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Winepress of the Gods
Remember all those movies where the parent die trying to save his/her child.
If the choice is between their life or the safety of their child, most parents would choose safety of their child.
If the choice is between sacrificing yourself and making sure that your loved one are safe and free, I don't really think that it is a difficult decision.
The film just need to show that eternal slavery in horrible condition without any hope of escape is really a bad situation. For example, show children of another society that have been subject to the same situation. Maybe they can't even commit suicide as their master have a revival collar. As soon as die, you are revived. You can't age, you can't die and your life life does not belong to you. To me that's worse than death!!
Enslaving my family is worse the getting killed? As a parent, this is news. This parent says enslavement is the lesser of 2 evils; at least they will live to fight another day.
However, if the characters in this story think that enslavement is the greater of 2 evils -- well, that's a different matter.
For a parent, enslaving your family is worse than getting killed.
I would say that it is the highest motivator you could find.
Forced labor is an idea, but I wanted the fear of death to be the main motivator to leave.
Why kill and hunt those who can't afford relocation, why not enslave?
You can't relocate, you become the forced labour of the planet. Or maybe your first born become slave.
Great ideas. Let's get started with an outline, then first draft.
Just an idea here:
Since this is based on "The Grapes of Wrath" I would think that it would be an "Intergalactic Space Bank" that would be foreclosing
When earth joined the galactic community we were given "Loans" in the form of technology but the galactic economy failed and now we can't pay back the loan.
As a result our planet has been foreclosed an is being sold to the highest bidder.
(Maybe the galactic banks give these "Loans" to young civilizations knowing full well they will default and they will eventually own the planets, they are basically "Legally Stealing" the planets)
The concept of selling the earth entails the premise that someone or some entity has legal title to it. Who/what owns the earth, has the legal right right to sell it from under the rest of us?
My argument for clarification of what is being sold still stands. At the moment, it sounds like HUMANITY has been sold to the highest bidder (which I can see from further context this is not the case).
But that vagueness is the problem. Your logline should tell me what the set up is about, and then what the protagonist's goal is in the rest of the story. It helps me understand the sort of movie am I going to watch (in this case, am I seeing a road trip, or a space opera, or half a dozen other possibilities). Because you've left it vague, what're you're saying with this logline is "This is how the story starts. Then ... a bunch of indeterminate stuff happens, and the stakes are survival." And that makes me very unlikely to want to read your movie, because all I know if that it starts with Earth being sold, and then a protagonist has to react to that (which is a given). What SPECIFICALLY does he have to do to save his family?
This is also the section where you would build your hook - your protagonist is the LEAST LIKELY person on the planet to be able to achieve said goal, but because the stakes are high enough, he is able to dig deep and save the day. If you leave your goal vague, you leave your protagonist vague and the hook of your movie vague. And that's going to make it very difficult to sell.
As far as cliche - I went with cliche intentionally. I was trying to make a point about being specific, not actually suggesting this be the plot for your movie.
Earth is not destroyed.
Sold = You! Get the f@ck out.
Intergalactic Stock market...Ebay...Crap game...Earth is no longer a place humans are aloud to live.
"must find a way..." Is intentionally vague (presidential daughter kidnapping is a possibility. Thanks.)
Staying away from 'Space Ark' or 'best and brightest'. Too cliche. Want to evoke that family units / social groups are only looking out for themselves.
Sounds very "Hitchhikers Guide."
Clarify what is being sold:
"After Earth is sold to a malevolent race on the intergalactic stock market ... "
then - "must find a way" doesn't grab me. I'd rather you just told me what great plan or adventure he had to go on to get his family off the Earth, "holds the President's daughter hostage in order to bargain a place for him and his family on board the "Space Ark" - a vessel evacuating humanity's best and brightest."
Hunted and killed with extreme prejudice. Not sure what other 'ticking time bomb' to add as a motivator.
