The Black list

A relentless investigative reporter hunts a rumored ledger that lists payments and predators among the powerful—only to discover the ledger is both proof and trap, and that publishing the truth may cost her everything she loves.

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Overview

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Unique Selling Point

The screenplay's unique selling proposition lies in its intricate plot and the moral complexities of its characters. It delves into themes of power and corruption with a narrative that keeps the audience engaged through its well-paced tension and sharp dialogue. The story's exploration of redemption and the cost of truth sets it apart from typical thrillers.

AI Verdict & Suggestions

Ratings are subjective. So you get different engines’ ratings to compare.

GPT5
 Recommend
Gemini
 Recommend
Claude
 Recommend
Grok
 Recommend
DeepSeek
 Recommend
Average Score: 8.3
Key Suggestions
You have a muscular, cinematic pilot with a compelling lead, strong motifs (ledger, wolf-head, 'custody kills') and well-staged set pieces. The single biggest craft move to prioritize now is to sharpen consequences and emotional payoffs: tighten mid-act connective scenes, reduce some voice-over, and give Mason and Eli clearer, decisive arcs (a cathartic moment or consequence each) so their reveals feel earned. Also dramatize the procedural/legal mechanics around publishing (chain-of-custody, provenance) instead of summarizing them in V.O. — those scenes will increase credibility and heighten stakes while preserving your visual style.
Story Facts

Genres: Thriller, Drama, Mystery, Crime, Action, Suspense

Setting: Contemporary, Urban settings including a city, newsrooms, safehouses, and various clandestine locations

Themes: Truth vs. Power, Moral Ambiguity, Family Legacy, Surveillance and Paranoia, Betrayal, Redaction and Erasure, The Price of Truth

Conflict & Stakes: Dana's investigation into a conspiracy involving a dangerous ledger puts her life and the lives of those she cares about at risk, as she navigates threats from powerful adversaries.

Mood: Tense and suspenseful

Standout Features:

  • Unique Hook: The concept of a dangerous ledger that connects powerful individuals to dark secrets, driving the narrative.
  • Plot Twist: The revelation of personal connections between characters, particularly Dana's father and Kerrick, adding emotional depth to the stakes.
  • Innovative Ideas: The use of modern investigative techniques and the interplay between journalism and personal narratives.
  • Distinctive Settings: A variety of urban environments, including newsrooms, safehouses, and clandestine meeting spots that enhance the story's tension.

Comparable Scripts: Zodiac (2007), The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2005), Gone Girl (2012), The Silence of the Lambs (1991), Nightcrawler (2014), The Wire (2002-2008), Se7en (1995), The Killing (2011), Chinatown (1974)

Script Level Analysis

This section delivers a top-level assessment of the screenplay’s strengths and weaknesses — covering overall quality (P/C/R/HR), character development, emotional impact, thematic depth, narrative inconsistencies, and the story’s core philosophical conflict. It helps identify what’s resonating, what needs refinement, and how the script aligns with professional standards.

Screenplay Insights

Breaks down your script along various categories.

Overall Score: 7.88
The single biggest thing to fix is clarity of motivation and pace in the opening third: make who wants what, why, and at what cost unmistakable early on, and give key supporting characters (especially Eli and Mason) one or two concrete, memorable scenes that reveal their stakes and loyalties. Practically: tighten Scenes 1–5 by trimming atmospheric detours that obscure the hook; add a compact, specific beat that shows Eli’s past obligation (a flash of the wolf patch plus a short line that ties to a concrete debt) and a moment where Mason’s moral compromise is exposed on-screen (not implied). These fixes will anchor the story emotionally, make the ledger’s threat intelligible, and let the audience invest in choices rather than puzzle through them.
Story Critique

Big-picture feedback on the story’s clarity, stakes, cohesion, and engagement.

The script has a strong central concept and a compelling lead in Dana, but it’s burdened by scope and ambiguity. Prioritize the core conflict — Dana versus Kerrick and the ledger — by trimming peripheral subplots and consolidating antagonists. Clarify key character motivations (especially Eli, Mason, Sera) with short, focused beats that reveal why they make the choices they do. Make the ledger’s mechanics and stakes more concrete and give the ending a clearer emotional payoff that shows the cost to Dana and her allies. Small structural changes (a concrete early case hook, a ticking clock, and one or two emotionally honest scenes between Dana and her mother/Mason) will sharpen pacing and amplify the story’s moral weight.
Characters

Explores the depth, clarity, and arc of the main and supporting characters.

The character work is strong—Dana is compelling, Eli grounded, Kerrick menacing, Sera principled, Mason conflicted—but the script needs a tighter emotional throughline anchored to Dana. Right now her investigative momentum is clear, but her internal transformation and the key turning points that make the audience root for (and understand) her choices are diffuse. Focus the rewrite on sharpening Dana's arc: pick 2–3 scenes that will be the visible pivots (moment of discovery, a betrayal/decision point, and a moral choice with personal cost) and heighten the emotional consequences in those beats. Make quieter scenes (e.g., her apartment memo) more active or use them to reveal vulnerability through interaction rather than exposition. Strengthen the Dana–Eli and Dana–Mason dynamics so her trust issues and growth are dramatized, and give Kerrick a brief humanizing fracture to avoid a purely static antagonist. Small structural and tonal edits—clearer turning points, more cause-and-effect for Dana’s choices, and making interior stakes visible—will substantially increase the drama and clarity without rewriting the entire plot.
Emotional Analysis

Breaks down the emotional journey of the audience across the script.

The screenplay’s plot mechanics and suspense are strong, but the emotional throughline needs sharpening: Dana is often a cipher of determination and dread, which limits audience empathy and reduces the emotional payoff of key reveals. Prioritize a few targeted beats that humanize her—expanded flashbacks, a raw post-trauma moment, and one or two quiet, lighter exchanges with Eli or Mason—to create contrast with the sustained tension. These small additions will deepen character stakes, make the climax land harder, and give readers/viewers emotional breathing room without diluting the thriller drive.
Goals and Philosophical Conflict

Evaluates character motivations, obstacles, and sources of tension throughout the plot.

The analysis shows the script's strongest engine is its Truth vs. Consequence dilemma, anchored by Dana's personal stakes (her father, her mother, Mason). To improve: tighten and dramatize the moments where Dana must choose between publishing and protecting people so the philosophical conflict drives every major beat. Consolidate or pare secondary characters and scenes that dilute causality, and lean into a clearer emotional payoff for Dana—make the burning-of-the-page and the public release feel like the inevitable, painful resolution of the arc rather than a symbolic afterthought.
Themes

Analysis of the themes of the screenplay and how well they’re expressed.

This is a rich, propulsive investigative thriller with a clear central engine (Dana vs. the ledger) and powerful motifs (surveillance, erasure, custody). To strengthen it creatively, tighten the emotional throughline: make Dana’s personal stake (her family legacy) and moral arc unmistakable and pay it off in a single, resonant choice at the end. Simplify or consolidate red herrings and ambiguous loyalties that currently diffuse focus (e.g., Mason, Eli’s wavering allegiance) so every subplot intensifies the core theme—truth vs. power—rather than competing with it. Lean into the ledger-as-mirror metaphor visually and structurally throughout (recurring images, beats where Dana recognizes herself in the ledger), and prune scenes that stall momentum to keep the investigation forward and the stakes escalating toward a decisive, character-driven climax.
Logic & Inconsistencies

Highlights any contradictions, plot holes, or logic gaps that may confuse viewers.

Strengthen the emotional logic and plausibility. The script's investigative momentum and cinematic set pieces are compelling, but two weaknesses undercut the payoff: character motivation (chiefly Eli’s late-stage moral turn) and the organization’s near-omnipotence. Fixing these will deepen audience investment and make the final choices feel inevitable rather than theatrical. Give Eli clearer, earlier signs of conflict and a believable throughline toward the choice he makes; and modestly constrain the 'wolf-head' network so its reach feels threatening but not omnipotent — add small institutional checks, logistical costs, or visible internal limits to increase credibility without reducing stakes.

Scene Analysis

All of your scenes analyzed individually and compared, so you can zero in on what to improve.

Scene-Level Percentile Chart
Hover over the graph to see more details about each score.
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Other Analyses

This section looks at the extra spark — your story’s voice, style, world, and the moments that really stick. These insights might not change the bones of the script, but they can make it more original, more immersive, and way more memorable. It’s where things get fun, weird, and wonderfully you.

Unique Voice

Assesses the distinctiveness and personality of the writer's voice.

Your voice—taut, atmospheric, and smart—gives this thriller its strongest identity. Lean into that strength by pruning explanatory scenes and sharpening emotional through-lines: make Dana’s personal stakes (what she stands to lose and why she keeps going) clearer earlier, and let the world’s cruelty be shown as consequences rather than repeated exposition. Preserve the cryptic, elliptical dialogue but use it to reveal character choices, not just mood; tighten pacing around key set-pieces so the voice propels plot momentum instead of slowing it with texture alone.
Writer's Craft

Analyzes the writing to help the writer be aware of their skill and improve.

You have a compelling, atmospheric thriller with excellent tension, voice, and scene-crafting. The single biggest leverage point is to deepen character psychology—especially Dana and her relationships—so every plot beat feels driven by clear, sometimes conflicting motives. Tighten scenes to reveal inner conflict through subtext (dialogue, small gestures, choices) rather than exposition, and use the ledger as a character mirror (not just a MacGuffin). Prioritize 1) a clearer protagonist arc (what she must lose and what she must change), 2) sharper interpersonal stakes (why others help or betray her), and 3) disciplined pacing so revelations land emotionally, not only plot-wise. Use the suggested exercises (dialogue-only scenes, multiple POV rewrites, lie scenes) and study the recommended screenplays/books to convert atmosphere into resonant character-driven drama.
Memorable Lines

Spotlights standout dialogue lines with emotional or thematic power.

The five memorable lines point to a strong thematic spine — truth as a weapon, the ledger as the central power object, and paranoia as a survival skill — but they currently read like rhetoric rather than moments earned by character. Use these lines as structural anchors: make sure each is delivered at a decisive emotional or plot beat, and let action and subtext build to them instead of having them announce themes on the nose. Tighten distribution so Kerrick’s aphorisms feel menacing and self-serving, while Dana’s lines trace her arc from investigation to moral compromise. Trim any duplicate aphorizing; replace some exposition with small physical beats that prove these ideas rather than name them.
Tropes
Highlights common or genre-specific tropes found in the script.
World Building

Evaluates the depth, consistency, and immersion of the story's world.

You have a rich, cinematic world full of potent motifs (ledger, wolf-head, erosion/erasure, surveillance) and a tense plot with strong set pieces. The single biggest creative improvement is to tighten the world’s rules around the ledger and its consequences, and to anchor every scene more deliberately to Dana’s emotional arc. Trim or combine peripheral beats/characters that distract from her stakes; make the ledger’s mechanics and the cost of exposure concrete early on so plot momentum and moral choices escalate naturally instead of piling on more mystery. Also use recurring sensory imagery (sound of rotors, MRI hum, thermite flash) as a structural heartbeat to pace revelations and give readers/viewers emotional breathing room.
Correlations

Identifies patterns in scene scores.

Your screenplay nails sustained tension and a tightly wound conspiracy — but it rarely lets the audience breathe. The analysis shows an almost constant ‘Tense’ tone and uniformly high scene scores, which flattens emotional dynamics and risks numbing your payoffs. Add deliberate contrast: a few quieter, human moments (vulnerability, tenderness, real grief or small domestic beats) and clearer foreshadowing of the later ‘Defiant’ turn. Also audit scenes where Stakes score is high but Overall Grade dips and tighten dialogue, motivation, or clarity there so the tension pays off rather than feeling repetitive.
Loglines
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