The Lobster · written by Yorgos Lanthimos and Efthimis Filippou · 2015

The Loner Leader asks Shortsighted Woman for paper, and the woman panics while searching her notebook.

Scene 101 of 123 · ≈ 1 min on screen · Act two

Loner Leader
Shortsighted Woman

Act oneAct two

Begins 1:12 into a 1:28 film

The story so farBefore scene 101

After his wife leaves him, David has 45 days to find a partner at a hotel or become an animal; he escapes, falls for a shortsighted loner, and must decide whether to surrender his sight so they can stay together.

Scenes 1–15
David moves from his broken home into the hotel, where couplehood is imposed as the norm.
Scenes 16–24
He must find a partner before the 45-day limit turns him into an animal.
Scenes 25–62
He participates in the hunt, attempts a false match, then escapes into the woods.
Scenes 63–84
He adapts to loner customs and cautiously begins a connection with Shortsighted Woman.
Scenes 85–100
They build a secret language and plan to leave the loner community together.
Just before
Scene 98
David and Shortsighted Woman walk behind the leader, exchange small talk, and worry that their intimacy has been noticed.
Scene 99
David and Shortsighted Woman exchange coded gestures over fruit while the others remain unaware.
Scene 100
The Loner Narrator reads a note about two loners planning to escape together; the leader dismisses it as a hotel guest’s writing.
Scene 101
This scene

101EXT. THE WOODS - EVENING

Loner Leader goes up to Shortsighted Woman. She’s reading a book by torchlight. Loner Leader sits next to her and talks to her in a really friendly tone of voice.

LONER LEADER

You’re reading?

SHORTSIGHTED WOMAN

Yes.

LONER LEADER

Wouldn’t it be amazing if you could

read without the help of glasses or

contacts?

SHORTSIGHTED WOMAN

Yes.

LONER LEADER

I’d like to ask you a favour.

SHORTSIGHTED WOMAN

What sort of favour?

LONER LEADER

Do you have a sheet of white paper,

by any chance? I want to make a

list of the stuff we need from town

and there’s no paper left in my

notebook.

Shortsighted Woman looks in her backpack for her notebook. She starts rummaging, distressed.

LONER LEADER (CONT’D)

It’s fine if you don’t have any.

I’ll ask someone else.

SHORTSIGHTED WOMAN

But I do. I’m sure I have a

notebook with white pages, it’s in

here somewhere, I’m sure of it.

LONER LEADER

Don’t worry. It doesn’t matter.

Tomorrow when we go into town I’ll

make a note to buy you a new one.

Loner Leader tenderly touches Shortsighted Woman on her shoulder and leaves.