Outspoken atheist Dr. Sol Harkens is having a debate with a Christian leader. After Harkens is considered to have won the debate, he attends a party for his book. He double fists cocktails while trying to get his girlfriend to come home with him that night; she refuses. Disappointed, Harkens heads home in a drunken haze to sleep it off. On the way home, his publicist calls him to arrange more parties to increase his exposure. Since he was already drunk after leaving his party and continues to drink on the way home, he veers off and crashes into a construction site. Suddenly surrounded by a carnival-like light tunnel, he sees hallucinations of his young son David, who died a few years prior from cancer. His son enthusiastically claims that he is alright and he should let God's love fill him, proclaiming "Let there be light!" as Dr. Harkens comes out of unconsciousness. After being clinically dead for 4 minutes, he awakens to find his Christian ex-wife at his side, and tells her that he saw their son. His doctor diagnoses his visions as merely adrenal brain surges that are caused in times of trauma. Harkens continues to struggle with his crisis of science versus faith. After his ex-wife shows up at his house to check on him, he decides to go and talk to pastor and former mob member Vinny at a church. After hearing the resurrection story, he has an epiphany and is baptized again as a believing Christian. After multiple visits from his ex-wife, he decides to rekindle their relationship for each other so they can be a family again with their two surviving sons. Shortly after proposing again and accepting, his soon-to-be-again wife Katy comes down with cancer, which is past the point of treatment. Fox News' Sean Hannity hears of Dr. Harkens' story and asks him to come onto his program because he considers his story of great merit. Harkens announces a campaign of world peace called the "Let there be light" campaign. He believes that if anyone in the world shines their lights to the sky at night that it could be a bolster to world unity. During the night of the event the simultaneous action of the world shining their light to the heavens is visible from space. Meanwhile back home, the newly remarried Harkens are having a night of family time singing Christmas songs outside. The dying and weakened Mrs. Harkens suddenly dies in Dr. Harkens' arms.
The film was released in the United States on October 27, 2017. Over its opening weekend the film made $1.9 million from 373 theaters, finishing 11th at the box office. In its second weekend the film was added to 269 theaters and dropped just 1.9% to $1.7 million, finishing 10th at the box office.
Critical response
On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 30% based on 6 reviews, with an average rating of 4.6/10. Virtually nothing of the film's claims is accurate, and most of the characters such as Harkens are strawmen. Dan Piepenbring, writing for the New Yorker, described the film as "Xenophobic Fun for the Whole Family".
