Adaptation · written by Charlie Kaufman and Donald Kaufman · 2002

McKee lands a joke about Michelle Pfeiffer and dismisses the exhausted class.

Scene 176 of 202 · ≈ 1 min on screen · Act two

Mckee

Act oneAct twoAct three

Begins 1:29 into a 1:57 film

The story so farBefore scene 176

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 173
Charlie leaves the seminar building alone, troubled by McKee’s attack on his method.
Scene 174
McKee says originality comes from more than eccentricity as a student reacts behind Charlie.
Scene 175
McKee argues that cinema must be vivid and active rather than a recording of ordinary life.
Scene 176
This scene

176INT. AUDITORIUM - LATER STILL

McKee faces the audience, holding a cup of coffee.

MCKEE

Someone asked me recently, Bob, do you

think Michelle Pfeiffer is pretty.

He pauses theatrically, sips his coffee, then:

MCKEE (cont'd)

(deadpan)

Michelle Pfeiffer is proof, my friends,

that there's a fucking God.

The overtired audience breaks into uproarious laughter. Kaufman, with dark circles under his eyes, giggles a little.

MCKEE (cont'd)

Okay. That's it for tonight. Remember,

there'll be a Q and A tomorrow morning

before class starts.