Adaptation · written by Charlie Kaufman and Donald Kaufman · 2002

A frightened sailor cries in a lonely swamp after the terrain overwhelms him.

Scene 102 of 202 · ≈ 1 min on screen · Act two

Sailor

Act oneAct twoAct three

Begins 52 min into a 1:57 film

The story so farBefore scene 102

Unable to find a conventional story in The Orchid Thief, screenwriter Charlie Kaufman turns his own crisis into an increasingly self-referential adaptation.

Scenes 1–9
Charlie inhabits an isolated, self-condemning world while Orlean’s book supplies a distant model of obsession.
Scenes 10–88
Charlie wants to write honestly and make flowers matter, while also longing to be desired and understood.
Scene 89
Charlie commits to entering the Fakahatchee himself, making research a risky attempt to find the story.
Just before
Scene 99
A botanist’s report about squirrels gives way to a car catching fire in a dry field.
Scene 100
Charlie watches an attractive rental-car clerk, then turns back to his map.
Scene 101
Orlean describes the heat, water, insects, snakes, and animals of the Fakahatchee.
Scene 102
This scene

102EXT. SWAMP - DAY

SUBTITLE: FAKAHATCHEE, ONE-HUNDRED AND THREE YEARS EARLIER

A luggish sailor sits in the distance on a stump, crying.

SAILOR (V.O.)

The place looked wild and lonely. About

three o'clock it seemed to get on Henry's

nerves. We saw him crying, he could not

tell us why, he was just plain scared.