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 PARLOUR 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 the two figures lying side by side, fully clothed, on a bed
in a FIRST CLASS CABIN. Elderly Ida and Isador Strauss 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 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:
EXT. BOAT DECK / BRIDGE
242 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 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 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 a 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 STICKLED VENT as
water pours through it. The force of tons of water roaring down 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 aft 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 its
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 stood, thundering down into the belly of the ship. A whirlpool forms,
a hole in the ocean, like at enormous toiler-flush. T. W. McCauley, 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 through the doors and windows, cascading down the stairs like a
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 is 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 futilely, 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.
Drunk 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 2, 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.
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 night... 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 a 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 further 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. Its stern is high in the
air, angles 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 braker
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
