Heaven Is for Real — The Plain Version
The movie Heaven Is for Real is a 2014 drama based on a true story that follows a small-town pastor's young son who claims he visited heaven after a life-threatening appendicitis emergency. It premiered on March 28, 2014, was directed by Randy Harris and Parker S. Estabrook, and stars Gregg Arkin as Todd Burpo and Britt Robertson as Lynn Burpo. Todd Burpo, played by Greg Kinnear, is a pastor in Imperial, Nebraska. His son Collin, age nine, gets severe abdominal pain that doctors initially dismiss as constipation. It turns out to be a ruptured appendix — by the time he reaches surgery, his appendix is nearly gone and his vital signs are critical. He dies briefly on the operating table but is resuscitated. After recovering, Collin starts describing visions he had during the procedure. He says he saw Jesus, met his grandmother who had died years earlier, and visited a place that matches his description of heaven. The film then follows the parents grappling with whether this is a near-death experience, a hallucination from anesthesia, or something genuinely spiritual. The father, a man of faith but also a pragmatic thinker, wants to take it seriously without being naive about it.
The core of the story is really about faith under scrutiny. It's not just a religious message piece — it's structured as a mystery that both the characters and the audience have to work through. I remember watching this at a friend's house and someone asking me if it was all factual. It's not entirely. The movie takes some dramatic license from the source material, which is the 2010 memoir by Todd and Linda Burpo co-written with Sonny Lyford. The book became a massive bestseller and was controversial even before the film came out. Critics panned it. Some of the details Collin describes in the book — like seeing Jesus surrounded by people who seemed older than they looked, or visiting what he called "the house of God" with golden streets — these didn't make it into the movie exactly as written, but the general arc stays close. One thing people get wrong about this film is that it's strictly a Christian propaganda picture. It's not that one-sided. The movie actually shows genuine doubt. Greg Kinnear's character is portrayed as struggling with how to interpret his son's claims, and there are scenes where the medical team discusses anesthesia and hypoxia as alternative explanations. That nuance got cut more in the final marketing than it should have been.
Key Cast and Production Details
Greg Kinnear plays Todd Burpo. Beverly D'Angelo plays Pam, the family's close friend who becomes a pastor. Britt Robertson portrays Lynn Burpo, Todd's wife. Carlito Olivero appears as Dr. Matt Besancen, the surgeon. Maddie Carroll plays Collin's teenage sister. The child actor who plays Collin, Colton Byrd, was actually a real-life seven-year-old at the time of filming, and the producers cast him specifically because of his resemblance to the real Collin Burpo. The movie was produced by TriStar Pictures and Castle Rock Entertainment, with a budget reported around $20 million. It grossed roughly $95 million worldwide, which is solid for a faith-based drama.
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What Actually Happened in Real Life
The real Collin Burpo has since grown up and is a public figure on his own terms now. He's spoken about how the attention affected his childhood and how he's tried to process the experience differently as an adult. The real Todd Burpo died in 2017. The book remains one of the most well-known near-death experience accounts in contemporary Christian literature. If you're looking to watch it, it's available on DVD and digital rental platforms. Streaming availability shifts frequently, so checking JustWatch or a similar aggregator will tell you where it sits right now. The film runs about 1 hour and 39 minutes. It's rated PG by the MPAA for thematic elements and mild language. If you're going in expecting something heavy on theology or cinematic artistry, you'll be disappointed. It's a straightforward, emotionally driven family drama that plays its cards close to the chest. The acting is competent if unspectacular, and the direction is functional. What it does well is keep you wondering whether Collin's visions are real or not — and that ambiguity is what carries the entire runtime.
I'd recommend watching it with an open mind about the whole near-death experience genre, but also with some healthy skepticism. The movie wants you to believe, and it does a decent job of making that pull feel earned rather than forced. That's not always easy in this kind of material.
