Adaptation · written by Charlie Kaufman and Donald Kaufman · 2002

At the ranger shack, Mike Owen mistakes Charlie for Orlean before Charlie admits who he is.

Scene 105 of 202 · ≈ 1 min on screen · Act two

Mike Owen
Kaufman

Act oneAct twoAct three

Begins 52 min into a 1:57 film

The story so farBefore scene 105

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 102
A frightened sailor cries in a lonely swamp after the terrain overwhelms him.
Scene 103
Orlean drives past the preserve sign and continues her catalogue of the swamp’s hazards.
Scene 104
Charlie drives the same route as Orlean lists the dangerous animals he expects to encounter.
Scene 105
This scene

105EXT. RANGER SHACK - MORNING

Orlean gets out of the car, knocks timidly on the shack door. Ranger Mike Owen answers.

MIKE OWEN

Charlie?

It's Kaufman standing there.

KAUFMAN

(tremulous)

Yes. Hi.