Firestarter

Title Firestarter

Image:Firestarter.jpg Cover of Firestarter
Author	Stephen King
Country	USA
Language	English
Genre(s)	Horror, Science fiction
Publisher	Donald M. Grant
Released	1980
Media type	Print (Hardback, 1st edition)
Pages	416
ISBN	ISBN 0-451-16780-5

Firestarter is a novel by Stephen King originally published in 1980. It was serialized in Omni magazine prior to being published.

Plot summary

The title character of Firestarter is Charlene "Charlie" McGee, a young girl with pyrokinesis — the ability to create fire with the power of her mind, along with other psychic powers. Charlie is a mutant; she was born with her pyrokinetic talent due to her parents' involvement in an experimental drug trial in college. The drug left Charlie's father, Andy, with a mind-control power which he calls "the push", and her mother, Vicki, with limited telekinetic and mild telepathic abilities. However, their powers are weak in comparison to their daughter's talent.

The McGees are harassed by The Shop, the government agency that sponsored the original drug trials. The Shop wants to study and experiment on Charlie; her parents naturally object. Eventually, The Shop's agents murder Vicki and kidnap Charlie. Using "the push", Andy is able to rescue Charlie and the two live for several years as fugitives, moving whenever Andy feels that The Shop may be catching up to them. After a near miss with The Shop's agents in New York, they find temporary refuge with the Manders, a friendly couple in upstate New York: when the Shop makes a full-scale raid on the Manders farm, Andy again escapes and attempts to "hole up" at a relative's lake cabin in Vermont. In the end, father and daughter are eventually captured by a Shop team led by John Rainbird, a Native American who acts as the Shop's chief assassin and all-around dirty deed-doer.

Imprisoned at The Shop's secure headquarters, Charlie must find a way to reunite with her father while learning to better control her powers. At first she resolves not to use her abilities, but later changes her mind, due to the advice of Rainbird, who poses as a friendly janitor. She is unaware that The Shop intends to kill her after completing their series of experiments. Andy has a better idea of the Shop's true intentions, but finds that his "push" power is greatly diminished by the drug regimen being administered to him.

Andy eventually weans himself off the drugs and uses the "push" to manipulate the Shop staff into helping him and Charlie escape. The two are reunited, but before they can leave the complex, Rainbird shoots and kills Andy. Before he dies, Andy tells Charlie to "burn it all down." She honors his wish and incinerates the entire Shop complex, killing Rainbird and many others in the process. Charlie returns to the Manders, who take her in. However, The Shop, with new leadership, retains its interest in Charlie, and she knows that they will track her down eventually.

The book ends with Charlie offering her story to the magazine Rolling Stone. She hopes that revealing her story will make it impossible for The Shop to kidnap and harm her again.

Inspirations

The experiments performed by the Shop on Charlie's parents are reminiscent of Project MKULTRA, a CIA program to investigate mind control through the administration of dangerous drugs to uninformed subjects. Project MKULTRA was exposed by a Congressional committee in 1975, and King may have purposefully created the parallel.^{[citation needed]}

Film, TV or theatrical adaptations

• Firestarter was adapted into a movie in 1984, directed by Mark L. Lester and starring Drew Barrymore as Charlie, David Keith as Andy, and George C. Scott as Rainbird. It also starred Heather Locklear and Martin Sheen. The movie was filmed in and around Lake Lure, North Carolina.

• A TV movie sequel, Firestarter 2: Rekindled, was made in 2002. It starred Marguerite Moreau as a grown-up Charlie and Malcolm McDowell as Rainbird.

• Folk music singer-songwriter Julia Ecklar has adapted the novel into the song "Daddy's Little Girl."

• On the February 3rd, 2007 episode of Saturday Night Live, host Drew Barrymore reprised her role as Charlie McGee, in a fake commercial for "Firestarter Brand Smoked Sausages."

See also

• 1980 in literature
• 1980s in film
• List of Stephen King films

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