Breakthrough, to me, is more about the power of a mother’s love than a miracle. Oh wait, that, in itself, is a miracle!
To begin with, let me tell you why I recommend this movie to you. Not because of power-packed performances or excellent direction or out-of-this-world effects – NO! With the kind of place this world is becoming, we have started to lose faith in it. We have also started to lose faith in the goodness of this world. And when I speak of the world, I do not speak only about human beings. In that case, I think we should talk about the Universe and not just this world here.
Before I tell you what this film is about, I would like you to read this post that I had written sometime ago, so that you read the movie plot with this thought in your mind.
Breakthrough is a real-life story of a teenager who, after being declared dead upon meeting with an accident, comes back to life when his mother breaks down and requests the Lord to save her son. Mind you, before the boy came back to life, the doctors had already given their best, tried hard to bring him back to life but he did not respond as his accident wasn’t any tragic road accident. He had slipped into a frozen lake after a chunk of ice broke. Before being rescued, he was underwater for a good 15 minutes and wasn’t traceable. The miracle began when the rescuer first heard his boss tell him to go back and look for the boy. The instructions made him continue looking for 14-year-old John and that is when he was found. When the rescuer narrates the story to his boss and colleagues, the boss says that he never asked him to go back and continue the hunt for the body. Then, who was it? Whose voice was it, we will never know.
Back to the hospital when John came back to life after being dead for almost an hour. Once the pulse was back, the hospital immediately transported John to a bigger and better hospital to increase his chances of survival. But the accident was so bad that the doctors knew saving this guy would only make his life miserable. Death would have been a better choice but since his mother wasn’t ready to give up on her son’s chances at life, the doctors kept trying to bring John back to life. No response from John other than a weak pulse and a movement that only his mother and the pastor witnessed, doctors continued to believe that John wouldn’t make it and all the efforts were only postponing his death.
Breakthrough Movie Plot
It’s Joyce, his mother, who then instructs everyone to talk positively in front of John because though he is in coma, he is still able to hear them is what she believed in. Even the father gave up but the mother didn’t. But a day came when Joyce thought it’s better to let John go than give him a life of pity, pain, and humiliation. He would have continued to be in a vegetative state, if saved.
The most heart-breaking part is when Joyce also gives up but what is praise-worthy is that she continues to speak of all of it positively. She doesn’t ask the Doctor to take off the machines and let her son die. She asks the doctor to wake him up. When Doctors say that the medications would have a long-lasting and negative effect on John’s body, she asks him to stop the medication so that her son could fight for his life on his own. It’s traumatising to watch the parents’ ordeal especially when the doctor takes John off the support.
I wouldn’t have recommended Breakthrough if that is how the movie would have ended.
Miraculously, John, as per his mother’s instructions, fights for life when taken off the support and wakes up. Lungs full of blood, cerebral edema and what not did this guy go through after that accident but when he woke up, he woke up completely fine with absolutely no traces of accident on his body – no internal or external injuries. This is truly a miracle. This is why, no matter what happens in the world – inside or outside, our faith in goodness should remain intact. Again, there are things in this Universe that human beings will never be able to decode. So, just believe. Believe that your miracle is right around the corner. You just have to be patient. It will come around and life will change, forever, within a few seconds.
If you are among the ones who want to reinstate their faith in life, watch Breakthrough.
Streaming On: Disney+ Hotstar
The Digital Popcorn 