Lone Survivor - Recap

The Titanic goes down in 1912. Sometime later, a passing ship spots a lifeboat and is surprised to see one survivor on board. The captain sends a rescue boat to pick up the lifeboat and then tries to make out the name of the originating ship on the lifeboat. He has his first officer confirm what it says: that the lifeboat came from the Titanic. Both of them believe that it’s impossible. The captain greets the rescue team as they bring the lifeboat on board, and they discover that the survivor is a man dressed as a woman. As the survivor is taken to the infirmary, the commanding officer, Richards, tells the captain that the lifeboat appears to have been at sea for years, and the survivor would have been long dead.

In the infirmary, the doctor informs the ship’s captain that the survivor is in shock, and he has frostbite on his right foot. The captain points out that it’s May, but the doctor insists that it’s frostbite. The captain waits until the survivor wakes up, and then asks what happened to the other passengers and crew of the Titanic. The survivor confirms that he served on the Titanic, but doesn’t remember his name or why he was dressed in women’s clothing. The captain accuses him of cowardice, pretending to be a woman to get into a lifeboat, and then leaves. Once he’s alone with the doctor, the survivor asks what year it is, and is surprised when the doctor says it is 1915.

The doctor meets with the captain, and the latter insist that they’re the target of a hoax. He believes that the Germans have created the hoax in an attempt to divert them during the war. The captain walks away past a life preserver, one with the ship’s name Lusitania on it.

Later, the doctor talks to the survivor, who explains that he was a stoker. The doctor is surprised to learn that the survivor knows he is on the Lusitania. The survivor then describes in great detail how the Titanic went down, and that he dressed as a woman and fought his way to one of the lifeboats. The cable snapped when the lifeboat was lowered, and the survivor was the only one to hang on. The doctor insists that he couldn’t have survived for three years in the open water and that he must be hallucinating. In response, the survivor informs him that a German submarine will fire a torpedo at the Lusitania in 18 minutes, and that he’s a Flying Dutchman, doomed for his cowardice to forever be the only survivor of a sunken ship, rescued, and taken aboard another doomed ship.

The doctor goes to the deck where the lifeboat is kept and tells the captain of the survivor’s claim. The captain notes that it’s unfair for them to be trapped in the survivor’s punishment, but the doctor explains that the survivor believes that they are merely phantoms in his eternal nightmare. The captain points out that he doesn’t feel like a phantom, turns... and discovers that the lifeboat and the crew have vanished. He runs to the call phone and tries to raise the bridge, only to discover that no one is there... before he also vanishes.

As the engines come to a halt, the survivor runs to the bridge and realizes that everyone is gone. He tries to call the engine room but sees a German submarine launch a torpedo at the Lusitania, which explodes and sinks with all hands.

In 1956, a passing ship spots the lifeboat and its sole survivor: the Andrea Doria.

Share this article with your friends