like you did yesterday.

BODINE:

I'm tryin' boss.

Glinting in the lights are the brass fixtures of the near-perfectly

preserved fireplace. An albino Galathea crab crawls over it. Nearby are the

remains of a divan and a writing desk. The Dog crosses the ruins of the

once elegant room toward another DOOR. It squeezes through the doorframe,

scraping rust and wood chunks loose on both sides. It moves out of a cloud

of rust and keeps on going.

BODINE:

I'm crossing the bedroom.

The remains of a pillared canopy bed. Broken chairs, a dresser. Through the

collapsed wall of the bathroom, the porcelain commode and bathtub took

almost new, gleaming in the dark.

LOVETT:

Okay, I want to see what's under that wardrobe door.

SEVERAL ANGLES as the ROV deploys its MANIPULATOR ARMS and starts moving

debris aside. A lamp is lifted, its ceramic colors as bright as they were

in 1912.

LOVETT:

Easy, Lewis. Take it slow.

Lewis grips a wardrobe door, lying at an angle in a corner, and pulls it

with Snoop's gripper. It moves reluctantly in a cloud of silt. Under it is

a dark object. The silt clears and Snoop's cameras show them what was under

the door...

BODINE:

Ooohh daddy-oh, are you seein' what I'm seein'?

CLOSE ON LOVETT, watching his moniteors. By his expression it is like he is

seeing the Holy Grail.

LOVETT:

Oh baby baby baby.

(grabs the mike)

It's payday, boys.

ON THE SCREEN, in the glare of the lights, is the object of their quest: a

small STEEL COMBINATION SAFE.

CUT TO:

14 EXT. STERN OF DECK OF KEDYSH - DAY

THE SAFE, dripping wet in the afternoon sun, is lowered onto the deck of a

ship by a winch cable.

We are on the Russian research vessel AKADEMIK MISTISLAV KELDYSH. A crowd

has gathered, including most of the crew of KELDYSH, the sub crews, and a

hand-wringing money guy named BOBBY BUELL who represents the limited

partners. There is also a documentary video crew, hired by Lovett to cover

his moment of glory.

Everyone crowds around the safe. In the background Mir Two is being lowered

into its cradle on deck by a massive hydraulic arm. Mir One is already

recovered with Lewis Bodine following Brock Lovett as he bounds over to the

safe like a kid on Christman morning.

BODINE:

Who's the best? Say it.

LOVETT:

You are, Lewis.

(to the video crew)

You rolling?

CAMERAMAN:

Rolling.

Brock nods to his technicians, and they set about drilling the safe's

hinges. During this operation, Brock amps the suspense, working the lens to

fill the time.

LOVETT:

Well, here it is, the moment of truth. Here's where we find out if the

time, the sweat, the money spent to charter this ship and these subs, to

come out here to the middle of the North Atlantic... were worth it. If what

we think is in that same... is in that safe... it will be.

Lovett grins wolfishly in anticipation of his greatest find yet. The door

is pried loose. It clangs onto the deck. Lovett moves closer, peering into

the safe's wet interior. A long moment then... his face says it all.

LOVETT:

Sh*t.

BODINE:

You know, boss, this happened to Geraldo and his career never recovered.

LOVETT:

(to the video cameraman)

Get that outta my face.

CUT TO:

15 INT. LAB DECK, PRESERVATION ROOM - DAY

Technicians are carefully removing some papers from the safe and placing

them in a tray of water to separate them safely. Nearby, other artifacts

from the stateroom are being washed and preserved.

Buell is on the satellite phone with the INVESTORS. Lovett is yelling at

the video crew.

LOVETT:

You send out what I tell you when I tell you. I'm signing your paychecks,

not 60 minutes. Now get set up for the uplink.

Buell covers the phone and turns to Lovett.

BUELL:

The partners want to know how it's going?

LOVETT:

How it's going? It's going like a first date in prison, whattaya think?!

Lovett grabs the phone from Buell and goes instantly smooth.

LOVETT:

Hi, Dave? Barry? Look, it wasn't in the safe... no, look, don't worry about

it, there're still plenty of places it could be... in the floor debris in

the suite, in the mother's room, in the purser's safe on C deck...

(seeing something)

Hang on a second.

A tech coaxes some letters in the water tray to one side with a tong...

revealing a pencil (conte crayon) drawing of a woman.

Brock looks closely at the drawing, which is in excellent shape, though its

edges have partially disintegrated. The woman is beautiful, and beautifully

rendered. In her late teens or early twenties, she is nude, though posed

with a kind of casual modesty. She is on an Empire divan, in a pool of

light that seems to radiate outward from her eyes. Scrawled in the lower

right corner is the date: April 14 1912. And the initials JD.

The girl is not entirely nude. At her throat is a diamond necklace with one

large stone hanging in the center.

Lovett grabs a reference photo from the clutter on the lab table. It is a

period black-and-white photo of a diamond necklace on a black velvet

jeller's display stand. He holds it next to the drawing. It is clearly the

same piece... a complex setting with a massive central stone which is

almost heart-shaped.

LOVETT:

I'll be God damned.

CUT TO:

16 INSERT

A CNN NEWS STORY: a live satellite feed from the deck of the Keldysh,

intercut with the CNN studio.

ANNOUNCER:

Treasure hunter Brock Lovett is best known for finding Spanish gold in

sunken galleons in the Caribbean. Now he is using deep submergence

technology to work two and a half miles down at another famous wreck... the

Titanic. He is with us live via satellite from a Russian research ship in

the middle of the Atlantic... hello Brock?

LOVETT:

Yes, hi, Tracy. You know, Titanic is not just A shipwrick, Titanic is THE

shipwreck. It's the Mount Everest of shipwrecks.

CUT TO:

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