TITANIC

A Screenplay
By
James Cameron
May 7, 1996

1
BLACKNESS
Then two fait lights appear, close together... growing brighter. They resolve
into two DEEP SUBMERSIBLES, free-falling toward us like express elevators.

One is ahead of the other, and passes close enough to FILL FRAME, looking like a spacecraft blazing with lights, bristling with insectile manipulators.

TILTING DOWN to follow it as it descends away into the limitless
blackness below. Soon they are fireflies, then stars, then gone.

CUT TO:


2
EXT./ INT. MIR ONE / NORTH ATLANTIC DEEP
PUSHING IN on one of the falling submersibles, called MIR ONE, right up
to it�s circular viewport to see the occupants.

INSIDE, it is a cramped seven foot sphere, crammed with equipment.
ANATOLY MIKAILAVICH, the sub's pilot, sits hunched over his controls... singing softly in Russian.

Next to him on one side is BROCK LOVETT. He�s in his late forties, deeply tanned, and likes to wear his Nomex suit unzipped to show the gold from famous
shipwrecks covering his gray chesthair. He is a wiley, fast-talking treasure hunter, a salvage superstar who is part historian, part adventurer and part vacuum cleaner salesman. Right now, he is propped up against the Co2 scrubber fast asleep and snoring.

On the other side, crammed into the remaining space is a bearded wide-body
named LEWIS BODINE, who is also asleep. Lewis is am R.O.V.
(REMOTELY OPERATED VEHICLE) pilot and is the resident Titanic
expert.

Anatoly glances at the bottom sonar and makes a ballast adjustment.

CUT TO:


3
EXT. THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA
A pale, dead-flat lunar landscape. It gets brighter, lit from above, as MIR
ONE enters FRAME and drops to the seafloor in a downblast from it�s
thrusters. It hits bottom after its two hour free-fall with a loud BONK.

CUT TO:


4
INT. MIR ONE
Lovett and Bodine jerk awake at the landing.

ANATOLY
(heavy Russian accent)
We are here.

4
EXT. / INT. MIR ONE AND TWO

5
MINUTES LATER: THE TWO SUBS skim over the sea floor to the sound of sidescan sonar and the THRUM of big thrusters.

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