25 Loglines & Blurbs of Produced Black List Screenplays

Continuing my exploration of all things logline-related, I thought I’d collate and share 25 loglines and blurbs of produced Black List screenplays.

Super important note: In most cases, we don’t know for sure if what’s below are the actual loglines submitted by the writers or if they are blurbs generated by the films’ marketing and advertising teams. However, I’ll venture to say that it’s more likely that a Black List logline was written by the writer and an Amazon one was written by someone else; if you’re looking for logline inspiration, the Amazon ones probably should be avoided (it’s so obvious that I even crossed them out – you’ll see why).

Still, the below descriptions are great to study and learn from. 

Here they are…

1. Adventureland (2009)

• The Black List: When an uptight recent college graduate realizes he cannot afford his European dream vacation, he is forced to take a minimum-wage job at a local amusement park.
• IMDB: In the summer of 1987, a college graduate takes a ‘nowhere’ job at his local amusement park, only to find it’s the perfect course to get him prepared for the real world.
• Amazon: During the summer of 1987, a college grad who was to spend the summer in Europe before graduate school learns a great deal about life when he is forced to take a dead-end job at an amusement park when his parents have financial problems.

2. Air (2023)

• The Black List: The wild true story of how an upstart shoe company named Nike landed the most influential endorsement in sports history: Michael Jordan. 
• IMDB: Follows the history of sports marketing executive Sonny Vaccaro, and how he led Nike in its pursuit of the greatest athlete in the history of basketball, Michael Jordan.
• Amazon: From award-winning director Ben Affleck, AIR reveals the game-changing partnership between a then undiscovered Michael Jordan and Nike’s fledgling basketball division which revolutionized the world of sports and culture with the Air Jordan brand. Starring Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Jason Bateman, Chris Messina, Marlon Wayans, Chris Tucker, and Viola Davis.

3. Bad Teacher (2011)

• The Black List: After being dumped by her boyfriend, a foul-mouthed, gold-digging seventh-grade teacher sets her sights on a colleague who is dating the school’s model teacher.
• IMDB: A lazy, incompetent middle school teacher who hates her job, her students, and her co-workers is forced to return to teaching to make enough money for breast implants after her wealthy fiancé dumps her.
• Amazon: A foul-mouthed seventh grade teacher who is dumped by her sugar daddy starts to pursue a colleague, which provokes conflict with the school’s model teacher.

4. The Beaver (2011)

• The Black List: A troubled husband and executive adopts a beaver hand-puppet as his sole means of communicating.
• IMDB: A troubled husband and executive adopts a beaver hand-puppet as his sole means of communication.
• Amazon: A suburban dad (Mel Gibson) rebuilds his bottomed-out life, thanks to the unusual assistance of a beaver hand puppet. Jodie Foster costars in and directs a funny, rewarding film.

5. Book Smart (2019)

• The Black List: Two overachieving high school seniors realize the only thing they haven’t accomplished is having boyfriends, and each resolves to find one by prom.
• IMDB: On the eve of their high-school graduation, two academic superstars and best friends realize they should have worked less and played more. Determined not to fall short of their peers, the girls try to cram four years of fun into one night.
• Amazon: BOOKSMART is a comedy about two academic superstars and best friends on a mission to cram four years of fun into one night.

6. Bird Box (2018)

• The Black List: A woman tries to lead her children to safety after the world is invaded by monsters who turn you insane upon sight. 
• IMDB: Five years after an ominous unseen presence drives most of society to suicide, a mother and her two children make a desperate bid to reach safety.
• Amazon: N/A

7. Call Jane (2022)

• The Black List: Before Roe v. Wade in 1960s Chicago, a pregnant woman becomes a member of an underground group which provides abortions in a safe environment.
• IMDB: A married woman with an unwanted pregnancy lives in a time in America when she can’t get a legal abortion and works with a group of suburban women to find help.
• Amazon: Elizabeth Banks, Sigourney Weaver, and Wunmi Mosaku lead this poignant film about a 1968 Chicago woman whose illegal abortion compels her to join an underground women’s collective.

8. Cedar Rapids (2011)

• The Black List: After his co-worker dies from auto-erotic asphyxiation, an emotionally stunted insurance salesman from small town Wisconsin takes the man’s place at the division insurance convention in Iowa City, IA, only to find himself coming out of his shell as he bonds with his fellow conventioneers and gradually uncovers a money laundering scheme involving his employer.
• IMDB: Tim Lippe has no idea what he’s in for when he’s sent to Cedar Rapids, Iowa to represent his company at an annual insurance convention, where he soon finds himself under the “guidance” of three convention veterans.
• Amazon: A weekend insurance convention proves to be a hotbed of sex, booze and buffoonery for a naive young man in this comedy.

9. Challengers (2024)

• The Black List: Framed around a single tennis match at a low-level pro tournament, three players who knew each other when they were teenagers — a world-famous grand slam winner, his ambitious wife/coach, and their old friend who’s now a burnout ranked 201 in the world — reignite old rivalries on and off the court
• IMDB: Tashi, a former tennis prodigy turned coach, turned her husband into a champion. But to overcome a losing streak, he needs to face his ex-best friend and Tashi’s ex-boyfriend.
• Amazon: To jolt him out of his recent losing streak, a tennis player turned coach makes her world-famous, grand slam champion husband play a “Challenger” event against his former best friend…who also happens to be her former boyfriend.

10. The Descendants (2011)

• The Black List: A newly widowed father – also one of the richest men in Oahu, Hawaii – takes off with his two rebellious daughters to track down his dead wife’s ex-lover on the island of Kauai.
• IMDB: A land baron tries to reconnect with his two daughters after his wife is seriously injured in a boating accident.
• Amazon: George Clooney stars as a husband and father of two girls, who is forced to reestablish his relationship with his daughters after his wife suffers a boating accident.

11. Django Unchained (2012)

• The Black List: A freed slave named Django is trained as a bounty hunter by a German dentist named Schultz, and the two men set out to find Django’s enslaved wife.
• IMDB: With the help of a German bounty-hunter, a freed slave sets out to rescue his wife from a brutal plantation owner in Mississippi.
• Amazon: A former slave joins forces with the German bounty hunter who freed him and helps hunt down the South’s most-wanted criminals, all in the hope of finding his long-lost wife.

12. Don’t Worry, Darling (2022)

• The Black List: A psychological thriller about a 1950s housewife whose reality begins to crack, revealing a disturbing truth underneath.
• IMDB: While her husband leaves home everyday to work in a top secret facility, a young 1950s housewife begins to question her life when she notices strange behavior from the other wives in the neighborhood.
• Amazon: An unhappy housewife in the 1950s discovers a disturbing truth, while her loving husband hides a dark secret.

13. Easy A (2010)

• The Black List: A good-natured high school student uses the rumor mill to personal advantage by pretending to be the school slut.
• IMDB: When Olive lies to her best friend about losing her virginity to one of the college boys, a girl overhears their conversation. Soon, her story spreads across the entire school like wildfire
• Amazon: After a little white lie about losing her virginity gets out, a clean cut high school girl (Emma Stone) sees her reputation tarnished until she decides to use the rumor mill to advance her social and financial standing.

14. The Hangover (2009)

• The Black List: Forty hours before the wedding, three friends lose the groom at his bachelor party.
• IMDB: Three buddies wake up from a bachelor party in Las Vegas, with no memory of the previous night and the bachelor missing. They make their way around the city in order to find their friend before his wedding.
• Amazon: After a blow-out bachelor party, three groomsmen wake in their Las Vegas hotel room to find the groom is missing and they can’t remember a thing about what they did the night before.

15. Jennifer’s Body (2009)

• The Black List: A cheerleader with the perfect life becomes the girl from hell when she becomes possessed and begins killing boys in a small town.
• IMDB: A newly-possessed high-school cheerleader turns into a succubus who specializes in killing her male classmates. Can her best friend put an end to the horror?
• Amazon: Megan Fox is a luscious teen temptress whose night out with an occult-obsessed rock band leaves her beaten, bruised and lusting for blood.

16. The King’s Speech (2010)

• The Black List: George VI, also known as Bertie, reluctantly takes the throne of England when his brother, Edward, abdicates in 1936. The unprepared king turns to a radical speech therapist, Lionel Logue, to help overcome his nervous stutter and the two forge a friendship.
• IMDB: The story of King George VI, his unexpected ascension to the throne of the British Empire in 1936, and the speech therapist who helped the unsure monarch overcome his stammer.
• Amazon: A speech therapist helps King George VI overcome his stammer.

17. Manchester-by-the-Sea (2016)

• The Black List: An uncle is forced to take care of his teenage nephew after the boy’s father dies.
• IMDB: A depressed uncle is asked to take care of his teenage nephew after the boy’s father dies.
• Amazon: Casey Affleck leads an all-star cast in this acclaimed and poignant film about a solitary janitor whose life is transformed after he becomes the guardian of his 16-year-old nephew.

18. On the Basis of Sex (2018)

• The Black List: The story of Ruth Bader Ginsberg, as she faced numerous obstacles to her fight for equal rights throughout her career. 
• IMDB: The true story of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, her struggles for equal rights, and the early cases of a historic career that lead to her nomination and confirmation as U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice.
• Amazon: Felicity Jones stars as a young Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who brings a groundbreaking case to the U.S. Court of Appeals that overturns a century of gender discrimination.

19. Pale Blue Dot (2019)

• The Black List: Twelve months after returning from a space mission, decorated astronaut Laura Pepper is arrested for the attempted murder of a fellow astronaut.
• IMDB: Astronaut Lucy Cola returns to Earth after a transcendent experience during a mission to space, and begins to lose touch with reality in a world that now seems too small.
• Amazon: Natalie Portman stars in this captivating drama inspired by true events about an astronaut who struggles to adapt to her everyday life following a transcendent mission in space.

20. The Revenant (2015)

• The Black List: In 1870, a black scout is mauled by a bear and then left for dead by the white trappers he was leading. He survives and seeks revenge.
• IMDB: A frontiersman on a fur trading expedition in the 1820s fights for survival after being mauled by a bear and left for dead by members of his own hunting team. 
• Amazon: Leonardo DiCaprio portrays frontiersman Hugh Glass in this epic tale of survival. Horribly mauled by a bear and left for dead, Glass is driven to survive by his desire for revenge against the man who left him and murdered his son.

21. Slumdog Millionaire (2008)

• The Black List: An illiterate kid looks to become a contestant on the Hindi version of Who Wants to be A Millionaire in order to re-establish contact with the girl he loves, who is an ardent fan of the show.
• IMDB: A teenager from the slums of Mumbai becomes a contestant on the show ‘Kaun Banega Crorepati?’ When interrogated under suspicion of cheating, he revisits his past, revealing how he had all the answers.
• Amazon: N/A

22. Up in the Air (2009)

• The Black List: A ruthless human resources executive, whose job is to fire people, looks forward to the only joy he has in life, his millionth frequent flyer mile, a goal he pursues with zeal as the rest of his life falls apart around him because he is constantly on the road. 
• IMDB: Ryan’s job is to travel around the country firing off people. When his boss hires Natalie, who proposes firing people via video conference, he tries to convince her that her method is a mistake.
• Amazon: Academy Award winner George Clooney stars in this dramatic comedy as a corporate downsizing expert whose cherished life on the road is threatened just when he’s on the cusp of achieving his frequent flying dreams. Also stars Anna Kendrick.

23. Whiplash (2014)

• The Black List: Under the director of a prestigious but borderline abusive instructor, a young college student begins to lose his humanity in his quest to become the core drummer of the top jazz orchestra in the country.
• IMDB: A promising young drummer enrolls at a cut-throat music conservatory where his dreams of greatness are mentored by an instructor who will stop at nothing to realize a student’s potential.
• Amazon: Winner of 3 Academy Awards®, WHIPLASH tells the story of an ambitious student drummer (Miles Teller) and his ruthless teacher (J.K. Simmons) who will stop at nothing to achieve perfection.

24. The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)

• The Black List: The story of Jordan Belfort, a Long Island penny stockbroker who served 20 months in prison for refusing to cooperate in a massive 1990s securities fraud case that involved widespread corruption on Wall Street and in the corporate banking world.
• IMDB: Based on the true story of Jordan Belfort, from his rise to a wealthy stock-broker living the high life to his fall involving crime, corruption and the federal government.
• Amazon: Sex. Money. Power. Drugs. Brace yourself for a true story from legendary filmmaker Martin Scorsese. Leonardo DiCaprio stars as a young stockbroker hungry for a life of non-stop thrills, where corruption was king and more was never enough.

25. World War Z (2013)

• The Black List: A sober telling of the aftermath of a war fought against a legion of humans who were inflicted with a virus, died and were re-animated into flesh-eating zombies.
• IMDB: Former United Nations employee Gerry Lane traverses the world in a race against time to stop a zombie pandemic that is toppling armies and governments and threatens to destroy humanity itself.
• Amazon: Former United Nations investigator Gerry Lane (Brad Pitt) traverses the world in a race against time to stop a zombie pandemic that threatens to destroy humanity itself.