Does The Story of Everything Really Cover Everything?

Does The Story of Everything Really Cover Everything?

The movie opened April 30 on select screens at select times and runs through May 6, 2026. The synopsis of the movie, from its website, is the following:

The Story of Everything is a cinematic exploration of the cosmos that reveals the hidden hand behind our universe. From the precise laws that govern the stars to the intricate patterns found in every living cell, the film traces evidence of intentional design throughout nature. Whether examining distant star-forming clouds or the spiral structure of DNA, we discover a consistent signature woven into the fabric of existence.

While the Bible-believing Christian will be joyfully overwhelmed at the intricate care and (as one scientist in the film termed it) elegant design of the universe and our earth to support intelligent human life, we are left with much ambiguity. It was unclear if the well-credentialed scientists interviewed believe in a big bang, long ages, or any particular religion. A quick inspection shows their backgrounds are pretty diverse—some are from religious institutions and others are from secular institutions. Most seem to accept some form of billions of years. Some spoke of a conversion from atheism or agnosticism, but to what?

Those familiar with marketing may be familiar with the term “top of funnel,” which refers to a wide net to capture the interest of a diverse set. And what is the purpose of the funnel? To bring people down through the funnel to a better place for them. Otherwise, what is the point?

This well-made film—with clearly intelligent scientists and awe-inspiring graphics—tells a story, quite literally, of the beauty of the intricacy and intelligence needed for our universe to even work (much less have a semblance of beauty); however, the story leads nowhere. Evidence upon evidence pointed only toward intelligence, causality, a “mind,” and a beginning.

Lee Strobel opened the film with a request that the audience stick around at the end for additional important information. Afterward, he addressed the audience directly, urging them to look deeper by following the link from a QR code on the screen. We were hopeful that the information from that link would introduce the audience to the only possible source of this intelligence, which would be a very worthwhile endeavor. But the information presented at the link was more of the same, with barely a reference to any creator—much less the God of the Bible.

We have to wonder about the purpose of the movie. It claims to be “the Film That Asks the Biggest Question,” which presumably is the question presented at the end of the trailer: “What does one do about it [the concept of life as a cosmic phenomenon that has many consequences]?” We do hope it gets people to doubt Darwinian evolution, which was strongly argued against. But cosmologic evolution and geologic evolution were not argued against and may actually be supported by several of the ID scientists. Ultimately then, we are still left with many important, not-so-vague questions: Why is there ugliness, death, and suffering? Why would a “mind” put things together this way, and where is everything heading?

At Answers in Genesis, we believe the most important thing we can do is point people to the God of the Bible, who created everything and gave us his image so he could commune with us. Sometimes this means we talk about the same evidences this film did, such as the following: