Spec screenplays do this weird thing where they leave the most interesting, original, unique parts completely out.
As a for instance: a writer needs to get two characters in bed because the plot is about hiding the affair from co-workers. So the script just has them fall on top of each other and the plot rushes blithely back to the office.
What? No! We have to like them, care about them, be invested in THEM. Not the plot, which hasn’t even happened yet. What makes the spark between them? What makes this romance special? Why do we want it to work? That’s the actual story. We don’t want to stipulate it.
This happens all the time, with every plot point imaginable. You name it, it’s been thrown on the page, glossed over and forgotten by a screenwriter in a hell of a hurry to get to an act break.
Mine those things, dig to the heart of them, use them to develop your characters and build tension and make jokes and crank up the conflict.
Characters who do things just so the next plot thing can happen – we don’t care about them.