Do You Believe? is a Christian drama released in 2015 produced by Pure Flix Entertainment.
The Crash of Christian films, Do You Believe? is a Hyperlink Story about a group of unrelated or somehow related people:
- Matthew (Ted McGinley), a pastor who questions his faith after an encounter with a street preacher (Delroy Lindo)
- Dr. Farell (Sean Astin), a self-centered ER doctor
- J.D. and Teri (Lee Majors and Cybill Shepherd), an old couple who lost their only child years ago
- Samantha (Mira Sorvino), a homeless woman trying to care for her young daughter
- Maggie, a poor, late-stage pregnant woman who gets to stay with Matthew and his wife, Grace
- Bobby (Liam Matthews), an EMT who proselytizes a dying accident victim and is married to Dr. Farell's nurse, Elena (Valerie Dominguez)
- Carlos, a traumatized war veteran and Elena's brother
- Lacey (Alexa PenaVega), a suicidal, troubled girl who meets Carlos
- Joe (Brian Bosworth), a cancer-sick religious ex-con
- Pretty Boy and Kriminal (Schwayze and Senyo Amoaku), two black gang members who also meet the street preacher
Struggling with their individual problems and crises of faith, the characters eventually join together in a a moment that will change their lives forever.
Tropes
- Amoral Attorney: Andrea, who mostly seems motivated by a hatred of religion.
- The Atoner: Joe, who apparently converted out of remorse for his criminal life.
- Author Tract
- Babies Ever After: Matthew and Grace adopt Maggie's baby after Maggie dies in the crash.
- Car Meets House: As part of a robbery of a rival gang, Kriminal and Pretty Boy's gang drive a stolen white van through the wall of their house.
- Death by Childbirth: Maggie dies giving birth in the car.
- Dr. Jerk: Dr. Farell begins the story as a very self-centered doctor.
- Four Lines, All Waiting: The film has about a dozen central characters spread across five or six plotlines.
- Heel–Faith Turn:
- Pretty Boy accepts God after the robbery of Nefarious' gang and getting away from the police.
- Andrea apparently converts after being saved by Bobby in the car crash.
- Hollywood Atheist: Dr. Farell and his wife, Andrea. He is a jerkass doctor with little concern for human life and is hostile towards religious people, she is a lawyer with a strong dislike for religion.
- I Just Want to Be Loved: Lacey's reason for wanting to kill herself is that her father doesn't love her.
- Incurable Cough of Death: Joe has leukemia and is shown coughing blood.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Nefarious gets punched repeatedly by Kriminal after he shoots Pretty Boy, then gets slammed by a car trying to finish the job, killing him. This is what causes the car crash at the end.
- Magical Negro: Malachi, the street preacher. At the start of the film, he questions Matthew's faith, prompting him to go introspective, and gets Pretty Boy thinking about changing his ways.
- One Degree of Separation: Most of the characters have some link to someone from at least one other story line. The hospital ties many characters together from the start, with many either working there or being patients there.
- Protagonist-Centered Morality: Bobby proselytizing to the dying man. The film portrays it as just, but a lot of non-religious people probably would not appreciate being preached to in such a situation (nor would Christians or other believers, if the preacher was from another religion).
- Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: Bobby stands up for his decision to proselytize a dying man even when faced with losing his job.
- Shell-Shocked Veteran: Carlos is a traumatized war veteran.
- Taking the Bullet: Pretty Boy takes the bullet for Kriminal when Nefarious shoots at him.
- There Is Only One Bed: Defied. Joe lets Samantha and her daughter stay at his apartment for the night, but since he only has one bed, he goes to sleep at a bench outside.
- Thou Shalt Not Kill: After his meeting with Malachi, Pretty Boy is unable to kill Nefarious when he has a clear shot of him.
- Token Good Teammate: Pretty Boy is more reluctant than the rest of his gang and the first one to consider changing his ways.
- Xtreme Kool Letterz: One of the gang members is named "Kriminal", spelled with a K.
- Whole-Plot Reference: To Crash, in that both are hyperlink stories with lots of characters eventually united by a car crash.
