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
silhouette against the stars.
IN COLLAPSIBLE C: BRUCE ISMAY has his back to the ship, unable to watch the
great steamer die. He is catatonic with remorse, his mind overloaded. He can
avert his eyes, but he can't block out the sounds of dying people and
machinery.
A loud CRACKING REPORT comes across the water.
CUT TO:
272 EXT. BOAT DECK
Near the third funnel a man clutches the ship's rail. He stares down as the
DECK SPLITS right between his feet. A yawning chasm opens with a THUNDER of
breaking steel
LOVEJOY is clutching the railing on the roof of the Officers' Mess. He
watches in horror as the ship's structure RIPS APART right in front of him.
He gapes down into a widening maw, seeing straight down into the bowels of
the ship, amid a BOOMING CONCUSSION like the sound of artillery. People