Adaptation · written by Charlie Kaufman and Donald Kaufman · 2002

Laroche fumes about being fired as Charlie’s Florida research montage ends in boredom at the beach.

Scene 120 of 202 · ≈ 1 min on screen · Act two

Laroche

Act oneAct twoAct three

Begins 1:00 into a 1:57 film

The story so farBefore scene 120

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 117
Laroche jokes that he should play himself if Orlean’s book becomes a movie.
Scene 118
Laroche teases his Seminole coworkers with the caricature on his shirt.
Scene 119
Laroche proposes new titles and plant multiplication, while Buster asks him to take time off.
Scene 120
This scene

120INT. VAN - A FEW MINUTES LATER

Laroche weaves through traffic. Orlean holds on.

LAROCHE

They're gonna fire me. Goddamn politics.

Crazy White Man's bad publicity.

(pounds steering wheel)

I can't believe I'm dealing with this!

(pounds steering wheel)

Like I could give a damn. If they fire

me, I'll sue. I already did some legal

research on this when I was doing the

other shit. They can't fire me. And I

ain't going to quit.

MONTAGE

Gray skies. Kaufman drives his rental car: he looks at the Seminole Nursery, the Collier County Courthouse, Laroche's house. He drives through swampy terrain. He walks around at an orchid show, he attends a slide-show orchid lecture. It's all dull. He ends up sitting on a bench on an empty beach, staring out at the ocean.