Detects when a screenplay is an assembly of familiar parts — stock premises, predictable beats, and scenes the audience has already seen in 50 other movies.

## Key Points

- The script feels like "I've seen this movie"
- The logline could describe multiple existing films
- Beat sheet matches a well-known template too closely
- AI generated the story and it follows the most common version of its genre
- After structural and character audits, to assess conceptual originality
1. **Chosen One**: ordinary person discovers they're destined to save the world
2. **The Ticking Bomb**: must disarm/stop X before time runs out (with a visible countdown)
3. **The Mismatched Partners**: two opposites forced to work together, learn from each other
4. **The Liar Revealed**: protagonist deceives everyone, is exposed at Act 2 break, must earn trust back
5. **The Big Game/Competition**: underdog team/individual trains for and wins the championship
6. **One Last Job**: retired criminal pulled back in for one final heist
7. **Fish Out of Water**: person from environment A struggles comically in environment B

Originality & Logline Scanner (Screenplay)

Detects when a screenplay is an assembly of familiar parts — stock premises, predictable beats, and scenes the audience has already seen in 50 other movies.

When to Use This Skill

• The script feels like "I've seen this movie"
• The logline could describe multiple existing films
• Beat sheet matches a well-known template too closely
• AI generated the story and it follows the most common version of its genre
• After structural and character audits, to assess conceptual originality

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The Screenplay Cliché Catalog

Premise Clichés

1. Chosen One: ordinary person discovers they're destined to save the world
2. The Ticking Bomb: must disarm/stop X before time runs out (with a visible countdown)
3. The Mismatched Partners: two opposites forced to work together, learn from each other
4. The Liar Revealed: protagonist deceives everyone, is exposed at Act 2 break, must earn trust back
5. The Big Game/Competition: underdog team/individual trains for and wins the championship
6. One Last Job: retired criminal pulled back in for one final heist
7. Fish Out of Water: person from environment A struggles comically in environment B
8. The Body Swap: two characters switch bodies and learn about each other's lives
9. Groundhog Day Loop: character relives the same day until they learn the lesson
10. The Inheritance Clause: must fulfill bizarre conditions to inherit fortune

Scene Clichés

11. The Slow Clap: one person starts clapping, then the whole room joins
12. The Training Montage: character becomes competent through a music-backed sequence
13. The Villain Monologue: antagonist explains their plan while the hero is restrained
14. The Airport Chase: racing to stop someone from getting on a plane
15. The Funeral Speech: character delivers a eulogy that's really about their own journey
16. The Mirror Conversation: character talks to their reflection (internal conflict externalized badly)
17. The "It's Not What It Looks Like": character walks in on a misunderstanding, storms out before it's explained
18. The Slow-Motion Walk: team assembles and walks toward camera in formation
19. The "I Quit" Scene: protagonist leaves their soul-crushing job in a blaze of glory
20. The Mentor's Death Speech: dying mentor delivers final wisdom, protagonist cradles them
21. The War Room Briefing: team sits around a table while the plan is explained
22. The Torture/Interrogation Scene: bad guy threatens, hero refuses to talk, rescue arrives
23. The Hacking Scene: character types furiously, says "I'm in," green text scrolls
24. The "You Don't Understand": character storms out after failing to explain something they could easily explain

Beat Clichés

25. False Victory at Midpoint: everything goes right, setting up the reversal
26. The Third Act Breakup: team/couple splits up before reuniting for the climax
27. The Sacrifice Play: character volunteers to stay behind, everyone argues, they go anyway
28. The Cavalry Arrives: all hope is lost, then unexpected allies show up
29. The Post-Climax Scare: villain appears dead, then lunges one more time
30. The "One Year Later" Epilogue: time skip showing everyone's happy ending
31. The Ticking Clock Announcement: "We have [exact amount of time] before [disaster]"

Dialogue Clichés

32. "We've got company" (enemies approaching)
33. "You just don't get it, do you?"
34. "We're not so different, you and I" (villain to hero)
35. "I didn't sign up for this"
36. "It's quiet... too quiet"
37. "You had me at [word]"
38. "I need you to trust me"
39. "There's something you should see"
40. "We need to talk"
41. "I've got a bad feeling about this"
42. "Is that all you got?" (during a fight)

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The Logline Originality Test

A strong logline has:

• Irony: the premise contains an inherent contradiction or surprise
• Specificity: you can't replace details with generic equivalents
• A compelling "what if": the concept alone makes people want to see what happens
• Mental movie: you can immediately picture scenes

Logline Assessment

LOGLINE: "A burned-out detective must solve one last case before retirement."

ORIGINALITY SCORE: 12/100
MATCHES: Se7en, Lethal Weapon, every cop movie since 1985
PROBLEM: Nothing in this logline is specific or surprising.
The "last case before retirement" signals the case will be personal,
the detective will be pulled back in, and someone will say "I'm too
old for this."

IMPROVED: "A detective three days from retirement discovers her
unsolved first case from 20 years ago and the case she's working
now are connected — and the link is her own partner."

Now there's irony (the first and last case), specificity (20 years,
her partner), and a hook (how is her partner involved?).

The "What Existing Film Is This?" Test

For every script, identify the 3 films it most closely resembles. If you can identify them easily and the script doesn't differentiate from them, it's derivative.

THIS SCRIPT RESEMBLES:
1. The Fugitive (60% match — wrongly accused, running from authority)
2. The Bourne Identity (30% match — protagonist with unclear past)
3. North by Northwest (20% match — ordinary man in extraordinary circumstances)

DIFFERENTIATION: The protagonist is a public defender, not an action hero.
The "chase" happens through the legal system, not physically.

ASSESSMENT: Good — the familiar structure is applied to an unfamiliar context.
The legal system setting provides genuine differentiation.

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Genre-Default Detection

Each genre has a "default" version that AI generates when not given specific direction:

Action Default

Hero is ex-military → partner/family threatened → assembles team → training/prep → first attempt fails → discovers traitor → final assault → victory → one-liner

Romantic Comedy Default

Meet-cute → initial dislike → forced proximity → growing attraction → obstacle/misunderstanding → third act grand gesture → happy ending

Horror Default

Group goes to isolated location → strange things happen → one person investigates → deaths begin → reveal the monster/ghost/curse → final girl/boy survives → sequel tease

Thriller Default

Crime/conspiracy discovered → protagonist is in over their head → mentor/ally helps → betrayal → protagonist alone → uncovers the truth → confrontation → justice (or ironic justice)

Sci-Fi Default

Dystopian world → protagonist is different → discovers the truth → joins resistance → trained by mentor → attacks the system → sacrifice → system falls → new beginning

If your script's beat-for-beat matches the genre default, it needs differentiation. The fix isn't abandoning genre — it's finding the specific, personal, surprising version of the genre.

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Subversion Strategies for Screenplays

The "What If We Did the Opposite?" Method

Take the most predictable beat and invert it:

• The mentor LIVES and becomes a burden
• The liar is revealed and... nobody cares (the lie wasn't as important as they thought)
• The team loses the big game and the movie is about what happens after
• The chosen one refuses and someone else has to step up
• The couple gets together at the midpoint and the second half is about whether they can sustain it

The Genre Collision Method

Combine two genres that don't usually mix:

• Horror + courtroom drama
• Romantic comedy + heist
• War film + musical
• Sci-fi + kitchen-sink realism
• Thriller + mockumentary

The Specificity Method

Keep the familiar structure but make every detail hyper-specific:

• Not "a wedding" — a Sikh-Catholic fusion wedding where neither family approves
• Not "a heist" — stealing a prize-winning pig from a county fair
• Not "a haunted house" — an Airbnb where the reviews mention the ghost and it has 4.2 stars

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Output Format

# Originality Report
**Title**: [Script title]
**Logline**: [as written]

## Logline Assessment
**Originality score**: [N]/100
**Closest existing films**: [list with match percentages]
**What's genuinely new**: [if anything]

## Cliché Inventory
| Cliché | Page | Category | Severity |
|--------|------|----------|----------|
| ... | ... | Premise/Scene/Beat/Dialogue | Stock/Avoidable/Forgivable |

## Genre Default Match
**Genre**: [identified genre]
**Default match**: [percentage of beats matching the genre default]
**Differentiation points**: [where the script diverges]

## Beat Prediction Test
**Predictability**: [percentage of beats that match the most obvious version]

## Subversion Opportunities
[For each major cliché, 2-3 specific alternatives]

## What's Working
[Any genuinely original elements to preserve and build on]

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Anti-Patterns

• Demanding total originality. No story is 100% original. Audiences WANT some familiarity. The goal is enough originality to surprise within enough familiarity to satisfy.
• Confusing novelty with quality. A completely novel concept executed poorly loses to a familiar concept executed brilliantly.
• Punishing genre conventions. "The couple gets together at the end" is not a cliché in a rom-com — it's the genre contract. The cliché is HOW they get together.
• Ignoring market reality. Studios buy familiar concepts with a twist. Completely unfamiliar concepts are harder to sell. Originality must be balanced with accessibility.
• Subverting for subversion's sake. A subversion that doesn't serve the story is just a gimmick. Subvert when it makes the story BETTER, not just different.