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.
- Scenes 127–144
Charlie finds a way to focus the material by putting himself in it, then commits to meeting Orlean.
- Just before
- Scene 170
Charlie joins the seminar registration line after an attractive clerk ignores him.
- Scene 171
McKee lectures that story, not words, is the heart of screenwriting while Charlie hears only his own failures.
- Scene 172
McKee condemns voice-over and insists film must show internal conflict through image and movement.
- Scene 173
This scene
