A disillusioned nuclear missile silo officer, yearning for job satisfaction, gets more than he bargained for when Earth is occupied by alien invaders and saving mankind means destroying Washington DC.

Hate to go medieval on technical elements of the premise, but:

It’s SOP that no single person can launch a missle. Two people must concurrently press launch buttons and the buttons are placed far enough apart so that no one person can reach both.

Operational personnel must go through intense psychological screening to even be selected for training, let alone get assigned. And the chosen few who make it through training are continually and rigorously tested and observed for mental fatigue and lack of commitment to the job. It would be a failure of the process for an unstable officer to get selected, a more massive failure for a burn out to remain on the job.

But no system is perfect. So let’s assume he beats the odds and slips through–

But we’re back to square one: the electronics have been laid out to prevent unilateral launching of a missle.

Further, the US gov’t has been worrying and working out nuclear scenarios for over 60 years now. [And taking notes on all the Hollywood movies made about a nuclear dooms day.] They’re not that stupid to locate emergency command centers for key operations inside DC or anywhere near. (I live in the region — trust me.)

And if aliens do occupy DC, and the officer launches a nuclear counterattack, it’s a once in a millenium opportunity to cleanse a portion of the planet of the pestilence of greedy lobbyists, corrupt politicians and toady journalists. Bring the bombs on! The audience will be cheering him on. (Like they did when the White House was blown up in the movie “Independence Day”.)

Technical readouts aside, I don’t see a congruent match between his flaw and his challenge. I don’t see any reason to like him or even pity him. Is it reasonable, credible to believe that the protagonist would be worried for a New York second about career burnout when the clock is ticking down, the fate of human life is on the line? When his own life is at stake?

And if that is his state of mind, what possible sympathy can one expect the audience to have for such a self-absorbed, myopic character?

And the next time aliens invade earth, have them pick on China instead. That’s where the money is for financing — and profiting from — big budget CGI optical orgies. (Seriously.)

Blue Parrot:

I am aware of the problems and scandals involving nuclear weapons from other news sources.

I would point out that the cheating scandal in the silos was symptomatic of the intense and unremitting pressure officers are under to be ready for the worst possible scenario, a genuine nuclear attack. Which competency they must consistently demonstrate if they are to fulfill their “yearning” for a specific objective goal: career promotions.

In comparison, the “yearning for job satisfaction” of your MC seems rather vague. I suggest a tighter focus, a more specific definition of whatever it is your MC yearns for. His objective goal can’t be to blow up DC. That’s the one thing he does not want to do, what he would only do in the last Act when all other options are exhausted. (And by definition, a dramatic objective goal is what the MC decides he wants to do by the end of Act 1.)

I did a scan of the web pages here for loglines with a plot involving aliens from space getting down and dirty on planet earth. I got 50+ hits. That’s why If I’m went into medieval mode: your idea is running in a very competitive, very crowded field.

fwiw

And make it a crisis shared with his shift partner, a female officer. That’s the obvious and more realistic go-to for the “B” story. Considering the layers of security around each silo, it’s not likely that an outsider could get anywhere close enough to beseech shelter from the storming aliens.

And mixed-sex shift partners get into affairs all the time.