Adaptation · written by Charlie Kaufman and Donald Kaufman · 2002

Charlie identifies the bodies, credits Donald with saving his life, and proudly agrees that the twins look alike.

Scene 200 of 202 · ≈ 1 min on screen · Act three

Save the Cat: Dark Night of the Soul
Kaufman
Police Officer

Act oneAct twoAct three

Begins 1:55 into a 1:57 film

The story so farBefore scene 200

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.
Scenes 145–199
He gets the dramatic ending he wanted but pays for it through danger, self-exposure, and Donald’s apparent death.
Just before
Scene 197
Orlean explains her new drug-fueled passion as Laroche drives them toward the swamp.
Scene 198
Laroche prepares to kill Charlie while Orlean gets high; Donald surprises them and pulls his brother away.
Scene 199
A swamp pursuit kills Donald and Orlean as Charlie survives gunfire, alligators, and the Swamp Ape’s attack.
Scene 200
This scene

200EXT. SWAMP - MORNING

The sun is high. Fires smoulder. A tow-truck extricates one of the crashed vehicles. State police cars, ambulances, ranger trucks abound. Kaufman is wrapped in a blanket.

He is with a cop and pointing to the bodies spread on a black plastic tarp.

KAUFMAN

That's Mike Owen. John Laroche. Susan

Orlean. I don't know what that is. I

think it might be a Swamp Ape. And

that's Donald, my twin brother. He saved

my life.

Kaufman cries a little. The cop waits sympathetically, then:

POLICE OFFICER

You two really look alike.

KAUFMAN

(proudly)

Yeah. Yes, we do.