Logline Library
The following are loglines scoured from the Internet from theatrically released screenplays. Keep in mind the authors wrote these logline from their screeplays, not from the movie that was made from them.
1 HOUR PHOTO
The local drug store’s one hour photo developer harbors a dangerous attraction for a family he has created a mock relationship with via their snapshots.
127 HOURS
With his hand trapped under a boulder in a remote canyon, Aron Ralston, faces the greatest dilemma of his life: cut it off or die.
3:10 TO YUMA
A quiet rancher leads a posse on a dangerous mission to transport an outlaw to a town where a train will take him to prison.
28 WEEKS LATER
A sniper, a scientist and two children struggle to stay alive and avoid infection when an outbreak of a deadly virus wreaks havoc on the survivors of the first pandemic.
2012
As the earth’s core begins to melt, a group of people struggles to reach a mountain in China – where a fleet of arcs await.
30 DAYS OF NIGHT
A sheriff and his deputy-wife struggle against a band of marauding vampires that have converged on their isolated Alaskan town – where the winter season has brought thirty days of darkness.
ABOUT A BOY
A single man looks for love with a single mom and finds himself growing attached to her son.
ABOUT SCHMIDT
A retired widower takes a road trip to attend his daughter’s wedding.
ADAPTATION
A writer struggles to adapt a book into a screenplay as he copes with the inadequacies of his life.
ADJUSTMENT BUREAU
A congressman falls in love with a woman and struggles against a supernatural organization determined to keep them apart.
AKEELA AND THE BEE
A girl from South Central Los Angeles struggles to make it to the National Spelling Bee competition.
ALEXANDER
The rise and fall of Alexander the Great.
AMAZING GRACE
After learning of the atrocities against black slaves, a politician struggles to convince the British Parliament to abolish slavery.
AMERICAN GANGSTER
A determined detective struggles to stop the local drug trade but must contend with an elusive Harlem kingpin.
ANTWONE FISHER STORY
A violent sailor struggles to make amends with his past.
ARBITRAGE
A successful businessman tries to shepherd a merge of his company while simultaneously concealing fraud and a homicide.
ARGO
A CIA specialist concocts a covert operation to produce a fake Hollywood movie to rescue six American diplomats during the 1979 Iranian hostage crisis.
ARMAGEDDON
When an asteroid is headed for Earth, an elite blue-collar deep-core drilling team is sent to nuke the rock and save the world from Armageddon.
ARMORED
A security guard locks himself in an armored car, warding off a band of desperate men who want to get at the five million dollars he protects.
AUSTRALIA
A British widow struggles to make a new life for herself on an Australian cattle station.
AUTUMN IN NEW YORK
A womanizing restaurateur finally finds love in a young woman, only to discover she is terminally ill.
BABY MAMA
A single businesswoman uses a surrogate to have a baby, but her plans go awry when the mother tries to con her.
BAD SANTA
A burglar and his midget sidekick pose as a shopping mall Santa and helper, with the plan to rob the complex after hours on Christmas Eve.
THE BANGER SISTERS
Two best friends reunite after many years to learn their lives have taken very different paths.
BASIC INSTINCT II
A psychiatrist finds himself dangerously manipulated by a sex-starved, sociopathic patient.
BATMAN BEGINS
Struggling to win back the city streets from criminals, a millionaire becomes a vigilante fighting crime in the guise of a bat man.
BEDTIME STORIES
After discovering the magical power of the bedtime tales that he spins for his nieces and nephew, a self-absorbed architect tries to manipulate this enchanted energy to his own advantage.
BIG FISH
A son who has come to resent his father’s tall tales journeys to discern the truth in them as the old man lies dying.
THE BIG YEAR
Three men struggle to count the most species of birds during a year-long contest
THE BLACK DAHLIA
A pair of detectives struggles to solve a brutal murder – the Black Dahlia case.
BLACK HAWK DOWN
The U.S. Military attempts a vicious strike against a Somali warlord with disastrous results.
BLESS THE CHILD
A woman fights the powers of evil to protect her autistic niece from a cult of devil worshippers who believe the girl is the “Child of God”.
BLINDNESS
When sudden blindness overwhelms the population, the afflicted are sent away to concentration camps where a blind eye doctor and his wife struggle to stay alive.
BLOOD DIAMOND
In the midst of civil war and a dangerous diamond cartel, a diamond smuggler sets out with an African native to find a precious gem buried in the jungle.
THE BOOK OF ELI
In a post apocalyptic USA, a lone warrior – on a mission from God – struggles to deliver a book to San Francisco – a book that a despot will stop at nothing to take from him.
THE BOURNE IDENTITY
A man with amnesia discovers he is a governmental assassin who has been targeted for death by the organization that employs him.
BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN
Two young cowboys must deny their homosexual love in the rural west.
THE BROTHERS GRIMM
A pair of storytelling brothers investigates a series of kidnappings that leads to a fearsome supernatural creature.
BROOKLYN‟S FINEST
Three New York City police officers struggle with the rigors of their duties in one of the most dangerous precincts in the country.
CAPTAIN CORELLI‟S MANDOLIN
A young Greek woman finds forbidden love with an Italian soldier during World War II.
THE CASTLE
A general is incarcerated in a military prison and leads a revolt to win his freedom and rid the penitentiary of its cruel warden.
CELLULAR
A college student struggles to save the life of a kidnapped stranger after she inadvertently calls him on his cellular phone.
CHANGING LANES
When a cut-throat lawyer and a sober father have a car accident, a simple request of insurance information escalates into a full-scale revenge-fest.
CHARLIE WILSON‟S WAR
A Congressman struggles to fund the Afghanis in their war against Communist Russia.
CHEAPER BY THE DOZEN
A married couple struggles to balance a relationship, a new home, careers, and twelve children.
CHEAPER BY THE DOZEN 2
As the kids grow, Tom Baker plans one last vacation at the lake, where he squares off with his old rival – putting his family in the middle of the feud.
CHERI
After a six-year relationship with an older woman, a young man struggles to adapt to married life and his younger wife.
CINDERELLA MAN
The story of Depression era boxer Jim Braddock - who resurrects his career through a series of miraculous fights.
CLASH OF THE TITANS
In order to save the woman he loves from being sacrificed to the Gods, the bastard son of Zeus sets out on a journey to learn how to defeat a giant monster that plans to destroy the city of Argo.
COACH CARTER
A high school basketball coach gets into trouble when he puts the players’ personal achievements above the sport.
COLD MOUNTAIN
A disillusioned Confederate soldier abandons the war to trek home to North Carolina, where a woman awaits him.
COLD CREEK MANOR
After a family buys a rural foreclosure, the husband struggles to protect them from the previous owner - a popular but dangerous local who could be murderer.
COLLATERAL
An LA cab driver struggles to survive as he is forced to chauffeur a ruthless hit man to complete a series of jobs.
CONTAGION
As the world buckles under a potential pandemic from a mysterious virus, a group of experts struggles to bring it under control.
THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO
A sailor is wrongfully imprisoned for treason and escapes with plans to avenge those who accused him.
COWBOYS AND ALIENS
A group of gunslingers, cowboys and Indians bands together to fight an invading force of outer space aliens in 19th century Arizona.
CRASH
A chain of racist events leads to flaring tempers and murder within one-day in Los Angeles.
CROSSING OVER
The immigration woes of various Los Angeles residents.
THE COMPANY MEN
The downsizing of a company lands several men unemployed, sending their lives into a tailspin.
CHARLOTTE'S WEB
A kindly spider helps a lone pig from being sent to the slaughter by turning him into a celebrity.
CAPOTE
While writing “In Cold Blood,” author Truman Capote becomes too involved with the murderers of a Kansas farm family.
CHRISTMAS WITH THE KRANKS
A family man decides to skip the Christmas holiday, setting off a series of unexpected and disastrous events.
CHUMSCRUBER
Turmoil ensues in small town America when some teenage drug dealers kidnap the wrong kid in an attempt to retrieve a stolen stash.
CONFESSIONS OF A DANGEROUS MIND
Wacky TV personality and producer Chuck Barris occupies his time by creating television classics and working as an assassin for the CIA.
COUNTRY OF MY SKULL
An African American journalist travels to South Africa to cover the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s investigation of human rights abuses under the former Apartheid regime.
THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW
A scientist battles a global “super storm” that spells doomsday for planet Earth.
DEAR JOHN
A solider stationed overseas and a stateside teacher struggle to maintain a relationship through the letters they write.
DEATH OF A SALESMAN
An unsuccessful salesman struggles between the truths and lies that have made up his life.
DEATH TO SMOOCHIE
A children’s TV host battles a crazed rival, a slew of nefarious entertainment executives and a fickle viewing public to rise to the top.
DEFINITELY, MAYBE
A father recounts his various romantic endeavors when his young daughter inquires about how he and her mom met.
DEJA VU
A federal agent uses a time machine to stop a terrorist from blowing up a passenger ferry.
DE-LOVELY
Cole Porter looks back on his life with song and dance.
THE DEPARTED
A cop who’s a mole and a mole who’s a cop battle to decide the fate of a legendary Boston mobster.
THE DESCENDANTS
A descendant of Hawaiian royalty struggles to raise his daughters after a motor boat accident leaves their mother in a coma.
DRAGONFLY
A widower believes his dead wife is trying to contact him through the near-death experiences of terminally ill children.
DREAMCATCHER
Four lifelong friends use their psychic talents to destroy an alien race determined to infect the human population.
DREAMGIRLS
A trio of female singers suffers the trials and tribulations of the music industry, as they rise to the top of the charts.
DUPLICITY
Two corporate spies-turned-lovers execute a plot to steal a top secret formula from their employers.
EDGE OF DARKNESS
After the murder of his daughter, a Boston cop struggles to find the culprit but uncovers secrets about the girl and a governmental conspiracy.
ELF
When a thirty-year-old elf learns he is human, he leaves the North Pole to live with his birth father.
EQUILIBRIUM
In a society made emotionless through a drug, a cop breaks the law when he stops taking his daily dose and sets out to bring down the Fascist regime.
ERIN BROCKOVICH
Working at a law firm, a single mom (from the wrong-side-of-the-tracks) stumbles upon an environmental cover-up by a public utility and sets out to hold them accountable.
EVENING
On her deathbed, an older woman reflects on a weekend in 1953 where she had a brief fling with the love of her life.
THE EXORCISM OF EMILY ROSE
A lawyer struggles to win an acquittal for a priest who is accused of negligent homicide after a girl dies during an exorcism ritual.
THE EXTRA MAN
After losing his job for cross-dressing, a young man moves to Manhattan and rents a room from an older eccentric esthete who escorts rich elderly, women around town.
FAILURE TO LAUNCH
A charming slacker dates a woman, who – unbeknownst to him – has been hired by his frustrated folks to get him to move out of the house.
THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS II
An ex-cop and a childhood friend go undercover as drivers to infiltrate the operations of a drug czar.
FINDING NEVERLAND
Playwright J.M. Barrie befriends a grieving family and is inspired to write his children’s classic Peter Pan.
FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS
The true story behind the raising of the American flag atop Mount Suribachi on the island of Iwo Jima.
THE FLOCK
A distraught officer for the Department of Public Safety struggles to find a missing girl who he believes has been kidnapped by one of the registered sex offenders he is assigned to look after.
FLYBOYS
A group of American boys joins the French Foreign Legion to fly fighter planes in the war against the Germans.
THE FORGOTTEN
A grieving mother struggles against a bizarre conspiracy after learning the twelve-year-old son she lost in a plane crash actually died as a baby, and her decade of memories has been nothing but a false creation.
FREAKY FRIDAY
A warring mother and daughter unwittingly switch bodies and struggle to live in the other’s shoes.
FURRY VENGEANCE
A real estate developer finds himself under attack from the animal kingdom when his new building site infringes on their territory.
FRED CLAUS
The story of Santa Claus’ wayward brother, Fred.
FREEDOM WRITERS
A new teacher finds herself in an urban nightmare and struggles to make a difference in the lives of her marginalized students.
FROST/NIXON
An intrepid British talk-show host struggles to get a tell-all interview with recently disgraced American President Richard M. Nixon.
THE FUGITIVE
A doctor - falsely accused of murdering his wife - struggles as he desperately searches for the killer with a relentless federal agent hot on his trail.
GANGS OF NEW YORK
A young man struggles to avenge the death of his father at the hands of a brutal gang leader in the mean streets of 19th century New York City.
GHOST WORLD
A teenage girl struggles with the realities of growing up.
GHOSTS OF GIRLFFRIENDS PAST
While attending his brother’s wedding, a playboy must make amends for his callous and sexist ways through the visits of three ghosts.
GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING
A teenage girl comes of age after being hired as the housemaid to the wealthy family of a renowned artist in 17th century Delft.
GODS AND GENERALS
A depiction of the Civil War through the eyes of Northern and Southern generals.
GLORY ROAD
The inspirational true story of how the virtually unknown Texas Western Miners executed the biggest upset in the history of the NCAA.
A GOOD YEAR
A ruthless bond trader struggles with the toughest deal of his life as he tries to sell an old winery – which he recently inherited.
GOTHIKA
A brilliant shrink working in a facility for the criminally insane wakes from a coma to find that she’s now a patient charged with her husband’s brutal slaying.
GRAN TORINO
A grizzled Korean War veteran struggles to protect a wayward Asian-American teen from a local gang.
GREENBERG
A New York slacker house-sits in Los Angeles and must take inventory of how little his life has evolved ten years after college.
HAIRSPRAY
When a fat teenager lands a regular gig on a popular TV dance show, she stirs the pot hoping to integrate the cast.
HACHO
An Akita pup shows extreme loyalty to his master – even after the man’s death, as the dog waits daily at the local train station for his owner to arrive.
THE HAUNTING
During a psychological experiment, a young woman finds herself being summoned by the ghosts that haunt Hill House.
HIGH CRIMES
An attorney, whose deceitful husband is accused of a horrific military crime, represents him at his court-martial.
HILDAGO
An American cowboy, circa 1890, travels to the Middle East to compete in the world’s most prestigious long distance horse race.
A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE
When a mild-mannered man comes to national attention, he struggles to elude a mobster, who believes he is a hood on the lam.
HOLLYWOODLAND
A private detective struggles against Hollywood powerbrokers as he investigates the alleged suicide of Superman sensation George Reeves.
HOUSE OF SAND AND FOG
After being evicted from her home, a woman faces-off with an Iranian immigrant who purchased the house and plans to resell it.
THE HOURS
Three generations of women interconnect with the common theme of Virginia Woolf’s novel “Mrs. Dalloway.”
HOW TO MAKE IT IN AMERICA (TV PILOT)
Two friends struggle to achieve the American dream on the mean streets of New York
City.
HOW TO LOSE FRIENDS AND ALIENATE PEOPLE
An acerbic British journalist takes a job at a NY magazine and struggles to finds his way into society life.
HOW TO LOSE A GUY IN TEN DAYS
A female journalist must drive her advertising exec boyfriend away within ten days to drum up material for a magazine article – while he must get her to proclaim her love in order to win an account.
HOWL
A poem by Allen Ginsberg is put on trial for obscenity.
HUGO
A young orphan, living inside the walls of a Paris train station, struggles to resolve the mystery of an automaton – a mystery that will uncover the past of an old man and reveal the boy’s future.
I AM SAM
A developmentally disabled man battles the state for custody of his young daughter.
IN GOOD COMPANY
An aging sales executive grapples with being demoted and having to work with the younger man who takes his place.
INSIDE MAN
A detective investigates the aftermath of a bank hostage situation in which the culprits managed to disappear.
I NOW PRONOUNCE YOU CHUCK AND LARRY
To insure a pension for his motherless children, in case of his demise, a fireman and a macho co-worker pose as a gay couple - and marry - in order to save the benefits for the kids.
INGLORIOUS BASTERDS
A kill squad that butchers Nazi soldiers, along with a young Jewish girl who plots to murder the SS officers that shot her family, converges on a French movie theater (premiering a German propaganda film for Nazi brass) with a plan to end WWII.
THE JACKET
A straightjacket transports a mental patient 26 years in the future. When he learns he was murdered just a few days after commitment, he uses the jacket to help him uncover his killer - before he meets his fate.
JONAH HEX
After the Civil War, an uber-violent bounty hunter sets out to find a man who’s determined to exact revenge on the North.
JOHN Q
A desperate dad takes a hospital ER hostage to secure a heart transplant for his uninsured son.
JUMPER
When a young man discovers he has the ability to transport himself from location to location, his gift brings on more trouble than he could have imagined.
K-19: THE WIDOWMAKER
A Cold War Soviet nuclear submarine experiences fatal complications during a test mission.
KEEPING THE FAITH
A priest, a rabbi and a successful business woman – friends since grade school -- find themselves in a love triangle.
KINGS (TV PILOT)
After a show of heroism on the battlefield, a young soldier wins the favor of the king but his popularity takes him dangerously close to the throne.
KINSEY
The story of Alfred Kinsey and his earth shattering survey of the sexual habits of Americans.
KISS KISS BANG BANG
A thief-turned-wannabe actor prepares for a screen test by riding along with a private investigator – and gets involved in a dual homicide.
LADDER 49
A firefighter – trapped in a burning building – reflects on his thirteen year career.
LAKEVIEW TERRACE
A bi-racial couple finds trouble in their new neighborhood when an African-American neighbor, who happens to be a cop, takes offense to their mixed marriage.
THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND
A Scottish doctor, practicing medicine in Uganda, befriends President Idi Amin – becoming his personal physician as a reign of power and murder overwhelms the country.
THE LAST SAMURAI
A fallen Civil War hero is recruited by the Emperor of Japan to lead an assault against a group of renegade samurai.
LAW ABIDING CITIZEN
A dedicated district attorney struggles to outwit a deadly former government operative bent on destroying those responsible for allowing the killer of his family to go free.
LAWS OF ATTRACTION
Two competing divorce attorneys make their big case more difficult by falling in love with each other.
THE LEGEND OF BAGGER VANCE
A down-and-out war veteran raises the spirits of a Georgia community when he gallantly faces the two best golfers in the world.
LICENCE TO WED
In order to be married at a special church, a young couple struggles to pass a series of rigorous tests by a militant clergyman.
LIFE AS A HOUSE
A terminally ill man attempts to rebuild his house while he rebuilds his life.
THE LIFE OF DAVID GALE
A reporter interviews a condemned prisoner and suspects he was the victim of a bizarre frame-up.
THE LINCOLN LAWYER
A defense attorney – who conducts business from the backseat of his Lincoln - takes on a guilty client who blackmails him into representing him.
LIONS FOR LAMBS
As a professor struggles to inspire a slacker college kid, two of his former students fall into battle in the hills of Afghanistan.
LIVE FROM BAGHDAD
A producer with the fledgling CNN arrives in Baghdad on the brink of Desert Storm and helps to make the network a powerhouse of television news.
LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE
A dysfunctional family takes a cross-country trip in their VW bus to get their seven-year-old daughter to the finals of a beauty pageant.
LONELY HEARTS
A distraught cop struggles to solve a series of murders in 1951 New York.
THE LONGEST YARD
A former pro quarterback-turned-convict struggles to lead the prison team in a football victory against a squad of ruthless guards.
THE LOOKOUT
A young man, hampered by a head trauma, falls in with the wrong crowd that involves him in robbing a bank.
LOONEY TUNES: BACK IN ACTION
A former Warner Bros. security guard sets out (with Daffy Duck) to find a menacing diamond and keep it out of the hands of the evil Mr. Chairman of the ACME CORPORATION.
LOVE IN THE TIME OF CHOLERA
A woman marries for security – in spite of the undying and obsessive love of a telegraph worker.
LOVELY BONES
After her rape and murder, a teenage girl observes (from heaven) the aftermath of her demise and the continuation of life on earth.
LUCKY YOU
A wildly inconsistent gambler takes on everything from a serious case of bad luck to the planet’s pre-eminent card player (who just happens to be his own father) to win the World Series of Poker.
THE MACHINEGUN PREACHER
After years of bad living and drug use, a Pennsylvania redneck becomes a Born Again Christian and travels to Sudan to save young victims from the LVA, a sectarian guerilla army responsible for the murder of 400,000.
MAN ON A LEDGE
A wrongfully convicted ex-con allows his crew to rob a jeweler while he creates a diversion by threatening to jump off the ledge of a hotel.
MAN ON FIRE
A former mercenary in Mexico sets out on a vendetta when the girl he’s hired to protect is kidnapped and killed.
THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE
A distraught Desert Storm vet struggles to stop a diabolical terrorist plot that is connected to his recurring nightmare and a Vice-Presidential candidate.
MARCI X
A Jewish America Princess has to befriend a tough gangsta rapper whose controversial songs are giving her father’s media empire a bad name.
MARGARET
A Manhattan teenager grapples with coming-of-age after witnessing a fatal bus accident.
MEET DAVE
Tiny aliens land on earth in a spaceship that resembles a human man.
MEMENTO
An insurance investigator, suffering from a disorder that erases all short-term memory, struggles to find his wife’s killer.
MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA
The daughter of a fisherman struggles to become a geisha in 20th century Japan with the hope of winning the heart of a man she loves.
MEN WHO STARE AT GOATS
A journalist learns of a military unit trained in psychic warfare and follows one of its key soldiers on a secret mission through the Middle East.
MICHAEL CLAYTON
A law firm spin doctor struggles to keep control when a friend and colleague plans to go public and sell out a high profile client.
MINORITY REPORT
In a future where criminals are arrested before the crime occurs, a despondent cop struggles on the lam to prove his innocence for a murder he has not yet committed.
THE MIST
A group of townspeople barricade themselves in a supermarket, fending off giant insects that have evolved in the course of a mysterious mist.
MONEYBALL
After a disastrous season, the desperate General Manager of the Oakland A’s uses a new- fangled statistical method to recruit three players to replace Jason Giambi.
MORNING GLORY
A TV news producer struggles to make her morning show #1 in the ratings.
MR. MAGORIUM‟S WONDER EMPORIUM
The fate of a magic toy store is in question when the owner prepares to die and the responsibility shifts to his young female clerk.
MR. POPPER‟S PENGUIN
A successful NYC realtor inherits a penguin, turning his life upside down.
MR. AND MRS. SMITH
After two opposing assassins dispose of the same mark, each is ordered to kill the other. The catch: the assassins are husband and wife.
MY ONE AND ONLY
An eccentric woman leaves her adulterous husband, taking her two sons on a cross- country search for a new spouse.
MY SUPER EX-GIRLFRIEND
A man struggles to escape the wrath of his vengeful ex girlfriend – who happens to be a superhero with extraordinary powers.
NANNY MCPHEE
A magical nanny struggles to keep a widower and his nine children happy.
NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM II
Larry, a former night watchman, struggles to save his friends (museum exhibits come–to- life) when an evil pharaoh threatens to destroy them all and take over the universe.
NIGHTS IN RODANTHE
Over the course of three days, two strangers find romance that will forever change their lives.
NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN
A man out hunting stumbles upon a drug deal-gone-bad and snatches up the cash for himself – which puts a vicious killer on his trail.
NOEL
Random New Yorkers confront their troubled lives on Christmas Eve.
NOTORIOUS
The life and death of Notorious B.I.G., who many consider the greatest rapper to ever live.
ONE NIGH AT MCCOOL‟S
A young woman destroys lives, as she attempts to fulfill a dream of owning a house.
PANDORUM
After many years of hyper-sleep, an astronaut awakens to find himself on a disabled spaceship being pursued by a primitive tribe of cannibals.
PAPARAZZI
A famous actor takes murderous revenge against a quartet of sleazy paparazzi photographers.
THE PATRIOT
A former soldier - who has put his dark, bloody past behind him - joins the American Revolution when his son is brutally murdered by a British officer.
PAY IT FORWARD
An LA reporter traces a chain reaction of good will to a Tucson boy who has made altruism a school project.
PAYCHECK
An engineer has his memory wiped clean after working on a top-secret project and suddenly finds himself the target of a manhunt.
A PERFECT GETAWAY
Honeymooning on a Hawaiian trail, a bride and groom fear they are being stalked by a pair of sadistic killers.
PHONE BOOTH
A ruthless publicist finds himself trapped in a phone booth talking to a sniper who will shoot him dead if he hangs up the phone.
PRIEST
In a future where vampires are imprisoned to keep the world safe, a warrior priest sets out to find his niece after the undead escape captivity and kidnap her.
THE PROPOSAL
In order to avoid deportation, a bitchy boss insists upon marrying her abused assistant before she’s sent back to Canada.
THE PUNISHER
A former federal agent adopts the personality of a lethal vigilante - declaring the ultimate war on crime – after a mob boss massacres his entire family.
RACING STRIPS
A zebra, raised on a Kentucky farm, struggles to become a prizewinning race horse.
RAMBO
Rambo struggles against the vicious Burmese army that has kidnapped a group of missionaries.
RAT RACE
Six people race from Las Vegas to a train station in New Mexico - where 2 million dollars awaits in a locker for whoever gets there first.
REAL STEEL
An estranged father and son struggle to bond while striving for success in the world of competitive robot boxing.
RED
A retired black ops agent finds himself on a federal “hit list” and recruits some old friends to learn why he has been targeted.
RED TAILS
The Tuskegee Airmen – a group of African American pilots – show their aerial prowess over the Italian battlefield.
REMEMBER THE TITANS
In a racially divided Southern town, a high school football team is integrated and helmed by a black coach, causing friction for the players, the school and the community.
RESIDENT EVIL
Survivors of a science-experiment-gone-bad find themselves trapped in a subterranean laboratory fighting off the living dead.
RIDING IN CARS WITH BOYS
A woman contemplates her problematic life as she travels to find her ex-husband.
ROCKY
A washed up boxer gets a chance to fight the world champ, but with the help of his lover, must learn to believe in himself before stepping into the ring.
RUNAWAY BRIDE
A newspaper reporter does a story about a woman who has left four men at the altar and finds he is falling for her.
SAFEHOUSE
A CIA field office struggles to take his prisoner, a former CIA agent-gone-rogue, four miles to a safehouse with an assortment of bad guys out to get them.
SAHARA
A NUMA agent faces-off with a powerful industrialist who is creating a plague by poisoning the ocean with toxic waste.
THE SALTON SEA
An FBI agent poses as a drug addict to find his wife’s killers.
A SCANNER DARKLY
An undercover cop addicted to a drug that creates an alternate personality struggles to capture the drug dealer – who is his alter ego.
SEABISCUIT
An intuitive horse trainer, a diehard jockey, and a wealthy horse lover struggle to prepare an ungainly thoroughbred for a record-breaking world championship.
THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES
A girl runs away from her abusive father, settling down in a quaint town – which harbors a small but important piece of her dead mother’s past.
SECRETARIAT
A Denver housewife inherits her father’s ranch and turns an unlikely horse into the record breaking, Triple Crown winning Secretariat.
SERAPHIM FALLS
A former Union soldier struggles to survive in the wilds of Nevada, as he is pursued by a vengeful Confederate corporal.
SESSION 9
An asbestos abatement team experiences strange phenomena as they gut an abandoned mental institution.
SEX AND DEATH 101
A bachelor finds a mysterious list of women’s name - a list of his incomplete sexual conquests – and sets out to settle his unfinished business.
SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE
A comedic portrayal of a young and broke Shakespeare who falls in love with a woman, inspiring him to write Romeo and Juliet.
SHALL WE DANCE
To get closer to a beautiful dance instructor, a married man signs up for dance lessons.
SHANGHAI NOON
In the old west, a Chinese imperial guardsman teams with an American cowboy to rescue a kidnapped Chinese Princess.
SHERLOCK HOLMES
The famous detective struggles to stop an occultist from killing the Queen and destroying London.
SHOOT 'EM UP
A gunman struggles to protect an infant against a nefarious plot that involves harvesting babies for their bone marrow.
SHOOTER
Framed for the assassination of a foreign diplomat, a sniper goes on a bloody offensive to clear his name.
SHOPGIRL
A Neiman Marcus counter girl falls for an older man and learns about self-esteem as the doomed relationship takes its course.
SHUTTER ISLAND
A federal marshal investigates the bizarre disappearance of an inmate from a prison for the criminally insane located on an isolated island.
SIGNS
A widower and his family ward off an alien invasion on their modest little farm.
SLEEPY HOLLOW
An 18th century NYC constable is sent to investigate a series of murders upstate and stumbles upon the legend of the Headless Horseman.
SMART PEOPLE
A stuffy English professor juggles child-rearing and romance while vying for the position of department chair.
SMOKIN‟ ACES
Hit men galore converge on Lake Tahoe to collect a million dollar reward by killing a mobster-turned-informant.
THE SOLOIST
A journalist crusades to get a homeless violinist off the streets.
SONNY
A former gigolo returns to his hometown intent on starting a new life but struggles with the old one.
THE SORCERER‟S APPRENTICE
An NYU student learns he is a sorcerer and must protect the world from evil.
THE SQUID AND THE WHALE
An impressionable teen grapples with the divorce of his parents.
STANDER
A South African cop - disturbed by his violent participation in Apartheid – becomes a notorious bank robber.
STARDUST
In a magical world, a hapless young man finds a fallen star and is pursued by a bevy of evil creatures.
STAY
As a psychiatrist races against time to prevent the suicide of a patient, he finds himself thrown into a surreal world filled with strange occurrences.
STEALTH
A Navy pilot struggles to stop an out of control experimental fighter jet, with a mind of its own, from starting World War III.
STOP LOSS
After finishing his tour of duty in Iraq, a soldier takes it on the lam when he learns the military is enacting the “stop loss” clause in his contract, which legally compels him to return to the front.
STRANGER THAN FICTION
An IRS auditor is plagued by a voice that narrates his life and sets out to find its source after his imminent death is revealed.
THE STRANGERS
A troubled couple struggles to survive the night when three masked strangers invade their secluded summerhouse.
STREET FIGHTER: THE LEGEND OF CHUN-LI
A beautiful street fighter struggles to rescue her father from the clutches of an evil crime lord.
THE SUM OF ALL FEARS
CIA agent stumbles upon a fascist plot to start a nuclear war between the United States and Russia.
SWEENEY TODD
A vengeful barber murders unsuspecting men when they come in for a shave, using their ground-up bodies as the prime ingredient in popular meat pies.
SWIMMING UPSTREAM
A young swimmer must cope with his embittered father who tries to turn brother against brother.
TAKEN
An overprotective dad reveals his true colors – a black ops background - when his daughter is kidnapped in France, and he wreaks mayhem and murder to save her life.
TALK TO ME
An ex-con struggles to make it in the world of radio and TV.
THANK YOU FOR SMOKING
A cigarette lobbyist spins P.R. for the tobacco industry until things starts to spin out of control.
THINGS WE LOST IN THE FIRE
After her husband’s murder, a woman and her family reach out to his best friend - a heroin junkie struggling to get clean.
TIGERLAND
In boot camp preparing for Viet Nam, a private breaks all the rules with the hopes of being discharged.
THE TIME TRAVELER‟S WIFE
An artist struggles to maintain the love of a man who suffers from a bizarre affliction – the uncontrollable ability to leap through the timeline of his life.
TIMELINE
After a college professor is lost in the past, a group of scientists travel in time to locate him and find themselves caught in a battle between France and England in 1357.
TIPTOES
A tall man struggles to confront the dwarfism in his family when he learns his girlfriend is pregnant.
TITANIC
A young man and woman from different social classes fall in love aboard the ill-fated voyage of the Titanic.
TOWELHEAD
A thirteen-year-old girl struggles to understand her burgeoning sexuality amidst a community of sexual dysfunction.
TRAINING DAY
An idealistic rookie trains for the narcotics division with a rogue cop (in trouble with the Russian mob) and learns how to navigate the tough streets of Los Angeles.
TRAITOR
An FBI agent struggles to find a terrorist who plans an attack on American soil, but unbeknownst to the fed, the terrorist is undercover for the CIA.
TROPIC THUNDER
A group of spoiled actors filming a war movie in Southeast Asia suddenly find themselves in the middle of real combat.
TROY
A Trojan prince battles the Greeks, fighting to free the kidnapped woman he loves.
UNDER THE TUSCAN SUN
A heart-broken American college professor moves to Italy and buys a villa that she restores.
UNSTOPPABLE
An unmanned runaway train is on a collision course with a hairpin turn – where the derailment will spill its toxic cargo with a devastating outcome.
UP IN THE AIR
An executive that specializes in firing other people faces a crisis of conscience while training a replacement.
UPRISING
A faction of Polish Jews strikes back against the Nazis and plot an escape from the Warsaw ghetto.
VALENTINE'S DAY
An ensemble of Angelenos experiences the ups and downs of love on Valentine’s Day.
VALKYRIE
A group of Nazi party members - led by a patriotic colonel - plots to kill Hitler and take back Berlin.
THE VOW
A whirlwind romance and marriage is tragically altered after a car accident results in the bride losing all memory of her new husband, who struggles to win her heart all over again.
W.E.
An unhappily married woman seeks refuge in an auction of the estate of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, while the famous love story plays out concurrently.
WALKING TALL
An ex-Special Ops soldier - looking to settle down and spend quality time with his family - gets embroiled in a one-man battle against the criminal element that has assaulted him and his hometown.
WATCHMEN
A retired superhero investigates mysterious deaths and stumbles upon a plot to destroy the world – in order to save it.
WE WERE SOLDIERS
A recreation of the 1965 battle of Ia Drang – in the Central highlands of South Vietnam – where 400 U.S. soldiers face-off with 3000 of the enemy.
THE WEATHER MAN
A TV weather man struggles with the storm clouds of his life.
THE WEDDING PLANNER
A wedding planner gets the job of a lifetime but complicates matters when she falls in love with the groom.
WIN A DATE WITH TAD HAMILTON
A hometown girl wins a date with a movie star and trouble ensues when the boy that secretly loves her sets out to win her heart.
WINDTALKERS
A WWII soldier is assigned bodyguard duty to a Navajo Indian whose native language is used as an indecipherable secret code.
THE WOODSMAN
A paroled child molester struggles with his past as he faces his future.
XXX: STATE OF THE UNION
After being sprung from jail, an ex-Navy SEAL and street thug sets out to bring down a high-ranking general intent on taking over the country.
WAG THE DOG
Just before elections, a spin-doctor and a Hollywood producer fabricate a war to cover up a presidential sex scandal.
WITHOUT A PADDLE
When their childhood friend dies, three men take a trip into the wilderness to find a missing $200,000
WHAT WOMEN WANT
A sexist advertising executive gains the ability to read women’s minds and uses it to get ahead of his new competition, a smarter female exec with whom he falls in love.
THE WOLFMAN
A man estranged from his father returns home to learn that a werewolf is on the loose and it may be a member of his family.
YOU, ME AND DUPREE
A loveable loser imposes upon his best friend’s new marriage, threatening to ruin the nuptials and sabotage the friend’s job with his new father-in-law.
YOURS, MINE AND OURS
Bedlam ensues after an uptight Coast Guard Admiral father of eight marries a more laid back, scatterbrained handbag designer / mother of ten.
THE YOUNG VICTORIA
A young and willful Queen Victoria constantly struggles to stave off her controlling relatives while battling for the allegiance of her people and the love of her German cousin.
ZATHURA
Two bickering brothers play a board game that sends the on a death-defying mission through outer space and in the process, they learn the importance of being friends.
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Multiple Stories in One Script
Screenwriting
Script Tips
So, you want to write a screenplay with multiple stories. It definitely can be done and done well. Take the 2006 Best Picture Academy Award winner Crash as an example. However, writing multiple storylines is no easy task, so it's best to stay simple, especially for the beginning writer. Even Crash – with its interweaving stories – is simple in structure. The story is told in chronological order with inter-related characters over a period of over only two days. Writer/Director Paul Haggis doesn't try to cover too many events, too much time, use non-related characters,…
Five Plot Point Breakdowns
Unforgiven (1992)
Screenplay
Five Plot Point Breakdowns
Screenplay Genre: Western / Drama Movie Time: 131 minutes 1. INCITING INCIDENT The Scofield Kid visits William Munny (Clint Eastwood) on his farm, looking to partner up with Munny to help him "kill a couple of no good cowboys for cutting up a lady" and in return split half of the reward money. Munny declines the offer, making it clear that his late wife cured him of his wickedness. The Scofield Kid leaves, letting Munny know he's riding West toward Wyoming in case he changes his mind. (00:09:44)
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