Firestarter (1984) on Netflix
Andy McGee can make people obey him, and his daughter Charlie can start fires. Both powers come from a paid experiment, and the government agency behind it is hunting the girl.
- Netflix3.4/5
- IMDb6.1/1040,000 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes40%
Trailer
Plot summary
Andy McGee and Vicky Tomlinson meet at college, where they earn money by joining an experiment and are dosed with LOT-6. The other volunteers suffer side effects, but the pair come away changed: Vicky gains the ability to read minds, while Andy can compel people to obey him, though the effort sometimes leaves him with a nosebleed. They marry and have a daughter, Charlene, known as Charlie, who can control heat and fire and occasionally sees what is coming. The Department of Scientific Intelligence, called The Shop, sponsored the experiment, and it wants to turn Charlie's ability into a weapon. Andy arrives home to find Vicky killed and Charlie taken, frees her by blinding the agents holding her, and the two go into hiding.
Cast
- Curtis Credelas Bates
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Firestarter (1984)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Universal offered John Carpenter the chance to direct while he was filming The Thing, and Carpenter hired Bill Phillips to write a version with Richard Dreyfuss as Andy; when The Thing underperformed financially, Universal replaced Carpenter with Mark L. Lester.
- De Laurentiis surprised the owners of Orton by asking to buy the property so he could set the home ablaze for a dramatic scene in the film. They declined, but offered to let the production use the property for exterior shots and some small interior scenes.
- After seeing a rough cut, Stephen King declared Firestarter one of the worst of the bunch of adaptations of his work he had seen, dubbing it flavorless; he and director Mark Lester later fought over the comments.
- Firestarter was the first film shot at Dino De Laurentiis's new studio complex in North Carolina, and the first shot in Wilmington after the commission of the North Carolina Film Office; over 1,350 film and television projects have been produced there since.
- Mark Lester recalled getting his hands on a book about real experiments the CIA did with college kids, LSD and hallucinagenic drugs, saying that part was true and that Dino wanted to make an anti-CIA movie.
- Burt Lancaster was originally cast as Captain Hollister but had to withdraw following heart surgery, and was replaced in the part by Martin Sheen.
