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

The Hotel Manager finds the dead dog and raises the alarm as narration follows David running toward a painful new life.

Scene 61 of 123 · ≈ 1 min on screen · Act two

Female V.o.

Act oneAct two

Begins 47 min into a 1:28 film

The story so farBefore scene 61

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.
Scene 52
Heartless Woman stages a choking fit; David stays still, and she declares they are a match. The double room follows in scene 53.
Scene 55
Heartless Woman reveals she killed Bob; David’s fabricated partnership turns openly dangerous.
Just before
Scene 58
Heartless Woman calmly leaves the room and continues searching the upper floors for David.
Scene 59
The Maid points Heartless Woman down the corridor; David tranquillises her, and he and the Maid carry her to the transformation room.
Scene 60
The Maid asks David to tranquillise her too; narration says he turns Heartless Woman into an animal and leaves the hotel.
Scene 61
This scene

61INT. ROOM 101 - EVENING

The Hotel Manager runs to the couple’s room with two waiters. She sees the dead dog. She signals to the waiters to set off the alarm. “You Give Love A Bad Name” by Bon Jovi plays loudly throughout the building.

FEMALE V.O.

He began to run without knowing

where he was headed but he was

headed towards us. This was the

start of his new life and back

then, he didn’t know how much it

hurts to be alone, how much it

hurts when you cannot reach to rub

tiger balm on your upper back and

you are constantly in pain.