They run through the galley and Thomas spots the stairs. He begins to go up, but Jack grabs hand. He leads him down. They crouch together on the landing as Lovejoy runs to the stairs. Assuming he may have gone up, they climb up the stairs, two at a time, albeit slowly. They wait for the footstep to recede. A long creaking groan. Then they hear it... a child crying somewhere in the distance. They go down a few steps to looks along the next deck. The corridor is awash, about a foot deep. Standing against the wall, about 50 feet away, is a little boy, who appeared to be three years old. The water swirls around his leg, and he is wailing. Thomas turns to Jack.
"We can't leave him."
Jack nods and they leave the promise of escape up the stairwell to run towards the child. Thomas quickly scoops up the kid and they run back to the stairs but-
A torrent of water comes pouring down the stairs like rapids. In seconds it becomes too powerful for them to go against.
"Come on!"
Charging the other way down the flooding corridor, they blast up spray with each footstep, while Thomas shields the boy from the cold spray. At the end of the hall are heavy double doors. As Jack approaches them he sees water shooting through the gap between the doors right up to the ceiling. The doors groan and begins to crack under the tons of pressure.
"Back! Go back!" Jack motioned, as Thomas pivots and runs back the way they came, taking a turn into a cross-corridor, while still holding the boy. A man is coming the other way. He sees the boy in Thomas' arms and cries out. He furiously grabbed the boy away from Thomas, and begins to curse and yelling at him in Slovak, before shoving him away. He runs on with the boy-
"No! Not that way! Come back!" they yelled, but it was too late.
The doors could no longer hold, as it blasts the doors open. A wall of water thunders into the corridor. The father and child disappear instantly under the torrential water. Meanwhile, Jack and Thomas run as a wave blasts around the corner, foaming from floor to ceiling. It gains on them like a locomotive. They make it to a stairway going up. Jack and Thomas pound up the steps as white water swirls up behind them, only to be trapped to a steel gate blocks the top of the stairs. Jack slams against the gate, gripping the bars tightly, and began rattling them.
A terrified steward standing guard on the landing above turns to run at the sight of the water thundering up the stairs.
"Wait! Wait! Help us! Unlock the gate." Jack pleaded through the metal gates. The steward runs on. The water wells up around Jack and Thomas, pouring through the gate and slamming them against it. In seconds it is up to their waist.
"Help us! Please!" Now it was Thomas who was pleading, as he stuck his arm through the gate. The steward stops and looks back. He sees Jack and Thomas at the gate, their arms reaching steward sees the water pouring through the gate onto the landing.
"Freakin' 'ell!" he muttered under his breath before running back, slogging against the current. He pulls a key ring from his belt and struggles to unlock the gate's lock as the water fountains up around them. The lights short out and the landing is plunged into darkness. The water rises over the lock and he's doing it by feel.
"Come on! Come on!" the steward mutters, trying aimlessly to insert the key into the lock cylinder.
Jack and Thomas' heads are right up against the ceiling...
Suddenly the gate gives, and Thomas forces open the gate with all his might. They are pushing through by the force of the water.
"Come on, Jack. I got ya." Thomas says, as the steward also waits for them. They make it to stairs on the other side of the landing and follow the steward up to the next deck.
Cal comes reeling out of the first class entrance, looking wild-eyed. He lurches down the deck toward the bridge. Waltz music wafts over the ship. Somewhere the band is still playing. Cal sees a little girl, maybe two years old, is crying along in the alcove. She looks up at Cal beseechingly. Cal moves on without a glance back... reaching a large crowd clustered around collapsible A just aft of the bridge. He sees Murdoch and a number of crewmen struggling to drag the boat to the davits, with no luck. Cal pushes forward, trying to signal Murdoch, but the officer ignores him.
Nearby Tommy and Fabrizio are being pushed forward by the crowd behind. The purser tries to push them back, getting a couple of seamen to help him. He brandishes his gun, waving it in the air, yelling for the crowd to stay back.
Lightoller, along with a group of crew and passengers, is trying to get Collapsible B down from the roof of the officer's quarters. They slide it down a pair of oars leaned against the deck house.
"Hold it! Hold it!"
The weight of the boat snaps the oars and it comes crashing to the deck, upside down. The two Swedish cousins, Olaus and Bjorn Gunderson, jump back as the boat narrowly misses them. Meanwhile, Murdoch, at Collapsible A, is no longer in control. The crowd is threatening to rush the boat. They push and jostle, yelling and shouting at the officers. The pressure from behind pushes them forward, and one guy falls off the edge of the deck into the water less than ten feet below.
"Where is Jack and that boy of his?" Tommy wondered, as Fabrizio looked on, and shrugged.
...
"Any more women or children?!" the purser yelled over the chaos.
The child was still crying in the alcove. Without much options left, Cal quickly and carefully scoops her up and runs forward, cradling her in his arms, before forcing his way through the crowds.
"Wait! I have a child! I have a child! Please... I'm all she has in the world." Cal pleaded. The purser nods curtly and pushes him into the boat. He spins with his gun, brandishing it in the air to keep the other men back. Cal gets into the boat, holding the little girl. He takes a seat with the women.
"There, there, now." Cal takes his seat and begins to slowly rock the child to calm her down.
In the first class smoke room, Thomas Andrews stands in front of the fireplace, staring at the large painting above the mantle. The fire is still going in the fireplace. The room is empty except for Andrews. An ashtray falls off the table. Behind him Jack and Thomas run into the room, out of breath and completely soaked. They run through, toward the aft revolving door... then Thomas recognizes him. He sees that his lifebelt is off, lying on a table.
"Won't you even make a try for it, Mr. Andrews?" Thomas asked.
A tear rolls down his cheek.
"I'm sorry that I didn't build you a stronger ship, young Thomas."
The ship creaks and groans even louder now.
"It's going fast... we've got to keep moving." Jack tugged at Thomas' sleeve. Andrews picks up his lifebelt and hands it to him.
"And to you, Mr. Andrews." Thomas says, giving the man a firm handshake. Jack pulls him away and they run through the revolving door.
Back on the boat deck, Tommy looks over the rising waters, before taking his last look behind the ship.
"I don't know about you, but I'm leaving." he says to Fabrizio. "See you in New York." With that, he jumps into the freezing water, then made his mad swim away from the dying vessel. Fabrizio hung back, just long enough before he finally made his mind. He grabbed a nearby lifebelt, then tied it on. The band finishes their final waltz. Wallace Hartley, the lead band, looks at his orchestra members.
"Right, that's it then."
They leave him, walking forward along the deck. Hartley puts his violin to his chin and bows the first notes of Nearer, My God, to Thee. One by one the band memebers turn, hearing the lonely melody.
Without a word they walk back and take their places. They join in with Hartley, filling out the sound so that it reaches all over the ship on this still night. The vocalist begins: "If in my dreams I be, nearer my God to thee..."
Theme Song: Nearer, My God, To Thee-I Salonisti
A seaman pulls off his lifebelt and catches up to Captain Smith as he walks to the bridge. He proffers it, but Smith seems to stare through him. Without a word he turns and goes onto the bridge. He enters the enclosed wheelhouse and closes the door. He is alone, surrounded by the gleaming brass instruments. He seems to inwardly collapse, as he takes ahold of the wheel.
In the first class smoking room Andrews stands like a statue. He pulls out his pocketwatch and checks the time. Then he opens the face of the mantle clock and adjusts it to the correct time: 2:12 a.m. Everything must be correct.
In Cal's old suite water swirls in from the private promenade deck, where Thomas' paintings are submerged.
The Picasso transforms under the water's surface.
Degas' colors run.
Monet's water lilies come to life.
In a first class cabin there are two figures lying side by side, fully clothed, on a bed. Ida and Isador Strauss stare at the ceiling, holding hands like young lovers. Water pours into the room through a doorway. It swirls around the bed, two feet deep rising fast. Somewhere in the bowels of the ship, the young Irish mother, is tucking her two young children into bed. She pulls up the covers, making sure they are all warm and cozy. She lies down with them on the bed, speaking soothingly and holding them.
The boat deck slowly disappears as the bridge house sinks into the water. On the port side Collapsible B is beginning to be picked up by the water. Working frantically, the men try to detach it from the falls so the ship won't drag it under. Colonel Gracie hands Lightoller a pocket knife and he saws furiously at the ropes as the water swirls around his legs. The boat, still upside down, is swept off the ship. Men start diving in, swimming to stay with it. In collapsible A Cal sits next to the wailing child, whom he has completely forgotten. He watches the water rising around the men as they work, who were scrambling to get the ropes cut so the ship won't drag the collapsible under.
Captain Smith, standing near the wheel, watches the black water climbing the windows of the enclosed wheelhouse. He has the stricken expression of a damned soul on Judgment Day. The windows burst suddenly and a wall of water edged with shards of glass slams into Smith. He disappears in a vortex of foam.
Collapsible A is hit by a wave as the bow plunges suddenly. It partially swamps the boat, washing it along the deck. Over a hundred passengers are plunged into the freezing water and the area around the boat becomes a frenzy of splashing, screaming people. As men are trying to climb into the callapsible, Cal grabs an oar and pushes them back into the water.
"Get back! You'll swamp us!" Cal yelled frantically.
Fabrizio, swimming for his life, gets swirled under a davit. The ropes and pulleys tangle around him as the davit goes under the water, and he is dragged down. Underwater he struggles to free himself, and then kicks back to the surface. He surfaces, gasping for air in the freezing water. Wallace Hartley sees the water rolling rapidly up the deck toward them. He holds the last note of the hymn in a sustain, and then lowers his violin.
"Gentlemen, it has been a privilege playing with you tonight."