Adaptation · written by Charlie Kaufman and Donald Kaufman · 2002

Ranger Tony radios about Seminole men in the swamp, then tells his dispatcher the poachers are there for a reason.

Scene 8 of 202 · ≈ 1 min on screen · Act one

Tony
Radio Voice

Act oneAct twoAct three

Begins 3 min into a 1:57 film

The story so farBefore scene 8

Unable to find a conventional story in The Orchid Thief, screenwriter Charlie Kaufman turns his own crisis into an increasingly self-referential adaptation.

Scene 2
Charlie paces alone, defining himself through the self-hatred that the finished screenplay will challenge.
Just before
Scene 5
Russell, Vinson, and Randy joke as they follow Laroche’s erratic van.
Scene 6
Orlean’s narration leads from a New York street up to the single window where she is writing.
Scene 7
Orlean introduces her reporting trip to Florida and the orchid theft that began her book.
Scene 8
This scene

8INT. RANGER'S TRUCK - MID-MORNING

Tony, a ranger, drives along a dirt road past the Fakahatchee Strand State Preserve sign and enters the swamp. He sees the white van and Ford parked ahead, spots a Seminole license plate on the Ford. He pulls over down the road, and whispers into his C.B.

TONY

We got a Seminole, or Seminoles, in the

swamp. I'm on Janes Scenic Drive just

east of Logging Road Twelve. I repeat,

Indians in the swamp.

Tony waits for a response. Nothing.

TONY (cont'd)

Indians in the swamp.

Nothing still. Tony clears his throat into the radio.

RADIO VOICE

I don't know what you want me to say.

TONY

Barry, Indians do not go on swamp walks.

If there are Indians in the swamp, they

are in there for a reason.

No response. Tony glowers, gets out of the truck, watches the vehicles through binoculars. Nothing. He straightens his cap. Mosquitoes land on his neck, his nose, his lips.