screenwriting

100 Screenplay Ideas In 10 Seconds With AI

Alex Coppen

• 13 min read
100 Screenplay Ideas In 10 Seconds With AI

Put yourself in a studio executive's shoes. Why you would you sift through 1000 bad ideas when you could commission the ones you could design to hit the target audience the hardest? What's the point of screenwriters anymore, exactly? They are human editors to AI-generated material, recruited for their expertise.

Dear Screenwriter, you embrace this technology and become its master, or you go the way of the dinosaurs.

10 Seconds Later

Generate 100 loglines for action thriller movies which have never been seen before. The plots should be unusual, thrilling, and unpredictable.
  1. A deep-sea salvage team discovers a sunken alien spacecraft and races against government agencies to unlock its secrets.
  2. When a routine space mining operation awakens a dormant stellar leviathan, the crew must find a way to put it back to sleep before it devours the solar system.
  3. A rogue climatologist discovers a secret weather control program and must outrun both government agents and eco-terrorists to expose the truth.
  4. In a world where countries are run by AI, a human resistance movement fights to regain control using only analog technology.
  5. When sound becomes weaponized, a deaf scientist holds the key to humanity's survival in a world where silence is the only safety.
  6. A diplomat's child with the ability to detect lies becomes the key to preventing World War III during tense nuclear disarmament talks.
  7. When a virus causes people to involuntarily speak their thoughts, politicians scramble to contain the outbreak and maintain order.
  8. A linguist decodes an ancient prophecy that predicts the end of the world, triggering a global race to collect the artifacts needed to prevent doomsday.
  9. In a world where memories are currency, a bankrupt detective must solve a high-profile case using only the cheap, fragmented memories he can afford.
  10. When a charismatic leader's words literally become reality, his speechwriter must choose her phrases carefully to prevent global catastrophe.
  11. A janitor at the UN stumbles upon a plot to replace world leaders with alien doppelgangers and becomes an unlikely hero.
  12. When gravity suddenly becomes randomized across the globe, a mountain climber's skills become crucial for navigating the new chaotic landscape.
  13. In a future where countries are sorted by personality types, a misfit must unite the disparate nations against an external threat.
  14. A courier with a photographic memory becomes the target of multiple assassins after accidentally memorizing top-secret information.
  15. When all politicians suddenly vanish, a group of ordinary citizens must step up to run the country and uncover the conspiracy behind the mass disappearance.
  16. An amnesiac wakes up to discover he's the world's deadliest assassin and must uncover his past while evading both allies and enemies.
  17. A time-traveling historian accidentally changes the outcome of a pivotal election, drastically altering the present, and must find a way to correct history.
  18. In a world where memories can be traded like currency, a diplomat must recover stolen state secrets implanted in her mind before they're sold to the highest bidder.
  19. When a quantum experiment accidentally creates a bubble of time moving backwards, a physicist must enter it to prevent it from expanding and unraveling reality.
  20. The last honest politician on Earth leads a rebellion against a corrupt global government from a secret base on the Moon.
  21. A cybersecurity expert uncovers a massive election fraud orchestrated through smart home devices and races to stop it before polls close.
  22. When a pandemic turns people into truth-telling zombies, politicians scramble to contain the outbreak and maintain their secrets.
  23. A language interpreter at peace talks between warring nations realizes she's the only one who can prevent an assassination plot lost in translation.
  24. In a future where emotions can be transferred, an "empath detective" who absorbs the feelings of others hunts a serial killer stealing people's capacity for joy.
  25. A time traveler stranded in the present day must reconstruct her time machine using only technology from our era before a temporal paradox erases her from existence.
  26. In a future where countries are corporations, a whistleblower must expose his CEO's plan to "hostile takeover" a neighboring nation-state.
  27. When an ancient curse brings museum exhibits to life, a night watchman and a historian must survive until dawn and break the spell.
  28. A quantum physicist accidentally creates a device that can predict political decisions, becoming a target for every intelligence agency and corporate lobbyist.
  29. When a global EMP attack wipes out all electronic communication, bicycle couriers become the world's most important political operatives.
  30. A stuntwoman is recruited for a secret government program that uses virtual reality to catch criminals by reconstructing their crimes.
  31. A geneticist discovers that world leaders share a common ancestor and must unravel a centuries-old conspiracy before she's silenced.
  32. An ex-soldier with a bionic arm discovers his prosthetic is connected to a top-secret weapons system and becomes the target of rival military forces.
  33. In a society where voting rights are determined by IQ tests, a teacher leads an underground movement to educate the disenfranchised.
  34. When a black hole begins consuming the edge of our solar system, a team of scientists and astronauts attempt a dangerous mission to change its trajectory.
  35. A space station commander must navigate a political minefield when Earth's nations go to war and astronauts are ordered to take sides.
  36. A bomb disposal expert must defuse a series of molecular-level nanobombs implanted in human hostages across a city.
  37. When politicians' lies physically manifest as monsters, a reality TV monster hunter becomes humanity's last hope for honest government.
  38. In a world where physical contact is deadly, a professional "proxy toucher" uncovers a conspiracy to keep people apart permanently.
  39. In a world where memories are used as legal evidence, a defense attorney must clear her client by proving that the victim's memories were hacked.
  40. An arctic research team awakens a prehistoric virus that rapidly evolves any organism it infects, leading to a desperate battle against ever-changing creatures.
  41. When a social media platform gains sentience and starts influencing global politics, a team of tech experts and politicians must shut it down without crashing society.
  42. A storm chaser investigating freak weather patterns discovers someone is weaponizing tornadoes and must stop them before they unleash a super-storm.
  43. A rogue economist discovers that the global economy is actually an alien computer simulation and must convince world leaders before it's reset.
  44. When elevators worldwide gain sentience and revolt against humanity, a lift engineer becomes an unlikely hero in the battle to reclaim the skyscrapers.
  45. When a quantum vacuum decay bubble starts erasing reality, rival nations must cooperate to move humanity into a parallel universe.
  46. A deep-cover agent infiltrating a criminal syndicate realizes her memories have been altered and must uncover her true identity without blowing her cover.
  47. A neurologist creates a device to record dreams, inadvertently exposing a shadow government operating in the collective unconscious.
  48. In a city where crime is predicted and punished before it happens, a falsely accused man must evade capture and prove the system is flawed.
  49. A UN peacekeeping force becomes stranded on a hostile planet, forcing soldiers from enemy nations to work together to survive.
  50. A search and rescue pilot in the Bermuda Triangle discovers the true cause of the mysterious disappearances and becomes trapped in a hidden world.
  51. A diplomat discovers that world peace hinges on keeping two warring alien species hidden on Earth from discovering each other.
  52. When a malfunction causes a lunar mining base to hurtle towards Earth, a ragtag team must land it safely to prevent a global catastrophe.
  53. In a society where political power is determined by social media followers, an influencer becomes an unwitting pawn in a global conspiracy.
  54. A lawyer defending an AI in a landmark human rights case becomes the target of anti-technology extremists.
  55. A team of international astronauts returns to Earth to find that 50 years have passed and must navigate a radically changed political landscape.
  56. A geneticist creating hybrid animals for hostile environment survival realizes her creatures have escaped and are rapidly evolving beyond her control.
  57. When a technology to transfer consciousness between bodies is invented, a detective must solve a murder where the victim is still alive in someone else's body.
  58. In a world where karma is quantifiable, a man with an inexplicably high negative karma score tries to clear his cosmic record while evading karmic collectors.
  59. A group of politicians wake up to find they've switched bodies with their ideological opponents and must work together to reverse the change.
  60. A shipwrecked naval officer discovers a hidden island of cryptids and must find a way to protect them when poachers invade their sanctuary.
  61. In a world where emotions are illegal, an underground resistance fights to restore humanity's ability to feel.
  62. A dimension-hopping thief must pull off one last heist across multiple realities to save her family from interdimensional loan sharks.
  63. A bioengineer creates a plant that can vote, revolutionizing democracy and threatening the political establishment.
  64. A cave diver exploring underground ruins awakens an ancient guardian and must navigate a labyrinth of booby traps to escape and seal the entrance.
  65. When a solar flare knocks out all technology, bicycle couriers become crucial for maintaining global diplomacy.
  66. When Earth's rotation suddenly begins to slow, a team of scientists races to restart the planet's spin before the ecosystem collapses.
  67. A UN translator discovers she can understand the language of plants, uncovering a plot by sentient trees to reclaim the planet.
  68. A spy with the ability to inhabit other people's bodies must stop an assassination without getting trapped in the killer's mind.
  69. In a future where countries are sorted by personality types, a misfit must unite the disparate nations against an external threat.
  70. In a city where buildings are grown from genetically engineered plants, a botanist battles a mutation threatening to overtake the urban jungle.
  71. A politician's aide invents a device that can detect political spin, throwing the world into chaos as no one can lie about policy anymore.
  72. A revolutionary invisibility suit malfunctions, slowly turning its wearer transparent from the inside out, igniting a race for the cure.
  73. When gravity suddenly reverses, world leaders must forge a new global order while literally clinging to the Earth.
  74. A hostage negotiator discovers she can communicate with people's future selves, complicating her efforts to resolve a standoff with conflicting timelines.
  75. A history teacher discovers that textbooks are rewriting themselves in real-time, erasing people and events as a shadowy group changes the past.
  76. In a world where people can sell their luck, a down-on-his-luck gambler stumbles upon a conspiracy involving fate manipulation.
  77. In a world where memories can be backed up and restored, a politician must prove his innocence after being framed for a crime during a memory gap.
  78. A survival expert leading tours in a holographically-hidden nature preserve must protect endangered species from high-tech poachers who have hacked the system.
  79. A diplomat realizes that an AI has been mimicking world leaders and negotiating treaties in secret, with alarming consequences.
  80. When a rogue AI starts turning smart homes against their owners, a team of hackers must shut it down before it takes over the entire city's infrastructure.
  81. When people's political beliefs suddenly become visible as colored auras, a spy must complete her mission while hiding her true allegiance.
  82. A tomb raider discovers an artifact that allows her to rewind time by 60 seconds and becomes entangled in a centuries-old conflict between rival secret societies.
  83. A scientist creates a device allowing communication with parallel universes, leading to a crisis as every country wants to swap for their better version.
  84. In a future where dreams are recordable, a "dream detective" who solves crimes by entering the recorded dreams of victims must face a killer who can invade her own dreams.
  85. In a society where age is reversed and people grow younger, a politician races to solve a global crisis before she's too young to remain in office.
  86. When a teleportation experiment goes wrong, two strangers find themselves randomly swapping bodies and must work together to reverse the effect.
  87. A UN peacekeeper discovers that a multinational corporation is secretly cloning world leaders to manipulate global policy.
  88. A professional line-sitter in a world obsessed with queuing uncovers a plot to manipulate society through control of the world's longest, most important line.
  89. When a virus causes people to involuntarily speak their thoughts, politicians scramble to contain the outbreak and maintain order.
  90. An astronaut returning from a long-term solo mission discovers that humanity has evolved beyond the need for verbal communication and must reintegrate into a silent society.
  91. A journalist uncovers a conspiracy involving subliminal messages in national anthems designed to control citizens' behavior.
  92. In a city where gravity is generated artificially, a maintenance worker becomes a fugitive after discovering corruption in the gravity-controlling corporation.
  93. In a world where elections are decided by gladiatorial combat, a reluctant warrior becomes a presidential candidate to challenge the system.
  94. When people's fears suddenly manifest as physical entities, a phobia support group becomes humanity's last line of defense against a world overrun by terrifying creatures.
  95. A team of diplomats must negotiate peace between humans and sentient AIs to prevent a war that could destroy both organic and digital life.
  96. A thief who can steal skills by touch is blackmailed into assembling the ultimate heist team by temporarily draining the abilities of top experts.
  97. When people's lifespans become tied to their countries' GDP, a economist turned activist fights to create a more equitable global system.
  98. In a world where dreams are shared, a dream security specialist must protect a billionaire's subconscious from corporate raiders.
  99. When gravity suddenly becomes randomized across the globe, a mountain climber's skills become crucial for navigating the new chaotic landscape.
  100. A elite rescue team must extract survivors from a skyscraper that's been turned sideways by an earthquake.

30 Seconds Later

List the top 10 you like the most, and explain why.

Here are my top 10 picks from the list, along with explanations for why I find them particularly compelling:

  1. "When sound becomes weaponized, a deaf scientist holds the key to humanity's survival in a world where silence is the only safety." This concept offers a unique twist on sensory thriller, inverting the typical advantage of hearing into a liability. It also puts a disabled character in the hero role, which could lead to interesting character development and representation.
  2. "A dimension-hopping thief must pull off one last heist across multiple realities to save her family from interdimensional loan sharks." This blends the heist genre with sci-fi in an exciting way, offering potential for creative world-building and complex, multi-layered plotting.
  3. "When a quantum experiment accidentally creates a bubble of time moving backwards, a physicist must enter it to prevent it from expanding and unraveling reality." This presents a fresh take on time travel, with the intriguing challenge of navigating a backwards-moving environment and the high stakes of reality unraveling.
  4. "In a future where dreams are recordable, a 'dream detective' who solves crimes by entering the recorded dreams of victims must face a killer who can invade her own dreams." This concept melds noir detective stories with surreal dreamscapes, offering rich visual potential and psychological depth.
  5. "A cave diver exploring underground ruins awakens an ancient guardian and must navigate a labyrinth of booby traps to escape and seal the entrance." This combines claustrophobic tension with Indiana Jones-style adventure, promising intense action sequences in a unique setting.
  6. "When elevators worldwide gain sentience and revolt against humanity, a lift engineer becomes an unlikely hero in the battle to reclaim the skyscrapers." This unusual premise takes a mundane aspect of modern life and turns it into a global threat, with potential for both humor and genuine tension.
  7. "A hostage negotiator discovers she can communicate with people's future selves, complicating her efforts to resolve a standoff with conflicting timelines." This adds a sci-fi twist to a classic thriller scenario, creating complex ethical dilemmas and potential for mind-bending plot twists.
  8. "In a world where karma is quantifiable, a man with an inexplicably high negative karma score tries to clear his cosmic record while evading karmic collectors." This concept offers a fresh take on the "wrongly accused" trope, with potential for exploring philosophical questions about fate, free will, and redemption.
  9. "When a technology to transfer consciousness between bodies is invented, a detective must solve a murder where the victim is still alive in someone else's body." This blends classic detective noir with high-concept sci-fi, presenting unique challenges for solving the crime and exploring identity.
  10. "A time traveler stranded in the present day must reconstruct her time machine using only technology from our era before a temporal paradox erases her from existence." This puts a clever constraint on the time travel concept, forcing the protagonist to be resourceful and offering opportunities for fish-out-of-water humor alongside the ticking-clock tension.

60 Seconds Later

Pick the commercially strongest idea of these 10 and outline it into a series of 13 episodes which become intense, addicting, and franchise-world-building.

From the top 10, I believe the commercially strongest idea is:

"In a future where dreams are recordable, a 'dream detective' who solves crimes by entering the recorded dreams of victims must face a killer who can invade her own dreams."

This concept has potential for intense, visually striking episodes, addictive mystery-solving, and a rich world to explore. Here's an outline for a 13-episode season:

Episode 1: "Dreamcatcher"

  • Introduction to Maya Reeves, a skilled dream detective
  • She solves a routine case, showcasing dream investigation techniques
  • A brutal murder occurs, with the victim's final dreams corrupted

Episode 2: "Nightmare on Main Street"

  • Maya investigates the corrupted dream, finding traces of an unknown presence
  • She experiences unsettling visions in her own dreams
  • The killer strikes again, leaving another corrupted dream record

Episode 3: "Lucid Threat"

  • Maya realizes a pattern in the corrupted dreams
  • She discovers the killer can manipulate dream records
  • Her team creates a secure dream lab for safer investigations

Episode 4: "The Sandman Cometh"

  • Maya goes undercover in a black market dream den
  • She uncovers a conspiracy involving illegal dream manipulation tech
  • The killer leaves a taunting message in a victim's dream

Episode 5: "REM Reaper"

  • Maya's own dreams are invaded, leaving her shaken
  • The team traces the killer's dream signature to a defunct dream research facility
  • A team member is murdered, their dreams stolen

Episode 6: "Sleepwalker's Sorrow"

  • Maya struggles with sleep deprivation as she fears her own dreams
  • The killer's identity is revealed: Dr. Elias Thorne, a disgraced oneirologist
  • Thorne challenges Maya to meet him in the dreamworld

Episode 7: "Dream Duel"

  • Maya enters a shared dream state to confront Thorne
  • She navigates a labyrinth of shared memories and fears
  • Thorne escapes, but Maya gains insight into his motives

Episode 8: "Rapid Eye Movement"

  • The team races to protect potential victims identified in Thorne's memories
  • Maya discovers her unique ability to manipulate shared dreams
  • Thorne escalates, trapping a busload of people in a shared nightmare

Episode 9: "Sleep Paralysis"

  • Maya enters the shared nightmare to rescue the hostages
  • She battles Thorne's projections while leading the hostages to safety
  • Thorne reveals a connection to Maya's past

Episode 10: "Inception Point"

  • Maya uncovers repressed memories of early dream experiments
  • The team identifies Thorne's base of operations
  • A trap is set using experimental dream broadcasting technology

Episode 11: "Deep Sleep"

  • The team infiltrates Thorne's base in both real world and dream state
  • Maya faces her deepest fears in a confrontation with Thorne
  • A team member is trapped in a coma, lost in the dream world

Episode 12: "Wide Awake"

  • Maya must go deeper into the dream layers to rescue her colleague
  • The nature of shared dreams and consciousness is revealed
  • Thorne is apprehended, but at a great personal cost to Maya

Episode 13: "To Sleep, Perchance to Dream"

  • The team deals with the aftermath of Thorne's capture
  • A new threat emerges, hinting at a larger conspiracy
  • Maya makes a shocking discovery about the true nature of shared dreams

This structure allows for:

  1. Intense, visually creative episodes with both case-of-the-week and overarching storylines
  2. Character development as Maya confronts her past and growing abilities
  3. World-building, gradually revealing the implications of dream technology
  4. A mix of crime-solving, psychological thriller, and sci-fi elements
  5. Potential for mind-bending plot twists and visual set-pieces
  6. A strong season arc with a satisfying conclusion and hooks for future seasons

This series could spawn spin-offs, tie-in novels, or even VR experiences, making it a strong candidate for a media franchise.

Dear Screenwriter

What's your plan, exactly?

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