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  • Early in the movie, Bruce gets overwhelmed by the huge number of prayers he receives (in the millions). As it later turns out, he's only given control of one city. So where did all those prayers come from?
    • Hearing the prayers of one city, not having control over one city. His powers could still affect what was outside the city. For example, the moon and the stars.
    • One city does have millions of inhabitants, and people are shown praying before their meals, so you can roughly multiply that by three. Then there's the lots of lottery related prayers, many made probably at the lottery itself. It's not hard to get a number that high.
      • Not to mention if you consider any time someone wishes internally for something, it may qualify as a prayer, since they're associating it to a higher power and in this world, God is well, God. So every time someone is like "Please let me make enough to pay rent this week" or "God someone make this annoying kid go away" may count as a prayer.
      • The prayers on the post-it notes (See here.) seem to support this theory. Plus there's the fact that, by the time Bruce actually dealt with the prayers, they'd been building up for a week.
      • Wow, that's some grade-A Nightmare Fuel when you really think about it. Just imagine some of the "prayers" people make without realizing it. "God, I hope that asshole gets cancer!" "God, somebody kill that bastard who plays loud music in the middle of the night!"
      • Which means it's a good thing that God uses His judgement as to which ones he will grant.
      • Watch Wishmaster if you want to see the Nightmare Fuel of such wishes fulfilled.
      • Of course this might lead to weird results as well. What happens if two fans of opposing sports teams pray for their victory before a match? Do they both win or end in a tie?
      • If Bruce is in charge they apparently both win (like the lottery). If God is in charge then he makes a more sensible choice.
      • I wondered that too! Regarding the lottery: how did Bruce manage to make all combinations that had been chosen the winning one? Then we get into more troubling questions, such as: some lonely people had to have been praying for a romantic partner, which Bruce's granting of interferes with people's free will (God's rule #1).
  • If Bruce has all the powers of God, why doesn't he just make a program on his prayer computer that answers prayers according to God's wisdom? Bam! He does God's job and gets to have fun as well.
    • Because he wasn't smart enough to think of it.
      • Which ironically, God knew.
    • Thank you! With the power of God he could assign a part of his own brain to do it constantly. Presumeably that's how the big G does it.
      • Although if he had a part of his brain doing it automatically, he'd probably end up saying yes to all of them anyway, which is what he was doing even before he specifically entered "yes to all". But you're right, he could have just made a program answer according to God's wisdom. Hell, most of the problems Bruce faced in the movie could have been solved with his powers, but he was just too stupid to think about it.
    • The scene may have been meant as a subtle Aesop explaining or rationalizing the reason why God doesn't answer everyone's prayers. This would have been negated if he'd come up with such a program. It might have worked better if he had made the special program and the writers had come up with a good reason why such a thing either couldn't work or would cause more problems than it solves. (And, of course, the aforementioned Aesop comes in to play anyway when everyone wins the lottery.)
      • Actually, "yes" isn't the only answer to a prayer. The teaching is that all prayers are answered; the answer is just sometimes "not yet," or "no".
      • A deleted scene (that really should have been kept in) explicitly states this.
    • That would defeat the entire purpose. The plot starts because Bruce said God was doing a bad job, and God gave him those powers to prove just how difficult it actually is. If he were to grant them automatically them based on God's wisdom (and if God would had allowed that), it would defeat the entire reason he was allowed omniscience/omnipotence - especially since in a monotheistic universe God can't just past it out to another god.
      • Yeah, that's what I was thinking. Bruce could have made all the prayers answered the way they "should" have been, but Bruce thought the way God answered prayers was wrong, so he just took a lazy way out that wasn't what The Powers That Be would have done.
    • Really the question is "Why did Bruce even bother answering the prayers at all?" The problem was the voices in his head, and once he'd turned them into e-mails, he no longer had any reason to care about them. He could simply have ignored them, which he seemed to want to do.
      • Because he was trying to prove he could be better at being God.
      • The scene was rather poor at conveying, making it seem like Bruce was getting headaches due to hearing lots of voices in his head, but really the ache was due to him ignoring them. So it's likely he would've gotten headaches regardless even when the prayers are emails.
    • Even if we assume that he couldn't make an "answer according to God's wisdom" program, there are still other alternatives he could have pursued. For instance, he could have stopped time so that he could deal with all the prayers without any time passing. Or better yet, he could have given himself the mental capacity to deal with them all at once. Again, it's a case of Bruce not being very bright with how he uses his powers.
      • Or made a clone of himself with no free will, only the desire and powers required to answer prayers. That way he doesn't even have to do it.
      • Bruce was also being very arrogant and lazy at this point. He thought he deserved everything and no longer needed to work for what he wanted. When actually trying to do the work involved, instead of looking for a logical, inspired answer, he simply went with the path of least resistance to get what he wanted (shutting the prayers up).
      • Correct. Bruce is not only an idiot, he's a lazy, self centered, egotistical douchebag. While not as bad as he could have been with those powers (someone truly evil and inventive with those powers could be downright horrific) Bruce was only interested in using his God powers to have fun and make his own life better. Bruce only cared about the prayers in the first place because the headaches caused by them were inconveniencing him. When Bruce was answering the prayers he wasn't thinking "Which prayers would be the best to answer?" nor "How can I best answer these prayers?" Bruce was only thinking "how can I get these whiners to stop COMPLAINING at me all the time!?" Thus he just answered them all yes without thinking about what the consequences of doing that would be. Bruce's only interest was in dealing with the prayer problem and getting on with the fun he was having. Had Bruce been both intelligent enough to use the powers to their fullest and altruistic enough to care what he was doing as a result of using them, either the movie wouldn't exist or it would be very very different. In the end, the fact that Bruce is a moronic lazy, self-centered, egotistical douchebag is what God is trying to cure him of. Bruce Almighty would probably be a much more serious movie with an entirely different message if Bruce was intelligent and altruistic. Something about a good man given the powers of God and tasked with making the world a better place rather than a romcom.
  • How does, for instance, manipulating someone's body like a puppet to make a fool of him on television not fall under the umbrella of "interfering with free will"?
    • Bruce's powers aren't limited in interfering with people's lives. If they were then we wouldn't have much of a movie. Bruce wasn't altering the anchorman's mind or personality, Bruce was simply mucking around with his vocal chords —- a purely physical act, like the difference between telekinesis and mind-control. The anchorman was still free to feel however he wanted about the situation, and everyone else viewing was free to judge him however they wanted. Bruce couldn't just make everyone viewing hate the anchorman, but he could work towards it. On a darker note, there are plenty of alternatives that Bruce could have taken to get Grace to love him. He could have erased her memory of what he did to displease her (maybe this counts as a violation, I don't know.) and she would still retain her free-will. Bruce couldn't make Grace love him, but he could probably make her into a puppet, or stimulate certain glands to make her react to him, but it wouldn't be love obviously, and Bruce would be a rapist for doing so. She would still have her free-will in any case, as her mind wouldn't be controlled but her body would be. He could have erased everyone else in existence, leaving only himself and her in the world. He could have also created a complete copy of her, perfect in every respect, and still the original would have retained her free-will. I doubt the copy would count as someone whose free-will was being violated.
      • He was taking away someone's free agency (losing complete control over his body directly in part to Bruce's actions), so he was arguably violating the anchorman's free will. Yes, he couldn't do the mind control-type free will with Grace, but that doesn't negate what happened with the anchorman. The entire concept of free will is pretty murky anyway. How does one have free will if they have certain mental disorders, for example? How does one have free will if one can be physically harmed by another person? Also, notice that free will is defined by God. How does one have full free will if one is purposefully limited compared to God? And let's not get into God revealing himself to the world via the Judeo-Christian religions or the "Believe in me or burn" type of Christianity which both raise a ton of questions about the function of free will.
      • There is also the fact that the dictionary defines "free will" as free and independent choice or voluntary decision. So yes, that scene was pretty much a plot hole.
      • The dictionary might define, but I didn't see action in there, only choice and decision which are still limited by physical reality. I cannot consciously make a choice to walk though walls. I cannot through making a conscious decision make the sun set an hour early. The anchorman is free to feel about the situation that he was in. He could even leave anytime. But his voice and vocal chords are being manipulated by an outside force for the duration in which he dosen't leave. Hence he still has free will. His thoughts and emotions are still his own, as are the thoughts of the people viewing him on the air. Violating free-will would have been Bruce causing everyone viewing him to be disgusted with him without him having to do anything wrong.
    • If the copy retained free will, it'd hate him as well.
      • Bruce could get around that by not giving it free-will in the first place. Make it a perfect copy in every other way, and simply give it the illusion of free will, where it behaves exactly like the original Grace, but he could change the copy's mind, since it doesn't have free-will.
      • Then it's a sex-bot, not a person. Even Bruce wouldn't be shallow enough for that.
      • Not really. It would still behave exactly as the normal Grace would, just not have true free will. It wouldn't be some mindless shell which walked around saying "I live to please you master", it'd be a normal woman, with normal behavior. The only difference being that Bruce would have been able to alter her mind if he wanted to. And he clearly WAS shallow enough for that, since that's essentially what he was trying to do when he tried to force her to love him.
    • It's quite simple, you can rape someone, but you can't force them to like/love it, that's their free will.
    • I'm more bothered by how he could force the dog to use the toilet. Do non-humans just not count?
      • Apparently, since he also controlled birds later on to write a message to Grace.
    • The movie kinda-sorta gives the indication that Evan, at this point in time, is someone who has no real sense of free will because he's a sycophant. He's considered an asshole by Jack, his attempts to get the anchor position seem to be very kiss-ass in nature, and so on. You could argue however, that he is *choosing* to do that and exercising his free will by giving it away. Which is almost paradoxical in nature. At least, that's how I took it on rewatching the movie.
    • You don't lose free will just by being an asskisser. Losing "free will" means you're literally unable to make your own decisions. Evan's making decisions.
  • Full-scale riots because of meager lottery winnings. What the hell? First of all, most lottery players usually win nothing at all, and somehow it doesn't incite riots. Why the hell here? People couldn't even lose money on it, since, obviously, their winnings amounted to the price of the ticket (if I understand the concept of lottery right). Sure, they'd think it was bizarre, but riots? Is lottery such a Serious Business?
    • There's a big difference between, "Oh, I didn't win." and "Holy shit! I WON! I WON! I GET TO QUIT THIS JOB AND LIVE OFF MY MILLIONS OF—...Fifteen bucks? Are you shitting me?"
      • Aren't there more prizes besides a single jackpot?
      • Not for the same number.
    • People have rioted over their preferred sports team losing. Such an obvious issue with the lottery would be taken poorly, to say the least.
  • So did he keep his powers at the end? He's shown not using them anymore, but he didn't come into a situation where he would (with his new aesop wisdom). And there was no official renouncing of powers on-screen. So, does he have them or not?
    • There is official renouncing of powers on-screen. When Bruce is walking in the rain, falls to his knees, and says, "I don't want to be God. I want you to decide what's right for me!" Immediately after, he is hit by the truck and when he wakes up in hospital, he no longer has God's powers.
      • That doesn't necessarily mean that Bruce lost his powers then, he simply said that he didn't want them anymore. God could have just said "Tough, you're keeping them". Perhaps Bruce just chose not to use them. Unlikely, but possible.
    • Coming back from the dead may have restored Bruce back to his "factory setting". In other words, his powers died and went back to their rightful owner upon reaching heaven.
  • How exactly did everyone win the lottery? Sure, everyone prayed for it, but it's practically impossible that everyone bet on the same numbers, and the winning numbers are openly announced. Was the huge amount of reality altering needed to make this work — either retroactively changing the number that was bet for everyone, or somehow changing the numbers on-the-fly each time someone came to get the prize — actually performed?
    • Maybe everyone entered a different lottery, or the powers RetConned history so everyone chose the same numbers.
      • I think the numbers were all different, but everyone sees the different numbers as the winning number, no matter who it is or who says it. The numbers really aren't the same, just everyone's perceptions about the lottery winnings are altered. You have a different number, you hear the announcer say the winning number and you hear it as your own. You bring it in and the announcer sees your different number as the winning number (whatever it is), and he says the winning number is such and such, and you hear that it is the number you put in. If the winning number is 986544, and your number is 888145, you hear that the winning number as 888145. The announcer sees the 888145 as 986544, vice versa.
      • That wouldn't work at all, because the lottery companies are paying out to everyone. If there was only one actual winning number, everyone else who "won" would just have their claim dismissed the second it became clear that the number on their ticket was different from the number actually chosen.
      • What doesn't work about that? There is one true winning lottery number, everyone has a different number, but they are all seeing and hearing one number, the one that person thinks is the winning number. One person says "Did you hear? The winning number is 986544." Another person hears the first person say "Did you hear? The winning number is 888145." The second person says "OMG I won." The first person says "Really, your winning number is 986544." The second person hears "Really, your winning number is 888145?" The second person says "Yeah, my number is 888145." The first person hears the second person say "Yeah, my number is 986544." He holds out his lottery ticket and the first person reads the 888145 printed on it as 986544. "Wow, you won." the first person says. There's one real number, but every person is perceiving it as the number that they think is the winning number. This is mind-twisting and possibly a form of mind altering en masse, but hey Bruce had the powers of God.
      • Except that doesn't get passed the lottery runners, is tons more complicated when it comes to working things out legally, and requires messing a lot more with peoples' minds than simply changing their lottery tickets does. Occam's razor, dude.
      • Why complicate stuff? Assume he either retcons an error in the computer in charge making it print the same number over and over, or if it is a "Scratch and Win" lottery, simply edit in a million or two on each.
      • There are lotteries where you choose a few out of many numbers, and the more of them match with the ones randomly selected later, the more you win, with the main prize being given for having all numbers correct. In such a lottery, it would be pretty simple for Bruce's power to retcon chosen numbers of any player he chose to help.
      • It couldn't possibly be a "Scratch and Win" type lottery. The way those games work is the gaming organization figures out how much money they want to give away and they only print enough winning tickets to equal that amount. So if the maximum win is $1 million and the gaming organization wants to give away $5 million, they'll only print 5 winning tickets. If more than five winning tickets show up they would immediately suspect counterfeiting.
      • He is god, if he wanted, the winning number could be fish
    • It's not clear how long he has his powers for; if he set up the program before anyone who prayed for a win had chosen their numbers, its perfectly possible that they all picked the same.
    • Have you people forgotten that this is the power of GOD we're talking about?
      • Not forgotten; just wondering about the means.
      • Omnipotence. The means is omnipotence.
    • The easiest way to do it would probably be to magically alter every ticket to be the winning numbers, and then alter everyone's memories to make them believe that those were the numbers they picked. No free will has been violated there. The people still picked their own numbers. Bruce just then changed the tickets and made them remember picking different numbers.
  • When Grace left him, why did Bruce not use his powers to get her back? He could easily have made her forget the kiss with Susan and anything else she disapproved of. Or he could have done something like "Please take me back. You'll find it really PLEASURABLE!". That's something that really bugged me. How can she bared to dump him when (presumably off-screen to keep the rating down) every other conversation results in an intense spontaneous orgasm. That's another thing; did Grace never get a bit suspicious about some of the things Bruce was doing? Did she never say "Bruce, why is it that I always have an orgasm every time you say "pleasure" to me?" That, coupled with some of the other stuff (e.g. Sam's toilet training) should surely have made Grace think that Bruce had some magical powers.
    • Another thing he might have been able to do, reverse time to before it happened and make sure it didn't happen. If he has omnipotent powers, I don't see why he couldn't do that.
    • First of all he wasn't giving her orgasm, that would be stupid, if she can have orgasms on her own without doing anything why would she need Bruce, and wouldn't she be too tired and numb to do much after so many. He was enhancing her biological sexual urge, that means he also couldn't had implanted the idea of you'll find pleasure in taking me back, that's invasion of free will.
      • I meant more that in the "pleasure" scene (And probably many more times off screen) Bruce made Grace have orgasms simply by saying "Pleasure" and variants of it to her. Did she not figure out the link between having orgasms and Bruce saying pleasure? And by saying "Take me back it'll be pleasurable" I meant that Bruce could simply have given her an orgasm so powerful right there as she was storming out that she wouldn't WANT to leave Bruce, because she'd feel so good.
      • Wait, interpersonal relationships work like that? All I've got to do to keep a woman is to essentially rape her into submission? HOT DAMN!
    • With regard to the original question, he actually TRIED that (when he sticks his hand out at her at the daycare and asks "How do you feel now?" and she asks if he's drunk). He was trying to make her feel "pleasure" like before. The reason it didn't work is that that time she didn't want it to happen, which meant it would violate the "messing with free will" rule. The first time, she actually wanted him to pleasure her (she was getting ready to have sex with him, after all) so the orgasm trick worked.
      • Really? I never got that impression. I've always assumed that "How do you feel now?" was more referring to to "How do you feel ABOUT ME now?", so that was when he started trying to make Grace love him. Also, the restriction was that he couldn't mess with free-will. Free-will is things that we have conscious control of. We can control desire to feel pleasure and have orgasms, but we can't control when we sneeze or orgasm. After all, how many times have you orgasmed just from a desire to? Or sneezed for that matter? Bruce had complete control over Grace's physical pleasure and orgasms, because they are sub-conscious things that, much like sneezing, we can't control, and so don't fall under free-will. Bruce could have made Grace have millions of orgasms right there in the day-care if he'd wanted to, but he couldn't have forced her to enjoy them, since enjoyment of something is free-will.
      • Also, as I mentioned originally, this telekinetic orgasm-giving likely wasn't a one-off occurrence, but a regular thing, likely happening every day. After all, if you had the powers of God, can you honestly say that you wouldn't use them to make you and your partner experience lots and lots of orgasms whenever you wanted? I know that's what I'd do. They were likely having a lot of sex, since Bruce would have been keen to use his powers to enhance it, and Grace would have been keen to experience some more of these incredible pleasuring skills that Bruce had suddenly acquired. Even the writers seemed to realise this, as in an early draft of the script which can be read online, Grace says the line "Bruce, I feel like our relationship is becoming all about sex". This seems perfectly natural, as realistically, they would probably be spending most of their free time having sex, made infinitely more pleasurable by Bruce's powers. What I was getting at, it that this sex was likely so good, that Grace wouldn't want to leave Bruce, because no more Bruce=no more "heavenly" sex. Even when she did leave him, it was likely only a matter of time before she took him back simply because she needed Bruce to satisfy her. It does also make you wonder what happened when Bruce lost his powers, and they were back to normal, mortal sex. After what they'd likely been experiencing while Bruce was God, no mortal sex would be likely to ever satisfy them again.
      • Are you saying that as long as you have great sex with someone, you should forgive them everything they do?
      • No, I'm just saying that when you're having sex with God, it would likely be so good that Grace wouldn't be able to bare not having it when she was apart from Bruce. "Heavenly" probably doesn't even come close to describing it, and when you've had that, it's pretty hard to let go of it.
      • First of all, to answer something I didn't see people answering, I think you're severely overestimating how often Bruce did the "pleasurable" thing. I'm FAIRLY SURE he did not literally give her orgasm every time he said the word "pleasure;" he just timed whatever he did to those moments for dramatic effect. Second of all, I don't know what to tell you. Women, especially compared to men, do not always NEED to have sex, and sometimes even the best sex you can have is not enough to keep them with a man who cheats. Personally, you can argue all you want that Bruce was such a great lover that Grace couldn't bear to stay away from him, but look at her reaction the morning after the one sex scene in the movie. She's not insane from pleasure, she's not ranting and raving, she doesn't show signs of craving it. She has a normal, if surprised reaction, like Bruce was especially on his game tonight and not "Bruce has the pleasure-making powers of God."
    • In answer to the original question: interfering with another person's memory may or may not fall into the 'interference with free will' clause... but one of the few nice-guy qualities Bruce ever shows is a genuine devotion to Grace. Fiddling with her brain would have meant regarding her as a puppet to be modified according to his desire, something that he was morally opposed to.
      • Well it probably wouldn't be messing with free-will, since what we remember isn't exactly optional, which is basically what free-will is, though I get what you're saying about not wanting to mess with Grace's mind. But surely when he tried to make her love him, that was trying to mess with her mind? He can't be that opposed to it.
  • So Grace believes in God (apparently the the Judeo-Christian one, but it's not very clear) so why is she's seen giving Bruce Buddhist prayer beads?
    • Christians use them, too. In fact, Hindus, Sikhs, and Muslims also use beads as a prayer tool. It's not unique to Buddhism.
      • Maybe, but the ones she gives him are Buddhist rather than Christian (like a Rosary, Prayer Rope, or even Pearls of Life).
      • She says a kid in her class made them and gave them to her. It's partly "Have some faith, Bruce", partly "See how cute this is and cheer up, Bruce", and partly "Children are so adorable and I'd kind of like to have a couple, Bruce".
    • Buddhist philosophy isn't necessarily incompatible with Christianity, or at least some versions of the two aren't.
  • Bruce first starts hearing the prayers when he wakes up after his first night of being God. Going by God's "You've had my powers for little over a week now" line, it takes Bruce a full week to ask God what the voices are. I can't be the only one who finds it a tad unrealistic that he ignored them for a full week. Maybe a day or so at most, but once he worked out that he couldn't just will them away, surely he'd think that something was up, and he should maybe ask God about it?
    • Or God simply chose not to let him hear them until then, not wanting to freak him out right away, or to get used to his powers before taking on bigger assignments.
      • But Bruce started hearing the prayers after his first night, when he wakes up after the sex scene. It took Bruce a full week before he actually found out that they were prayers, and that was only because God told him. It's very unrealistic that in that time Bruce didn't think to ask God about the voices.
      • How would he ask Him? God's not physically manifesting alongside him the entire time waiting for questions. Sure, He's always there, but Bruce doesn't think to turn to Him for answers or guidance... which is part of the point of Bruce's character.
      • Maybe he heard the voices only because he was tired after a long night of sex. When he was well and focused, the prayers had to accumulate until he couldn´t ignore them anymore.
    • It seemed like he doesn't hear them all the time but only occasionally, but they get louder and more obnoxious as time goes on. The first few times it's probably easy to dismiss as just someone else talking or their imagination, until they became so distracting he started being unable to focus.
  • Is there an alternate version of the movie? I have it on both VHS and DVD, but I seem to recall a shot in the diner where we actually see the elderly man flee out of the diner in terror after God appears as Bruce is parting his soup, which isn't present on VHS or DVD (even as a deleted scene), yet I seem to recall it clear as day... was I imagining such a shot, or does it only exist on certain prints, like how certain movies actually add scenes when played on certain channels (like how local channels will extended versions of like The Little Rascals or Stuart Little)?
    • Nothing I've ever heard of.
  • In the Jimmy Hoffa's body scene, how did no one notice that the body was intact when it should have been putrid and only the bones left? As I know almost everybody knows what happens to a dead body after years, specially journalists who should have suspected something.
    • Well, it's possible they did suspect this. However, presumably the DNA tests would have come back positive, and this, combined with the fact that that he actually looked very much like Jimmy Hoffa, would have meant that they'd basically have to accept it was indeed him.
    • There's also the fact that Jimmy Hoffa was remembered as going missing years ago. They could easily rationalize it as him only really dying fairly recently.
  • The first rule that God gives Bruce is "You can't tell anyone you're God." Keyword being "Tell," implying that as long as people came to the conclusion on their own Bruce would still be in the clear. Now if Bruce started acting and dressing like a God-Emperor, and living in a huge palace he materialized out of nothing and giving orders to the world, but so long as he never actually admitted to being divine and didn't use his powers to compel people to obey, but they did on their own in response to his overt actions, would that still technically mean he was following the rules? If the rules extended to letting people know he's god, what would happen if Bruce installed a puppet-ruler instead, and acted like an adviser? Now I'm beginning to understand why God picked Bruce, who lacked the wisdom and vision to use his powers properly.
    • What's more, the rule was that Bruce couldn't tell anyone he was "God". But the thing is, Bruce wasn't God, so it would have been a lie. He simply had his powers. So really, Bruce could have told people he had God's powers, and he wouldn't have been breaking the rule. But as you said, Bruce was too stupid for any of that.
      • Highly unlikely God wouldn't have seen that loophole a mile away. Heck, it's not even that hard to close: if Bruce is, for all intents and purposes, equal to God, then he is essentially God.
    • The way I figure it, the first rule was implemented for Bruce's sake, as God outright said "Trust me, you don't want that kind of attention.". If people found out that BRUCE of all people was GOD, he'd have both the positive and the negative, with some groups deciding to go as far as trying to kill Bruce for 'heresy' as they saw it. God knew Bruce could not cope well to that and told him that rule first, along with the reasoning. Bruce took it to heart, basically deciding 'This really isn't a good idea.'
      • Threats of death might be distressing at first, but its heavily implied that Bruce had all of God's abilities including immortality (God being eternal) and invulnerability. We saw Bruce walking on water without consciously willing it.
      • I think it's less for Bruce's sake and more for everyone else's. In being unable to tell anyone he's God, he's (somewhat) limited in the harm he can do. If he can tell anyone, he could essentially then do anything. The free will rule would no longer be a hindrance, since he could just threaten people. "Love me, or it's an eternity in Hell for you." As he is, Bruce can basically just influence people subtly, and not create much suffering for people beyond a few monkeys out of the bottom and a tidal wave that probably killed most of the victims. If he didn't have the rule, Bruce could name himself God-Emperor of the world and no-one could oppose him.
    • Another thing: Let's say that someone did figure out that Bruce was God and asked him "Bruce, are you God?". Could he have come clean about it, or would the rules have meant he had to keep denying it to them?
      • The answer to that question would be "Yes," with the implication being "I am God," which violates the rule.
  • During the "pleasure" scene, how did Grace manage to get up and open the bathroom door? Bruce was saying "pleasurable" right up until the moment the door opened, so logically Grace should have been orgasming the whole time. And considering we'd just seen that the pleasure Bruce was giving Grace was so intense she couldn't stand (or even sit) up, she should have been left writhing in orgasmic bliss on the floor. So how is it she's able to muster the strength to stand herself up, and open the bathroom door?
  • How does God maintain supernatural powers after delegating them all to Bruce? Did God just "copy" his powers and transfer the copy to Bruce? Wouldn't that essentially result in a polytheistic (or at least dualistic) universe, which is completely incompatible with any of the Abrahamic religions?
    • Who says the Abrahamic religions are correct (In this universe anyway)? Anyway, the fact Bruce is bound by the two rules strongly suggests that he's not as powerful as God, and God an overrule him on anything. He can only do what God lets him.
    • If memory serves, there's actually a line in the Torah (the Old Testament)where, leading up to the Exodus from Egypt, God tells the Pharaoh that He would prove that He is "the most powerful God." This could be taken to mean that there are other deities with God reigning above all of them, or just God saying He's the only one by pointing out the fact the Egyptian gods don't do anything to stop him. In either case, this line, along with the Ten Commandments, shows that God doesn't like when someone claims to be as powerful as Him or His equal.
    • Again, missing an important distinction. God gives Bruce His powers and His job... he doesn't actually, literally make him God. And Bruce probably doesn't even actually possess God's powers, but rather God is just making what Bruce wants to happen happen Himself instantly.
  • After Bruce rocks Grace's world in the bedroom, we see a news report about "Unusual lunar activity", due to Bruce having moved the moon. That's fine, except how is it no astronomer has noticed the presence of several new stars in the sky as well? That should be noticed pretty quickly by those in the know.
    • They might have but it doesn't make as good of an attention-grabbing story as the moon getting closer.
  • When Bruce answers "All Yes" to the prayers, the only consequence we see is the lottery sheenanigans. Ha-ha, people are praying for stupid crap, and Bruce is unfit to be God, got it. But. What about people who prayed for important stuff? For a loved one to be miraculously cured from cancer. For a missing child to suddenly be found. For an abusive father to turn around. If those prayers suddenly all got answered, if God, in fact, did start to "heal the amputees", wouldn't THAT have made all the headlines, made Bruce to realise his true power and probably led him to ask God some very uncomfortable questions, which is, of course, the exact reason they didn't dare to go there in the movie?
    • Granted, he probably couldn't have done anything about abusive parents or similar cases as that would have been violating free will.
  • One particular scene was of Bruce and God trying to discuss the difficulty of godhood, the one question is; Why God can't affect free will? Is it something to challenge himself for, or let mankind try to worship God without forced attention to him?
    • God CAN affect free will, it's just Bruce that can't, because God limited him. As for why, he basically explains it when Bruce asks. Because if he could alter free will, then there'd be no point in free will in the first place. (Although one could also argue that there's no point in the laws of physics if Bruce is allowed to break them.)
      • The laws of physics are only related to mankind's physical function, not its spiritual function, and are thus not relevant to God's allowing humans to be human.
  • Apparently no-one prayed for anything but to win the lottery that week. The entire city should have been rocked by things like everyone with any disease or deformity being cured as soon as they prayed, and that's just one minor result. Seems like people would have picked up on the whole "yes to all prayers" thing pretty quickly, especially full-time clergy.
    • Mainstream media tends to do a skewed/inaccurate portrayal of God, compared to religious texts, for various reasons.
  • Why does he have to listen to the prayers (despite being the almighty), that wasn't one of the rules that God gave him. Can't he just use his power to block it out (he probably did try though).
    • I wonder if he could have used omnipotence/omnipresence to see acknowledge and decline all of them at the same time. They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot.
    • You're right, he shouldn't have had to, since that wasn't one of the rules. Of course, what he could have done is simply ignore the prayers once he's made them e-mails, since he no longer had the voices to annoy him.
    • Could also be because Bruce only acquired God's powers without acquiring God's ability to process them; keep in mind that Bruce is still operating on a human level with a human body and mind, whereas God Himself would likely require omniscience as well as omnipotence to be aware of everything others were praying for.
      • That was part of what God was trying to impart to Bruce: that being God isn't just about the powers, but that there's responsibilities involved too. It's similar to what Mufasa was trying to impart to Simba ("Well, there's more to being king than simply getting your way all the time...").
  • Why did moving the moon affect the world. God had only given Bruce power over the area he was in, so the moon shift and gravitational difference should have only affected the area where he lived. Everywhere else would have the moon stay the same, and nobody would see it as any bigger. (Why? It's divine power, it should be able to do that).
    • Bruce didn't use his divine power to make the Moon look bigger. He used his divine power just to move the moon. He simply wasn't thinking at all of the consequences, or using his divine power to mitigate them.
    • Not true. He was only given prayers from his local area, but nothing was ever said about geographical limits for his powers.
    • Maybe Bruce's powers work like the Infinity Gauntlet in the sense that they only work within a certain area but can affect things outside the area.
      • No, they were never given a geographical limit. At no point is there ever stated to be such a limit, only a limit on where he's getting the prayers from.
  • Grace must really be stupid. Her boobs grew suddenly, Bruce got a posh new car, Sam started using the toilet, Bruce started getting all sorts of unrealistic news scoops and generally had brilliant luck. Most obvious of all, Grace had orgasms every time Bruce said "pleasure" or "pleasurable" to her. How is it possible that she never worked out that Bruce had attained some sort of magical powers? He wasn't exactly being very discreet about it.
    • It'd take more than a few admittedly bewildering occurrences for me to jump to the conclusion that I'm living with God.
      • Maybe not jumping to God immediately, but Grace certainly should have worked out that Bruce had some sort of powers. All the things happening were centred around their lives, and the orgasms were happening when Bruce said certain words, so it wouldn't take a genius to work out it was him doing it.
    • It could be that part of God's arrangement with Bruce involved creating a form of 'perception filter' so that certain people wouldn't actually question Bruce doing all these things up to a certain point.
  • What was God's plan if Bruce buckled down and was responsible, or just competent, with his powers? There's nothing stopping him from ending poverty, disease, and all other human suffering which he would be morally obligated to do if he ever figured that out.
    • God is, among other things, omniscient. He didn't need a plan for if Bruce buckled down and did all that, because he knew it wasn't going to happen. Plus, all those things can't really end without ending free will, which Bruce explicitly couldn't do. And trying to artificially do all those things would lead to other consequences, which would've been a lesson in itself.
    • He might have ended up running the world like a dictator, either overtly or secretly. There are fanfics where Bruce easily wins the Presidency. Really, with his powers and just a little more practice, he would end up running the world, and God (according to the rules of the scenario) would have to wait for Bruce to renounce them.
  • Bruce has no need to violate free-will. He could merely use his powers to imbue himself with tremendous charisma and powers of persuasion, as well as insights into people's desires and motivation. People are still able to make decisions, but disobeying him just got a lot harder.
    • Powers of persuasion would basically be mind control, presumably violating free will. Although he could of course use his powers to give himself knowledge of what he should say to get the result he wants. And he has other powers for other things. Got a specific girl you want to have sex with? Transform yourself into an exact copy of her boyfriend. Or better, change her memory to think that YOU are her boyfriend.
      • Changing a girl's memory would potentially affect free will, as he is affecting her ability to make her own choices with full knowledge of her life.
  • The movie's point makes no sense. 'Being God is hard' falls flat because, well, he is God. He has power over the cosmos, is omnipotent and omnipresent.
    • The moral is actually about the responsibilities of being God, humanity is inherently flawed as we seek too much of a good thing. It makes us spoiled, lack ambition and morals. The things that make people human is kindness, ambition and humility with each other. If God gave us everything then we lose our humanity and depend on him, if he ignores us then we lose hope. Bruce was God for over a week and he ruined his life and couldn't get a moment of peace due to the amount of prayers. When he said yes every prayer he caused a mass riot in his town. In the movie God sees humans with fascination and leaving them to their own devices, he wouldn't destroy humanity and rebuild it another time because they annoyed him too much. It wasn't in the film's budget and they wanted to keep it simple and uncomplicated.
  • When Bruce upgrades his old, beat-up car, why was it parked outside his apartment in the first place? Should it not still be parked outside the diner where he parted the soup? Since, Bruce had either been teleporting (Such as to walk on water with God or to get to the top of a skyscraper), or walking (during the "I've got the power" montage). You'd imagine he teleported home after the "I'm Bruce Almighty" bit, meaning the car should still be at the diner. Or did he actually teleport back to the diner, and drive his car home? Seems unlikely to me, especially when he could just teleport straight home and get right to the night of sex he had planned. And even if he DID go back and drive his car home, why did he not upgrade it there and then instead of waiting until the next day?
    • Presumably, he teleported the car there.
  • All of Bruce's problems while acting as a god were caused by him doing the wrong thing, aka. he didn't know what to do - he didn't have omniscience. Even if you argue that omniscience doesn't tell you what's the right thing to do, it should at least tell you what you need to do to achieve certain results. If he was given all the powers of God, it looks like *this* God lacks omniscience - which several of the statements God makes during the film also imply. He implied he doesn't know for certain how to make people love him without affecting free will, as an example. Adding to that, one of the themes of the film is supposed to be "Being God is hard.", which falls flat if what made it hard for Bruce was not using one of God's powers. As such, the film doesn't portray the Abrahamic god, who is (in modern times) agreed to be omniscient. This wrecks theodicy, but does solve the problem of evil.
    • Because Bruce was omnipotent, he could have given himself omniscience. He was just too stupid to do that.
  • A sports team becoming champions is portrayed as a bad thing. If that is the case, what is the point of professional spectator team sports?
    • When is that portrayed as a bad thing? The Sabers winning the Stanley Cup is one of the only things Bruce does which doesn't have massive negative consequences.

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