History LIterature / Firestarter

* DramaticWind : The FilmOfTheBook features this. Charlie's hair starts to blow around, then straight out, when she uses her powers.

** Cap Hollister often comes across as a kind, elderly gentleman.

* PapaWolf: Andy is this the Charlie for most of the movie, [[BadassAdorable not that she needs much protection.]] [[spoiler: it ends up getting inverted at the end, when Rainbird [[YouKilledMyFather murders Andy right in front of Charlie,]] and she is [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge might pissed off about it.]]

* AnimalMotifs : Horses are a recurring motif. Andy describes the thudding headaches he gets as a "riderless horse," and this comes up again in later scenes and dream sequences, after Charlie starts riding the horses on the Shop's grounds. Snakes slither out of refrigerators, drains, and golf course holes, as well.

* AdaptationDyeJob : Vicky is a redhead in the book, played by the blonde Creator/HeatherLocklear in the film.

* AnimalMotifs : Horses are a recurring motif. Andy describes the thudding headaches he gets as a "riderless horse," and this comes up again in later scenes and dream sequences, after Charlie starts riding the horses on the Shop's grounds.

Also made into a movie of the same name in 1984, directed by Mark L. Lester and starring Creator/DrewBarrymore as Charlie, Creator/DavidKeith as Andy, Creator/GeorgeCScott as Rainbird, Creator/MartinSheen as Hollister, and Creator/HeatherLocklear as Vicky. This was the first of several Stephen King adaptations produced by the Creator/DinoDeLaurentiis Company. There was a ContestedSequel sometime later on titled ''Firestarter 2: Rekindled'' in 2002.

[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/image_0712.jpeg]]
[[caption-width-right:300:The original [[{{WesternAnimation/Animaniacs}} Katie Kaboom.]]]]

Also made into a movie of the same name in 1984, starring Creator/DrewBarrymore as Charlie, David Keith as Andy, Creator/GeorgeCScott as Rainbird, Creator/MartinSheen as Hollister and Heather Locklear as Vicky. This was the first of several Stephen King adaptations produced by the Creator/DinoDeLaurentiis Company. There was a ContestedSequel sometime later on titled ''Firestarter 2: Rekindled'' in 2002.

* PsychicAssistedSuicide: Cap thinks that the Shop could use Andy's power for that: "Imagine him getting close enough to that pinko Ted Kennedy to suggest in a low voice of utter conviction that suicide was the best answer."

** PlayingWithFire: Charlie, of course.

* IfYouKillHimYouWillBeJustLikeHim: Andy rescues Charlie from two Shop agents who kidnapped her, by sending one to a come and blinding the other. When the blinded agent gets in front of his car, Andy considers running him over, but decides againt it, because "then what would separate him from them?"

* AffablyEvil: Rainbird gains Charlie's trust by posing as a friendly janitor.

* PatiencePlot: In one scene, the antagonist Rainbird is staying in a hotel. Rainbird is basically a assassin employed by a government agency called The Shop, and his assignment is to kill someone in the hotel who knows too much. He's described as simply sitting in his hotel room, waiting for it to get dark. Then he'll wait for it to get late. Then he'll wait for it to get early. Finally, when the hotel is absolutely quiet and no one is moving, he'll go to his target's room and kill them.

* GoryDiscretionShot: Played with with the Lot Six victim who rips out his own eyes; it's flashed briefly, then you get a long, loving look at the poor sot screaming, covered in blood and [[{{Squick}} holding his own eyes in his hands]].

* LamarckWasRight: Andy and Vicky gain mental domination powers and telekinesis, respectively, from a [[PsychoSerum drug]] given to them in an experiment. Their daughter is born with telekinesis and pyrokinesis as a result. This is HandWaved when the father speculates that the drug must have affected their DNA. [[WordOfGod King]] mentioned afterwards that he never liked that explanation, preferring stories where supernatural things just happen, and are never explained.

* [[OneManArmy One Girl Army]]: Charlie, as the arrogant idiots of The Shop find out the ''hard'' way. She essentially becomes a walking tank - armored against conventional firearms with heat-walls and rapid-firing incendiary projectiles at everything and everyone in the vicinity.

* RaceLift: Rainbird in the novel is Native American. In the movie, he's played by George C. Scott.

** In the novel's backstory, The Shop had Andy, Charlie and Vicky under effective but unnoticeable surveillance for years without incident. Everything was going great, until Charlie slept over at a friend's house for two days. At which point the agents ''wildly'' overreact, assume she's gone on the run, break into the McGee home, interrogate, torture and kill Vicky and then track down and kidnap Charlie. That spurs Andy into action and sets events into motion. Andy's utterly baffled as to why The Shop reacted the way it did, eventually settling on, "They're just kind of stupid."

* HeadacheOfDoom: Andy [=McGee's=] power of psychic persuasion takes a significant toll on his brain the more he uses it, resulting in agonizing headaches by the start of the book. With his daughter's safety on the line throughout the story, he's inclined to use it more and more, until he actually begins suffering ''mini-strokes'' that leave his face numb. [[spoiler: In the finale, it ends up causing a stroke, though given that Andy had been shot by Rainbird by this stage, it's not certain if this was the final cause of his death.]]

* CantStopTheSignal: Throughout the book, Andy is desperate to make his way to a national media outlet with no government ties so that he can tell the story of the Shop and what they did to his family. [[spoiler: In the book's final scene, Charlie is seen entering the offices of ''Rolling Stone'' magazine.]]