Adaptation · written by Charlie Kaufman and Donald Kaufman · 2002

Orlean narrates Laroche’s secret plan to extract a psychoactive drug from the ghost orchid.

Scene 195 of 202 · ≈ 1 min on screen · Act three

Orlean

Act oneAct twoAct three

Begins 1:43 into a 1:57 film

The story so farBefore scene 195

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.
Scene 184
Donald’s notes push Charlie toward the brothers, the swamp, and a dramatic ending.
Just before
Scene 192
Laroche beats Charlie and, with Orlean, plots to kill him before Donald watches from outside.
Scene 193
Orlean mocks Charlie’s imagined romance and admits that she lied about the ending of her book.
Scene 194
Orlean recalls seeing a ghost orchid with Laroche, but cannot feel what he feels as he cuts it down.
Scene 195
This scene

195INT. BASEMENT - DAY

There's a makeshift lab. Laroche is extracting some gooey substance from the nectary.

ORLEAN (V.O.)

Back in John's basement he explained his

real plans for the ghost. He'd

discovered a chemical inside with

psychoactive properties. His plan had

always been to clone the flower and make

a fortune marketing this drug. It was

Laroche's kind of plan, it wasn't a

controlled substance because the

government didn't know it existed.