Adaptation · written by Charlie Kaufman and Donald Kaufman · 2002

On the plane, Orlean says a person must want something very badly.

Scene 91 of 202 · ≈ 1 min on screen · Act two

Orlean

Act oneAct twoAct three

Begins 49 min into a 1:57 film

The story so farBefore scene 91

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.
Just before
Scene 88
Orlean asks Laroche to take her into the swamp, but he says he is still banned.
Scene 89
Charlie packs for Florida and frames the trip into the Fakahatchee as a writer’s leap into the unknown.
Scene 90
Donald pitches a song-in-pajamas scene while Charlie announces the danger he expects from the swamp.
Scene 91
This scene

91INT. AIRPLANE - MORNING

Orlean sits in her seat and addresses the camera.

ORLEAN

You would have to want something very

badly...