Logline
Also: log line
A logline is a one- or two-sentence summary of a screenplay that names the protagonist, their goal, and the central conflict standing in the way. It is the script's elevator pitch — but more than marketing, it is a structural test: if you cannot write a clean logline, the story usually has a hole.
A good logline compresses the whole movie into a sentence: who the hero is, what they want, and what is stopping them, with a hint of the irony or hook that makes it distinct.
It doubles as a diagnostic. If the goal is fuzzy or the conflict is missing from the logline, those problems are almost always present in the script itself. Writers often draft the logline first, precisely to test the spine of the idea before committing months to pages.