CUT TO: 48 EXT. CHERBOURG HARBOR, FRANCE - LATE DUSK
(Titanic stands silhouetted against a purple post-sunset sky. She is lit up like a floating palace, and her thousand portholes reflect in the calm harbor waters. The 150 foot tender Nomadic lies-to alongside, looking like a rowboat. The lights of a Cherbourg harbor complete the postcard image.)
CUT TO: 49 INT. FIRST CLASS RECEPTION/ D-DECK
(Entering the first class reception room from the tender are a number of prominent passengers. A BROAD-SHOULDERED WOMAN in an enormous feathered hat comes up the gangway, carrying a suitcase in each hand, a spindly porter running to catch up with her to take the bags.)
EMBER: Well, I wasn't about to wait all day for you, sonny. Take 'em the rest of the way if you think you can manage.
PRESENT CYNDER (V.O.): At Cherbourg a woman came aboard named Ember Brown, but we all called her Ember. History would call her the Unsinkable Ember Brown. Her husband had struck gold someplace out west, and she was what mother called "new money". (At 45, EMBER BROWN is a tough talking straight shooter who dresses in the finery of her genteel peers but will never be one of them.) By the next afternoon we had made our final stop and we were steaming west from the coast of Ireland, with nothing out ahead of us but ocean...
CUT TO: 51 EXT. BOW – DAY (The ship glows with the warm creamy light of late afternoon. Spyro and Sparx stand right at the bow gripping the curving railing so familiar from images of the wreck. Spyro leans over, looking down fifty feet to where the prow cuts the surface like a knife, sending up two glassy sheets of water.)
CUT TO: 52 INT. / EXT. TITANIC - SERIES OF SCENES - DAY
(ON THE BRIDGE, CAPTAIN IGNITUS turns from the binnacle to FIRST OFFICER WASH BUCKLER.)
CAPTAIN IGNITUS: Take her to sea Mister Buckler. Let's stretch her legs.
(Wash Buckler moves the engine telegraph lever to ALL AHEAD FULL. 53 NOW BEGINS a kind of musical/visual set piece... an ode to the great ship. The music is rhythmic, surging forward, with a soaring melody that addresses the majesty and optimism of the ship of dreams. IN THE ENGINE ROOM the telegraph clangs and moves to "All Ahead Full".)
CHIEF ENGINEER BELL: All ahead full!
(On the catwalk SGT. JAMES BYRD, the shipbuilder, watches carefully as the engineers and greasers scramble to adjust valves. Towering above them are the twin RECIPROCATING engines, four stories tall, their ten-foot-long connecting rods surging up and down with the turning of the massive crankshafts. The engines thunder like the footfalls of marching giants. 54 IN THE BOILER ROOMS the STOKERS chant a song as they hurl coal into the roaring furnaces. The "black gang" are covered with sweat and coal dust, their muscles working like part of the machinery as they toil in the hellish glow. 55 UNDERWATER the enormous bronze screws chop through the water, hurling the steamer forward and churning up a vortex of foam that lingers for miles behind the juggernaut ship. Smoke pours from the funnels as- 56 The riven water flares higher at the bow as the ship's speeds builds. THE CAMERA SWEEPS UP the prow to find Jack, the wind streaming through his hair and- 57 Captain Ignitus steps out of the enclosed bridge onto the wing. He stands with his hands on the rail, looking every bit the storybook picture of a Captain... a great patriarch of the sea.)
FIRST OFFICER WASH BUCKLER: Twenty one knots, sir!
IGNITUS: She's got a bone in her teeth now, eh, Mr. Buckler.
(Ignitus accepts a cup of tea from FIFTH OFFICER BLAST ZONE. He contentedly watches the white V of water hurled outward from the bows like an expression of his own personal power. They are invulnerable, towering over the sea. 58 AT THE BOW Spyro and Sparx lean far over, looking down. In the glassy bow-wave two dolphins appear, under the water, running fast just in front of the steel blade of the prow. They do it for the sheer joy and exultation of motion. Jack watches the dolphins and grins. They breach, jumping clear of the water and then dive back, crisscrossing in front of the bow, dancing ahead of the juggernaut. SPARX looks forward across the Atlantic, staring into the sun sparkles.)
SPARX: I can see the Statue of Liberty already. (grinning at Spyro) Very small... of course.
(THE CAMERA ARCS around them, until they are framed against the sea. NOW WE PULL BACK, across the forecastle deck. Rising, as we continue back, and the ships rolls endlessly forward underneath. Over the bridge wing, along the boat deck until her funnels come INTO FRAME besides us and march past like the pillars of heaven, one by one. We pull back and up, until we are looking down the funnels, and the people strolling on the decks and standing at the rail become antlike. And still we pull back until the great lady is seen whole in a gorgeous aerial portrait, black and severe in her majesty.)
PROWLUS (V.O.): She is the largest moving object ever made by the hand of man in all history...
CUT TO: 59 INT. PALM COURT RESTAURANT - DAY
(CLOSE ON PROWLUS ISMAY, Managing Director of White Star Line.)
PROWLUS: ...and our master shipbuilder, Sgt. Byrd here, designed her from the keel plates up.
(He indicates a handsome 39 year old Irish gentlemen to his right, SGT. JAMES BYRD, of Harland and Wolf Shipbuilders. WIDER, showing the group assembled for lunch the next day. Prowlus seated with Flame, Cynder, Elora, Ember Brown and Sgt. James Byrd in the Palm Court, a beautiful sunny spot enclosed by high arched windows.)
SGT. JAMES BYRD: (disliking the attention) Well, I may have knocked her together, but the idea was Mr. Prowlus'. He envisioned a steamer so grand in scale, and so luxurious in its appointments, that its supremacy would never be challenged. And here she is... (he slaps the table)...willed into solid reality.
EMBER: Why're ships always being called "she"? Is it because men think half the women around have big sterns and should be weighed in tonnage? (they all laugh) Just another example of the men setting the rules their way.
(The waiter arrives to take orders. Ember lights a cigarette.)
ELORA: You know I don't like that, Ember, or whatever your name is.
FLAME: She knows. (Flame takes the cigarette from her and stubs it out.) (to the waiter) We'll both have the lamb. Rare, with a little mint sauce. (To Cynder, after the waiter moves away) You like lamb, don't you sweet pea?
(Ember is watching the dynamic between Cynder, Flame and Elora.)
EMBER: So, you going to cut her meat for her too there, Flame? (turning to Prowlus) Hey, who came up with the name Titanic? You, Prowlus?
PROWLUS: Yes, actually. I wanted to convey sheer size. And size means stability, luxury... and safety-
CYNDER: Do you know of Dr. Freud? His ideas about the male preoccupation with size might be of particular interest to you, Mr. Prowlus.
(James Byrd chokes on his breadstick, suppressing laughter.)
ELORA: My God, Cynder, what's gotten into-
CYNDER: Excuse me. (She stalks away.)
ELORA: (mortified) I do apologize.
EMBER: She's a pistol, Flame. You sure you can handle her?
FLAME: (tense but feigning unconcern) Well, I may have to start minding what she reads from now on.