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

David drinks from a river and rests in the woods, exhausted and alert to his new role as prey.

Scene 63 of 123 · ≈ 1 min on screen · Act two

Act oneAct two

Begins 47 min into a 1:28 film

The story so farBefore scene 63

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.
Just before
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
The Hotel Manager finds the dead dog and raises the alarm as narration follows David running toward a painful new life.
Scene 62
David slips down the corridor toward the woods near the hotel.
Scene 63
This scene

63EXT. THE WOODS - MORNING

David walks very quickly, almost at a jog, as if he is too tired to run but too scared to walk. He stops beside a river. He washes his face and drinks some water. He steams up his glasses with his breath and rubs them clean with his t-shirt. He continues to walk quickly. He gets tired. The woods are quiet and the only thing you can hear is the birds and the sound of water. Everything is still and there are no animals around that he can actually see. He lies down on the ground but doesn’t close his eyes.

He just rests but it’s obvious that he isn’t relaxed at all. He used to visit these woods as a hunter but now he is the prey.