JESUS CHRIST GOOD MAN Genre: Biblical Drama / Apocalyptic Philosophical Speculative Tone: Atmospheric, Reverent, Unforgivingly Stark LOGLINE Framed through the Gospel of Luke and centered on Christ’s core temptations and encounters with outcast souls, Jesus Christ Good Man weaves ancient scripture with a vision of human tragedy—culminating in a dialogue between Jesus and a ruined Canadian scientist whose corrupted nuclear energy plants destroyed the Earth. MAIN CHARACTERS Jesus of Nazareth: Gracious yet unyielding; a man of profound sorrow and absolute peace who honors human agency above all else. Dr. Arthur Vance: A brilliant, disgraced Canadian nuclear physicist who dropped out of academia to build cheap, unstable "false nuclear" plants along the Great Lakes, ultimately precipitating a global ecological collapse. The Adversary (Temptation): A quiet, persistent voice appearing throughout Jesus’ life, tempting him to bypass human free will and enforce divine control. The Woman at the Well (Photine): A Samaritan seeker whose dialogue bridges the ancient covenants with the living water. The Woman Taken in Adultery: A figure caught in religious legalism, through whom Jesus reveals the moral bankruptcy of self-righteous judgment. Click here.

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JESUS CHRIST GOOD MAN

Genre: Biblical Drama / Apocalyptic Philosophical Speculative Tone: Atmospheric, Reverent, Unforgivingly Stark

LOGLINE

Framed through the Gospel of Luke and centered on Christ’s core temptations and encounters with outcast souls, Jesus Christ Good Man weaves ancient scripture with a vision of human tragedy—culminating in a dialogue between Jesus and a ruined Canadian scientist whose corrupted nuclear energy plants destroyed the Earth.

MAIN CHARACTERS

  • Jesus of Nazareth: Gracious yet unyielding; a man of profound sorrow and absolute peace who honors human agency above all else.
  • Dr. Arthur Vance: A brilliant, disgraced Canadian nuclear physicist who dropped out of academia to build cheap, unstable "false nuclear" plants along the Great Lakes, ultimately precipitating a global ecological collapse.
  • The Adversary (Temptation): A quiet, persistent voice appearing throughout Jesus’ life, tempting him to bypass human free will and enforce divine control.
  • The Woman at the Well (Photine): A Samaritan seeker whose dialogue bridges the ancient covenants with the living water.
  • The Woman Taken in Adultery: A figure caught in religious legalism, through whom Jesus reveals the moral bankruptcy of self-righteous judgment.
Click here. 

ACT BREAKDOWN

Act I: The Wilderness and the Deuteronomy Covenants

  • Following his baptism in the Jordan (Luke 3), Jesus enters the desert. The narrative focuses heavily on The Temptation in the Wilderness.
  • As the Adversary offers him bread, kingdoms, and miraculous protection, Jesus counters each offer with precise Old Testament citations from Deuteronomy ("Man shall not live by bread alone," "Do not test the Lord your God").
  • The film establishes the core theme: God will not perform magic tricks to compel human obedience or strip away human agency.

Act II: Encounters at the Edges of the Law

  • The Woman at the Well: Set by Jacob’s Well. Jesus references Jacob, Joseph’s inheritance, and the prophet Jeremiah ("They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns"). He exposes the illusion that physical water or earthly religious structures can satisfy eternal longing.
  • The Woman Found in Adultery: Interspersed into the Lukan framework. When the religious leaders cite Leviticus and Deuteronomy demanding her stoning, Jesus stoops to write in the dust—an explicit nod to Jeremiah 17:13 ("Those who turn away from you will be written in the dust because they have forsaken the Lord"). He dismantles their hypocrisy, leaving the woman forgiven and instructed to sin no more.

Act III: The Wasteland and the Canadian Scientist

  • In a vision of time transcended—or a manifestation of the world's ultimate grief—Jesus travels across the desolated shores of poisoned Canadian lakes.
  • He sits beside Dr. Arthur Vance, surrounded by the decaying concrete cooling towers of Vance’s ruined energy grid. Vance is broken by guilt, having realized too late that his "false nuclear energy" tore open the biosphere and brought about the end of human civilization.
  • Their dialogue confronts the problem of evil, free will, and war (see excerpt below).

Act IV: The Road to Jerusalem (Gospel of Luke)

  • Jesus returns to the narrative path of Luke: his steadfast resolve toward Jerusalem, his tearful lament over the city ("If you had only known on this day what would bring you peace"), the Last Supper, Gethsemane, the trial before Pilate and Herod, and the Crucifixion alongside the penitent thief.
  • The film ends not in despair, but with the quiet, lingering light of the Resurrection—offering hope even in a world broken by human choice.

FEATURED SCREENPLAY EXCERPT

SCENE: EXT. GEORGIAN BAY SHORELINE - DAY (TIMECODE: 01:15:00)

The air is gray with fallout. The water of the lake is dead, gray-green, and thick. Massive, cracked cooling towers rise out of the haze like shattered teeth.

DR. ARTHUR VANCE (60s), wearing a torn, ash-stained parka, sits on a rusted iron pipe. JESUS sits beside him on a stone.

VANCE (Voice raspy) I built them along the lakes because we needed the water to cool the reactors. But the physics were wrong. I lied on the safety reports because I wanted to save the power grid. I killed the world. My country, your creation... all of it.

Jesus looks out over the gray water. His expression is heavy with grief, yet entirely devoid of malice.

VANCE If you are who they say you are... why didn't you step in? Why didn't you freeze my hand before I signed the authorization? Why didn't you break the control rods before they melted down?

JESUS (Calmly) I cannot stop you from what you do. You have to choose.

VANCE (Angered) That’s a cop-out! You’re Almighty God! If a child is running toward a cliff, a good father grabs his coat! You let eight billion people burn because of free will? Just stop us!

JESUS (Looking Vance directly in the eye) I cannot stop them from what they do. They have to choose.

VANCE (Voice cracking, weeping) Look around you! Look at the ashes of North America! Look at the lakes! Love doesn't let a loved one destroy themselves!

JESUS (Gentle, unwavering) Love without choice is not love; it is tyranny. I cannot stop them from what they do. They have to choose.

Vance slumps forward, burying his face in his scarred hands. The wind howls across the lake.

VANCE And what about the wars that followed the collapse? When the clean water ran out, they turned their weapons on each other. Whole nations butchering each other for a single clean well. Was that your will too? Is war permitted in your kingdom?

Jesus stands up. He looks toward the horizon where the smoke of fallen cities still rises.

JESUS No.

VANCE Even when they fought to survive?

JESUS No.

VANCE Even when defending their children?

JESUS No.

VANCE Is there no righteous war in the human community?

JESUS No.

VANCE Not for territory?

JESUS No.

VANCE Not for resources?

JESUS No.

VANCE Not for justice?

JESUS No.

VANCE Not under any flag?

JESUS No.

VANCE Not in your name?

JESUS No.

VANCE Not to prevent a greater evil?

JESUS No.

VANCE So every drop of blood spilled in battle—

JESUS No.

VANCE Every army raised—

JESUS No.

VANCE Every missile launched across these waters—

JESUS No.

VANCE Every strike in self-defense—

JESUS No.

VANCE Is there no exception in the world’s human community?

JESUS No.

VANCE None at all?

JESUS No.

VANCE Never?

JESUS No.

VANCE Forever?

JESUS No. We can speak and negotiate with the threat of air superiority or the war machine. The answer to all conflict is the ten commandments, the preservation of all the world's water resources, the defence of the poles and the UDHR. So, the side on disagreement will come to agree with us. This is the power. However we must be careful with the use of these weapons and water evaporation.  

Silence falls over the desolation. Vance stares at Jesus, stripped of all arguments.

JESUS (Softly) Put up your sword. The path of life was given to you in the beginning, written on tablets of stone, spoken by the prophets, and lived before your eyes. I offer living water to whoever thirsts. But you must put down the cup of poison yourself.

Jesus extends his hand toward Vance.

THEMATIC REASONING & SCRIPTURAL FOUNDATIONS

  1. The Lukan Lens: Luke emphasizes Christ's compassion for the outcast, his deep prayer life, and his encounters with non-Jews and social outcasts. The dialogue with the Canadian scientist fits Luke's universal perspective—that Christ addresses all humanity across history.
  2. Old Testament References:
    • Temptation: Deuteronomy 6:13, 6:16, 8:3.
    • Woman at the Well: Genesis 29:10 (Jacob's Well), Jeremiah 2:13 (Living Waters).
    • Woman in Adultery: Leviticus 20:10, Deuteronomy 22:22, Jeremiah 17:13 (Names written in the dust).
  3. The Central Paradox: The film asserts that God's absolute refusal to use coercive force to stop human destruction is not a lack of power or care, but the necessary condition of true freedom and love.

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