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You can't keep us locked in here. Like animals. The ship's bloody sinking! |
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—Thomas Ryan to Steward 3 | ||
Thomas "Tommy" Ryan was a fictional character of the 1997 Film Titanic. He was a young Irish man who befriended Jack Dawson and his best friend, Fabrizio de Rossi on board the ship.
He was played by Jason Barry.
Not much is known of the character's early life as it was never revealed. However, he was from Ireland as he is Irish, and a very proud one at that, being adamant that the ship is Irish and built by Irishmen.
Although Tommy isn't much seen on board, it is shown how he met Jack Dawson and Fabrizio De Rossi on Titanic's Poop Deck, talking of which, he is very vocal about the fact that First Class passengers let their dogs out on their Promenade Deck. He is quite fascinated by Jack's drawings. Just when he asks a question about them, Jack is completely distracted by a First Class woman on the upper decks. Tommy finds it humorous and just tries to dampen Jack to not keep his hopes up. But Jack just stares and can't seem to hear anything.
Tommy is also seen at the Third Class Party, smoking and having a good time. He even arm-wrestled with a fellow Third Class passenger but lost despite asking for another round. Then Rose interferes and takes a sip of his cigarette, before demonstrating what she's capable of. Jack holds her dress for her, and she slowly rises to put all the weight of her body on her feet and stands on her toes for a while. Tommy and his wrestling buddy don't know what they're seeing and look on with an open mouth, and when Rose cannot bear the pain and gives up, they laugh and are wowed.
Tommy was awakened by the ship's collision with the iceberg on April 14, 23:40 P.M. and Fabrizio's cabin started flooding just about 10 minutes later. Tommy must have seen the water coming in on G-Deck, and is shown along with Fabrizio and various other Third Class passengers fleeing for safety. They follow several rats who also try to outrun the water. He later takes a lifebelt from Steward 2. As the ship continued to sink, Tommy and Fabrizio meet Jack and Rose behind a locked gate blocking the passengers behind it with it guarded by several crew members including one with a pistol. He goes up to the gate and yells at the crew. He tells Jack and Rose that the gate is guarded by the crew.
Jack then goes to another exit gate guarded by Steward 2 and rams it open with the help of Tommy and Fabrizio using a bench they pluck out of the linoleum floor. The steward still tells them they can't come through, but Tommy is enraged by him and knocks him out with a punch. Tommy tries to find a lifeboat for all four of them to get off safely. Upon failing, Jack then tells Tommy and Fabrizio to go to the other side of the ship to find a lifeboat. They find Collapsible Lifeboat A being run by William Murdoch, who won't let him, Fabrizio, Caledon Hockley, and an angry mob of men board. Murdoch then threatens to shoot anybody who tries to go to the lifeboat. A man tries to do so but gets shot to death. However, someone accidentally pushed Tommy forwards, leading Murdoch to think that he tried to go to the lifeboat, and therefore, Murdoch shot Tommy in his left lung before thinking, and afterwards, Murdoch commits suicide when he understands that he killed an innocent man. Tommy collapses while coughing up blood before dying in Fabrizio's arms. In order to survive the rough waters around the ship, Fabrizio takes Tommy's lifebelt by untying it and strapping it on to him. However, he later dies when a funnel falls on him.
In the end, Tommy was seen in the crowd in between Wallace Hartley and Benjamin Guggenheim during the dream/heaven sequence.
Deleted scenes[]
One afternoon, the Third Class folk is gathered in the General Room to socialise, Tommy Ryan is having a look at Jack's drawings and he's impressed. He compares a drawing of a man with the real guy sitting opposite him. Then he's totally astounded when he and the other steerage people see a finely dressed lady come down the stairs. It's the same woman they saw on the upper decks when Tommy introduced himself to Dawson. She comes down and asks Dawson if he could speak with her. Tommy is surprised. He takes a good look at her and Jack teasingly pat him on the shoulder for it, and left. Tommy, Fabrizio and his Norwegian crush Helga then look at eachother in amazement of what they just saw, which is the fact that Jack is paired with some rich girl. They find it amusing and share a laugh, still with an open mouth, not being able to believe what just unfolded in front of them.
Quotes[]
- "No it's built in Ireland. 15.000 Irishmen built this ship. Solid as a rock! Big Irish hands" -- Takes pride in his motherland.
- "That's typical, First Class dogs come down here to take a shite." JD: "Ah, it lets us know where we rank in the scheme of things." "Like we could forget?"
- "Ahhh forget it boyo. You'd just like have angels flying out of your arse as get next to the likes of her." ---- When Jack sees Rose for the first time
- "Come on, let's get the hell out of here. Come on, hurry up!!" ----- Tommy telling the others to escape
- "If this is the direction the rats are going it's good enough for me" ---- When they escape the G-Deck that is taking on water.
- "FOR GOD'S SAKE MAN THERE ARE WOMEN AND CHILDREN DOWN HERE!!! LET THEM UP SO WE CAN HAVE A CHANCE!!!" ---- Tommy, pissed off at the steward
- "Music to drown by. Now I know I'm in First Class." ---- Comments on the band still playing
- "WOULD'YA GIVE US A CHANCE TO LIVE, YOU LIMEY BASTARD!?!?!" ----- Tommy to Murdoch
- "Bastard!!!" ----- Tommy's last words
Trivia[]
- A real Tommy Ryan was on the ship and was among the casualties, but this is likely coincidental. Similar to the 1997 film's Ryan, the real historical Ryan had a birth name of "Thomas", was of Irish descent, and traveled in Third Class; the only difference was that the latter was a steward assigned to the Third Class team and was not a passenger as depicted in the film.