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CUT TO:

182 INT. FIRST CLASS CORRIDOR

Thomas Andrews is opening stateroom doors, checking that people are out.

ANDREWS

Anyone in here?

Rose runs up to him, breathless.

ROSE

Mr. Andrews, thank God! Where would the Master at Arms take someone under arrest?!

ANDREWS

What? You have to get to a boat right away!

ROSE

No! I'll do this with or without your help, sir. But without will take longer.

ANDREWS

(beat)

Take the elevator to the very bottom, go left, down the crewman's passage, then make a right.

ROSE

Bottom, left, right. I have it.

ANDREWS

Hurry, Rose.

CUT TO:

183 INT. FOYER / ELEVATORS

Rose runs up as the last ELEVATOR OPERATOR is closing up his lift to leave.

OPERATOR

Sorry, miss, lifts are closed--

Without thinking she grabs him and shoves him back into the lift.

ROSE

I'm through with being polite, goddamnit!! I may never be polite the rest of my life! Now take me down!!

The operator fumbles to close the gate and start the lift.

CUT TO:

184 EXT. OCEAN / BOAT 6

Molly and the two seamen are rowing, and they've made it a hundred feet or so. Enough to see that the ship is angled down into the water, with the bow rail less than ten feet above the surface.

MOLLY

Come on girls, join in, it'll keep ya warm. Let's go Ruth. Grab an oar!

Ruth just stares at the spectacle of the great liner, its rows of lights blazing, slanting down into the sullen black mirror of the Atlantic.

CUT TO:

185 INT. FIRST CLASS ELEVATOR / CORRIDORS

Through the wrought iron door of the elevator car Rose can see the decks going past. The lift slows. Suddenly ICE WATER is swirling around her legs. She SCREAMS in surprise. So does the operator.

The car has landed in a foot of freezing water, shocking the hell out of her. She claws the door open and splashes out, hiking up her floor-length skirt so she can move. The lift goes back up, behind her, as she looks around.

ROSE

Left, crew passage.

She spots it and slogs down the flooded corridor. The place is understandably deserted. She is on her own.

ROSE

Right, right... right.

She turns into a cross-corridor, splashing down the hall. A row of doors on each side.

ROSE

Jack? Jaaacckk??

CUT TO:

186 INT. MASTER AT ARMS OFFICE / CORRIDOR

Jack is hopelessly pulling on the pipe again, straining until he turns red. He collapses back on the bench. realizing he's screwed. Then he hears her through the door.

JACK

ROSE!! In here!

187 IN THE HALL Rose hears his voice behind her. She spins and runs back, locating the right door, then pushes it open, creating a small wave.

She splashes over Jack and puts her arms around him.

ROSE

Jack, Jack, Jack... I'm sorry, I'm so sorry.

They are so happy to see each other it's embarrassing.

JACK

That guy Lovejoy put it in my pocket.

ROSE

I know, I know.

JACK

See if you can find a key for these. Try those drawers. It's a little brass one.

She kisses his face and hugs him again, then starts to go through the desk.

JACK

So... how did you find out I didn't do it?

ROSE

I didn't.

(she looks at him)

I just realized I already knew.

They share a look, then she goes back to ransacking the room, searching drawers and cupboards. Jack sees movement out the porthole and looks out.

A LIFEBOAT hits the surface of the water, seen from below.

CUT TO:

188 EXT. TITANIC / BOAT ONE

While the seamen detach the falls, Boat One rocks next to the hull. Lucile and Sir Cosmo Duff-Gordon sit with ten others in a boat made for four times that many.

LUCILE

I despise small boats. I just know I'm going to be seasick. I always get seasick in small boats. Good Heavens, there's a man down there.

In a lit porthole beneath the surface she sees Jack looking up at her... a face in a bubble of light under the water.

CUT TO:

189 INT. MASTER AT ARMS OFFICE

Rose stops trashing the room, and stands there, breathing hard.

ROSE

There's no key in here.

They look around at the water, now almost two feet deep. Jack has pulled his feet up onto the bench.

JACK

You have to go for help.

ROSE

(nodding)

I'll be right back.

JACK

I'll wait here.

She runs out, looking back at him once from the doorway, then splashes away. Jack looks down at the swirling water.

CUT TO:

190 INT. STAIRWELL AND CORRIDORS

Rose splashes down the hall to a stairwell going up to the next deck. She climbs the stairs, her long skirt leaving a trail like a giant snail. The weight of it is really slowing her down. She rips at the buttons and shimmies quickly out of the thing. She bounds up the stairs in her stockings and knee-length slip, to find herself in--

191 A LONG CORRIDOR... part of the labyrinth of steerage hallways forward. She is alone here. A long groan of stressing metal echoes along the hall as the ship continues to settle. She runs down the hall, unimpeded now.

ROSE

Hello? Somebody?!

She turns a corner and runs along another corridor in a daze. The hall slopes down into water which, shimmers, reflecting the light. The margin of the water creeps toward her. A YOUNG MAN appears, running through the water, sending up geysers of spray. He pelts past her without slowing, his eyes crazed...

ROSE

Help me! We need help!

He doesn't look back. It is like a bad dream. The hull gongs with terrifying sounds.

The lights flicker and go out, leaving utter darkness. A beat. Then they come back on. She finds herself hyperventilating. That one moment of blackness was the most terrifying of her life.

A STEWARD runs around the nearest corner, his arms full of lifebelts. He is upset to see someone still in his section. He grabs her forcefully by the arm, pulling her with him like a wayward child.

STEWARD

Come on, then, let's get you topside, miss, that's right.

ROSE

Wait. Wait! I need your help! There's--

STEWARD

No need for panic, miss. Come along!

ROSE

No, let me go! You're going the wrong way!

He's not listening. And he won't let her go.

She SHOUTS in his ear, and when he turns, she punches him squarely in the nose. Shocked, he lets her go and staggers back.

STEWARD

To Hell with you!

ROSE

See you there, buster!

The steward runs off, holding his bloody nose. She spits after him. Just the way Jack taught her.

She turns around, SEES: a glass case with a fire-axe in it. She breaks the glass with a battered suitcase which is lying discarded nearby, and seizes the axe, running back the way she came.

192 AT THE STAIRWELL she looks down and gasps. The water has flooded the bottom five steps. She goes down and has to crouch to look along the corridor to the room where Jack is trapped.

Rose plunges into the water, which is up to her waist... and powers forward, holding the axe above her head in two hands. She grimaces at the pain from the literally freezing water.

CUT TO:

193 INT. MASTER AT ARMS OFFICE

Jack has climbed up on the bench, and is hugging the water pipe. Rose wades in, holding the axe above her head.

ROSE

Will this work?

JACK

We'll find out.

They are both terrified, but trying to keep panic at bay. He positions the chain connecting the two cuffs, stretching it taut across the steel pipe. The chain is of course very short, and his exposed wrists are on either side of it.

JACK

Try a couple practice swings.

Rose hefts the axe and thunks it into a wooden cabinet.

JACK

Now try to hit the same mark again.

She swings hard and the blade thunks in four inches from the mark.

JACK

Okay, that's enough practice.

He winces, bracing himself as she raises the axe. She has to hit a target about an inch wide with all the force she can muster, with his hands on either side.

JACK

(sounding calm)

You can do it, Rose. Hit it as hard as you can, I trust you.

Jack closes his eyes. So does she.

The axe comes down. K-WHANG! Rose gingerly opens her eyes looks... Jack is grinning with two separate cuffs.

Rose drops the axe, all the strength going out of her.

JACK

Nice work, there, Paul Bunyan.

He climbs down into the water next to her. He can't breathe for a second.

JACK

Shit! Excuse my French. Ow ow ow, that is cold! Come on, let's go.

They wade out into the hall. Rose starts toward the stairs going up, but Jack stops her. There is only about a foot of the stairwell opening visible.

JACK

Too deep. We gotta find another way out.

CUT TO:

194 EXT. BOAT 6 AND TITANIC

TIGHT ON THE LETTERS TITANIC painted two feet high on the bow of the doomed steamer. Once 50 feet above the waterline, they now quietly slip below the surface. We see them, gold on black, rippling and dimming to a pale green as they go deeper.

195 IN BOAT SIX, Ruth looks back at the Titanic, transfixed by the sight of the dying liner. The bowsprit is now barely above the waterline. Another of Boxhall's rockets EXPLODES overhead. K-BOOM! It lights up the whole area, and we see half a dozen boats in the water, spreading out from the ship.

MOLLY

Now there's somethin' you don't see every day.

CUT TO:

196 INT. SCOTLAND ROAD / E-DECK

The widest passageway in the ship, it is used by crew and steerage alike, and runs almost the length of the ship. Right now steerage passengers move along it like refugees, heading aft.

CRASH! A wooden doorframe splinters and the door bursts open under the force of Jack's shoulder. Jack and Rose stumble through, into the corridor. A STEWARD, who was nearby herding people along, marches over.

STEWARD

Here you! You'll have to pay for that, you know. That's White Star Line property--

JACK AND ROSE

(turning together)

Shutup!

Jack leads her past the dumbfounded steward. They join the steerage stragglers going aft. In places the corridor is almost completely blocked by large families carrying all their luggage.

AN IRISH WOMAN gives Rose a blanket, more for modesty than because she is blue-lipped and shivering.

IRISHWOMAN

Here, lass, cover yerself.

Jack rubs her arms and tries to warm her up as they walk along. The woman's husband offers them a flask of whiskey.

IRISHMAN

This'll take the chill off.

Rose takes a mighty belt and hands it to Jack. He grins and follows suit. Jack tries a number of DOORS and IRON GATES along the way, finding them all locked.

CUT TO:

197 EXT. BOAT DECK

ON THE BOAT DECK, the action has moved to the aft group of boats, numbers 9, 11, 13 and 15 on the starboard side, and 10, 12, 14 and 16 on the port side. The pace of work is more frantic. You see crew and officers running now to work the davits, their previous complacency gone.

CAL pushes through the crowd, scanning for Rose. Around him is chaos and confusion. A woman is calling for a child who has become separated from the crowd. A man is shouting over people's heads. A woman takes hold of Second Officer Lightoller's arm as he is about to launch Boat 10.

WOMAN

Will you hold the boat a moment? I have to run back to my room for something--

Lightoller grabs her and shoves her bodily into the boat. Thomas Andrews rushes up to him just then.

ANDREWS

Why are the boats being launched half full?!

Lightoller steps past him, helping a seaman clear a snarled fall.

LIGHTOLLER

Not now, Mr. Andrews.

ANDREWS

(pointing down at the water)

There, look... twenty or so in a boat built for sixty five. And I saw one boat with only twelve. Twelve!

LIGHTOLLER

Well... we were not sure of the weight--

ANDREWS

Rubbish! They were tested in Belfast with the weight of 70 men. Now fill these boats, Mr. Lightoller. For God's sake, man!

The shot HANDS OFF to Cal, who sees Lovejoy hurrying toward him through the aisle connecting the port and starboard sides of the boat deck.

LOVEJOY

She's not on the starboard side either.

CAL

We're running out of time. And this strutting martinet...

(indicating Lightoller)

...isn't letting any men in at all.

LOVEJOY

The one on the other side is letting men in.

CAL

Then that's our play. But we're still going to need some insurance.

(he starts off forward)

Come on.

Cal charges off, heading forward, followed by Lovejoy. The SHOT HANDS OFF to a finely dressed elderly couple, IDA and ISADOR STRAUSS.

ISADOR

Please, Ida, get into the boat.

IDA

No. We've been together for forty years, and where you go, I go. Don't argue with me, Isador, you know it does no good.

He looks at her with sadness and great love. They embrace gently.

LIGHTOLLER