Firestarter (2022)

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Posted By: brian@brianschell.com May 18, 2022

Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone

It’s somewhat more of a reimagining of the story than a strict remake of the 1984 film starring Drew Barrymore. It’s very good, with an excellent cast and top-notch special effects.

Synopsis

Loving parents put their baby to sleep in the crib. It’s all very peaceful and happy. Suddenly, a fire breaks out in the baby’s room; a potted plant just bursts into flame. The father rushes back in to save the baby, but it too, bursts into flame.

Andy McGee wakes up. That was all just a nightmare. He goes in to check on Charlie, his young daughter, and finds her in the kitchen playing with a cigarette lighter. She says the “bad thing” inside her is changing. He reminds her how to calm herself down and not lose control. Mom, Vicky, wakes up, and they all have pancakes.

As credits roll, we watch old footage of the parents submitting to a science experiment involving telepathy, telekinesis, and injections of something call “Lot 6”. We also see that the experiment went horribly wrong for most of the participants.

Today, Andy hypnotizes a woman to quit smoking, telepathically. It works, and the patient is extremely pleased. He feels sick and his eye bleeds afterwards. At school, Charlie mentions that she doesn’t have Google or the Internet at home. She almost fries the other students in her class.

Vicky wants to train Charlie to use her powers, but Andy wants her to be a normal girl. The red headed kid at school picks on Charlie relentlessly, and she hides in the school restroom to literally let off some steam. When the teacher follows her, she finds something that’s definitely not normal as Charlie vents her frustrations in an explosive way.

“Bad men after us because of the special things we can do,” Andy explains to Charlie. They argue, and Charlie sets her mother’s arms on fire.

Meanwhile, in the evil-looking headquarters of DSI, satellites zoom in on Charlie’s school. Captain Hollister calls Rainbird to reactivate him. He’s a “cleaner.” Hollister suggests that Rainbird is “uniquely qualified” to deal with this subject.

Vicky demands that Andy take Charlie out to a movie or something to calm down, while she tries to pack with her severely burnt arms. Home alone, she senses someone inside the house, and it turns out to be Rainbird, who also has powers. Andy and Charlie return home and Rainbird threatens them both over Vicky’s dead body. Charlie sets everything on fire and they run away, but Rainbird avoids the worst of the blast somehow.

Captain Hollister goes to visit Dr. Wanless at the VA Hospital. He was the scientist in charge of the program back in the day. She says she wants to help Charlie, but Wanless thinks she just wants to use her. He warns that Charlie’s current powers are trivial to what they will be; she may someday be able to cause a nuclear explosion. He suggests they simply kill Charlie before it’s too late.

Andy “pushes” a farmer into helping them out. Charlie senses something weird about the place and finds Essie, the old man’s comatose wife. Andy tells the story about how he killed a couple of men to save Charlie the day she was born. The police show up, but Rainbird is there as well, and he shoots all the police and the farmer.

Rainbird comes up after Charlie, but Andy fights him with his mind. Rainbird knocks out Andy and captures him, but Charlie escapes. Rainbird reports to Hollister and says that Charlie will come for Andy.

Elsewhere, Charlie vows revenge and stalks menacingly toward the DSI prison. She uses her “push” powers on some kids for a bike, clothes, and lunch. She finds her way into the building, and they let her proceed downstairs. They turn out the lights, and we see “heat vision” where soldiers are following her.

She soon finds Andy, and Hollister. Captain Hollister spews her garbage, and Charlie doesn’t fall for it. Andy uses his power to “push” Charlie into killing everyone, himself and Hollister included.

Charlie uses her powers to unlock all the doors in the place, including that of Rainbird’s cell. Rainbird kills several of the guards, and she walks past him, letting him live. She burns the place to the ground, and outside, Rainbird carries her away; he really has switched sides.

Commentary

There’s a big deal made about using the Internet or cell phones because the government could track them. It would be really hard to avoid that in the modern day.

It’s been years since I saw the original, but it seems to follow pretty much the same plot. They both follow the basics of the book. It’s good, but didn’t seem necessary when the first film adaptation was fine. But that’s show business.

Rainbird has powers in this version (plus he’s actually played by a Native American actor in this one rather than a white actor as in the original and sequel), and Charlie has more abilities – those of both her parents plus her own fire power.

The acting was good, the story moved along at a nice pace, and the special effects were very good. I’m not sure that this is a film that needed a remake, but it was well done.