Adaptation · written by Charlie Kaufman and Donald Kaufman · 2002

Rangers catalogue Laroche’s stolen plants as he proudly explains the rare ghost orchid.

Scene 30 of 202 · ≈ 1 min on screen · Act one

Laroche
Mike Owen

Act oneAct twoAct three

Begins 17 min into a 1:57 film

The story so farBefore scene 30

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 27
Charlie finds his twin Donald at home; Donald announces that he plans to become a screenwriter.
Scene 28
Charlie rejects McKee’s rules while Donald defends principles and points to his own seminar.
Scene 29
Young Laroche lists turtle species at dinner while his mother listens and encourages his obsession.
Scene 30
This scene

30EXT. SWAMP - LATE MORNING

Ranger, sheriff, and state police cars are parked near the van and Ford. Lots of sweating, uniformed people. The pillowcases have been emptied, the plants lie on black plastic sheets. A guy sprinkles water on them. Laroche enthusiastically helps Ranger Mike Owen catalogue the flowers. The Indians lean against their car, bored and smoking. Nirvana seeps tinnily out the car window.

LAROCHE

... and what we have here, my friend, is

... thirteen Encyclia Cochleata... four

Encyclia Tampensis --

MIKE OWEN

I'm sorry, Encyclia what?

LAROCHE

(pointing to each)

Coch-le-ata. Tem-pen-sis.

(checks Owen's spelling)

Okay, let's see, twenty-two Epidendrum

Nocturnum. A very good haul. Two

Catopsi Floribunda. Three Polyrrhiza

Lindenii, the ghost orchid. What I

really came for. These sweeties grow

nowhere in the U.S. except in your swamp.

MIKE OWEN

That true? Boy, you really know your

plants, Mr. Laroche.

LAROCHE

Yeah. I do. I'm one of the world's

foremost experts. But that'll all be

revealed at the hearing.