This is an idea I’ve had for a while for a short film: After a depressed alien calls into a radio show and threatens to destroy the city, the host, a suicidal middle aged woman, must talk down the alien and prevent mass destruction.

The inciting incident needs to be irrevocable proof that a danger to the city exists, or else it fails to provide the necessary and sudden shift in the world of the MC.

Secondly, about the goal: just talking a terrorist out of doing the bad thing they intend to do is not enough. If someone outright threatens the lives of all the people in the city I live in, I would have to catch them and put them in jail to rest at ease. The goal, therefore, doesn't match up to the stakes at hand. Perhaps make it so she needs to keep him on the line long enough for the authorities to trace his call and find his location.

A quick floating question: why is the host "suicidal", that almost seems like a trope-y trait at this point. How does her being suicidal correlate to the action of the story? Why would she care if the city is destroyed if she's going to kill herself? Why would she even go to work -- if she's truly suicidal, that means she should be literally on the edge, not just thinking about it. Hope this helps.

A quick floating question: why is the host "suicidal", that almost seems like a trope-y trait at this point. How does her being suicidal correlate to the action of the story? Why would she care if the city is destroyed if she's going to kill herself? Why would she even go to work -- if she's truly suicidal, that means she should be literally on the edge, not just thinking about it. Hope this helps.