Movie Synopsis: How to Write One (Free Template and 3 Film Synopsis Examples)
A producer likes your logline and asks for more. They don’t want the script yet. They want a page that tells them the whole story, start to finish, so they can decide whether 110 pages are worth an afternoon. That page is your movie synopsis. Here’s what goes in one, how to write it, a free template and three full film synopsis examples you can copy.
TL;DR: The Whole Story on One Page
A movie synopsis is a one or two page summary of your whole film, including the ending. Write it in the present tense and the third person. Put each main character’s name in capitals the first time they appear. Cover the setup, the turning points and how it ends. Leave out subplots, camera directions and dialogue.
What Is a Movie Synopsis?
A movie synopsis is a short summary of a screenplay’s full story. It covers the main characters, the key events and the ending, usually in one or two pages.
Producers, agents, development executives and contest readers use it to judge a script before they commit to reading it. Studio readers write one too, as the first section of script coverage.
The synopsis sits between the logline and the treatment.
| Document | Length | Includes the ending? | What it’s for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Logline | One sentence | No | Getting someone interested |
| Synopsis | 1 to 2 pages | Yes | Showing the whole story works |
| Treatment | Several pages or more | Yes | Laying out every scene in prose |
| Screenplay | 90 to 120 pages | Yes | Shooting the film |
Should a Synopsis Include the Ending?
Yes. This is the rule writers most often get wrong.
A logline holds the ending back to make people curious. A synopsis is different. The reader needs to know that your story pays off, and they can’t judge that without the ending.
Script consultant Lucy V Hay puts it bluntly on Bang2write: “Yes, reveal the ending!!! Holding it back doesn’t make your story more intriguing.”
The one exception is marketing. A synopsis for a festival programme, a streaming page or a DVD box is written for audiences, so it stops before the twist.
Movie Synopsis Format
- Length: one page is best, two at most
- Tense: present tense (“Kevin wakes up alone”), not past
- Point of view: third person, even if the film has a narrator
- Names: put each main character in CAPITALS the first time they appear
- Header: title, writer, genre and your logline at the top
- Structure: one paragraph per act works well for most films
- Leave out: camera shots, scene headings, dialogue and minor subplots
How to Write a Movie Synopsis in 6 Steps
- Start with your logline. Put it at the top. Everything in the synopsis should grow out of it.
- List the turning points. Write down the inciting incident, the midpoint, the low point and the climax. These are the bones.
- Write the setup. Introduce the hero, their world and what they want. One paragraph.
- Write the middle. Show the obstacles getting worse, and how the hero changes. One or two paragraphs.
- Write the ending. Say exactly how it resolves, and what it costs the hero.
- Cut it to one page. Remove anything the story still makes sense without.
Here’s the test I run on every synopsis.
Read it back and underline every sentence that describes an event.
Then circle every sentence that shows how the hero feels about it.
If you have lots of lines and no circles, you’ve written a plot summary. A good synopsis shows the story and the person it happens to.
Free Movie Synopsis Template
Download the free movie synopsis template. Page 1 is blank. Page 2 is a filled-in example.
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The template is a one-page PDF with a header for your title, genre and logline, then three boxed sections for the beginning, middle and end. Each box has prompts to answer. Page 2 is a filled-in example using Home Alone.
3 Film Synopsis Examples
We wrote each of these film synopsis examples ourselves, using the format above. Each one covers the whole film, ending included, in under 300 words.
3) Home Alone (1990)
A family comedy synopsis, where the setup does most of the work.
HOME ALONE. Family comedy. Written by John Hughes.
It’s the night before the McCallister family flies to Paris for Christmas. Eight-year-old KEVIN, the youngest of five, is sent to the attic after a fight at dinner. He wishes his family would disappear. The next morning, a power cut makes everyone oversleep. In the rush to the airport, nobody notices Kevin is missing.
Kevin wakes up alone and thinks his wish came true. He eats junk food, watches forbidden films and explores his siblings’ rooms. On the plane, his mother KATE realises what they’ve done. With every flight home booked, she starts a desperate journey back.
Two burglars, HARRY and MARV, are working through the empty houses on the street. When Kevin sees them casing his house, he fakes a party to scare them off. It works for a day. Harry realises Kevin is alone, and they plan to break in on Christmas Eve.
Kevin turns the house into a trap. Paint cans, a hot doorknob, ornaments on the floor. The burglars walk into all of it. When they finally catch him, Kevin’s neighbour OLD MAN MARLEY, the man he’s been afraid of all film, knocks them out with a snow shovel. The police arrest them.
On Christmas morning, Kate walks in, having hitched the last part of the journey with a travelling polka band. The rest of the family follows. Kevin is happy to see them. Across the street, he watches Marley reunite with the son he’d fallen out with.
It works because the first paragraph sets up a want (Kevin wishes them gone) that the ending reverses. Marley’s reunion at the end is a subplot, but it earns one sentence because it pays off Kevin’s fear of him.
2) Finding Nemo (2003)
An animation synopsis that follows two stories and joins them at the end.
FINDING NEMO. Animated adventure. Written by Andrew Stanton, Bob Peterson and David Reynolds.
MARLIN is a clownfish who lost his wife and almost all of their eggs to a barracuda. Only one egg survived. His son NEMO, born with one small fin, is now old enough for school. Marlin can’t stop worrying. On Nemo’s first day, Nemo swims out to a boat to prove he isn’t scared, and a diver scoops him up and takes him away.
Marlin chases the boat and meets DORY, a blue tang who can’t hold a memory for more than a few seconds. She saw the boat, and she can read. Together they find the diver’s mask, with an address in Sydney written on it.
Nemo lands in a fish tank in a Sydney dentist’s office. The tank fish, led by a scarred Moorish idol named GILL, plan an escape before the dentist’s niece takes Nemo home as a present.
Marlin and Dory cross the ocean. They escape sharks, a field of jellyfish and a whale. Marlin learns to trust Dory, and to let go. Stories of his journey travel ahead of him, until a pelican carries the news to Nemo’s tank.
Marlin reaches the dentist’s office just as Nemo is playing dead to escape. Thinking his son is gone, he gives up and leaves Dory behind. Nemo slips down a drain into the harbour, where Dory meets him by chance and brings him back to his father. When Dory is caught in a fishing net, Marlin lets Nemo swim in to save her. Back home, Marlin waves Nemo off to school, no longer afraid.
This one tracks two locations, the ocean and the tank, and cuts between them. Notice the ending shows Marlin’s change. The whole story is about him learning to let go, so that’s what the final line proves.
1) The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
A thriller synopsis, where giving away the ending is the whole point.
THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS. Psychological thriller. Screenplay by Ted Tally, from the novel by Thomas Harris.
CLARICE STARLING is an FBI trainee with something to prove. Her boss, JACK CRAWFORD, sends her to interview DR. HANNIBAL LECTER, a brilliant psychiatrist jailed for killing and eating his victims. The FBI hopes Lecter can help them find BUFFALO BILL, a killer who skins the women he murders.
Lecter toys with her, then makes an offer. He’ll give her clues about Bill, but only if she tells him about her own past. Clarice agrees. Piece by piece, she tells him about her father’s death and the lambs she heard screaming on a ranch as a child.
Bill kidnaps CATHERINE MARTIN, a US senator’s daughter. The clock starts. Lecter is moved to Memphis in exchange for help, and he escapes, killing two guards.
Following Lecter’s clues, Clarice works out that Bill knew his first victim. She travels to the victim’s home town in Ohio and knocks on a door, looking for a witness. The man who answers is Bill. Clarice realises the truth and chases him into a pitch-black basement. Wearing night-vision goggles, he stalks her in the dark. She hears him cock his gun, fires first and kills him. Catherine is rescued alive.
Clarice graduates from the FBI Academy. At the party, she gets a phone call from Lecter, now free and abroad. He tells her he won’t come after her. As he hangs up, he follows DR. CHILTON, the prison director who tormented him, into a crowd.
A thriller synopsis lives or dies on its ending, which is why it has to be there. Without the basement and the final call, a reader can’t tell if the script delivers. The past Clarice trades with Lecter gets one short sentence, because it’s the emotional core of the film.
If you only remember one thing from these three, make it this.
None of them describe a single camera shot.
A synopsis is about story, not direction. Save the shots for the storyboard.
For what comes before the synopsis, see our guide to the logline. For the longer document after it, see the film treatment. For the arc your hero needs, see the character arc and Dan Harmon’s story circle. To take the next step, see how to sell a movie and our screenwriting guide.
A reader’s synopsis is the heart of script coverage. Practice by covering a script you admire.
Your synopsis also goes into your pitch. Our film pitch deck template has a synopsis slide and a one sheet with room for a short version.
FAQs About Movie Synopses
How Long is a Movie Synopsis?
One page is the standard, and two pages is the limit. Some contests and funding forms set a word limit instead. Always follow the form.
Is a Synopsis the Same as a Summary?
Nearly. A summary can be any length and any style. A synopsis follows industry format: present tense, third person, the whole story including the ending, on one or two pages.
Do You Need a Synopsis to Sell a Screenplay?
Not always, but you should have one ready. Producers and agents often ask for one after they read a query letter or hear a pitch, before they request the full script.
The Final Cut on the Movie Synopsis
A movie synopsis tells the whole story of your film on one page, ending and all. It’s how busy readers decide whether your script is worth their time.
Start with your logline, list the turning points and write one paragraph per act. Keep it in the present tense and cut everything the story can live without.
Download the template, use the film synopsis examples as a guide and write yours before you send the script to anyone.
Jay Neill
Jay Neill is the founder and managing editor of iFILMthings and believes everyone should have access to the film resources they need to plan their filmmaking project, which is why he’s dedicated iFILMthings to helping all filmmakers.
Hey Tom, I enjoyed your article, but I’d like to humbly recommend consideration for a different order of laying out your Synopsis:
1st – Logline
2nd – Title (I prefer logline over title, because the logline will help to inform and support the title better — with more info at hand)
3rd – Synopsis
4th – *Contact info
You want to use the logline as the HOOK, to motivate them to read the synopsis (which is your #1 GOAL) so why not put it first?
Then, after (HOPEFULLY) they read the logline … which excites them to read the synopsis — they read it and enjoy it … THEN, they can go to the bottom and read your contact info, to see WHO you are: because if you put that FIRST (this is true … like it or not) they may not recognize your name (and/or search IMDb) and toss your script aside.
This is a harmless method of social engineering, to improve your chances of getting your logline / synopsis read.
* Unless you’re a recognized name screenwriter, and/or, have big-time representation: then OBVIOUSLY — put your contact info FIRST !
Hey Robert, thank you very much for the feedback. Definitely we will take this in and discuss internally and have our content rewritten and updated.
We’re always looking to hear feedback and this comment is incredibly insightful.
Happy to add this to our in progress discussions and have this updated accordingly.
Thanks, Tom @iFilmThings