Karel:

The logline I posted is the marketing version? featuring the story hook.? I have come to believe that to be the most important element in a spec script.

And based upon my understanding? of how the film came to be,? that is how the project got going.? The star/director,. John Krasinski, got involved on the basis of the hook .? But he was not satisfied with the spec script.? So he undertook a number of rewrites before arriving at the version that was shot. Hence, why he got the lead writing credit.

So I see this as an instance of a movie project that got going? more on the strength of the story hook than on the strength of the? plot of the original spec script.

As for a development version of the logline that sets out the inciting incident for the shooting script — good question!

The film opens in media res, sort of,? the monsters are already there.? And they kill a son.? Which creates a subjective problem, the daughter’s sense of guilt for her brother’s death and her relationship with her father.? And embedded in that is a theme?

Whatever, a development logline is supposed to focus one the objective problem and goal, not the subjective.

So, the story jumps forward to more than a year later.? The wife is pregnant, has almost comes to term.? Which raises the objective dramatic problem:? infants cry.? It could take years to train the child to remain silent.? Which raises the dramatic question: will she be able to safely deliver and raise the baby in such a hostile environment?

I throw the question back to you:? what do you think to be the inciting incident of the plot of the film that got made?