The Man Who Sued God is a 2001 Australian film starring Scottish funnyman Billy Connolly, who plays fisherman and retired lawyer Steve Meyers. His wife has left him for the owner of the caravan park she lives in and is thinking of leaving with their daughter. This suits Steve just fine as he gets to spend his days on his boat with his dog, until lightning destroys it. When the Insurance companies refuse to pay on the basis of it being an act of god, Steve contemplates legal action. His local church gives him the idea to sue God instead, holding the Insurance agencies responsible for using God as a legal loophole.
This attracts the attention of news writer Anna Redmond (Judy Davis) who attempts to guide Steve through the legal minefield as well as the Media Circus. During the trial the two begin a relationship.
The Man Who Sued God has examples of:
- Bittersweet Ending: Steve drops his lawsuit in the end, commenting that it'll take years for him to pay off his legal costs. However, Steve has won a moral victory when the clergymen, with financial resources that Steve hasn't got, then proceed to sue the insurance companies for 'unauthorised use of our Lord's name', with a subsequent news report of the insurance companies' stocks plummeting.
- Brick Joke: "God is our copyright." First said by the insurance agent who denies Steve's claim under "acts of God" clauses, the second time said by the clergymen suing the insurance company, under the charge of ‘unauthorized use of our Lord's name'.
- Face–Heel Turn: Steve teases this when the Insurance companies offer a settlement to drop the case, where it looks like he'll abandon the other victims who joined him in his quest.
- Frivolous Lawsuit: The main character is a fisherman whose boat is destroyed by lightning, but he isn't allowed to claim damages from his insurance company because the lightning was "an act of God." So he sues God. (God is represented in court by clergymen.) The insurance agencies get even further karma when they get a second lawsuit from a stronger enemy: said clergymen claiming copyright of the name of God, and thus that the insurance agencies are violating it with the "acts of God" clause.
- It later turns out that Anna has a history of this, suing people for her goldfish dying.
- Impossible Insurance: Inverted. Steve sues God (through the clergy) because his insurance company exploited the standard loophole of "acts of God
" to prevent paying him. - Newscaster Cameo: Chris Bath (one of the better-known Seven Network News Journalists) appears as a newsreader.
- The Noun Who Verbed: Used for the title.
