Bruce Nolan (Carrey), a television reporter in Buffalo, N.Y.,is discontented with almost everything in life despite his popularity and the love of his girlfriend, Grace (Aniston) . At the end of the worst day of his life, Bruce angrily ridicules and rages against God and God responds. God appears in human form (Freeman) and, endowing Bruce with divine powers, challenges Bruce to take on the big job to see if he can do it any better. Bruce Nolan is a television reporter, who is currently assigned what he considers to be undignified assignments, that has him being the butt of a joke. When he is told that he is being considered for the position of anchorman, he goes out to do a live feed but when it is announced that Evan Baxter was going to be the new anchorman, and he freaks out. He gets fired, beaten up, and so on. In the end he blames God. God then decides to give Bruce his powers. Bruce then wreaks havoc and is enjoying it. He sabotages Evan and gets the job of anchorman. But when he realizes that he has to deal with what has got to be God's most arduous task, listening and answering prayers. When he tries to grant everybody what they want, turmoil ensues. And while Bruce is getting everything he wants, he has been ignoring his girlfriend, Grace and loses her. And it seems that the only thing that he can't do, is alter a person's free will, so if he wants her back, he has to do it the hard way. A newscaster for the Channel 7 Eyewitness News complains about how God has only made his life a total waste. Well, Bruce Nolan, played by Jim Carrey, gets that chance after he freaks out on live TV, is fired and is offered a new job by an unknown place. He meets God and is given all the powers of God. At first he loves it. He can do anything but when he discovers others in Buffalo who are praying, he learns that maybe this job of being God isn't really that easy. Bruce is a down on his luck TV news reporter. In a fit of desperation he challenges God and vents that if only he had God's power, he could solve all his problems. God responds to his challenge and allows Bruce to take on his powers to prove himself. Bruce soon learns that being God is very challenging.