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

Lisping Man tells David the captured woman is a perfect match; David repeats an unconvincing reassurance.

Scene 39 of 123 · ≈ 1 min on screen · Act two

David
Lisping Man

Act oneAct two

Begins 29 min into a 1:28 film

The story so farBefore scene 39

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 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
Lisping Man captures a loner woman with a matching lisp and admires her unconscious face.
Scene 39
This scene

39INT. COACH - MIDDAY

David and Lisping Man sit together. We hear the cries of a hotel guest injured during the hunt throughout their conversation.

DAVID

If you two are so well suited, I’m

sure they’ll make an exception.

LISPING MAN

I hope so. It’s not just that she

can’t pronounce her s’s, she’s also

blonde. Her hair is the exact same

colour as mine. We’d make a perfect

couple.

DAVID

If you’re so well suited, I’m sure

they’ll make an exception.