Chapter 20: Continued

33 25 2
                                    

i un-paused the movie-

Authors note: skipping ahead a bit :)

131 INT. / EXT. BRIDGE

Inside the enclosed wheelhous, SIXTH OFFICER MOODY walks unhurriedly to the telephone, picking it up.

FLEET (V.O.)

Is someone there?

MOODY

Yes. What do you see?

FLEET

Iceberg right ahead!

MOODY

Thankyou.

(hangs up, calls to Murdoch)

Iceberg right ahead!

Murdoch sees it and rushes to the engine room telegraph. While signaling "FULL SPEED ASTERN" he yells to Quartermaster Hitchins, who is at the wheel.

MURDOCH

Hard a' starboard.

MOODY

(standing behind Hitchins)

Hard'a starboard. The helm is hard over, sir.

CRASH SEQUENCE / SERIES OF CUTS:

132 CHIEF ENGINEER BELL is just checking the soup he has warming on a steam manifold when the engine telegraph clangs, then goes... incredibly... to FULL SPEED ASTERN. He and the other ENGINEERS just stare at it a second, unbelieving. Then Bell reacts.

BELL

Full astern! FULL ASTERN!!

The engineers and greasers like madmen to close steam valves and start braking the mighty propeller shafts, big as Sequias, to a stop.

133 IN BOILER ROOM SIX, Leading Stoker FREDERICK BARRETT is standing with 2nd Engineer JAMES HESKETH when the red warning light and "STOP" indicator come on.

BARRETT

Shut all dampers! Shut 'em!!

134 FROM THE BRIDGE Murdoch watches the burg growing... straight ahead. The bow finally starts to come left (since the ship turns the reverse of the helm setting).

MURDOCH'S jaw clenches as the bow turns with agonizing slowness. He holds his breath as the horrible physics play out.

135 IN THE CROW'S NEST Frederick Fleet braces himself.

136 THE BOW OF THE SHIP thunders right at CAMERA and--

KRUUUNCH!! The ship hits the berg on its starboard bow.

137 UNDERWATER we see the ice smashing in the steel hull plates. The iceberg bumps and scrapes along the side of the ship. Rivets pop as the steel plate of the hull flexes under the load.

138 IN #2 HOLD the two stewards stagger as the hull buckles in four feet with a sound like THUNDER. Like a sledgehammer beating along outside the ship, the berg splits the hull plates and the sea pour in, sweeping them off their feert. The icy water swirls around the Renault as the men scramble for the stairs.

139 ON G-DECK forward Fabrizio is tossed in his bunk by the impact. He hears a sound like the greatly amplified squeal of a skate on ice.

140 IN BOILER ROOM SIX Barret and Hesketh stagger as they hear the ROLLING THUNDER of the collision. They see the starboard side of the ship buckle in toward them and are almost swept off their feet by a rush of water coming in about two feet above the floor.

A whole other worldWhere stories live. Discover now