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

Royal tells Etheline that Chas is overprotective and should let the boys take risks; she rejects his advice.

Scene 78 of 143 · ≈ 1 min on screen · Act two

Royal
Etheline

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Begins 1:08 into a 1:59 film

The story so farBefore scene 78

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.
Scenes 40–47
Royal wants a path back to Etheline and the children, and claims impending death will give him one.
Scenes 48–50
He returns to the house and openly asks his children for a chance to make things right.
Scene 63
Eli tells Richie that Margot is troubled by his love and reminds him that she is his sister, making the relationship an active family conflict.
Just before
Scene 75
Royal accuses Margot of cheating on Raleigh with Eli; she reminds him that she was never a genius.
Scene 76
Raleigh confides that he suspects Margot is having an affair; Richie reacts by smashing a window and asks who the man is.
Scene 77
Chas refuses Royal’s offer to take the boys for firecrackers and keeps them occupied with office work.
Scene 78
This scene

78INT. ETHELINE’S STUDY. DAY.

Etheline sits at her desk writing numbers on little bits of pottery and recording it in a notebook. Royal stands in the garden, looking in the window. His IV bag hangs on a rolling stand beside him.

ROYAL

Chassie’s got those boys cooped up like

a pair of jackrabbits, Ethel.

ETHELINE

He has his reasons.

ROYAL

I know it. But you can’t raise boys to

be scared of life. You got to brew some

recklessness into them.

ETHELINE

I think that’s terrible advice.

ROYAL

(pause)

No, you don’t.