Plot
Bruce Nolan (Jim Carrey) is a television field reporter for Eyewitness News on WKBW-TV in Buffalo, New York but desires to be the news anchorman and he frequently complains about God. He also hints to a dislike of his blessed life and when he is passed over for promotion of the anchorman job by his arch rival, Evan Baxter (Steve Carell), he becomes furious and rages in an interview at Niagara Falls on public television, his actions leading to his indefinite suspension from the station, followed by a series of misfortunes such as getting assaulted by a gang of thugs for standing up for a blind guy that they were abusing. Bruce complains to God that "he's the one that should be fired".
Bruce later receives a message on his pager, directing him to an empty warehouse where God (Morgan Freeman) meets him. God offers to give Bruce his powers to prove that he is doing the job correctly. Bruce at first does not believe that God is who he says he is until magic tricks convince him. God tells Bruce that he cannot tell others he has God's powers, nor can he use the powers to alter free will. Bruce is initially jubilant with the powers, using them for personal gain, such as by getting his job back and impressing his girlfriend Grace Connelly (Jennifer Aniston). Bruce finds ways of using the powers to cause miraculous events to occur at otherwise mundane events that he covers, such as discovering Jimmy Hoffa's body or causing a meteor to harmlessly land near a cook-off, framing a reporter group (That mocked him for his behavior in his interview previously at Niagara Falls) for possession of illegal drugs, earning him the name "Mr. Exclusive". Bruce then causes Evan to embarrass himself on-air, causing Evan to be fired from the anchorman job in favor of Bruce as the new anchor.
During this, Bruce continues to hear voices in his head that begin to bother hum. He later re-encounters God on Mount Everest who explains the voices are prayers, meant for God, 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 great for him to handle- even though God has stated that Bruce is only receiving prayers from the Buffalo area-, and sets the program to automatically answer every prayer Yes.
Bruce attends a party celebrating his promotion. When Grace arrives, she finds Bruce and his co-anchor Susan Ortega (Catherine Bell) kissing, 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 the city has fallen into chaos due to his actions to answer every prayer as yes: 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 with the multi-million dollar lottery and finding they all won reducing their price to a few dollars, have started rioting in the streets. Bruce returns to God, who explains that he can't solve all the problems and Bruce must figure out a way himself. Bruce returns to his computer system and goes about answering prayers as best he can. As he reads through them, he finds a prayer from Grace, wishing for Bruce's success and well-being. As he reads it, another prayer from Grace arrives, this one wishing not to be in love with Bruce anymore.
Bruce is stunned and walks alone on a highway, asking God to take back his powers and letting his fate be in his hands. Bruce is suddenly struck by a truck, and regains consciousness in a white void. God appears, and 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, shortly after being recovered- near miraculously- by the doctors. Grace arrives and the two rekindle their relationship (while they hug, Bruce mutters to God, "now you're just showing off."), with Bruce and Grace later becoming engaged. After his recovery, Bruce returns to his field reporting but takes more pleasure in the simple stories.
Read more about this topic: Bruce Almighty
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