I STILL BELIEVE

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NOTE: This spoiler was submitted by Alex

In Lafayette, Indiana, 1999, Jeremy Camp (KJ Apa) is a young man going away to college – in California – for the first time. He says goodbye to his younger brothers, Jared (Nicolas Bechtel) and Josh (Reuben Dodd), who has special needs. When his parents Tom and Terry (Gary Sinise and Shania Twain) drop him off at the bus, his father gives him a going-away present: an expensive brand new guitar. At college, he sneaks backstage at a music venue to meet Jean-Luc La Joie (Nathan Parsons), lead singer of a Christian rock group, The Kry, that he admires. Jean-Luc ends up letting him help out on the crew. At the concert, Jeremy sees Melissa Henning (Britt Robertson) singing along in the crowd. Afterward, he introduces himself to her.

Jean-Luc encourages Jeremy to write music, which he starts doing. He asks Melissa out, and she invites him to a bonfire and group hang-out – Melissa is friends with Jean-Luc as well. She asks Jeremy to bring his guitar, and when he does, she pushes him to sing for everyone. He does, and soon she joins in singing as well. Later, Jeremy asks Melissa if she and Jean-Luc are more than friends. She explains that she only feels friendship towards him, but she suspects his feelings have started to grow for her. At one of Jean-Luc’s shows, he surprises Jeremy by inviting him onstage to play one of his songs. He does a great job, and the crowd enjoys it. After the show, Jeremy pushes Melissa to go out with him, but she explains that she made a promise to God to not be distracted… and also she doesn’t want to hurt Jean-Luc. Jeremy posits that maybe God did want them to meet, and asks her to think about it. The next day, she tells Jeremy yes to a date.

They go to a museum on their date, where they watch a presentation on the stars, where she talks about the stars and how God made them and has a plan for her. Melissa agrees to a second date but asks Jeremy to keep it just between them. Afterward, she excitedly calls her sister to tell her about Jeremy, and the two begin dating and spending all their time together. Later, Jean-Luc tells Jeremy he’s going into a new recording session and arranged it so Jeremy can have some extra time at the end to record some of his own stuff. Afterward, Jean-Luc asks Melissa out, and she feels incredibly guilty about dating Jeremy and keeping it a secret.

Jeremy’s family comes to visit, and they know all about Melissa, increasing the tension about the secret. Later, Jeremy records in the studio. After the session, he plays a song for Melissa telling her he loves her, and then he kisses her, which Jean-Luc walks in and sees. He leaves, upset, followed by Melissa. Later, Jeremy goes to see Melissa and apologizes, but she breaks up with him. Jeremy goes back home to Indiana for Christmas, and while home, he gets a call from Jean-Luc that Melissa is very sick and that he should come back. He goes to see Melissa in the hospital and meets her family – Melissa tells Jeremy she has stage three cancer and that she’s scared, but if anyone’s life is helped by what she goes through, it will all be worth it. He talks with Jean-Luc, then prays and decides that if Melissa says she loves him, he will propose. He then sees Melissa again, and she tells him she had a feeling God wanted her to pray for Jeremy and his wife, and that the more she prayed, the more she realized she loved him. Jeremy then takes Melissa to the hospital church, where he has set up a bunch of lights, and gives her a Milky Way as the “galaxy” and proposes. She accepts.

Jeremy’s parents are concerned that it’s happening too fast, but he is determined. Terry gives Jeremy a family ring, which he gives to Melissa. He then begins touring with Jean-Luc’s band. During a concert, he introduces Melissa and his fiancee and tells the crowd that they got tough news, but that a woman once touched Jesus and was healed. He asks the crowd to touch Melissa and pray for her, and they do. Later, Melissa emotionally shaves her head. Jeremy drops out of school in order to help take care of Melissa.

The doctor tells Melissa the cancer is in her ovaries, and she needs a hysterectomy, devastating her since she always wanted to have kids. That night she begins throwing things in the kitchen. During a radio interview, Jeremy asks everyone to pray for Melissa and gets hundreds of letters back. Melissa goes in for her surgery, and during it, her sister Heather (Melissa Roxburgh) tells Jeremy how glad she is he’s there for her. Melissa wakes up and sees Jeremy, who tells her that her cancer is gone, and they didn’t need to do the surgery. At a concert, Jeremy tells the crowd that miracles are real and introduces Melissa. Jean-Luc tells the radio that there’s no medical explanation for Melissa being one hundred percent cancer-free.

Six months later, Jeremy and Melissa get married and go on their honeymoon, and during it, he begins writing a song. Later, Melissa doesn’t feel right. She goes back into the hospital, where they learn the cancer has returned as is spreading rapidly, and there’s probably no treatment that can save her. They return home to all their wedding presents, and Melissa sobs. Jeremy takes Melissa to where he first saw her and tells her that’s where he fell in love with her. She tells him about how the stars with the shortest lifespan burn brightest. She tells Jeremy to promise her that he will find someone else when she’s gone. He refuses to accept that and insists she’ll be healed.

Melissa worsens and ends up back in the hospital. She asks Jeremy to play the song he wrote on their honeymoon for her. Later, Melissa wakes suddenly in the middle of the night and tells Jeremy that God has healed her and that she doesn’t hurt. Her monitors start going off and she dies with Jeremy, her sister, and her parents at her side. Tom arrives at the hospital to find Jeremy laying on the floor of Melissa’s room. He and Jean-Luc help carry Jeremy out of the hospital and take him home. After Melissa’s funeral, Jeremy tells Tom he prayed for Josh to be born healthy, and he begged God to heal Melissa, and now he doesn’t know what to do with that. His father tells him he can’t explain some things, but that he has a full life and loves his family, and that his life is full because it has disappointments in it.

Jeremy goes out in the rain and asks God why he did this. He then goes home and angrily smashes his guitar to pieces. He then notices that inside Melissa put her journal pages that Jeremy was always asking him to read, along with a note telling him about the moment she fell in love with him, and that miracles do happen and that everything has meaning in part of God’s plan. She tells him that she is safe with God now, and asks Jeremy to pick up his guitar and keep playing music.

Two years later, Jeremy is a very successful Christian music star. At a giant concert, he tells the crowd about Melissa and how she died with faith and that she touched heaven. He tells them about how Melissa just wanted one life to be changed and sings a song called “I Still Believe” about what he and Melissa went through and still believing. Among those listening is a woman named Adrienne (Abigail Cowen). After the show, she finds Jeremy and tells him she was at the show where he asked everyone to pray for Melissa. She tells him that she had also lost someone and was angry and lost and that seeing Melissa that night and hearing the story rescued her. She says her life was changed by that. Jeremy thanks her, and that night, goes out and looks at the stars and tells Melissa he loves her and is going to keep telling her story.

Post-script explains how I Still Believe was a hit and that Jeremy’s albums have sold millions. Jeremy and Adrienne married in 2003 and have three kids, and keep telling Melissa’s story.


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Jeremy Camp (KJ Apa) goes away to college and meets Melissa (Britt Robertson). They begin dating, which gets complicated because their friend, successful Christian rock singer Jean-Luc (Nathan Parsons), also has feelings for Melissa. Melissa then becomes extremely sick with cancer, and Jeremy proposes. She accepts. Meanwhile, Jeremy has begun touring with Jean-Luc and asks the crowds to pray for Melissa. Melissa is told she's going to need a hysterectomy, but when she goes in for surgery, the doctors find the cancer is gone, which they think is a miracle.

Six months later, Jeremy and Melissa are married, but Melissa's cancer returns, and she dies. Jeremy is devastated and angry, not sure if he accepts God anymore, but eventually writes a song called "I Still Believe" about Melissa and about God. He becomes a very successful Christian singer, and Melissa's story touches many people, including a woman named Adrienne, who Jeremy eventually marries and has three children with.