You think she was really there?
LOVETT
Oh, yeah. Yeah, I'm a believer. She was there.
CUT TO:
70 INT. IMAGING SHACK
Bodine starts the tape recorder. Rose is gazing at the screen seeing THE
LIVE FEED FROM THE WRECK--SNOOP DOG is moving along the starboard side of
the hull, heading aft. The rectangular windows of A deck (forward) march
past on the right.
ROSE
The next day, Saturday, I remember thinking how the sunlight felt.
DISSOLVE TO:
71 EXT. B DECK TITANIC - DAY
MATCH DISSOLVE from the rusting hulk to the gleaming new Titanic in 1912,
passing the end of the enclosed promenade just as Rose walks into the
sunlight right in front of us. She is stunningly dressed and walking with
purpose.
OLD ROSE (V.O.)
As if I hadn't felt the sun in years.
IT IS SATURDAY APRIL 13, 1912. Rose unlatches the gate to go down into third
class. The steerage men on the deck stop what they're doing and stare at
her.
CUT TO:
72 INT. THIRD CLASS GENERAL ROOM
The social center of steerage life. It is stark by comparison to the
opulence of first class, but is a loud, boisterous place. There are mothers
with babies, kids running between the benches yelling in several languages
and being scolded in several more. There are old women yelling, men playing
chess, girls doing needlepoint and reading dime novels. There is even an
upright piano and Tommy Ryan is noodling around it.
Three boys, shrieking and shouting, are scrambling around chasing a rat
under the benches, trying to whomp it with a shoe and causing general havoc.
Jack is playing with 5 year old CORA CARTMELL, drawing funny faces together
in his sketchbook.
Fabrizio is struggling to get a conversation going with an attractive
Norwegian girl, HELGA DAHL, sitting with her family at a table across the
room.
FABRIZIO
No Italian? Some little English?
HELGA
No, no. Norwegian. Only.
Helga's eye is caught by something. Fabrizio looks, does a take... and Jack,
curious, follows their gaze to see...
Rose, coming toward them. The activity in the room stops... a hush falls.
Rose feels suddenly self-conscious as the steerage passengers stare openly
at this princess, some with resentment, others with awe. She spots Jack and
gives a little smile, walking straight to him. He rises to meet her,
smiling.
ROSE
Hello Jack.
Fabrizio and Tommy are floored. Its like the slipper fitting Cinderella.
JACK
Hello again.
ROSE
Could I speak to you in private?
JACK
Uh, yes. Of course. After you.
He motions her ahead and follows. Jack glances over his shoulder, one
eyebrow raised, as he walks out with her leaving a stunned silence.
CUT TO:
73 EXT. BOAT DECK - DAY
Jack and Rose walk side by side. They pass people reading and talking in
steamer chairs, some of whom glance curiously at the mismatched couple. He
feels out of place in his rough clothes. They are both awkward, for
different reasons.
JACK
So, you got a name by the way?
ROSE
Rose. Rose DeWitt Bukater.
JACK
That's quite a moniker. I may hafta get you to write that down.
There is an awkward pause.
ROSE
Mr. Dawson, I--
JACK
Jack.
ROSE
Jack... I feel like such an idiot. It took me all morning to get up the
nerve to face you.
JACK
Well, here you are.
ROSE
Here I am. I... I want to thank you for what you did. Not just for... for
pulling me back. But for your discretion.
JACK
You're welcome. Rose.
ROSE
Look, I know what you must be thinking! Poor little rich girl. What does she
know about misery?
JACK
That's not what I was thinking. What I was thinking was... what could have
happened to hurt this girl so much she though she had no way out.
ROSE
I don't... it wasn't just one thing. It was everything. It was them, it was
their whole world. And I was trapped in it, like an insect in amber.
(in a rush)
I just had to get away... just run and run and run... and then I was at the
back rail and there was no more ship... even the Titanic wasn't big enough.
Not enough to get away from them. And before I'd really though about it, I
was over the rail. I was so furious. I'll show them. They'll be sorry!
JACK
Uh huh. They'll be sorry. 'Course you'll be dead.
ROSE
(she lowers her head)
Oh God, I am such an utter fool.
JACK
That penguin last night, is he one of them?
ROSE
Penguin? Oh, Cal! He is them.
JACK
Is he your boyfriend?
ROSE
Worse I'm afraid.
She shows him her engagement ring. A sizable diamond.
JACK
Gawd look at that thing! You would have gone straight to the bottom.
They laugh together. A passing steward scowls at Jack, who is clearly not a
first class passenger, but Rose just glares at him away.
JACK
So you feel like you're stuck on a train you can't get off 'cause you're
marryin' this fella.
ROSE
Yes, exactly!
JACK
So don't marry him.
ROSE
If only it were that simple.
JACK
It is that simple.
ROSE
Oh, Jack... please don't judge me until you've seen my world.
JACK
Well, I guess I will tonight.
Looking for another topic, any other topic, she indicates his sketchbook.
ROSE
What's this?
JACK
Just some sketches.
ROSE
May I?
The question is rhetorical because she has already grabbed the book. She
sits on a deck chair and opens the sketchbook. ON JACK'S sketches... each
one an expressive little bit of humanity: an old woman's hands, a sleeping
man, a father and daughter at the rail. The faces are luminous and alive.
His book is a celebration of the human condition.
ROSE
Jack, these are quite good! Really, they are.
JACK
Well, they didn't think too much of 'em in Paree.
Some loose sketches fall out and are taken by the wind. Jack scrambles after
them... catching two, but the rest are gone, over the rail.
ROSE
Oh no! Oh, I'm so sorry. Truly!
JACK
Well, they didn't think too much of 'em in Paree.
He snaps his wrist, shaking his drawing hand in a flourish.
JACK
I just seem to spew 'em out. Besides, they're not worth a damn anyway.
For emphasis he throws away the two he caught. They sail off.
ROSE
(laughing)
You're deranged!
She goes back to the book, turning a page.
ROSE
Well, well...
She has come upon a series of nudes. Rose is transfixed by the languid
beauty he has created. His nudes are soulful, real, with expressive hands
and eyes. They feel more like portraits than studies of the human form...
almost uncomfortably intimate. Rose blushes, raising the book as some
strollers go by.
ROSE
(trying to be very adult)
And these were drawn from life?
JACK
Yup. That's one of the great things about Paris. Lots of girls willing take
their clothes off.
She studies one drawing in particular, the girl posed half in sunlight, half
in shadow. Her hands lie at her chin, one furled and one open like a flower,
languid and graceful. The drawing is like an Alfred Steiglitz print of
Georgia O'Keefe.
ROSE
You liked this woman. You used her several times.
JACK
She had beautiful hands.
ROSE
(smiling)
I think you must have had a love affair with her...
JACK
(laughing)
No, no! Just with her hands.
ROSE
(looking up from the drawings)
You have a gift, Jack. You do. You see people.
JACK
I see you.
There it is. That piercing gaze again.
ROSE
And...?
JACK
You wouldn'ta jumped.
CUT TO:
74 INT. RECEPTION ROOM / D-DECK - DAY
Ruth is having tea with NOEL LUCY MARTHA DYER-EDWARDES, the COUNTESS OF
ROTHES, a 35ish English blue-blood with patrician features. Ruth sees
someone coming across the room and lowers her voice.
RUTH
Oh no, that vulgar Brown woman is coming this way. Get up, quickly before
she sits with us.
Molly Brown walks up, greeting them cheerfully as they are rising.
MOLLY
Hello girls, I was hoping I'd catch you at tea.
RUTH
We're awfully sorry you missed it. The Countess and I are just off to take
the air on the boat deck.
MOLLY
That sounds great. Let's go. I need to catch up on the gossip.
Ruth grits her teeth as the three of them head for the Grand Staircase to go
up. TRACKING WITH THEM, as they cross the room, the SHOT HANDS OFF to Bruce
Ismay and Captain Smith at another table.
ISMAY
So you've not lit the last four boilers then?
SMITH
No, but we're making excellent time.
ISMAY
(impatiently)
Captain, the press knows the size of Titanic, let them marvel at her speed
too. We must give them something new to print. And the maiden voyage of
Titanic must make headlines!
SMITH
I prefer not to push the engines until they've been properly run in.
ISMAY
Of course I leave it to your good offices to decide what's best, but what a
glorious end to your last crossing if we get into New York Tuesday night and
surprise them all.
(Ismay slaps his hand on the table)
Retire with a bang, eh, E.J?
A beat. Then Smith nods, stiffly.
CUT TO:
75 EXT. A DECK PROMENADE - DAY
Rose and Jack stroll aft, past people lounging on deck chairs in the
slanting late-afternoon light. Stewards scurry to serve tea or hot cocoa.
ROSE
(girlish and excited)
You know, my dream has always been to just chuck it all and become an
artist... living in a garret, poor but free!
JACK
(laughing)
You wouldn't last two days. There's no hot water, and hardly ever any
caviar.
ROSE
(angry in a flash)
Listen, buster... I hate caviar! And I'm tired of people dismissing my
dreams with a chuckle and a pat on the head.
JACK
I'm sorry. Really... I am.
ROSE
Well, alright. There's something in me, Jack. I feel it. I don't know what
it is, whether I should be an artist, or, I don't know... a dancer. Like
Isadora Duncan.... a wild pagan spirit...
She leaps forward, lands deftly and whirls like a dervish. Then she sees
something ahead and her face lights up.
ROSE
...or a moving picture actress!
She takes his hand and runs, pulling him along the deck toward--
DANIEL AND MARY MARVIN. Daniel is cranking the big wooden movie camera as
she poses stiffly at the rail.
MARVIN
You're sad. Sad, sad, sad. You've left your lover on the shore. You may
never see him again. Try to be sadder, darling.
SUDDENLY Rose shoots into the shot and strikes a theatrical pose at the rail
next to Mary. Mary bursts out laughing. Rose pulls Jack into the picture and
makes him pose.
Marvin grins and starts yelling and gesturing. We see this in CUTS, with
music and no dialogue.
SERIES OF CUTS:
Rose posing tragically at the rail, the back of her hand to her forehead.
Jack on a deck chair, pretending to be a Pasha, the two girls pantomiming
