College students Andy McGee and Vicky Tomlinson participate in an experiment where they are given a dose of a low-grade hallucinogen called LOT-6. The experiment gives them telepathic abilities; Vicky can read minds and Andy can control others to do and believe what he wants, though the effort gives him nosebleeds, limiting this power. Andy and Vicky, now married, have a nine-year-old daughter named Charlene "Charlie" McGee, who has pyrokinetic abilities and can also see the near future. Andy comes home from work and finds Vicky murdered and Charlie abducted; the family had already suspected that the government agency that sponsored the experiment, the Department of Scientific Intelligence, was watching them. The government wants to weaponize Charlie's power. Andy finds Charlie and rescues her by blinding the agents. For the next year they are on the run. To protect themselves, Andy writes letters to major newspapers, but he unintentionally reveals their location. A farmer named Irv Manders and his wife Norma take in Andy and Charlie. Andy tells Irv the truth so that when the Shop arrives, he is ready to stand with them. However, Charlie quickly dispatches the agents when they arrive. They go on the run again, but Andy's gift has weakened. They go to a secluded cabin and prepare to go public with their story. Unfortunately, the head of the Shop, Captain James Hollister, sends agent and assassin John Rainbird to capture them and stop the release of information. After capture, father and daughter are kept separated. Andy is medicated and subjected to tests, which show his powers have decreased. Meanwhile, Rainbird pretends to be "John", a friendly orderly employed by The Shop to gain Charlie's trust and encourage her to submit to the tests. Charlie's powers increase exponentially. She continually demands to see her father as they promised. Andy is revealed to be faking the acceptance of his drugs, so his powers have never decreased and it was all a ruse to make Hollister drop his guard. Once alone on a walk far from the house, Andy uses his power to get information from Hollister and arranges to leave with Charlie that night. He slips Charlie a note and she immediately tells John/Rainbird about the escape. Since he has wanted to kill Charlie since first hearing about her he hides in the barn so he can kill Andy as well. Charlie enters the barn first and John/Rainbird succeeds in convincing her to begin the climb up the ladder to him. His plan is put to an end once Andy enters and Charlie instead runs to her father. She tells him that "John" is present and asks if they can take him with them. She is saddened and angered to find out the truth, yet believes John/Rainbird when he states that he will not kill her father if she comes to him. To save his daughter, Andy orders the still mind-controlled Hollister to shoot at Rainbird. However, Rainbird kills Hollister, after which Andy, using his powers, causes Rainbird to leap to the ground, breaking his leg. Rainbird shoots Andy in the neck, fatally wounding him. He then fires at Charlie but she detonates the bullet and engulfs Rainbird in the following fire, killing him. Andy, mortally wounded and dying pleads with her to use her powers to bring the facility down after he dies. The entire security team arrives and she eliminates them one by one and makes her way off the property. Charlie hitchhikes back to the Manders' farm and is welcomed back. Shortly after, Charlie and Irv arrive in New York City to tell her story to the media.
During filming of The Thing, Universal offered John Carpenter the chance to direct the film. Carpenter hired Bill Lancaster to adapt the novel into a screenplay. Stephen King approved of Lancaster's screenplay. Months later, Carpenter hired Bill Phillips to write another version with Richard Dreyfuss in the role of Andy, but when The Thing was a financial disappointment, Universal replaced Carpenter with Mark L. Lester. When Lester was hired, he brought Stanley Mann to write a screenplay. Mann's screenplay stayed closer to the novel than the abandoned screenplays that Carpenter had commissioned. Lancaster's father, Burt Lancaster, originally was going to portray Captain Hollister, but had to withdraw following heart surgery; Martin Sheen replaced Burt Lancaster. It was the first film shot in Wilmington, North Carolina after the commission of the North Carolina Film Office, and it is regarded as launching what is now a burgeoning hub of film and television productions.
Reception
It has a 35% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 26 reviews. The critical consensus reads "Firestarter's concept hews too closely to other known Stephen King adaptations, though it's got nice special effects." Roger Ebert gave the film two stars out of four and wrote that "the most astonishing thing" about it was "how boring it is...there's not a character in this movie that is convincing, even for a moment, nor a line in this movie that even experienced performers can make real," and "we don't feel sorry for Barrymore because she's never developed as a believable little girl -- just a plot gimmick." In 2012, King described the film as one of the worst made from his books, describing it as "flavorless; it's like cafeteria mashed potatoes".
In April 2017, Jason Blum and Akiva Goldsman announced that they are remaking Firestarter for Universal and Blumhouse with Goldsman co-writing with Scott Teems. On June 28, 2019, Variety reported that Fatih Akin was announced to direct the remake. On December 16, 2019, Collider reported that Keith Thomas will direct the remake.
