Extraterrestrial monsters destroy humanity, save for an obstinate survivalist who vows revenge.

Seems like the story could parallel Planet of the Apes, where the survivor must find some support from disenfranchised aliens and wage a counter offensive. Being a survivalist, he has pretty much already met his goal: he survived.

Very true.
This is in part why I originally suggested to give the MC a grand goal of stopping the aliens from doing this again. This way despite the lose of humanity there still are great stakes at hand.

>>he?s forced to fight, or risk discovery.?

Only discovery? Not death?

And if as the original logline suggests, the survivalist is indeed the last homo sapiens, after he wreaks revenge on the aliens -- what good will that do? Mankind is doomed to extinction anyway.

Bummer.

This version reads very well and describes a clear plot. I would only add a character flaw and reduce the word count a bit, for example:

During an alien invasion a paranoid man flees into the woods, after one of the tentacled interlopers stumbles across his camp he?s forced to fight, or risk discovery.

This reads like a setup for a film and sequel as presumably after the hero beats the alien he will need to beat the invading alien force in the second movie as well.

Thanks Nir, I appreciate the advice you've given regarding character goals. I've made a revision, can you tell me if you think it makes for a clearer plot? Does this still need more detail?

"During an alien invasion a fainthearted survivalist flees to a retreat he's prepared in the woods, but when one of the tentacled interlopers stumbles across his camp he's forced to fight, or risk discovery."

The latest draft of the logline describes a survival story with a clear inciting incident but no goal and as such fails to describe a compelling plot.

The goal needs to be directly related to the inciting incident.
What is it he wants to do as a result of the alien invasion?
To survive is a generic description that has no definitive ending, survive for how long? In what way? Where? How will this be visually captured on camera?

Better to specify the event or achievement that will make it clear he has survived. By this I mean for example; if he is being chased by a specific alien who is the only one that knows he is alive in the woods, then by killing this alien he will survive. His goal can then be to kill the chasing alien.

Other wise the latest draft proposes two possibilities in the end with neither answering the question of what will happen and neither indicating a complete plot.

Hope this helps.