The movie Leap of Faith, directed by Richard Pearce and starring Steve Martin, Debra Winger, Lolita Davidovich, Liam Neeson, and Lukas Haas, was released in 1992. Jonas Nightengale is a Christian faith healer who uses his revival meetings to extort money from the people of Rustwater, Kansas.
The movie was shot in Groom, Claude, and Tulia, Texas, with some scenes shot in Plainview, where the fake town mascot is still painted on the side of the town water tower. After Michael Keaton left the project, Martin was brought in as a substitute. Ricky Jay, who was described as ‘probably the most brilliant sleight-of-hand artist alive’ in a 1993 story in The New Yorker, was the consultant for cons and frauds.
Jonas Nightengale (Steve Martin), a traveling Christian evangelist, and his associates prefer to stage their phony faith-healing revivals in major cities, where large sums of money are readily available. When Jonas and his band are stranded in a remote part of Kansas, they decide to put on a show for the locals and milk them for all they’re worth. The shows go off without a hitch until law enforcement officer Will Braverman (Liam Neeson) notices the ruse and vows to prove Jonas is a fraud.
