Bruce Almighty

Theatrical release poster

***Bruce Almighty*** (or stylized as ***BruceALMIGHTY***) is a 2003 American fantasy comedy film directed by Tom Shadyac and written by Steve Koren, Mark O'Keefe and Steve Oedekerk. The film stars Jim Carrey as Bruce Nolan, a down-on-his-luck television reporter who complains to God (played by Morgan Freeman) that he is not doing his job correctly and is offered the chance to try being God himself for one week. The film is Shadyac and Carrey's third collaboration, as they had worked together previously on *Ace Ventura: Pet Detective* in 1994 and *Liar Liar* in 1997—the second of three collaborations between Carrey and Baker Hall after *The Truman Show* in 1998 and the next being *Mr. Popper's Penguins* in 2011. It co-stars Jennifer Aniston, Philip Baker Hall and Steve Carell (credited as Steven Carell in the film).

When released in American theaters on May 23, 2003, *Bruce Almighty* opened to mixed reviews from critics, but was a box-office success and grossed $86.4 million, making it the top Memorial Day opening weekend of any film in history at the time. The film surprised the industry's pundits when it beat *The Matrix Reloaded* the following weekend.

*Evan Almighty*, a spin-off sequel focusing on Steve Carell's character, with Shadyac and Oedekerk returning to direct and write, and Freeman also reprising his role, was released on June 22, 2007.

## Plot

Bruce Nolan is a television field reporter for *Eyewitness News* on WKBW-TV in Buffalo, New York, but desires to be the news anchorman. When Bruce is insulted by his rival, Evan Baxter, a vulgar on-camera outburst leads to his dismissal from the station. After a series of misfortunes, Bruce complains to God that "He's the one that should be fired".

Bruce receives a message on his pager, which takes him to an empty warehouse where he meets God. God offers to give Bruce his powers to prove that he is doing the job correctly. God tells Bruce that he cannot tell others he has God's powers (in order to avoid the media attention), nor can he use the powers to alter free will. Bruce is initially jubilant with the powers, using them for personal gains, such as getting his job back, exacting revenge on a street gang that bullied him earlier, and impressing his girlfriend, Grace Connelly.

Bruce finds ways of using his powers around Buffalo to cause miraculous events to occur at otherwise mundane events that he covers, such as discovering Jimmy Hoffa's body during a segment on police training, or causing a meteor to harmlessly land near a cook-off, earning him the nickname "Mr. Exclusive". Bruce then causes Evan to embarrass himself on-air, causing Evan to be fired in favor of Bruce as the new anchor. Bruce continues to hear voices in his head and re-encounters God, who explains the voices are prayers that Bruce must deal with. Bruce creates a computerized email-like system to receive the prayers and respond but finds that the influx is far too many for him to handle (despite only receiving prayers from the Buffalo area) and sets the program to answer every prayer *Yes* automatically.

Bruce attends a party celebrating his promotion. When Grace arrives, she finds Bruce kissing his co-anchor, Susan Ortega, after she forcefully comes on to him, and quickly leaves. Bruce follows her, trying to use his powers to convince her to stay but cannot influence her free will. As Bruce looks around, he realizes that Buffalo has fallen into chaos due to his actions: parts of the city believe the Apocalypse is nearly upon Earth due to the meteor strikes, while a large number of people, all having prayed to win the multi-million dollar lottery and received only seventeen dollars in return, have started rioting in the streets. Bruce returns to God, who explains that he cannot solve all the problems and Bruce must figure out a way himself. Bruce then starts to help others without using his powers, including giving Evan his job back. He returns to his computer at home and goes about answering prayers earnestly. As he reads through them, he finds a prayer from Grace, wishing for his success and well-being. As Bruce reads it, another prayer from Grace arrives, this one wishing not to be in love with him anymore.

Stunned by this development, Bruce walks alone on a highway, asking God to take back his powers and leaving his fate in His hands. Bruce is suddenly hit by a truck and regains consciousness in a white void. God appears, and He asks Bruce what he really wants; Bruce admits that he only wants to make sure Grace finds a man that would make her happy. God agrees, and Bruce finds himself in the hospital, where his doctors help him recover. Grace finally arrives at the hospital and rekindles her relationship with Bruce. Following his recovery, Bruce returns to his field reporting, but decides to take more pleasure in the simple stories at the end of the film.

## Cast

* Jim Carrey as Bruce Nolan
* Morgan Freeman as God
* Jennifer Aniston as Grace Connelly, Bruce's girlfriend
* Catherine Bell as Susan Ortega, Bruce's co-anchor
* Steve Carell (credited as Steven Carell) as Evan Baxter, Bruce's rival
* Philip Baker Hall as Jack Baylor
* Lisa Ann Walter as Debbie Connelly, Grace's sister
* Paul Satterfield as Dallas Coleman
* Nora Dunn as Ally Loman
* Eddie Jemison as Bobby
* Sally Kirkland as Anita Mann
* Micah Stephen Williams as boy on bike
* Tony Bennett as himself
* Carlos Sánchez as Juan Valdez
* John Murphy as himself
* Madeline Lovejoy as Zoe
* Noel Gugliemi as Hector
* Annie Wersching as woman at party