Adaptation · written by Charlie Kaufman and Donald Kaufman · 2002

A Florida waitress smiles at Charlie but looks through him.

Scene 113 of 202 · ≈ 1 min on screen · Act two

Act oneAct twoAct three

Begins 56 min into a 1:57 film

The story so farBefore scene 113

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 110
Orlean calls Laroche from her hotel and says she found only bare roots, not the ghost orchid.
Scene 111
Orlean writes that the ghost orchid resembles wonderful things that remain imagined and out of reach.
Scene 112
Charlie drives past familiar chain stores and stops outside a Florida California Pizza Kitchen.
Scene 113
This scene

113INT. CALIFORNIA PIZZA KITCHEN (FLORIDA) - EVENING

Kaufman watches the waitresses. One approaches his booth. Her name badge reads: Caryn, Tampa, FL. She smiles at Kaufman as she looks right through him.