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CUT TO:

61 INT. FIRST CLASS DINING SALOON - NIGHT

SLOWLY PUSHING IN ON ROSE as she sits, flanked by people in heated conversation. Cal and Ruth are laughing together, while on the other side LADY DUFF-GORDON is holding forth animatedly. We don't hear what they are saying. Rose is staring at her plate, barely listening to the inconsequential babble around her.

OLD ROSE (V.O.)

I saw my whole life as if I'd already lived it... an endless parade of parties and cotillions, yachts and polo matches... always the same narrow people, the same mindless chatter. I felt like I was standing at a great precipice, with no one to pull me back, no one who cared... or even noticed.

ANGLE BENEATH TABLE showing Rose's hand, holding a tiny fork from her crab salad. She pokes the crab-fork into the skin of her arm, harder and harder until it draws blood.

CUT TO:

62 INT. CORRIDOR / B DECK - NIGHT

Rose walks along the corridor. A steward coming the other way greets her, and she nods with a slight smile. She is perfectly composed.

CUT TO:

63 INT. ROSE'S BEDROOM - NIGHT

She enters the room. Stands in the middle, staring at her reflection in the large vanity mirror. Just stands there, then--

With a primal, anguished cry she claws at her throat, ripping off her pearl necklace, which explodes across the room. In a frenzy she tears at herself, her clothes, her hair... then attacks the room. She flings everything off the dresser and it flies clattering against the wall. She hurls a hand mirror against the vanity, cracking it.

CUT TO:

64 EXT. A DECK PROMENADE, AFT - NIGHT

Rose runs along the B deck promenade. She is disheveled, her hair flying. She is crying, her cheeks streaked with tears. But also angry, furious! Shaking with emotions she doesn't understand... hatred, self-hatred, desperation. A strolling couple watch her pass. Shocked at the emotional display in public.

CUT TO:

65 EXT. POOP DECK - NIGHT

Jack is kicked back on one of the benches gazing at the stars blazing gloriously overhead. Thinking artist thoughts and smoking a cigarette.

Hearing something, he turns as Rose runs up the stairs from the well deck. They are the only two on the stern deck, except for QUARTERMASTER ROWE, twenty feet above them on the docking bridge catwalk. She doesn't see Jack in the shadows, and runs right past him.

TRACKING WITH ROSE as she runs across the deserted fantail. Her breath hitches in an occasional sob, which she suppresses. Rose slams against the base of the stern flagpole and clings there, panting. She stares out at the black water.

Then starts to climb over the railing. She has to hitch her long dress way up, and climbing is clumsy. Moving methodically she turns her body and gets her heels on the white-painted gunwale, her back to the railing, facing out toward blackness. 60 feet below her, the massive propellers are churning the Atlantic into white foam, and a ghostly wake trails off toward the horizon.

IN A LOW ANGLE, we see Rose standing like a figurehead in reverse. Below her are the huge letters of the name "TITANIC".

She leans out, her arms straightening... looking down hypnotized, into the vortex below her. Her dress and hair are lifted by the wind of the ship's movement. The only sound, above the rush of water below, is the flutter and snap of the big Union Jack right above her.

JACK

Don't do it.

She whips her head around at the sound of his voice. It takes a second for her eyes to focus.

ROSE

Stay back! Don't come any closer!

Jack sees the tear tracks on her cheeks in the faint glow from the stern running lights.

JACK

Take my hand. I'll pull you back in.

ROSE

No! Stay where you are. I mean it. I'll let go.

JACK

No you won't.

ROSE

What do you mean no I won't? Don't presume to tell me what I will and will not do. You don't know me.

JACK

You would have done it already. Now come on, take my hand.

Rose is confused now. She can't see him very well through the tears, so she wipes them with one hand, almost losing her balance.

ROSE

You're distracting me. Go away.

JACK

I can't. I'm involved now. If you let go I have to jump in after you.

ROSE

Don't be absurd. You'll be killed.

He takes off his jacket.

JACK

I'm a good swimmer.

He starts unlacing his left shoe.

ROSE

The fall alone would kill you.

JACK

It would hurt. I'm not saying it wouldn't. To be honest I'm a lot more concerned about the water being so cold.

She looks down. The reality factor of what she is doing is sinking in.

ROSE

How cold?

JACK

(taking off his left shoe)

Freezing. Maybe a couple degrees over.

He starts unlacing his right shoe.

JACK

Ever been to Wisconsin?

ROSE

(perplexed)

No.

JACK

Well they have some of the coldest winters around, and I grew up there, near Chippewa Falls. Once when I was a kid me and my father were ice-fishing out on Lake Wissota... ice-fishing's where you chop a hole in the--

ROSE

I know what ice fishing is!

JACK

Sorry. Just... you look like kind of an indoor girl. Anyway, I went through some thin ice and I'm tellin' ya, water that cold... like that right down there... it hits you like a thousand knives all over your body. You can't breath, you can't think... least not about anything but the pain.

(takes off his other shoe)

Which is why I'm not looking forward to jumping in after you. But like I said, I don't see a choice. I guess I'm kinda hoping you'll come back over the rail and get me off the hook here.

 

ROSE

You're crazy.

JACK

That's what everybody says. But with all due respect, I'm not the one hanging off the back of a ship.

He slides one step closer, like moving up on a spooked horse.

JACK

Come on. You don't want to do this. Give me your hand.

Rose stares at this madman for a long time. She looks at his eyes and they somehow suddenly seem to fill her universe.

ROSE

Alright.

She unfastens one hand from the rail and reaches it around toward him. He reaches out to take it, firmly.

JACK

I'm Jack Dawson.

ROSE

(voice quavering)

Pleased to meet you, Mr. Dawson.

Rose starts to turn. Now that she has decided to live, the height is terrifying. She is overcome by vertigo as she shifts her footing, turning to face the ship. As she starts to climb, her dress gets in the way, and one foot slips off the edge of the deck.

She plunges, letting out a piercing SHRIEK. Jack, gripping her hand, is jerked toward the rail. Rose barely grabs a lower rail with her free hand.

QUARTERMASTER ROWE, up on the docking bridge hears the scream and heads for the ladder.

ROSE

HELP! HELP!!

JACK

I've got you. I won't let go.

Jack holds her hand with all his strength, bracing himself on the railing with his other hand. Rose tries to get some kind of foothold on the smooth hull. Jack tries to lift her bodily over the railing. She can't get any footing in her dress and evening shoes, and she slips back. Rose SCREAMS again.

Jack, awkwardly clutching Rose by whatever he can get a grip on as she flails, gets her over the railing. They fall together onto the deck in a tangled heap, spinning in such a way that Jack winds up slightly on top of her.

Rowe slides down the ladder from the docking bridge like it's a fire drill and sprints across the fantail.

ROWE

Here, what's all this?!

Rowe runs up and pulls Jack off of Rose, revealing her disheveled and sobbing on the deck. Her dress is torn, and the hem is pushing up above her knees, showing one ripped stocking. He looks at Jack, the shaggy steerage man with his jacket off, and the first class lady clearly in distress, and starts drawing conclusions. Two seamen chug across the deck to join them.

ROWE

(to Jack)

Here you, stand back! Don't move an inch!

(to the seamen)

Fetch the Master at Arms.

CUT TO:

66 EXT. POOP DECK - NIGHT

A few minutes later. Jack is being detained by the burly MASTER AT ARMS, the closest thing to a cop on board. He is handcuffing Jack. Cal is right in front of Jack, and furious. He has obviously just rushed out here with Lovejoy and another man, and none of them have coats over their black tie evening dress. The other man is COLONEL ARCHIBALD GRACIE, a mustachioed blowhard who still has his brandy snifter. He offers it to Rose, who is hunched over crying on a bench nearby, but she waves it away. Cal is more concerned with Jack. He grabs him by the lapels.

CAL

What made you think you could put your hands on my fiancée?! Look at me, you filth! What did you think you were doing?!

ROSE

Cal, stop! It was an accident.

CAL

An accident?!

ROSE

It was... stupid really. I was leaning over and I slipped.

Rose looks at Jack, getting eye contact.

ROSE

I was leaning way over, to see the... ah... propellers. And I slipped and I would have gone overboard... and Mr. Dawson here saved me and he almost went over himself.

CAL

You wanted to see the propellers?

GRACIE

(shaking his head)

Women and machinery do not mix.

MASTER AT ARMS

(to Jack)

Was that the way of it?

Rose is begging him with her eyes not to say what really happened.

JACK

Uh huh. That was pretty much it.

He looks at Rose a moment longer. Now they have a secret together.

COLONEL GRACIE

Well! The boy's a hero then. Good for you son, well done!

(to Cal)

So it's all's well and back to our brandy, eh?

Jack is uncuffed. Cal gets Rose to her feet and moving.

CAL

(rubbing her arms)

Let's get you in. You're freezing.

Cal is leaving without a second thought for Jack.

GRACIE

(low)

Ah... perhaps a little something for the boy?

CAL

Oh, right. Mr. Lovejoy. A twenty should do it.

ROSE

Is that the going rate for saving the woman you love?

CAL

Rose is displeased. Mmm... what to do?

Cal turns back to Jack. He appraises him condescendingly... a steerage ruffian, unwashed and ill-mannered.

CAL

I know.

(to Jack)

Perhaps you could join us for dinner tomorrow, to regale our group with your heroic tale?

JACK

(looking straight at Rose)

Sure. Count me in.

CAL

Good. Settled then.

Cal turns to go, putting a protective arm around Rose. he leans close to Gracie as they walk away.

CAL

This should be amusing.

JACK

(as Lovejoy passes)

Can I bum a cigarette?

Lovejoy smoothly draws a silver cigarette case from his jacket and snaps it open. Jack takes a cigarette, then another, popping it behind his ear for later. Lovejoy lights Jack's cigarette.

LOVEJOY

You'll want to tie those.

(Jack looks at his shoes)

Interesting that the young lady slipped so mighty all of a sudden and you still had time to take of your jacket and shoes. Mmmm?