I love this movie. Denzel plays Eli, a man in a post apocalyptic world who hears a calling to take the last bible on a journey to a place where it is needed, where it can be shared with others. He receives providential protection and guidance along the way.

Viewers only learn of this mission about halfway through the film. Eli meets Carnegie, played by Gary Oldham. Carnegie has a band of illiterate savages under his command. He is looking for a bible among the ruins because he knows how dedicated believers are, and he seeks to build a dedicated following by preaching from the bible. He is a criminal dictator seeking power, nothing more. By the end of the movie Carnegie succeeds in taking Eli's bible from him, only to discover later on that the book is in braille, which he cannot read.

Eli has read the book every day for 30 years and knows it by heart. He dictates the book to a man with a printing press who reduces it to writing.

I wondered when I saw this, 'was Eli really a blind man who was able to do all he did by special dispensation somehow?". Watching the movie a second time I think he could see. But when he was dictating the book at the end of the movie, his eyes had that blind look to them. But I suppose that was just him remembering the book and not looking at anything.