Adaptation · written by Charlie Kaufman and Donald Kaufman · 2002

Orlean takes the orchid drug and experiences the passion for flowers she could not feel before.

Scene 196 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 196

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 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
Orlean narrates Laroche’s secret plan to extract a psychoactive drug from the ghost orchid.
Scene 196
This scene

196INT. LAROCHE'S LIVING ROOM - NIGHT

Orlean nervously snorts some green powder off the coffee table while Laroche watches. She talks to the camera.

ORLEAN

The first time I tried it, the split

second it took effect, I understood

orchids. I loved them with a passion I'd

never felt for anything. For anyone.

The drug takes effect and Orlean turns away from us, becomes fixated on the ghost orchid sitting on the table before her. She smells it, caresses it, cries at its beauty.