Adaptation · written by Charlie Kaufman and Donald Kaufman · 2002

Charlie asks Owen about the Swamp Ape and is rebuked for needing a legend to make nature interesting.

Scene 109 of 202 · ≈ 1 min on screen · Act two

Mike Owen
Kaufman

Act oneAct twoAct three

Begins 55 min into a 1:57 film

The story so farBefore scene 109

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.
Scenes 89–105
He leaves his familiar writing room and goes to Florida to search for the story firsthand.
Just before
Scene 106
Mike Owen leads Charlie through a cool, dry swamp and gives a wandering lesson on its ecosystem.
Scene 107
Charlie complains that the swamp is not frightening or dramatic, while Owen points out a common lizard.
Scene 108
Charlie rides in Owen’s truck as Orlean’s narration describes ghosts and the Swamp Ape.
Scene 109
This scene

109EXT. RANGER SHACK - DAY

Kaufman and Owen stand by Kaufman's car.

MIKE OWEN

What Laroche did was wrong. Those

flowers belong to all of us, all 250

million of us -- 250? I think it's up to

270 now -- And belonging to all of us

means they belong to none of us. Nobody

has a right to take them. Not me, not

you, not John Laroche, not...

Kaufman is desperate for something else. He blurts:

KAUFMAN

Listen, um, Susan Orlean wrote about a

legendary creature called a Swamp Ape.

Have you ever heard stories or --

MIKE OWEN

(pissy)

Tourist garbage! I don't know why people

need to invent silly creatures to make

nature fascinating. Isn't nature amazing

enough?

KAUFMAN

(shamed)

I just asked because she mentioned it.