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

David watches a couple play basketball as the narrator recounts how she escaped the hotel after killing two people.

Scene 49 of 123 · ≈ 1 min on screen · Act two

Female V.o.

Act oneAct two

Begins 39 min into a 1:28 film

The story so farBefore scene 49

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 46
David compliments Nosebleed Woman’s Best Friend, but her blunt remarks about his hair leave him walking behind her.
Scene 47
Nosebleed Woman’s Best Friend reads a farewell letter, slaps her, and chooses to spend her final night watching a film alone.
Scene 48
David watches Limping Man and Nosebleed Woman say goodbye to a released pony, then ignores a call from Biscuit Woman.
Scene 49
This scene

49EXT. BASKETBALL COURT - DAY

David holds a bag of golf clubs and watches a couple playing basketball one on one in the court from behind the wire fence. They’re having fun, they yell and kiss. David is fixated by them.

FEMALE V.O.

When I was at the hotel, I never

much left my room. Hardly ever. I

went there around four years ago.

From the very first day I knew

there was no one there who

interested me. I used to listen to

a lot of French music back then,

and no one else listened to French

music there. I stayed for 19 days.

I let a waiter fuck me in order to

help me escape. After he’d fucked

me he said that he wouldn’t let me

go and that I’d better just go back

to my room and quick. I killed him

and left. I also killed a resident

who tried to stop me leaving

because he said he liked me.