Adaptation · written by Charlie Kaufman and Donald Kaufman · 2002

Orlean calls Laroche again and secures a dawn trip to find the ghost orchid.

Scene 143 of 202 · ≈ 1 min on screen · Act two

Laroche
Orlean

Act oneAct twoAct three

Begins 1:14 into a 1:57 film

The story so farBefore scene 143

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 140
Orlean sees Laroche represented as a mannequin in a Florida-history display and asks about a Wallace Stevens quotation.
Scene 141
Orlean reads Stevens on the poverty of being cut off from the physical world and desire.
Scene 142
Charlie records a scene of himself performing insight while trying to impress Valerie.
Scene 143
This scene

143INT. HOTEL ROOM - NIGHT

Orlean dials the phone.

LAROCHE (PHONE VOICE)

Yeah.

ORLEAN

John, it's Susan.

LAROCHE (PHONE VOICE)

I know.

ORLEAN

I went to the Orchid Society Show a

couple of days ago.

LAROCHE (PHONE VOICE)

I'm not interested.

ORLEAN

There was a display of you stealing the

ghost orchids. You're famous.

LAROCHE (PHONE VOICE)

I'm not involved in that world now.

ORLEAN

So, look, John, I still haven't seen a

ghost. And I was wondering --

LAROCHE (PHONE VOICE)

Yeah, yeah. I'll take you in.

ORLEAN

Really? Thank you so much! I just...

LAROCHE (PHONE VOICE)

Tomorrow. Pick me up at 5:30 am or it'll

get too hot. I'll buy all the supplies

we'll need.