Adaptation · written by Charlie Kaufman and Donald Kaufman · 2002

Orlean writes that the ghost orchid resembles wonderful things that remain imagined and out of reach.

Scene 111 of 202 · ≈ 1 min on screen · Act two

Orlean

Act oneAct twoAct three

Begins 56 min into a 1:57 film

The story so farBefore scene 111

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 108
Charlie rides in Owen’s truck as Orlean’s narration describes ghosts and the Swamp Ape.
Scene 109
Charlie asks Owen about the Swamp Ape and is rebuked for needing a legend to make nature interesting.
Scene 110
Orlean calls Laroche from her hotel and says she found only bare roots, not the ghost orchid.
Scene 111
This scene

111INT. ORLEAN'S APARTMENT - NIGHT

Orlean types. It's pouring and sheets of rain beat against her window. She glances at her husband, across the room reading a book. She sighs, continues typing.

ORLEAN (V.O.)

What I didn't say to him is that life

seemed to be filled with things that were

just like the ghost orchid -- wonderful

to imagine and easy to fall in love with

but a little fantastic and fleeting and

out of reach.