The Royal Tenenbaums · written by Wes Anderson & Owen Wilson · 2001

At a library reading, Eli reads from Old Custer to an applauding audience; the narration identifies him as a Brooks College assistant professor.

Scene 15 of 143 · ≈ 1 min on screen · Act one

Eli
Narrator

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Begins 16 min into a 1:59 film

The story so farBefore scene 15

After losing his hotel room, Royal claims he has only weeks to live so he can move back in with his estranged family; as the truth unravels, he must find a way to be useful and earn a place in their lives.

Scene 1
The children ask Royal whether he still loves them as the family’s separation becomes unavoidable.
Just before
Scene 12
Richie releases his falcon Mordecai from its rooftop coop as the narrator introduces the family’s adult lives.
Scene 13
The hotel manager tells Royal to leave over unpaid charges; Royal cannot pay the masseuse and recalls his disbarment and estrangement.
Scene 14
Aboard the Cote d’Ivoire, Richie dictates a lonely message to Eli confessing love for Margot and recalls his failed last tennis match.
Scene 15
This scene

15INT. LIBRARY. NIGHT.

Eli stands at a podium reading from a book to a crowded audience. A telegram marked “Ship to Shore” is tucked into his coat pocket. His voice is quietly dramatic.

ELI

The crickets and the rust-beetles

scuttled among the nettles of the

sagethicket. Vamanos, amigos, he

whispered, and threw the busted leather

flintscraw over the loose weave of the

saddlecock. And they rode on in the

friscalating dusklight.

Eli looks up. He closes his book. The audience applauds uproariously.

NARRATOR (V.O.)

Eli was an assistant professor of

English Literature at Brooks College.

The recent publication of his second

novel --

INSERT:

A copy of Eli Cash’s latest book, Old Custer. On the dust jacket there is an illustration of an Indian in warpaint with a long, bloody knife clasped between his teeth and a yellow scalp hanging from his hand.