Titanic Page #8

ROSE:

(looking at a cubist portrait)

You're wrong. They're fascinating. Like in a dream... there's truth without

logic. What's his name again... ?

(reading off the canvas)

Picasso.

CAL:

(coming into the sitting room)

He'll never amount to a thing, trust me. At least they were cheap.

A porter wheels Cal's private safe (which we recognize) into the room on a

handtruck.

CAL:

Put that in the wardrobe.

47 IN THE BEDROOM Rose enters with the large Degas of the dancers. She sets

it on the dresser, near the canopy bed. Trudy is already in there, hanging

up some of Rose's clothes.

TRUDY:

It smells so brand new. Like they built it all just for us. I mean... just

to think that tonight, when I crawl between the sheets, Iill be the first--

Cal appears in the doorway of the bedroom.

CAL:

(looking at Rose)

And when I crawl between the sheets tonight, I'll still be the first.

TRUDY:

(blushing at the innuendo)

S'cuse me, Miss.

She edges around Cal and makes a quick exit. Cal comes up behind Rose and

puts his hands on her shoulders. An act of possession, not intimacy.

CAL:

The first and only. Forever.

Rose's expression shows how bleak a prospect this is for her, now.

CUT TO:

48 EXT. CHERBOURG HARBOR, FRANCE - LATE DUSK

Titanic stands silhouetted against a purple post-sunset sky. She is lit up

like a floating palace, and her thousand portholes reflect in the calm

harbor waters. The 150 foot tender Nomadic lies-to alongside, looking like

a rowboat. The lights of a Cherbourg harbor complete the postcard image.

CUT TO:

49 INT. FIRST CLASS RECEPTION/ D-DECK

Entering the first class reception room from the tender are a number of

prominent passengers. A BROAD-SHOULDERED WOMAN in an enormous feathered hat

comes up the gangway, carrying a suitcase in each hand, a spindly porter

running to catch up with her to take the bags.

WOMAN:

Well, I wasn't about to wait all day for you, sonny. Take 'em the rest of

the way if you think you can manage.

OLD ROSE (V.O.)

At Cherbourg a woman came aboard named Margaret Brown, but we all called

her Molly. History would call her the Unsinkable Molly Brown. Her husband

had struck gold someplace out west, and she was what mother called "new

money".

At 45, MOLLY BROWN is a tough talking straightshooter who dresses in the

finery of her genteel peers but will never be one of them.

OLD ROSE (V.O.)

By the next afternoon we had made our final stop and we were steaming west

from the coast of Ireland, with nothing out ahead of us but ocean...

CUT TO:

50 OMITTED

51 EXT. BOW - DAY

The ship glows with the warm creamy light of late afternoon. Jack and

Fabrizio stand right at the bow gripping the curving railing so familiar

from images of the wreck. Jack leans over, looking down fifty feet to where

the prow cuts the surface like a knife, sending up two glassy sheets of

water.

CUT TO:

52 INT. / EXT. TITANIC - SERIES OF SCENES - DAY

ON THE BRIDGE, CAPTAIN SMITH turns from the binnacle to FIRST OFFICER

WILLIAM MURDOCH.

CAPTAIN SMITH:

Take her to sea Mister Murdoch. Let's stretch her legs.

Murdoch moves the engine telegraph lever to ALL AHEAD FULL.

53 NOW BEGINS a kind of musical/visual setpiece... an ode to the great

ship. The music is rhythmic, surging forward, with a soaring melody that

addresses the majesty and optimism of the ship of dreams.

IN THE ENGINE ROOM the telegraph clangs and moves to "All Ahead Full".

CHIEF ENGINEER BELL

All ahead full!

On the catwalk THOMAS ANDREWS, the shipbuilder, watches carefully as the

engineers and greasers scramble to adjust valves. Towering above them are

the twin RECIPROCATING engines, four stories tall, their ten-foot-long

connecting rods surging up and down with the turning of the massive

crankshafts. The engines thunder like the footfalls of marching giants.

54 IN THE BOILER ROOMS the STOKERS chant a song as they hurl coal into the

roaring furnaces. The "black gang" are covered with sweat and coal dust,

their muscles working like part of the machinery as they toil in the

hellish glow.

55 UNDERWATER the enormous bronze screws chop through the water, hurling

the steamer forward and churning up a vortex of foam that lingers for miles

behind the juggernaut ship. Smoke pours from the funnels as--

56 The riven water flares higher at the bow as the ship's speeds builds.

THE CAMERA SWEEPS UP the prow to find Jack, the wind streaming through his

hair and--

57 Captain Smith steps out of the enclosed bridge onto the wing. He stands

with his hands on the rail, looking every bit the storybook picture of a

Captain... a great patriarch of the sea.

FIRST OFFICER MURDOCH

Twenty one knots, sir!

SMITH:

She's got a bone in her teeth now, eh, Mr. Murdoch.

Smith accepts a cup of tea from FIFTH OFFICER LOWE. He contentedly watches

the white V of water hurled outward from the bows like an expression of his

own personal power. They are invulnerable, towering over the sea.

58 AT THE BOW Jack and Fabrizio lean far over, looking down.

In the glassy bow-wave two dolphins appear, under the water, running fast

just in front of the steel blade of the prow. They do it for the sheer joy

and exultation of motion. Jack watches the dolphins and grins. They breach,

jumping clear of the water and then dive back, crisscrossing in front of

the bow, dancing ahead of the juggernaut.

FABRIZIO looks forward across the Atlantic, staring into the sunsparkles.

FABRIZIO:

I can see the Statue of Liberty already.

(grinning at Jack)

Very small... of course.

THE CAMERA ARCS around them, until they are framed against the sea.

NOW WE PULL BACK, across the forecastle deck. Rising, as we continue back,

and the ships rolls endlessly forward underneath. Over the bridge wing,

along the boat deck until her funnels come INTO FRAME besides us and march

past like the pillars of heaven, one by one. We pull back and up, until we

are looking down the funnels, and the people strolling on the decks and

standing at the rail become antlike.

And still we pull back until the great lady is seen whole in a gorgeous

aerial portrait, black and severe in her majesty.

Rate this script:3.6 / 34 votes