When an earthquake infests an apartment complex with fast-breeding spiders, a young entomologist's plan to save the residents means forcing a war veteran survivalist from his home.

If you are keen to keep the war veteran he needs to have a higher function other than just a buddy for the hero ? either it?s a double-hander and the kid and the veteran team up to kick some eight legged butt, or alternatively, the veteran is a hidden antagonist who is behind the infestation? (just an idea).

Below is a shot at the buddy angle (and with such a teaming you would have an implication of a ?coming of age? type scenario?):

An eleven year old entomology enthusiast and a ww2 veteran team up to save the residents of their apartment block from an infestation of man eating spiders.?

As others have said, I can?t see the link/ stakes of the kid having to save the war veteran over anyone else? there is no mention of them being connected in any way (yet?) ? as in, are they related, are they best friends? Is he the kid?s mentor? What makes the veteran so special to the kid?

I might be completely off with the whole ?monster in the house? angle? but that?s just what I see when I hear about spiders infesting an apartment block. If the spiders aren?t dangerous, then the implication from your logline is that the boys main struggle is to get the war veteran to LEAVE the apartment?How do you stretch that over 90 plus minutes?

Don't mean to bug ya. ;)

...

"...turn the only..." = turn to the only

"...an geeky 11 year entomology..." = a geeky 11 year old entomology

;)..fwiw.

I saw your main plot as what Blake Snyder describes as 'monster in the house'...(there would be more tension if ALL tenants were trapped inside...more victims etc...) Maybe they could turn to an exterminator, but who then also falls victim to the eight legged freaks..? I don't know.

To be honest, my example was just how you could deal with the whole entomologist/ amateur/ no degree issue -- the 'hook' imho, is not the fact that the hero 'bonds' with anyone -- a great subplot/ 'B' story for sure, but the fact that the hero is an 11 year old geeky kid who's into entomology... for the sake of describing the arch plot in the logline, the war veteran doesn't require a mention -- but that's just from what I have gathered from your posts... He might be crucial to your story..? I don't know.

Anyway -- best of luck with it.