Titanic (Scriptment) Page #7

RUTH:

Countess, do you know Sir Duff Gordon and Lady Duff Gordon?

COUNTESS:

Of course! I've beaten Cosmo at tennis many times.

(cheek kissing)

Lucille, it's lovely to see you.

LUCILLE DUFF GORDON is a prominent dress designer for fashionable London and New York society. Ruth introduces Rose, and launches into a tale of the odyssey which buying Rose's wedding gown became. Rose smiles mechanically when addressed, but her eyes are distant.

She hates this.

Cal becomes engrossed in a conversation with Cosmo Duff Gordon and Rose excuses herself, walking into the first class dining saloon, which is adjacent. The saloon is awesome in scale, over a hundred feet on each side, and all the tables are set with elegant White Star Line china and fresh hot-house flowers.

COUNTESS:

Is she alright? She seems a bit peaked.

RUTH:

Oh, you know... wedding jitters. And the preparations have just been exhausting for both of us. The invitations alone have been sent back to the printers three times...

As this saga continues, we TRACK OFF Ruth, the Countess, Cal and the Duff Gordons to see Rose in the dining saloon, a lone figure in the vast space.

MEDIUM ON ROSE. She takes a silver soupspoon off a table, and slowly bends it double.

OLD ROSE (V.O.)

I felt like I was standing at a great precipice, with no one to pull me back, no one who cared or even noticed. Outwardly I was everything a well brought up girl should be. Inside, I was screaming.

CUT TO THE MIGHTY TRIPLE STEAM HORNS on the forward funnel as they bellow their departure warning.

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, and a poker game 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 put down their cards. Fabrizio has nothing, but Jack wins with two pair, and the table explodes into shouting in several languages... English, Italian, and Swedish.

Apparently Jack has just won the two Swedes' 3rd class steamer tickets in a make-or-break hand... and they're not happy about it. But being Swedish they just get depressed, and no violence erupts.

Fabrizio and Jack are leaping about, celebrating. Jack, clutching the tickets, jumps on Fabrizio's back and rides him around the pub, shouting to him that they are going on the Titanic! It's like they won the lottery.

Fabrizio, thickly accented, yells that he is going to America.

The pubkeeper looks at the clock behind the bar and says no, mate, the Titanic is going to America... in five minutes, with or without you.

CUT TO THE TWO YOUNG MEN running through the terminal building as the whistle echoes across the docks. They dodge piles of luggage, and weave through groups of people. They burst out onto the docks and Jack comes to a stop... staring at the vast wall of the ship's black hull, towering eight 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. They reach it just as the Petty Officer is giving the order to raise the gangway. They wave their tickets and run up, forcing him to open the chain and allow them aboard. They're grinning from ear to ear as they run up the ramp... the luckiest guys in the world.

ON THE BRIDGE, we see the ships' officers standing in their navy blue uniforms. CAPTAIN EDWARD JOHN "E.J." SMITH stands on the port wing of the bridge in his white dress uniform and cap. He looks like the quintessential sea captain, with a short cropped white beard and stern, weathered face.

He gives the order to cast off and the Titanic starts her maiden voyage.

IN A WIDE SHOT a cheer goes up from the crowd on the dock as the tugs pull Titanic away from the pier.

JACK AND FABRIZIO run up the stairs and onto the aft well deck. TRACKING WITH THEM as they run across the deck and up the steel stairs to the poop deck. They make it to the rail in time to yell and wave to the crowd on the dock. Neither one of them knows anyone down there, they're just full of the exhilaration of the moment. Jack leans on the rail and looks up at the fourth funnel, towering against the sky. By his expression we see that he thinks the ship, and them being on it, is sooooo cool.

JACK:

Come on. Let's check out our cabins.

Jack and Fabrizio pass doors, gates and chained off stairways which separate third class from second and first classes. Jack jumps over the chain and stands in first class for a moment.

JACK:

I don't feel any different.

A steward shoos him out, and they cheerfully move on.

TRACKING WITH THEM down a seemingly endless corridor in steerage. Total confusion as people argue over luggage in several languages, trying to keep their children together, or wander in confusion in the labyrinth.

They pass emigrants studying signs over the doors, and looking up the words in phrase books.

150 steerage passengers were Scandinavian, speaking little English, traveling in large family groups. There were a large number of Germans and Italians, English and Irish, some Scots. Later in the day, in Cherbourg France, another 102 steerage passengers will come aboard, mostly Syrian, Croatian, Armenian and other Middle Eastern nationals who are exhausted from their journey and confused by the language.

IN FIRST CLASS, on B deck, Cal and Rose enter their suite...

B-51, 53, and 55. Ruth has a single (though opulent) stateroom across the hall, and the servants have additional rooms.

Technically Rose and Cal have separate rooms, for propriety's sake, but it is quickly clear that they are essentially living together. They behave as a couple in their living space, dressing together for dinner, and one can assume, sleeping together. If Ruth knows about this, she says nothing. The wedding will be soon enough, and she doesn't want to do anything to jeopardize it, for reasons which will become apparent.

The promenade suite is revealed as Rose and Cal enter. It is in the Empire style, and comprises two bedrooms, a bath, WC, wardrobe room, and a large sitting room. In addition there is a private 50 foot promenade deck outside. A huge flower arrangement sits on the lacquer table in the sitting room. Porters bring in Cal's private safe and, at his instruction, strain to set it on the marble-topped credenza in one of the bedrooms. They also bring in the luggage, and a number of paintings he has bought at the last minute in France. There are two Monets, a minor Degas, and a Picasso. Solid collectables in 1912.

ON G DECK IN STEERAGE FORWARD, five decks below the forecastle deck, and far from any outside light, Jack and Fabrizio find their berth. It is a modest cubicle with four bunks. The other two guys are already there and we meet TOMMY RYAN, an Irish emigrant in his mid-twenties, and ARA AJEMIAN, a hawk-nosed and sensitive looking Armenian boy of 16.

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