Adaptation · written by Charlie Kaufman and Donald Kaufman · 2002

Orlean narrates the real date and scale of Laroche’s orchid theft through archival footage.

Scene 139 of 202 · ≈ 1 min on screen · Act two

Orlean

Act oneAct twoAct three

Begins 1:13 into a 1:57 film

The story so farBefore scene 139

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.
Scenes 106–126
The swamp is ordinary, Orlean’s research fails, and Charlie experiments with increasingly personal versions of the book.
Scene 127
Orlean’s imagined portrait tells Charlie to focus on what he cares about, and he turns his own life into the screenplay.
Just before
Scene 136
In the emergency room, Charlie sees a woman ignore him and suddenly finds an opening for his screenplay.
Scene 137
Charlie types a screenplay opening that turns his own self-loathing into narration.
Scene 138
Charlie tells Jerry that his script’s truth comes from his own experience, then resists the deadline.
Scene 139
This scene

139EXT. SWAMP - DAY

Black and white shot of Laroche and the Indians slogging through Fakahatchee. The camera swoops down and the scene turns into a mannequin version.

ORLEAN (V.O.)

On December 21, 1993 John Laroche and

three Seminoles illegally removed one

hundred and thirty rare plants from the

Fakahatchee Strand State Preserve.