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

Ari and Uzi call Chas from swimming class and ask who their father is; Chas names Royal and says he is really dying.

Scene 42 of 143 · ≈ 1 min on screen · Act one

Uzi
Chas
Ari

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Begins 35 min into a 1:59 film

The story so farBefore scene 42

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.

Scenes 1–39
Royal is absent from the children’s adult lives, and their family remains shaped by his betrayals and abandonment.
Just before
Scene 39
Margot lets Eli emerge from her closet, and they lie in bed while he asks to have dinner with Etheline.
Scene 40
Royal tells Etheline he is dying to win time with the family, admits the lie, then confirms he really is ill.
Scene 41
Etheline tells Henry that the children know Royal is dying and that she cannot gauge how they are taking it.
Scene 42
This scene

42INT. 375TH STREET Y/CHAS’ ROOM. DAY.

A second telephone conversation. Ari talks on a pay phone next to an indoor pool. Uzi stands beside him. Each wears goggles and an orange life-jacket belted tightly. A sign on the wall says “Water Safety and Rescue Class, 11 a.m.” Chas sits at the desk in his bedroom on Archer Avenue.

UZI

Who’s your father?

CHAS

His name’s Royal Tenenbaum.

ARI

You told us he was already dead.

CHAS

(hesitates)

But now he’s really dying.