Today I am going to recap and explain the 1984 remake of Stephen King's book-based film Firestarter. The film starts with a young couple Andy and Vicky McGee, who just had a baby daughter Charlie. Vicky places Charlie in her crib for the night but soon we see a fire getting ignited. Andy rushed quickly and saved the baby. Then we get to know the back story of this family. As a college students in the year, 2008 Andy and Vicky participated in an experiment where they were given a dose of a compound called lot six. This top-secret experimental trial gave them some abilities. Such as telepathy and telekinesis. Andy could read people's minds and control them whereas Vicky could move objects with her thoughts. This experiment killed many people and those who survived had side effects. Ever since Andy and Vicky were on the run, their daughter also had these abilities with pyrokinetic ability. Meaning she could burn objects with her thoughts. That's why she caused the fire n her crib without knowing. Andy was a life coach, he was using his abilities to heal people. He charged 100 dollars for a lady to De-addict from smoking addiction. He literally hypnotized her. Andy was bleeding from his eyes whenever he used his powers. This was his long-term side effect which was slowly killing him.
Now the story moves forwards a few years, Charlie is an eight-year-old girl, and students in her school used to bully her for being weird. She had no mobile and Wi-Fi. Her parents had told her that they can't afford it. They taught Charlie to keep her emotions down else it could spontaneously burn everything around her. This bullying was making Charlie furious at the kids. She was losing control. Vicky always wanted to teach her how to use her powers whereas Andy wanted to supers them. Vicky believed suppressing them will only inflate it and one day it will burst causing heavy damage. Andy and Vicky used to argue about this.
The next day at school while playing kids bully Charlie heavily. She gets scared and runs into the bathroom, she opens all taps and locks herself. A teacher runs behind her to check on her but it was late. Her anger bursts and caused a big explosion. The teacher was shocked to see this. They called Andy and Vick for Charlie's behavior, they were not sure how she did that. They wanted a full police investigation.
Back at home parents prepare to leave this town and start to argue about it. Charlie was unhappy about this, she curse herself as a monster and blamed her mom for this. She just wanted to be a normal kid. In the heat of the argument, Charlie unintentionally causes a fire on Vicky's hands and she started burning. Andy quickly dogged the fire with a blanket meanwhile Charlie called 911 without knowing the consequence. She was just the kid, that's what school taught her to do in an emergency. Andy quickly canceled the call and bandaged Vicky.
Next, we see captain Hollister, she was the new chief of the department of scientific intelligence. This is the same agency that ran the experiment in the first place. Hollister now calls one John Rainbird guy who was also the victim of the experiment. He used to work as a bounty hunter for the agency. But its precious boss used him like trash hence he left the job. He was reduced to a janitor. Hollister offers him a better offer and asks him to kidnap Charlie. She had located Andy and Vicky's location.
To calm Charlie down Andy takes her out for an ice cream treat. After a few minutes police arrive to check on that 911 call. Vicky dismisses it as an accident and blames it on the child's panic. Police get it and ignore it. While coming back Vicky senses something strange. Rainbird attacks her from behind and asks her about Charlie. Vicky fights him hard with her power, since she was out of practice she was sloppy. Rainbird had similar power to Andy, he can manipulate people. Vicky warns him about Charlie and says you will regret meeting her. When Andy and Charlie came back they too sensed something strange. Soon rainbird captures Charlie and closes her eyes. He thought she might be having similar abilities to her parents, if she can't see then she can't use them. Andy uses his powers to stop the rainbird but he was weak. He started bleeding. Charlie was in a panic, she started screaming for her mom. With this the temperature around her started to rise, it broke the door behind which rainbird had kept Vicky's body. The body fell. Once Charlie saw that she screamed like hell at it which caused a huge explosion. Rainbird was thrown away and he passed out. Andy quickly grabbed Charlie and ran from there.
Later we see captain Hollister meeting with Dr. Joseph Wanless. Dr. Wanless was the guy who experimented in the first place. During the course of it, he understood its dangerous nature and asked then D S I head to stop it. As a reward for his resentment, he was institutionalized in a mental hospital. Captain Hollister was here to recruit the doctor but the doctor Wanless refuses it. He straight up says, eliminate the kid or you will be in big trouble.
Charlie and Andy had parked their car outside a rural farm. Andy was deep in sleep and Charlie was roaming around. She sees a cat and tries to play with it. The cat bites here sensing danger from here. Within a second Charlie's instant reaction acts and burns that cat sensing danger. Charlie started crying as she never wanted to harm it. She explains everything to Andy and finally, Andy realizes his mistakes. He starts teaching her how to use her power. With a precise decision, Charlie completely burns that cat, and later they bury it.
They ditched their car and started hitchhiking. One old man by the name of Iver Maders stops his car to help them. Quickly Andy hypnotized him to drop them off in Boston for hundred bucks. Before going to Boston Ice took them to his house for dinner and stay for the night. At the house, Charlie started hearing voices from a room. Upon checking, it was Iver's wife Essi. She was in a coma and bedridden for many years. She couldn't speak yet Charlie was communicating with her. These three had a nice dinner. While sleeping Andy told Charlie about earlier attempts of DSI to kidnap her. In the year 2013, two DSI agents stole her from Andy's house. Just as they were leaving Andy hypnotized one of them, and ordered him to kill the other and commit suicide. Andy was really sorry about that as those two agents also had kids and family. He teaches Charlie to use her power only in self-defense and never to hurt others.
The next day Iver watched a news clip on TV. Apparently Andy was now a declared fugitive, police had changed Vicky's murder on him. This news rattles Iver he starts to argue with Andy and a small fight broke between the two. Andy tried to convince his situation but the old guy was not in the mood to listen. Just then Charlie told Ice about Essi. she told him that his negligence caused his son's death and placed Essi in a coma. All these years Ice blamed himself for this and begged forgiveness from Essi. Charlie says Essi forgives you. Iver was shocked by this mind-reading kid. He was sort of convinced that police might be after them for other reasons besides the murder. But he had already informed the police hence they were at his doorstep. Iver asked Andy and Charlie to hide in another room. He started shooing off police by saying he mistakenly called them. He was sleeping etc etc. The police were not in the mood to listen, they insisted on checking the place. As soon as they put their first step forward a slew of bullets killed them all. It was Rainbird he killed the police and shot Iver in his legs. Charlie and Andy came out to run, Charlie wanted to burn this Rainbird guy but Andy stopped her. She asked her to the runway. He started to hypnotize Rainbird but it didn't work. He was good at his defense. Charlie just ran into the woods. Just then DSI agents arrived there and arrested both Andy and rainBird. They were wearing some sort of lens that protected them from hypnotism.
Hollister was furious at rainbird for killing those officers. It was supposed to be a covert operation. Rainbird says Charlie has a connection with Andy, she will come to him if he calls. Hollister starts to torture Andy, she asked him to bring her here. Her logic was she will be safer here than in the open world. There she had the risk of killing people accidentally. she wanted to train her. Perhaps use her as a human weapon in the future. Andy knew her plan hence he refused.
We see Charlie in the woods. She was practicing her powers, she ends seeing a vision of the DSI facility and the sound of ocean waves. She thought this might be from her dad who is calling her through his powers. She ends up in a town and hypnotizes three kids. She takes food and a bicycle from them and later heads to the coast.
She ends up at the facility. she follows a tech support agent by the name of Jules and jumps into his car. Jules identifies her and was very much scared, his wife was pregnant. He begs her not to harm him. Charlie takes his phone and clearance pass from him. She asks him whether he has any gun on him, to which he lies saying he has none. Considering Charlie to be a kid he tries to outsmart her with the gun. On seeing the gun Charlie's defense mechanism instantly bursts the fire and kills him. A security guard saw the fire on CCTV and altered the guards. Charlie now started burning down cameras and attacking guards.
She had the pass hence she quickly reached his dad. Andy was weak, his bleeding was killing him. One more push he could be dead. Captain Hollister tries her best to pursue this young kid. She says, Charlie, you are special, you are also sick like your dad, and you are hurting people, we will help you to train your abilities. We are not bad guys. By this time Charlie was in no mood to listen to any of this as she knew all about the DSI agency. Andy says sorry to Charlie. He uses his abilities for the last time and says burn the whole place down. Instantly Charlie burns Andy and Hollister. Later she burns the facility and guards. Few guards try to catch her by wearing fireproof cloaks. But rainbird fired at them from behind and killed them. Then he stood in front of Charlie to face his crime. Charlie was mad at him for killing his mom but she spares his life. As he was the one who called her here with his powers.
When Captain Hollister asked Rainbird why he allowed the girl to run away, he replied by saying that she would come to the DSI headquarters to look for her father. He added that Charlie was his sister and his mother. She was the rage that they kept hidden from the world. He knew that she would bring death upon him, and he was ready to take it as that was the fate he deserved. It was only after encountering the magnanimous power of Charlie that Rainbird realized that the young girl was above them all. She would destroy anyone who came for her or her family, and he started respecting her as the all-powerful one who was the culmination of all of their strengths.
Rainbird always wanted to destroy this facility, initially, he thought Charlie is similar to her parents. But when he recognized what she can do he switched sides. Charlie ran outside and burned down the whole place.
In the end, Charlie fell to her knees after all the strength she had lost. Rainbird stood beside her and offered her his hand. Charlie accepted his help, and he carried her to safety. The character of Rainbird is empathetic and different from the original. He was not fascinated by her powers to destroy her, but rather her power made him surrender himself. He had always believed that they could not run away from the DSI, but after meeting Charlie, he knew that she was the messiah they needed to destroy the enemy. With this, the film ends.
Andy did not wish for charlie to be a destroyer but rather to use her power for the betterment of society, just like he did. He regretted murdering two federal agents when they took away his daughter, knowing that they too had families. But in the end, when he realized that they would always be hunted down for their abilities, he advised his daughter to destroy them all. It did not matter if Charlie redirected her intentions for betterment; she would still be hunted down for experimentation. It was them against the brutality of the world, and he asked her to choose herself. Well, this film is pretty straightforward, the writer or the director didn't really try to improve upon the 1984 film. It looked much like an 80's film, not of modern film. When you make a remake people expect something new, something change but sorry to say this is pretty basic.
