The “Survive” emotional logline is the most basic emotion because everyone wants to live. Survival can directly threaten the hero’s life or can be more abstract and threaten the hero’s world without necessarily threatening the hero physically.
In “The Martian”, the hero, Mark Watley, finds himself marooned on Mars where he must survive along enough until help arrives. In this case, if help fails to arrive in time, the hero will die.
Yet in the original “Planet of the Apes”, the hero is an astronaut who has returned to Earth after a long voyage, only to discover he’s landed on a planet run by intelligent apes. While his life is in physical danger, the real threat comes from the risk of being captured and imprisoned where he’ll risk being treated like an animal for the rest of his life.
So the “Survive” emotional logline creates a dilemma that looks like this:
Risk dying a physical or emotional death vs. Stay alive physically and/or emotionally
The “Survive” emotional logline typically involves the hero struggling against an actively hostile environment combined with possible human villains as well.
In “The Revenant”, the hero has been mauled by a bear and as he lies practically dead on the ground, his companions decide to abandon him and take all possible supplies he might need to survive.
Now the hero must not only survive in a hostile world without any tools or supplies, but he’s also highly motivated to get revenge on his companions when he finds them again.
In “127” Hours”, there are no villains actively making the hero’s life tougher. Instead, the hero has gone hiking down a canyon where a rock pins his arm, trapping him. Now the hero has a choice. He can simply wait to die or he can try and find a way to survive and eventually free himself from the rock that’s keeping him trapped.
“127 Hours” emphasizes the physical dangers to the hero from the lack of water and food to being isolated where there’s no chance anyone might find him. Sometimes the danger comes less from a hostile physical environment and more from active villains trying to kill the hero.
In “Alien”, the danger comes partially from the hero being isolated in a starship light years away from any help, but the real problem comes from an alien intent on killing every crew member in the ship.
So dying in the “Survive” emotional logline could come from two sources:
- Other characters
- A hostile environment
In horror stories, the threat death comes mostly from the villain while the hostile environment keeps the hero trapped and isolated. In survival stories like “The Martian” or “127 Hours”, the hostile environment represents the greatest threat where there may be no villains for the hero to overcome at all.
This is how the “Survive” emotional logline works in the following movies:
“It Follows”
- Villain – A relentless ghost who moves slowly but keeps coming at the hero
- Hostile environment – No matter where the hero goes, the ghost can follow
“Cast Away”
- Villain – No one directly threatens the hero’s survival
- Hostile environment – A deserted island
“Saving Private Ryan”
- Villain – An army of Nazis
- Hostile environment – The D-Day invasion battlefield
“Kill Bill, Vol. 1”
- Villain – An army of ninjas and bodyguards
- Hostile environment – Different buildings such as a house and a nightclub
“A Quiet Place”
- Villain – Blind, carnivorous monsters who hunt by sound
- Hostile environment – An ordinary town and house where making a sound can be deadly
The “Survive” emotional logline needs a unique villain (if there is one) and a unique hostile environment. Trying to survive on Mars is unique to “The Martian” while trying to survive a serial killer who can attack you in your dreams is unique to “A Nightmare on Elm Street”.
The hero’s greatest fear (Rock Bottom moment) occurs when all hope appears lost and there’s no chance of surviving. In “The Martian”, this occurs when the hero’s potato crop fails and the rocket delivering supplies to him blows up during launch. Now he’ll starve to death long before help can arrive.
In “Cast Away”, this Rock Bottom moment occurs when the hero thinks about suicide because he fears he’ll be stuck on the island forever and die alone there.
Following the hero trying to survive in a unique environment can be enough, such as trying to survive on Mars in “The Martian”, but sometimes a story needs the help of another emotional logline to give the story extra depth.
In “The Hunger Games”, the “Survive” emotional logline permeates the entire story as Katniss, the hero, first tries to comfort her little sister, Primrose, by telling her that it’s unlikely she’ll get picked. When her little sister does in fact get picked, Katniss quickly protects her by volunteering in her place.
This sets up the basic “Survive” emotional logline, but to help her survive, Katniss also needs the “Overcoming a character flaw” logline where her flaw is that she needs to be more likable. By being more likable, she can gain the help of sponsors who can send crucial supplies into the Hunger Games when Katniss might need it.
Katniss initially struggles with playing to the crowd to be more likable but with the help of fellow tribute Peeta, she gradually learns how being likable can be as huge advantage. When Peeta declares his love for her, Katniss is upset until she realizes how desirable that makes her in the eyes of potential sponsors.
Later when Peeta is seriously wounded, Katniss plays up their romance by kissing him to gain additional support. By the end of the Hunger Games, Katniss has made herself so likable that she’s sparked a rebellion in several districts.
In “Gravity”, the hero, Dr. Ryan Stone, is on her first space mission when debris collides with the space shuttle, destroying it and preventing her from getting back to Earth. Now she must survive in outer space and use the “Survive” emotional logline to find a way back home.
To help her survive, she must also use the “Not believing in themselves” emotional logline to gradually learn she has the skill and knowledge to survive and get back home by using the wreckage of different space stations floating in orbit.
As the hero gains confidence in herself, she gets closer to getting back home until she finally succeeds and lands successfully back on Earth.
When creating a story using the “Survive” emotional logline, make sure the villains and hostile environment are unique and strong enough to terrify the hero. If not, then your story may need an additional emotional logline to give the hero focus and direction.
The basic pattern for the “Survive” emotional logline looks like this:
- The hero is blissfully unaware of any problems until they suddenly find themselves in an unusually dangerous situation
- The hero takes action to relieve the danger, but this is only temporary
- The danger escalates dramatically
- The hero realizes they’re overwhelmed and need to escape
- The only way to survive is for the hero to confront the danger
- The hero survives (or does not)
In the original “Halloween”, the hero is just a high school teenager who has a job babysitting some kids. That’s when the villain, Michael Myers, starts stalking her and the hero’s friends. The hero initially ignores the villain but then the villain starts killing the hero’s friends.
When the hero goes to check on her friends, the villain attacks her but she fights back by stabbing him in the neck with a knitting needle, stabbing him in the eye with a coat hangar, and finally stabbing him in the chest with his own knife.
As the villain and hero struggle, Dr. Loomis, a psychiatrist who has determined that Michael Myers represents pure evil, spots the hero’s baby sitting kids running out of the house. Dr. Loomis charges into the house and when the hero yanks off the villain’s mask, Dr. Loomis fires six bullets into Michael Myers, knocking him off the balcony where he lands on the ground below.
Although the hero survives, so does the villain, leaving the story with an unsettling sense of dread and horror.
In “Alien”, astronauts on a mining starship are in suspended animation when suddenly they wake up early when the ship’s computer detects a strange message coming from an unknown planet. The ship’s computer wakes the crew so they can investigate this mysterious signal to determine what its origins might be.
When the crew investigates, they discover the wreckage of an alien starship. Even worse, they discover eggs that hatch. Suddenly a crew member finds himself incapacitated when the alien from the egg latches on to his face, which escalates the danger to the crew.
After bringing the alien and incapacitated crew member back on board the ship (against quarantine regulations), the crew appears to be ready to head back home. Then the crew member, who had the face hugger wrapped around his face, suddenly goes into convulsions where his chest bursts open and a new alien emerges.
As the crew tries to capture this new alien, they realize it’s grown tremendously and starts killing crew members one by one. Now the only way to survive is to get away in an escape pod, but the alien manages to find its way in there too.
The hero has no choice but to confront the alien and she does by opening the door and shooting the alien with a spear gun. Even then, the alien tries to get back into the escape pod until the hero turns the engines on, blowing the alien back out into space.
Finally, the hero has defeated the alien for good and puts herself back in suspended animation.
The “Survive” emotional logline is all about the unique and interesting ways the hero must confront danger and keep surviving each threat. The more memorable each threat, the more memorable and exciting the overall story will be.
(Updated versions of “The 15-Minute Movie Method“, “Story Starter“, “Emotional Log Lines” and “Writing Scenes For Screenplays” are now available on Amazon.)
