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

Lisping Man captures a loner woman with a matching lisp and admires her unconscious face.

Scene 38 of 123 · ≈ 1 min on screen · Act two

Lisping Young Woman

Act oneAct two

Begins 29 min into a 1:28 film

The story so farBefore scene 38

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.
Scene 25
David loads a tranquilliser gun and joins the hotel’s hunt, entering its violent courtship system.
Just before
Scene 35
David’s parents visit, voice optimism and family updates, then his mother leaves sirloin steak for his dog-brother before they go.
Scene 36
David points out a new woman with a limp, but Limping Man says it is only a sprained ankle; the alarm ends breakfast.
Scene 37
Biscuit Woman asks to walk with David and Bob; he says Bob cannot leave the room, then hears her sexual offer and detailed suicide plan.
Scene 38
This scene

38EXT. THE WOODS - MIDDAY

Lisping Man walks carefully through the woods. In the background we see a few hotel residents firing their tranquilliser guns and some loners running away. The animals in the woods do not react, as if they are used to the procedure, as if it is something that happens often and is not terribly interesting. On the other hand, something really exciting happens to Lisping Man. He notices a YOUNG LONER WOMAN hiding behind a tree. He stealthily approaches her and the woman, realising there’s no escape, starts pleading with him to let her go. The young woman has a lisp. Lisping man notices it as soon as she starts speaking. His eyes sparkle.

LISPING YOUNG WOMAN

Please don’t shoot me. I’ll give

you this rabbit. It’ll make a great

supper.

Lisping Man shoots her. He smiles and leans over her unconscious body, pushing her hair away from her face so that he can take a better look at her.