“When he falls into an abandoned well breaking his leg, a teenager must rescue himself or die from exhaustion.”

(A movie like 148 Hours, Open Water, Gerald’s Game, Gravity, and Frozen, where the protagonist is the trapped one.)

Or:

“When an abandoned well collapses on a young boy, a firefighter’s team must save him before he suffocates.”

Here, the protagonist is the rescuer.

You can choose to show both sides and that is ok, although more challenging (dual protagonist).

Why does “chaos ensue?” It’s often tempting to blur the story’s specifics by resorting to generic and clich? expressions. This is bad writing, first of all because it impedes our thinking. When we write the story, at one point or another we will have to come up with specific events. Thus, let’s cut to the chase:

Why can’t they take the boy out? Has the well collapsed on top of him? Is there a flood? Decide what the big obstacle is and put it in the logline.