The only way to become a truly great writer is to learn from the masters. We have complied a collection of successful screenplays for you to reference, spanning many of film’s “pillar genres”, ranging from film classics like The Big Sleep to modern blockbusters like Armageddon.
Every screenplay is individually its own, just as your scripts are yours and yours alone. Use this resource as a place of reference, inspiration and motivation in order to find and grow your voice. That is what will truly elevate your work and get you noticed. Happy writing!
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CAPOTE
In 1959, Truman Capote learns of the murder of a Kansas family and decides to write a book about the case. While researching for his novel In Cold Blood, Capote forms a relationship with one of the killers, Perry Smith, who is on death row.
THE LAST SAMURAI
An American military advisor embraces the Samurai culture he was hired to destroy after he is captured in battle.
MUNICH
Based on the true story of the Black September aftermath, about the five men chosen to eliminate the ones responsible for that fateful day.
8 MILE
A young rapper, struggling with every aspect of his life, wants to make it big but his friends and foes make this odyssey of rap harder than it may seem.
BLOOD DIAMOND
A fisherman, a smuggler, and a syndicate of businessmen match wits over the possession of a priceless diamond.
GOODFELLAS
The story of Henry Hill and his life in the mob, covering his relationship with his wife Karen Hill and his mob partners Jimmy Conway and Tommy DeVito in the Italian-American crime syndicate.
THE BIG SLEEP
Private detective Philip Marlowe is hired by a rich family. Before the complex case is over, he’s seen murder, blackmail, and what might be love.
ANATOMY OF A MURDER
In a murder trial, the defendant says he suffered temporary insanity after the victim raped his wife. What is the truth, and will he win his case?
BRICK
A teenage loner pushes his way into the underworld of a high school crime ring to investigate the disappearance of his ex-girlfriend.
HEAT
A group of professional bank robbers start to feel the heat from police when they unknowingly leave a clue at their latest heist.
THE BODYGUARD
A former Secret Service agent takes on the job of bodyguard to a pop singer, whose lifestyle is most unlike a President’s.
FROM HERE TO ETERNITY
In Hawaii in 1941, a private is cruelly punished for not boxing on his unit’s team, while his captain’s wife and second-in-command are falling in love.
LOST IN TRANSLATION
A faded movie star and a neglected young woman form an unlikely bond after crossing paths in Tokyo.
SOMETHING'S GOTTA GIVE
A swinger on the cusp of being a senior citizen with a taste for young women falls in love with an accomplished woman closer to his age.
WHEN HARRY MET SALLY
Harry and Sally have known each other for years, and are very good friends, but they fear sex would ruin the friendship.
COMMANDO
A retired elite Black Ops Commando launches a one man war against a group of South American criminals who have kidnapped his daughter.
ARMAGEDDON
After discovering that an asteroid the size of Texas is going to impact Earth in less than a month, N.A.S.A. recruits a misfit team of deep core drillers to save the planet.
DIE HARD 2
John McClane attempts to avert disaster as rogue military operatives seize control of Dulles International Airport in Washington, D.C.
THE FUGITIVE
Dr. Richard Kimble, unjustly accused of murdering his wife, must find the real killer while being the target of a nationwide manhunt lead by a seasoned US Marshall.
INDIANA JONES & THE RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK
In 1936, archaeologist and adventurer Indiana Jones is hired by the U.S. government to find the Ark of the Covenant before Adolf Hitler’s Nazis can obtain its awesome powers.
EQUILIBRIUM
In an oppressive future where all forms of feeling are illegal, a man in charge of enforcing the law rises to overthrow the system and state.
ROBOCOP
In a dystopic and crime-ridden Detroit, a terminally wounded cop returns to the force as a powerful cyborg haunted by submerged memories.
BACK TO THE FUTURE II & III
After visiting 2015, Marty McFly must repeat his visit to 1955 to prevent disastrous changes to 1985…without interfering with his first trip.
Enjoying a peaceable existence in 1885, Doctor Emmet Brown is about to be killed by Buford “Mad Dog” Tannen. Marty McFly travels back in time to save his friend.
A CLOCKWORK ORANGE
In the future, a sadistic gang leader is imprisoned and volunteers for a conduct-aversion experiment, but it doesn’t go as planned.
THE MATRIX
A computer hacker learns from mysterious rebels about the true nature of his reality and his role in the war against its controllers.
THE DEVIL'S ADVOCATE
An exceptionally adept Florida lawyer is offered a job to work in New York City for a high-end law firm with a high-end boss – the biggest opportunity of his career to date.
THE OMEN
Mysterious deaths surround an American ambassador. Could the child that he is raising actually be the Antichrist? The Devil’s own son?
POLTERGEIST
A family’s home is haunted by a host of ghosts.
DAWN OF THE DEAD - 2004
A nurse, a policeman, a young married couple, a salesman, and other survivors of a worldwide plague that is producing aggressive, flesh-eating zombies, take refuge in a mega Midwestern shopping mall.
THE BIRDS
A wealthy San Francisco socialite pursues a potential boyfriend to a small Northern California town that slowly takes a turn for the bizarre when birds of all kinds suddenly begin to attack people.
PANIC ROOM
A divorced woman and her diabetic daughter take refuge in their newly-purchased house’s safe room, when three men break-in, searching for a missing fortune.
THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE - 2004
In the midst of the Gulf War, soldiers are kidnapped and brainwashed for sinister purposes.
COLLATERAL
A cab driver finds himself the hostage of an engaging contract killer as he makes his rounds from hit to hit during one night in Los Angeles.
THE CRYING GAME
A British soldier kidnapped by IRA terrorists soon befriends one of his captors, who then becomes drawn into the soldier’s world.
HOTEL RWANDA
Paul Rusesabagina was a hotel manager who housed over a thousand Tutsi refugees during their struggle against the Hutu militia in Rwanda.
THE 40 YEAR OLD VIRGIN
Goaded by his buddies, a nerdy guy who’s never “done the deed” only finds the pressure mounting when he meets a single mother.
THE ADDAMS FAMILY
Con artists plan to fleece an eccentric family using an accomplice who claims to be their long-lost uncle.
KISS KISS BANG BANG
A murder mystery brings together a private eye, a struggling actress, and a thief masquerading as an actor.
LEGALLY BLONDE
Elle Woods, a fashionable sorority queen is dumped by her boyfriend. She decides to follow him to law school, while she is there she figures out that there is more to her than just looks.
MEAN GIRLS
Cady Heron is a hit with The Plastics, the A-list girl clique at her new school, until she makes the mistake of falling for Aaron Samuels, the ex-boyfriend of alpha Plastic Regina George.
A GOOFY MOVIE
When Max makes a preposterous promise to a girl he has a crush on, his chances to fulfilling it seem hopeless when he is dragged onto a cross-country trip with his embarrassing father, Goofy.
THE IRON GIANT
A young boy befriends a giant robot from outer space that a paranoid government agent wants to destroy.
THE LION KING
A Lion cub crown prince is tricked by a treacherous uncle into thinking he caused his father’s death and flees into exile in despair, only to learn in adulthood his identity and his responsibilities.
THE RED TURTLE
A man is shipwrecked on a deserted island and encounters a red turtle, which changes his life.
TOY STORY 3
The toys are mistakenly delivered to a day-care center instead of the attic right before Andy leaves for college, and it’s up to Woody to convince the other toys that they weren’t abandoned and to return home.