A scientist builds a satellite system that ends World War III; then must find a way to disable it to prevent another holocaust in the battle of Armageddon.

Judgment at Armageddon

3 reviews

Former member Penpusher · 20 pts

This logline is a bit confused and circular as it currently stands. A satellite system prevents WWIII yet needs to be disabled during some later world war? The why and the how is left too unsaid. Greater clarity is needed to prevent a reader from scratching their head and just moving on.

Here's an example of greater clarity: "A new orbital guardian system is equiped with artificial intelligence that can swiftly cut short any explosive war. When the machine intelligence calculates that a small population is an acceptable loss, its inventor must turn against it."

Steven Fernandez (Judge)

debbiemoon Penpusher · 26 pts

Leaving aside any theological issues (I'm reasonably sure no one would be able to stop Armageddon, but let's face it, that's never stopped Hollywood before!)... This is a pretty decent logline. The only problem is that the reader's first instinct is to think "How could a computer system cause a Biblical event?" so I think you need to find a way of hinting at that in the logline, preferably without making it much longer...

karlosd 0 pts

Hey Swede,

My issue here is the disconnect between a system that shuts down wars, and the idea of Armageddon: I don't know if you mean the real Biblical Armageddon (which is implied by the phrase 'battle of'), or WW4 (and why didn't the scientist include an 'off' switch :-)

I quite like the idea of it being the literal Armageddon - otherwise you have to wonder why what worked for WW3, won't work again for WW4. So with that said, here's my reworked version:

"A self aware satellite forces the end of World War III, but the scientist who designed it realizes he must find a way to shut the system down before it triggers the prophecies of the End Times."