Adaptation · written by Charlie Kaufman and Donald Kaufman · 2002

Charlie watches a cashier and other women, then looks away when the cashier catches him staring.

Scene 16 of 202 · ≈ 1 min on screen · Act one

Act oneAct twoAct three

Begins 10 min into a 1:57 film

The story so farBefore scene 16

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.
Scene 10
Valerie and Margaret give Charlie the assignment to adapt The Orchid Thief.
Just before
Scene 13
As a boy, Laroche chooses a turtle after his mother calls the choice spiritually significant.
Scene 14
Laroche’s crew saws orchid-bearing branches and stuffs the flowers into pillowcases.
Scene 15
Charlie asks Margaret to the orchid show and hides his disappointment when she invites her boyfriend.
Scene 16
This scene

16INT. BARNES AND NOBLE - DAY

Kaufman pulls a bunch of orchid books off the shelf, carries them to the register, along with a book on Hegel, which features an engraving of the philosopher on the cover. Kaufman waits in line and watches the tattooed female cashier flirting with the handsome guy ahead of him. He studies their interaction, the way she looks at him. Her eyes, her lips. The guy leaves and the cashier waves Kaufman over. As she rings him up, she expresses no interest in him. He's hurt and fixates on a sexy flower tattoo on her arm. She catches him, pulls down her sleeve.