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

Royal tells Ari that Pagoda once stabbed him in Calcutta while working as a hired assassin.

Scene 80 of 143 · ≈ 1 min on screen · Act two

Royal
Ari

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Begins 1:09 into a 1:59 film

The story so farBefore scene 80

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 77
Chas refuses Royal’s offer to take the boys for firecrackers and keeps them occupied with office work.
Scene 78
Royal tells Etheline that Chas is overprotective and should let the boys take risks; she rejects his advice.
Scene 79
Royal encourages Ari over the intercom to be more reckless than his safety drills allow.
Scene 80
This scene

80EXT. STREET. DAY.

ROYAL

(indicating Pagoda)

He saved my life, you know. Thirty

years ago. I was knifed at a bazaar in

Calcutta, and he carried me to the

hospital on his back.

ARI

Who stabbed you?

Royal motions to Pagoda again.

ROYAL

He did. There was a price on my head,

and he was a hired assassin. Stuck me

in the gut with a shiv.