The Story
The movie begins under the ocean, where Brock Lovett and Lewis Boudine are searching the wreck of the Titanic for a certain heart-shaped diamond known as "La Ceur De La Mer", or "The Heart of the Ocean". They know the necklace had been bought by Caldeon Hockley, the son of a Pittsburgh steel tycoon, and had given it to his fience who had supposedly died on the ship after it sank.
When they go into the room Cal had been staying in, they find a green safe, which they are certain contains the heart of the ocean, and bring it to the surface. To Lovett's disappointment, the heart of the ocean is nowhere to be found--only a few old pieces of paper, and an old, leatherbound sketchbook. Still, the group brings the artifacts into the lab to have them cleaned off, and inside of the portfolio they find the portrait of a woman wearing the heart of the ocean, with the date April 14, 1912 on the bottom and the initials JD.
Eventually, an old woman by the name of Rose Calvert happens to hear the discovery on television, and realizes it is her portrait Lovett has found, and calls him. Lovett invites her and her granddaughter, Lizzie, to fly to the boat they are on, and Lovett is pretty sure that Rose is in deed the woman in the portrait, and asks her to tell her story.
Then we go back in time to 1912, just before the Titanic sets sail for the first time. The docks in Southampton England are crowded with passengers and passerbys who are waving and cheering. Rose DeWitt Bukater, a young woman, steps out of a car with her fience Cal, her mother Ruth, and Cal's body guard Lovejoy and their maid Trudy Bolt. Rose is engaged to Cal and the family are on their way back to Phildelphia so Rose and Cal can marry. Rose is not happy, despite how she appears on the outside.
We break from Rose boarding the Titanic to a pub in Southampton where a young man in his twenties from America, named Jack Dawson and one of his friends Fabrizio De Rosi are playing a game of poker with a few Swedish men. The winner of the game will receive two tickets to board the Titanic, which is going to leave momentarily. Jack ends up getting a full house, and he and Fabrizio win the tickets and board the ship just before the doors are closed. They are staying down in steerage, since they cant afford second or first class passes for the ship.
Then we are in Rose's stateroom, where she is setting up a bunch of paintings she bought and Cal enters, and tells her that they are a waste of money, but she says that she has better taste in art than he does. Eventually the DeWitt Bukaters go down to supper, where they pass by Molly Brown (known as the "Unsinkable Molly Brown") whom Ruth DeWitt Bukater calls "new money".
The next afternoon, Jack and Fabrizio are standing up at the ship's bow and Jack, after showing Fabrizio dolphins in the water below the ship, shouts "I'm the king of the world!" just for fun. Then we break into a luncheon where Rose, Cal, Ruth, Molly, Thomas Andrew and Mr. Ismay are sitting at the same table, and just having a random conversation. Rose is scolded for smoking by her mother, and Cal gets rid of the cigarette. Then Cal orders the same thing for both himself and Rose, much to her disgust. Eventually Molly begins to talk to Mr. Andrews about the Titanic, and asks Ismay if he came up with the name. When Ismay explains why he came up with the name Titanic, Rose asks if he has heard of Sigmund Freud and about his male preoccupation with size, and then she storms off to be by herself for a little while.
In third class, Jack and Fabrizio are sitting outside enjoying the weather. Jack is drawing young Cora Cartmell as she stands with her father looking over the rail, and Fabrizio is talking to another steerage passenger from Ireland named Tommy Ryan. They begin discussing about their third class status compared to the first class, and Jack suddenly notices Rose on the upper deck of the ship, and he just sits and stares at her for a bit. Tommy tells Jack that it's impossible to get a girl like her, and to basically "get over it", but Jack can't. She has won his heart.
That night, Rose is at dinner with her mother and is wondering whether it is worth continuing the life she's living anymore. She gets up from the table and runs to the stern of the ship, and slowly climbs over it, intending to commit suicide. She doesn't realize that Jack was watching her, as he was lying on a bench, smoking and gazing up at the stars. He eventually saves her and then is almost arressted because of the position the officers find him in after he saves Rose after she nearly slips and falls overboard, but Rose convinces the officer to let him go, and he does. Cal then as a reward invites Jack to dinner in first class, and Jack accepts.
The next morning Rose eventually goes to thank Jack for having saved her, and the two of them get into a discussion about her marriage and whether or not she really loves Cal. She tries to leave after the conversation gets too uncomfortable, but then jokingly says that Jack is "so annoying" and ends up just grabbing his sketchpad and looking through his drawings. She tells him "You have a gift, Jack, you do--you see people." and he says "I see you". ;) Thus starts the love story between them. :-D
Later that evening, Rose and Jack are talking about going out to the horizon and doing things "Riding horses like cowboys", "drinking cheap beer" etc. and then Rose jokingly tells Jack she wants to learn to "spit like a man", and he takes her offer seriously and they do practice. Unfortunately in the midst of their practice session, Rose's mother, Mrs. Brown and a few of their friends approach and catch Jack and Rose by surprise. After Rose leads Ruth away, Molly asks Jack if he knows what he's getting himself into, and then offers to lend him a tuxedo for the dinner.
Later that night, Jack goes to meet Rose by the grand staircase, and they go to the first class dining room together. Cal at first, doesn't even recognize Jack, and is startled by how well-dressed he is. They sit around a large table with several people, and conversations start. Ruth asks Jack about himself, in a rather snobby voice, and he replies as honestly as he can. "Make it count" is the famous line from this scene, which is also written on a note that Jack gives to Rose before heading back to first class "Make it Count, meet me at the clock"
