Adaptation · written by Charlie Kaufman and Donald Kaufman · 2002

As a boy, Laroche chooses a turtle after his mother calls the choice spiritually significant.

Scene 13 of 202 · ≈ 1 min on screen · Act one

Boy
Mother

Act oneAct twoAct three

Begins 8 min into a 1:57 film

The story so farBefore scene 13

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.
Just before
Scene 10
Charlie tells Margaret he will adapt the orchid book, and she urges him to pursue its subject seriously.
Scene 11
Laroche finds a ghost orchid, names it reverently, then orders Russell to cut its tree.
Scene 12
Charlie tells Valerie that adapting someone else’s work could make him see the world differently.
Scene 13
This scene

13INT. PET STORE (1972) - DAY

SUBTITLE: NORTH MIAMI, TWENTY-SIX YEARS EARLIER

A serious ten year old boy walks from cage to aquarium, studying the inhabitants. He turns to his frumpy mother, who's been following at a respectful distance.

BOY

Any one at all, ma?

She nods sweetly. The boy returns to his search. He stops at a small turtle in an aquarium.

BOY (cont'd)

I want this then.

MOTHER

(hugging him)

A wonderful choice! And spiritually

significant! Did you know that Native

Americans believe the whole world rests

on the back of a turtle?

BOY

Cool! I can't wait to tell the guys.