Titanic
How scenes compare to the Scripts in our Library
| Percentile | Before | After | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Emotional Impact | 9.0 | 99 | Birdman: 8.7 | Titanic: 9.0 |
| Overall | 8.6 | 90 | Birdman: 8.5 | Titanic: 8.6 |
| Characters | 8.6 | 88 | Everything Everywhere All at Once: 8.5 | Titanic: 8.6 |
| Plot | 8.3 | 71 | Mr Robot: 8.2 | Inception: 8.3 |
| Concept | 7.9 | 61 | The usual suspects: 7.8 | Titanic: 7.9 |
| Conflict Level | 7.6 | 51 | The Shawshank Redemption: 7.5 | Get Out: 7.6 |
| Dialogue | 7.6 | 47 | Shaun of the Dead: 7.5 | get out: 7.6 |
Scene 1 - The Descent into the Depths
EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY
"Titanic" a screenplay by James Cameron
Cast:
KATE WINSLET... Rose DeWitt Bukater LEONARDO DICAPRIO... Jack
Dawson KATHY BATES... The Unsinkable Molly Brown BILLY
ZANE... Caledon Hockley BILL PAXTON... Brock Lovett
Written and Directed by:
JAMES CAMERON
1 BLACKNESS 1
Then two faint lights appear, close together... growing
brighter. They resolve into two DEEP SUBMERSIBLES, free-
falling toward us like express elevators.
One is ahead of the other, and passes close enough to FILL
FRAME, looking like a spacecraft blazing with lights,
bristling with insectile manipulators.
TILTING DOWN to follow it as it descends away into the
limitless blackness below. Soon they are fireflies, then
stars. Then gone.
CUT TO:
2 EXT./ INT. MIR ONE / NORTH ATLANTIC DEEP 2
PUSHING IN on one of the falling submersibles, called MIR
ONE, right up to its circular viewport to see the occupants.
INSIDE, it is a cramped seven foot sphere, crammed with
equipment. ANATOLY MIKAILAVICH, the sub's pilot, sits
hunched over his controls... singing softly in Russian.
Next to him on one side is BROCK LOVETT. He's in his late
forties, deeply tanned, and likes to wear his Nomex suit
unzipped to show the gold from famous shipwrecks covering
his gray chest hair. He is a wiley, fast-talking treasure
hunter, a salvage superstar who is part historian, part
adventurer and part vacuum cleaner salesman. Right now, he
is propped against the CO2 scrubber, fast asleep and
snoring.
On the other side, crammed into the remaining space is a
bearded wide-body named LEWIS BODINE, sho is also asleep.
Lewis is an R.O.V. (REMOTELY OPERATED VEHICLE) pilot and is
the resident Titanic expert.
(CONTINUED)
2.
2 CONTINUED: 2
Anatoly glances at the bottom sonar and makes a ballast
adjustment.
CUT TO:
3 EXT. THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA 3
A pale, dead-flat lunar landscape. It gets brighter, lit
from above, as MIR ONE enters FRAME and drops to the
seafloor in a downblast from its thrusters. It hits bottom
after its two hour free-fall with a loud BONK.
CUT TO:
4 INT. MIR ONE 4
Lovett and Bodine jerk awake at the landing.
ANATOLY
(heavy Russian accent)
We are here.
Ratings
Scene 2 - The Titanic Wreckage
5 MINUTES LATER: THE TWO SUBS skim over the seafloor to
the sound of sidescan sonar and the THRUM of big thrusters.
6 The featureless gray clay of the bottom unrols in the
lights of the subs. Bodine is watching the sidescan sonar
display, where the outline of a huge pointed object is
visible. Anatoly lies prone, driving the sub, his face
pressed to the center port.
BODINE
Come left a little. She's right in
front of us, eighteen meters.
Fifteen. Thirteen... you should see it.
ANATOLY
Do you see it? I don't see it...
there!
Out of the darkness, like a ghostly apparition, the bow of
the ship appears. Its knife-edge prow is coming straight at
us, seeming to plow the bottom sediment like ocean waves.
It towers above the seafloor, standing just as it landed 84
years ago.
THE TITANIC. Or what is left of her. Mir One goes up and
over the bow railing, intact except for an overgrowth of
"rusticles" draping it like mutated Spanish moss.
(CONTINUED)
3.
CONTINUED:
TIGHT ON THE EYEPIECE MONITOR of a video camcorder. Brock
Lovett's face fills the BLACK AND WHITE FRAME.
LOVETT
It still gets me every time.
The image pans to the front viewport, looking over Anatoly's
shoulder, to the bow railing visible in the lights beyond.
Anatoly turns.
ANATOLY
Is just your guilt because of
estealing from the dead.
CUT WIDER, to show that Brock is operating the camera
himself, turning it in his hand so it points at his own
face.
LOVETT
Thanks, Tolya. Work with me, here.
Brock resumes his serious, pensive gaze out the front port,
with the camera aimed at himself at arm's length.
LOVETT (CONT'D)
It still gets me every time... to see
the sad ruin of the great ship sitting
here, where she landed at 2:30 in the
morning, April 15, 1912, after her long
fall from the world above.
Anatoly rolls his eyes and mutters in Russian. Bodine
chuckles and watches the sonar.
BODINE
You are so full of shit, boss.
7 Mir Two drives aft down the starboard side, past the huge
anchor while Mir One passes over the seemingly endless
forecastle deck, with its massive anchor chains still laid
out in two neat rows, its bronze windlass caps gleaming.
The 22 foot long subs are like white bugs next to the
enormous wreck.
LOVETT (V.O.)
Dive nine. Here we are again on the
deck of Titanic... two and a half
miles down. The pressure is three
tons per square inch, enough to
crush us like a freight train going
over an ant if our hull fails.
(MORE)
(CONTINUED)
4.
CONTINUED: (2)
LOVETT (V.O.) (cont'd)
These windows are nine inches thick and
if they go, it's sayonara in two
microseconds.
8 Mir Two lands on the boat deck, next to the ruins of the
Officer's Quarters. Mir One lands on the roof of the deck
hous nearby.
LOVETT (CONT'D)
Right. Let's go to work.
Bodine slips on a pair of 3-D electronic goggles, and grabs
the joystick controls of the ROV.
9 OUTSIDE THE SUB, the ROV, a small orange and black robot
called SNOOP DOG, lifts from its cradle and flies forward.
BODINE (V.O.)
Walkin' the dog.
SNOOP DOG drives itself away from the sub, paying out its
umbilical behind it like a robot yo-yo. Its twin stereo-
video cameras swivel like insect eyes. The ROV descends
through an open shaft that once was the beautiful First
Class Grand Staircase.
Snoop Dog goes down several decks, then moves laterally into
the First Class Reception Room.
SNOOP'S VIDEO POV, moving through the cavernous interior.
The remains of the ornate handcarved woodwork which gave the
ship its elegance move through the floodlights, the lines
blurred by slow dissolution and descending rusticle
formations. Stalactites of rust hang down so that at times
it looks like a natural grotto, then the scene shifts and
the lines of a ghostly undersea mansion can be seen again.
MONTAGE STYLE, as Snoop passes the ghostly images of
Titanic's opulence:
10 A grand piano in amazingly good shape, crashed on its
side against a wall. The keys gleam black and white in the
lights.
11 A chandelier, still hanging from the ceiling by its
wire... glinting as Snoop moves around it.
12 Its lights play across the floor, revealing a champagne
bottle, then some WHITE STAR LINE china... a woman's high-
top "granny shoe". Then something eerie: what looks like a
child's skull resolves into the porcelain head of a doll.
Snoop enters a corridor which is much better preserved.
Here and there a door still hangs on its rusted hinges.
(CONTINUED)
5.
CONTINUED: (3)
An ornate piece of molding, a wall sconce... hint at
the grandeur of the past.
13 THE ROV turns and goes through a black doorway, entering
room B-52, the sitting room of a "promenade suite", one of
the most luxurious staterooms on Titanic.
BODINE (CONT'D)
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 (CONT'D)
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 (CONT'D)
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'?
(CONTINUED)
6.
CONTINUED: (4)
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:
Ratings
Scene 3 - The safe is opened
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.
(MORE)
(CONTINUED)
7.
14 CONTINUED: 14
LOVETT (cont'd)
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 (CONT'D)
Shit.
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 15
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 (CONT'D)
Hi, Dave? Barry? Look, it wasn't in
the safe...
(MORE)
(CONTINUED)
8.
15 CONTINUED: 15
LOVETT (CONT'D)
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 (CONT'D)
I'll be God damned.
CUT TO:
16 INSERT 16
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?
(CONTINUED)
9.
16 CONTINUED: 16
LOVETT
Yes, hi, Tracy. You know, Titanic is
not just A shipwrick, Titanic is THE