General News

WAMG Attends the Red Carpet Premiere of BREAKTHROUGH

By Tom Stockman | March 21, 2019

On January 19, 2015, 14-year-old John Smith was trapped underwater for 15 minutes. First responders pulled him from the icy waters of Lake Saint Louis near St. Charles, Missouri, about 40 miles West of St. Louis. Young John wasn’t breathing, and paramedics and doctors at St. Joseph Hospital West performed CPR on him for 45 minutes without him regaining a pulse. His mother Joyce, who had been notified by phone about the accident, rushed to the hospital, prayed for him, and to the surprise of everyone, his heart began beating again. Dr. Kent Sutterer, the first doctor who treated John, wrote in his medical records: Patient dead. Mother prayed. Patient came back to life. To this day, John suffers no after-effects from the accident

Pastor Jason Noble, Joyce Smith, and one of Joyce’s older sons

In 2017, Joyce Smith chronicled the story in her memoir entitled “The Impossible”, and now that book has been made into the film BREAKTHROUGH, which opens nationwide April 17^th. In the film, Joyce is played by Chrissy Metz (from the TV show ‘This is Us’) and John is played by Marcel Ruiz (from the TV show ‘One Day at a Time). Josh Lucas co-stars as Joyce’s husband Brian and Topher Grace plays their family’s pastor Jason Noble.

Producer DeVon Franklin, Chrissy Metz, and Marcel Ruiz

Because this was such a big local story, there was a red carpet premiere of BREAKTHROUGH last night at the Marcus Des Peres Cinema in St. Louis County and We Are Movie Geeks was on the scene to cover the event. John and Joyce Smith were in attendance as were their big-screen counterparts Chrissy Metz and Marcel Ruiz. Also attending the premiere were Pastor Jason Noble, the film’s director Roxann Dawson (a former actress who played B’Elanna Torres on the show Star Trek Voyager from 1996 to 2001), the film’s producer DeVon Franklin, and dozens of first responders from the Lake Saint Louis police and fire departments including Tommy Shine (played in the film by Mike Colter), the hero who fished young John from his watery would-be grave.