Firestarter Trivia Quiz

Answer: Lot Six

Andy McGee and his young daughter, Charlie, on the run in New York City, hop into a cab and Andy, using his ability to push others into doing what he says, has the driver take them to Albany Airport, much further upstate. They're being chased by agents from The Shop.

A decade earlier, twelve people (Andy and his wife, Vicki, included) were injected with vials of an experimental compound known only as Lot Six. Overseen by a Dr. Wanless, the trials proved to be informative but they did have lasting side effects. Some of the test subjects died during the trial, but some were resilient and emerged with certain abilities.

As Andy and Charlie make it to Albany airport, Andy falls asleep, his energy expended, while Charlie uses her powers to help earn some money to further their escape. Though Charlie has been taught to avoid using her powers as they can lead to dangerous pyrokinesis, her efforts allow them to leave the airport safely and go hitchhiking, narrowly evading The Shop as their agents close in.

Proceeding on foot, Andy and Charlie have a rough night, careening over a road barrier and down a hill before landing on the highway. Fortunately, a car picks them up and takes them to the nearby town of Hastings Glen, and there, they stay the night in a hotel.

Answer: Genetics

In Longmont, Virginia at the compound occupied by The Shop, Captain James Hollister, informally known as Cap, arrives looking for the McGee file. He knows the contents, however; he knows that only three of the twelve test subjects remain alive, the rest being maimed, dead, or having committed suicide; he knows of the psychic phenomena. Considering surveillance on the McGees over recent weeks, he knows that The Shop will probably have to split Charlie and her father permanently when they're caught due to the risks they pose.

Reviewing the files, Cap recalls that Lot Six activates the pituitary gland, changing its composition. They don't know how well it was passed down to Charlie on a genetic level, especially with both of her parents carrying the compound, and they're worried that Charlie will use her powers despite her parents specifically training her not to. When she reaches adolescence and her pituitary gland goes into overdrive, she'll be too powerful.

While Dr. Wanless, still working for The Shop, suggests wiping the McGees off the face of the Earth, Cap sends Albert Steinowitz to Upstate New York to find them.

Answer: To his home

Waking up in Hastings Glen, Andy and Charlie are unaware that agents from The Shop are rolling into town, with ten in the immediate vicinity. Charlie reminds her father that they can head to Granther's cabin in Vermont (though she's never been there), escaping New York entirely. As they leave their hotel, they're picked up in an old farm truck being driven by Irv Manders, a kind man who invites the pair over for lunch at his nearby farmhouse. They narrowly avoid being caught by The Shop, but not for long, as they only have a five minute head-start.

At the Manders residence, Andy unloads his troubles on Irv while his wife, Norm, takes Charlie out to feed the chickens. He explains everything from The Shop and DSI (the Department of Scientific Intelligence) to the experiment to the chase and even Vicki's death. It all comes down to Charlie's abilities and her strong pyrokinetic powers, something Irv doesn't believe until Al Steinowitz and The Shop roll up.

Charlie knows that the bad men are there to kill her father, and it's because of this that she lets her powers take over, allowing her to set Steinowitz on fire, blow up the agents' vehicles, and set a blaze from next to nothing. Charlie faints for a brief spell while Irv is shot in the ensuing chaos. He hands the keys to his Jeep over to Andy and gives him directions to the state line, and with that the McGees ride off to Vermont. Charlie vows to her father that she'll never set another fire again. It's too dangerous.

In Virginia, Cap receives a briefing on the failed mission. As the reports come in, he asks after Jon Rainbird, perhaps the only man who can get the McGees to him.

Answer: In the laundry room

John Rainbird, only briefly informed of the details involved in the Lot Six experiments, travels to Washington DC to kill Dr. Wanless and learn what he can about the McGees. It's then that he learns about Charlie.

In Tashmore, Vermont, Andy and Charlie make it to Granther McGee's place just as autumn comes to an end and they make themselves at home, spending much of the winter there. It's a good time for self-reflection as Andy has the opportunity to recall the days leading to their escape across New England.

It all started with they day Vicki died, when he had a feeling of ill omen at work at the school. He returned home to find an eerily empty home, ultimately finding Vicki dead in the basement laundry room. Leaving home he would come to determine that Charlie was missing, having been picked up from a friend's home by men claiming to be his work colleagues. He would cross city lines searching for an unmarked grey van, the last known vehicle she was seen with, taking the turnpike on a hunch.

Andy would find Charlie with the kidnappers from the Shop stopping off at a rest stop for a bathroom break. Collecting her there, he would need to expend his energy using his power to 'push' people with his mind. They would stay at a nearby Best Western, taking stock and grieving their loss, before heading out on the run.

Answer: Use a mailbox

Charlie and Andy spend the winter in Tashmore with Andy barely leaving the property and Andy only briefly strapping into a pair of cross-country skis to head to the nearby village for supplies. Along the way, he wonders about Charlie's pull capabilities and worries that if he were to use his powers again, it could push him past the point of no return in regards to his health. He writes six different letters exposing the experiments and his family's state of affairs and places them in envelopes to send to major news outlets and senators. They don't make it, however. After he places them into the mailbox, a local shopkeeper, installed in Tashmore by The Shop, calls Cap Hollister and has the letters sent to Virginia.

In March, two weeks after the letters arrive, Cap worries about the fallout of recent events and how the McGees have stayed ahead at every step. John Rainbird is brought in formally to start the operation; the McGees need to be taken alive. They could keep Andy drugged indefinitely but Charlie is the one they would have to work with to understand the results of Lot Six. Rainbird agrees to bring the McGees in on the condition that he can be the one to dispose of the girl when they're done testing. Rainbird wants to get to know her in the meantime and he will blackmail The Shop to do it. During her stay in Virginia, he says, he will be her orderly.

A few days after Cap and Rainbird's meeting, Andy decides that he and Charlie need to leave Tashmore as his letters would have been read and acted upon otherwise. Unfortunately for them, twelve agents are hidden around the property, in position to make their move. A dartful of orasin lands in Charlie's neck, sedating her, while one of the agents uses a syringe of thorazine to knock out Andy. They are finally caught.

Answer: A bad rainstorm

Five months after the McGees are captured, Rainbird arrives at The Shop's base hours before a major rainstorm, checking in as an orderly and acting the part with the aim to develop trust. Charlie, however, remains non-cooperative. Locked away showing no signs of her abilities, she even seems to regress mentally. Rainbird tries to get her to laugh on occasion, just so they can be insiders with a joke together. It'd the purchase he needs. In the storm, however, the generators go and the facility is placed into a blackout for most of the evening.

Doctor Pynchot, meanwhile, spends his weeks trying to get Andy to use his ability to push people but it doesn't seem to be working for whatever reason-- both of them theorize it was the thorazine or the possibility he maxed his powers out. In the blackout, however, Andy's fear is exacerbated by the darkness. His mind races-- he's been left alone during the time he would normally receive his pill and no one can get in.

Rainbird is in Charlie's room during the blackout, there to clean the space. She's already starting to fall for his kindness, but when the power goes out and Rainbird pretends to be afraid of the dark, it's the moment he needs to convince her to comfort him. He claims the darkness triggers his PTSD, reminding him of the Viet Cong, and that's enough to wedge him into her mind.

Answer: Using the Push

Andy gets the feeling that Charlie is in danger for the first time since they were taken from Tashmore and after the blackout, he decides to get his mind back on track, believing that his ability to push might not be gone after all. He sleeps that evening and dreams of dumping all of his Thorazine pills, managing to kick the habit by pushing himself. He awakens with an exhausting headache, but when the lights come back on, he acts the part, knowing this is how he can get the upper hand.

Charlie, meanwhile, tells her whole story to John in the blackout, confiding in him in a way she hasn't to anyone since her arrival on the compound. John suggests he could deliver messages for her father in an attempt to further prove she can trust him. He also says she could start fires so she could see him again, but she refuses. By the time the lights go back on, she's asleep.

Over the next few weeks, Charlie receives tutoring for school on John's recommendation, attempting to concede to the doctors' requests little by little, and John pretends to hand notes off to her father. He pushes her about starting fires again, but she knows the tests wouldn't end there.

It takes a few more days before Charlie decides to do the tests, not just for herself, but with an aim to eventually see her father. It's John who recommends that she negotiate, getting something out of her captivity since she's the one with the abilities. Her doctor, Hockstetter, isn't altogether pleased with this; Rainbird positions himself to have all the cards in his hands. Rainbird knows that they'll let the girl have her small concessions and the scientists will get their data. Then, of course, he'll dispose of her.

Answer: A ricochet

Three weeks after Andy pushes himself off his medication, he manages to find himself on a walk around the compound with Dr. Pynchot who, after months of finding little results from Andy, lets it slip that he's planning on sending him to the Shop's Maui compound almost immediately. Andy, knowing he can use the Push, manages to do so on Pynchot, compelling him into one more round of tests to extend his stay in Virginia. It means three months of further planning (which Cap reduces to two). What happens, unintentionally, is that the Push opens something up in Pynchot's mind: the image of a garbage disposal.

As the week passes and Charlie agrees to testing, she uses her powers to set fire to a tray of wood chips in a lab setting, finding her powers are stronger than ever before. She manages to convince the staff to let her wander the grounds, visiting the stables with John to see the horses.

The positive tests have a notable affect on the scientists at the Shop compound though, and as the week passes, they ponder the state of things as they are. Andy is called into Cap's office and it's there that he discovers Pynchot has killed himself, having stuck his arm into his garbage disposal unit. Cap informs Andy that he is drafting the paperwork himself to send him to Hawaii, but Andy uses the Push again, this time compelling Cap to keep him around a bit longer, even bringing him to Pynchot's funeral himself. He manages to squeeze out just a bit more information about Charlie before he's taken back to his room and a plan is put into motion.

Answer: The stables

Charlie's tests only get larger and the scientists of the Shop worry about Charlie's capabilities. She demands to see her father before any further examination and they know she could destroy the compound if she wanted to.

Andy goes to Pynchot's funeral and on the way back he sets his plan into further action, using the Push to have Cap send him to Hawaii, but also convincing him to come with himself and Charlie and sending Rainbird away at the same time, keeping the man out of the picture. What he doesn't realize is that he's started another ricochet as Cap starts turning his mind to games of golf and poisonous snakes.

Cap subsequently plans the plane to be moved to a sooner date and suggests to his superiors he'll spend time in Hawaii. When he visits Charlie-- all part of Andy's plan-- he lets her know the news and hands her a secret note from her father explaining the circumstances. She'll need to be at the stables at 1pm on Wednesday and she'll need to be wary of John Rainbird since he's not who he says he is. That night she has enough nightmares to raise the temperature of her controlled room.

Rainbird shows up the next morning and Charlie gives him the cold shoulder, enough so that he's compelled to check the tapes for her room. All signs point to both Pynchot and Cap having been mind-affected by Andy, so he looks into the details of the coming week, cancels his flight, and sets his affairs in order.

Answer: Yes

When the Wednesday of their expected escape arrives, both Charlie and Andy have trouble sleeping while Rainbird doesn't sleep at all. Cap grows more and more unhinged, worrying about snakes even as he drives to the compound. At quarter-to-one, Charlie is brought to the stables unaware that Rainbird is already there, hiding in the hayloft with a gun in-hand.

When Cap and Andy arrive to retrieve Charlie, it's too late. They share a brief reunion but Rainbird, with his gun fixed on Andy, forces her to ascend to the hayloft so that he can fulfill his goal of killing her himself. As alarms sound at the buildings nearby, the encounter is thrown off the rails by Cap, who believes he sees a snake in the stables. It's enough to distract Rainbird as Andy pushes one last time, convincing the man to jump from the loft. Though Rainbird does, breaking his leg on the ground, her still manages to get a shot off, hitting Andy in the neck.

Charlie runs for her father and Rainbird fires at her as well, but she hurls her power out, melting both him and Cap where they stand and blowing a hole out the back of the barn. Andy, in his last breaths, tells Charlie to burn it all down and kill anyone who gets in her way. And to escape, that's just what she does, letting her powers mount and destroying every building in the compound. She only manages to release her energy by cooling it in the duckpond on the grounds. When the time is right, she climbs the fences and leaves Virginia alone.

The news report later calls the events a firebomb attack at a top-secret scientific think-tank, blaming terrorism as the cause. Rainbird is subsequently accused of being a double agent responsible for planting the bombs that cause the blaze. The new head of the Shop asserts that she needs Charlie found and killed while Lot Six research can be shelved indefinitely.

Charlie returns to the Manders' house in upstate New York, managing to hitch her way north, and they bring her back to health. In the spring she leaves before the Shop can find her, word getting out eventually through the town's grapevine that the Manders are harbouring a child. And with that, Charlie heads to New York, armed with her story and ready to tell the world.