One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest Scene 13 Summary

  • We watch all the patients hanging out in the hospital pool.
  • One of the orderlies pokes McMurphy with a pole and agitates him. But McMurphy keeps cool because he knows his prison sentence will be up soon.
  • The orderly reminds him that the prison sentence only applies to prison. With a mental hospital, McMurphy could be in for the rest of his life. Uh oh.
  • Back in group therapy, Nurse Ratched asks McMurphy if there's something he'd like to say to the group.
  • He says yes and asks why no one ever told him that he was stuck in the hospital for an indefinite amount of time. He almost loses his mind when he finds out that some inmates (like Mr. Harding) are in the hospital voluntarily and can leave whenever they want.
  • McMurphy asks the people in the group why they would choose to be in a mental institution.
  • He's especially surprised at Billy Bibbit who is just a young man who should be out experiencing life to its fullest. He can't believe that they guys would complain so much about the hospital and not have the guts to walk out.
  • Once McMurphy is finished, another patient (Mr. Scanlon) asks to know why the patient dorm is locked in the daytime and on weekends. It looks like McMurphy's influence is making the men more willing to pose challenging questions to Nurse Ratched.
  • Ratched tells Scanlon that the dorms are locked because she doesn't want the patients going back to bed after breakfast. But the patients think they should be able to if they want.
  • After a while, all of the patients get agitated and Mr. Cheswick goes off on a rant about how he wants to have his cigarettes instead of having the hospital give them to him. Ratched says that she holds onto the cigarettes because everyone keeps losing all their cigarettes and money to McMurphy through gambling.
  • Around this point, Taber loses his mind because a lit cigarette has made its way into the cuff of his pants.
  • The orderlies think he's just throwing a fit, so they restrain him and carry him away. Commotion starts again and Cheswick freaks out at Nurse Ratched for treating him like a child.
  • McMurphy runs over to the nurses' station and puts his hand through the window glass to get Cheswick's cigarettes.
  • He tries to stop the orderlies from taking Cheswick away and even punches one of them in the face. Nurse Ratched picks up the phone and calls in an emergency code.
  • The orderly gets McMurphy on the ground, but Chief comes over and manhandles the orderly.