Firestarter (2022 film)

The film begins with a flashback of baby Charlene "Charlie" McGee in her crib. Charlie spontaneously sets the room on fire with her pyrokinesis powers, sending her father Andrew "Andy" McGee into a panic.

The opening credits show a young Andy and Victoria "Vicky" talking to a doctor in a clinical trial, who explains to them that they will be injected with an experimental chemical drug known as Lot-6, which unbeknownst to them will give them supernatural powers. Andy gains telepathy, and Vicky obtains telekinesis.

In the present day, Charlie is sitting at the kitchen table after having a nightmare. Her father and mother join her and Charlie explains that she has been repressing something bad, her powers becoming more unstable. Her father comforts her. Charlie unintentionally causes a ruckus at her school after exploding a bathroom stall due to anger at being bullied. Andy is shown using his power, "the push", to influence a client to stop smoking, although using his power causes his eyes to bleed from the strain.

Meanwhile, in a secret facility, thermal signatures caused by Charlie's outburst are being monitored by Captain Jane Hollister, leader of the facility known as DSI. She visits Doctor Joseph Wanless, creator of Lot-6 and the resulting superhumans, who implores Captain Hollister to terminate Charlie before her powers become too great. Captain Hollister enlists fellow superhuman John Rainbird to help with this task.

Rainbird visits the McGee home, confronting Vicky who attempts to fight him off using her repressed telekinetic powers. Rainbird overpowers and kills her, holding Charlie at knifepoint as she and Andy enter the home. Charlie's powers get the best of her and she sends a concussive burst of flames throughout the house. Andy and Charlie escape into their truck.

On the road, Andy and Charlie come across a man named Irv. After using the push to convince Irv to take them to Boston, Andy and Charlie hitch a ride with him, stopping off at his house. After Charlie accidentally stumbles upon his paralyzed wife, Irv bursts into a fit of anger before conceding that he occasionally overreacts. Irv sits up all night watching a news report of the incident at the McGee home, which is being framed as murder by Andy. Irv and Andy get into a confrontation before Andy explains to Irv that he is just trying to protect his daughter. Charlie uses her telepathic powers to tell Irv that his wife forgives him for the accident that left her paralysed, causing him to relent and attempt to protect Andy and Charlie when the police appear due to his prior emergency call. Rainbird appears in the bushes and kills the policemen and Irv before black trucks roll in to pick up Charlie and Andy. Andy uses his push one last time to trick Rainbird so Charlie can escape to a forest. Charlie spends time honing her fire powers before stealing a bike and clothes to follow her father's telepathic message to her from his cell at DSI.

Charlie finds DSI and takes an agent's pass from him. He pleads for her not to kill him and tells her he doesn't have a gun. She kills him after he draws the gun to attack her. She follows a large staircase down to the restricted area in which her father is being kept. She reaches her father's glass-fronted cell, from inside which Captain Hollister tells her not to try and burn her, lest she burns her father in the process. Andy tells Charlie that he didn't telepathically call for her, it was Rainbird. Seeing no other way out, Andy tells Charlie to burn the whole place down, including him. He apologizes to her and then mentally pushes her to burn the entire place down, starting with Hollister and himself. Charlie sets both on fire, mentally unlocks all the security doors, and walks through the facility killing everyone. Rainbird is released when his holding cell is unlocked. Charlie is captured by men in fire suits after she can't kill them all. The men are about to subdue her when Rainbird shoots them from behind. He surrenders to Charlie and kneels for her judgment. Charlie starts to kill him but sees herself in the mirror and she realizes that he is like her, a man under the thumb of DSI, and shows him mercy, before finally setting the rest of the building ablaze.

In the final scene, Charlie is seen walking onto a beach with Rainbird following behind. Knowing that she is alone in the world, Charlie allows Rainbird to pick her up, and the credits roll as they walk off together.

• Zac Efron as Andrew "Andy" McGee, Charlie's telepathic father
• Ryan Kiera Armstrong as Charlene "Charlie" McGee, an 11-year-old troubled girl struggling with anger issues and mood swings mostly due to her pyrokinesis. She is also the daughter of Andy and Vicky McGee.
• Sydney Lemmon as Victoria "Vicky" Tomlinson-McGee, a telekinetic, Andy's wife and Charlie's mother.
• Kurtwood Smith as Dr. Joseph Wanless
• John Beasley as Irv Manders
• Michael Greyeyes as John Rainbird, a bounty hunter assigned by DSI to track down Charlie.
• Gloria Reuben as Captain Jane Hollister, the leader of DSI. The character is a gender-swapped version of James Hollister.

On April 27, 2017, Universal Pictures and Blumhouse Productions announced a remake of Firestarter (1984), with Akiva Goldsman set to direct and produce alongside Jason Blum.^[3] On June 28, 2018, Fatih Akin replaced Goldsman as director, with Scott Teems set to write the script.^[4] On December 16, 2019, Keith Thomas replaced Akin as director.^[5] In September 2020, Zac Efron joined the cast.^[6] In February 2021, Michael Greyeyes joined the cast.^[7] In June 2021, Ryan Kiera Armstrong, Gloria Reuben, and Sydney Lemmon were added to the cast.^[8][9][10] Principal photography began on May 25, 2021, in Toronto and Hamilton, Ontario,^[11][12] and wrapped on July 16.^[13]

The score was composed by John Carpenter, Cody Carpenter, and Daniel Davies, who previously collaborated with Blumhouse on Halloween (2018) and Halloween Kills (2021).^[14] The score was digitally released on May 13, 2022, by Back Lot Music and on LP/CD and Cassette in October by Sacred Bones Records.^[15]

Firestarter was released in theaters by Universal Pictures and on Peacock in the United States on May 13, 2022.^[16]

As of May 20, 2022^[update], Firestarter has grossed $5.6 million in the United States and Canada and $2.1 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $7.7 million.^[2]

In the United States and Canada, the film was projected to gross $5–7 million from 3,412 theaters in its opening weekend. It made $1.54 million on its first day, including $375,000 from Thursday night previews. It went on to debut to $3.8 million, finishing fourth at the box office.^[1][17]

Outside the US and Canada, the film earned $2.1 million from 40 markets in its opening weekend.^[18]

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 11% of 125 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 3.7/10. The website's consensus reads: "There was plenty of room to improve on the original, but Firestarter trips over that low bar and tumbles toward the bottom of the long list of Stephen King adaptations."^[19] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 32 out of 100, based on 29 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable" reviews.^[20] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "C-" on an A+ to F scale, while PostTrak reported 50% of audience members gave it a positive score, with 27% saying they would definitely recommend it.^[1]

In May 2022, Thomas stated that there are ongoing discussions to possibly expand the film into a franchise, acknowledging that this may be in the form of sequel, prequel, or spin-off media.^[21]

• Official website
• Firestarter on Peacock
• Firestarter at IMDb