The tagline “There is no such thing as a simple miracle” comes from the 1990 film Awakenings. The drama was directed by Penny Marshall and adapted from neurologist Oliver Sacks's 1973 memoir of the same name.
The film stars Robin Williams as Dr. Malcolm Sayer, a fictionalized neurologist, and Robert De Niro as Leonard Lowe, a patient who has spent decades in a catatonic state. Sayer discovers that the drug L-DOPA can temporarily restore movement and awareness in patients affected by encephalitis lethargica, a devastating illness associated with the early twentieth century.
Awakenings is based on real medical experiences, but it is not a literal documentary. The patients' responses to treatment, the emotional relationships, and several characters were shaped for dramatic storytelling. The tagline captures the film's central tension: a remarkable medical breakthrough can bring both hope and difficult consequences.