Adaptation · written by Charlie Kaufman and Donald Kaufman · 2002

Orlean recounts Schroeder’s fatal fall while collecting orchids.

Scene 20 of 202 · ≈ 1 min on screen · Act one

Orlean

Act oneAct twoAct three

Begins 11 min into a 1:57 film

The story so farBefore scene 20

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 17
Tony spots Laroche’s crew leaving the swamp and radios that he has caught poachers.
Scene 18
Orlean types that orchid hunting can be fatal.
Scene 19
Orlean recounts Victorian collector William Arnold’s drowning on an expedition.
Scene 20
This scene

20EXT. CLIFF - DAY

SUBTITLE: SIERRA LEONE

A man lies at the bottom of a cliff, clutching a flower.

ORLEAN (V.O.)

Schroeder fell to his death.