But I can—just by the shit-eating grin on his face and the lock of dark hair that’s fallen out of place to drape into his eyes. Nolan is living out his James Bond, action-star dreams.
And then there’s me, barely visible in the passenger seat, my face full of absolute fucking terror. The shot then cuts to the car screeching to a halt just outside the ramp leading into the ship.
The crew members shooting the footage are both fellow B-cam operators.
And what the audience doesn’t know is that not asingleproducer was aware this was happening. Let’s just say I called in a few favors from my little band of baby crew members.
A third camera joins in, this one held by a camera assistant using the Sony XDCAM that Sora grabbed from my room, to capture the scene from a balcony above the ramp. It catches Molly as she throws the door open with determination, pushes her way out of the car, and runs for the ramp. A uniformed crew member stands at the bottom of the ramp—Keaton, the same crew member who brought me Nolan’s breakfast delivery that first morning. He stops Molly short as he holds up a gloved hand.
“Ma’am, I’m sorry, but we will be departing in just a few minutes. It’s too late to board the ship,” Keaton says authoritatively.
An obvious lie.
But we needed to raise the stakes, or else this next part wouldn’t look believable.
“No, Ineedto get on the ship, right now!” Molly argues, clearly panicking as her voice breaks just a bit at the end.
“Ma’am, please keep it down.”
“Oh, shut up! And don’t call mema’am!”
I love that part. It was a trending GIF for, like, two weeks straight after the episode aired.
“I’m sorry, but you’re going to have to meet the Gemstone in the next port.”
A look of shock and desperation in Molly’s eyes is caught perfectly from the second camera, which is positioned just inside the opening to the ship.
“No… No, this can’t be happening!”
Here’s where Molly’s acting chops really shine.
“DUNCAN!” she wails—heartbroken and tortured, like she just found out her childhood dog died. Which, incidentally, is the scenario I told her to think about to make herself cry. “Duncan,please! Duncan! I know you’re in your room right now, please, God, let your door be open so you can hear me!”
At this point, multiple guests are looking out over their balconies at the screaming woman below. Then, as if he really heard her (and wasn’t actually queued by Sora), Duncan’s head pops out from his balcony, taking in Molly below.
“Molls?” he says, giving his best impression of “confused.” It’s passable—thankfully.
“Duncan!” Molly shouts. “Come down here! They won’t let me on the ship!”
“Where’d you go, Molly? I came back early yesterday and you were gone…”
“I just needed to get away, I thought you were going to pick Carly to be with. Can you please come down here? I need to tell you something!”
“What?” he shouts, putting his hand to his ear.
“I said, CAN YOU COME DOWN HERE?”
“I can’t…I’m sorry, Molly, but I can’t leave my room.”
Molly grumbles, as if she didn’t already know this, but then she shifts her gaze over to a ladder that’s been placed strategically just under the lowest deck on the ship. Shestomps back down the ramp, making a beeline for the ladder, her blond hair whipping behind her like a cape.
Keaton shouts at her, demanding that she stop, but she keeps going.
At this point, a few more cameras are at the dock, other DOPs who heard the commotion and raced to get footage. Producers began showing up at the entrance to the ship, too, trying to catch a glimpse of the drama unfolding.
It’s around this point, when Molly starts to climb the ladder, that I noticed Glen’s eyes widen in genuine panic. I could practically hear him screaming internally about how we aren’t insured for contestants scaling the side of the ship.
In the clip, Molly makes it up several steps before Keaton finally “relents,” and says, “Alright, alright! I’ll let you onto the ship.”
