Genre: Action/Superhero
Director: William Eubank
Writers: Jimmy Ellis & H.G. Hansen
Cast: Jimmy Tatro, Mark Rylance, Alfie Allen, Lakeith Stanfield, Emily Browning, Teresa Palmer, Kevin Bacon, Jonathan Banks, Laura Linney, Halle Berry (Cameo), Christopher Eccleston (Cameo), Gugu Mbatha-Raw (Cameo)
Plot: 2009, Star City University:
Cliff Carmichael (Alfie Allen) bursts in on Professor Martin Stein (Mark Rylance) lecturing a class. Cliff erases Stein’s notes to write about manipulative brain growth. Ronnie Raymond (Jimmy Tatro) asks what Cliff's doing, but Cliff ignores him. He continues until Doreen Day (Emily Browning) begs him to stop. Cliff stops to explain he's only sharing his genius. Stein disagrees as what's being discussed is unethical & against nature. Ronnie peacefully tries to remove Cliff, but Cliff backs up too far, falling down. All of the class except for Doreen, who looks worried, laughs. Cliff doesn’t like being embarrassed, warning them they'll see his genius.
Outside of the room, Eobard Thawne (Kevin Bacon) stops Cliff, praising his genius. He wants to hire him for a project he’s working on.
S.T.A.R. Labs:
Thawne talks about Clifford DeVoe's research. Mostly, DeVoe's helmet that increases brain activity. Cliff's hesitant by how DeVoe went insane. Thawne plays to Cliff’s ego on how Cliff's the only one to understand it. Cliff accepts and begins to study the helmet until a flash of speeding light appears. Suddenly, the helmet begins to work. Cliff's excited to see it working but stops knowing DeVoe's secrets could be achieved. Cliff laughs, putting on the helmet, power flows, and giving knowledge until the power gets too intense. . Struggling, Cliff fails to take it off. In pain, Cliff screams as the helmet operates on its own till the lab’s power fails. Taking off the helmet, Cliff's eye-color changes.
A few years later, Star City University:
Ronnie & Stein rush to shut down Stein's failed experiment from Vixen (Gugu Mbatha-Raw). After succeeding, they share a laugh. Suddenly, the machine activates exploding large amounts of nuclear energy at them. With each blast coming, it combines parts of them. Stein & Ronnie screams as they fuse together.
Ronnie wakens to Caitlin (Teresa Palmer) was taken away horrified. Ronnie becomes enraged. Flames take over. His eyes are pure white. Ronnie screams with fire filling the room. In a growing echo, Stein demands Ronnie to wake up.
Present Day:
In Stein's guestroom, Ronnie wakes up in cold sweat. By looking at a photo of Caitlin, Ronnie calms down. He begins to call her but hangs up.
Into the kitchen, Ronnie sees a welcoming Clarissa (Laura Linney) and a grumpy Martin Stein reading the paper. Stein warns him to not speak to him. Ronnie shares Clarissa a look. Stein goes to be alone ignoring his concerned wife. Ronnie finishes his pancakes, asking how Stein’s been. She reluctantly reminds him Stein can feel the nightmares too. He apologizes but, unfortunately, is almost used to it. Thanks for the pancakes, Ronnie leaves, leaving Clarissa concerned.
At S.T.A.R Labs, Thawne walks down the halls to see Cliff's lab and his work. Thawne stops seeing the weird equations on the chalkboard. Cliff's disturbed, mumbling to himself intensely. Cliff reassures he's fine, but Thawne thinks it's better to give him a break. Cliff freaks out, stating how his work's too important. Doreen Day walks in. Cliff's shocked. Thawne invited Dr. Doreen Day to start a therapy session for him to unwind. Cliff refuses, but Doreen convinces him.
Doreen starts the session but Cliff pauses before answering every question. Doreen sees him tapping his fingers on the armrest.
Meeting Thawne outside, Doreen thinks more sessions would help. She adds that she thought Cliff's getting answers from someone. As they walk away, Cliff’s dark expression turns to watch news of a local celebrity visiting Star City University for the school's Gathering Of The Minds.
Driving to the university, Ronnie tries to talk, but Stein refuses. Stein's unhappy with Ronnie's emotional drama. They see the commotion around campus. Ronnie mentions some celebrity alumni are visiting for The Gathering. Stein makes a face like he's seen a ghost. Ronnie realizes it's not just the nightmares bugging Stein.
The presentation starts with Doreen hosting the event. Ronnie hears Stein hoping it's not who he thinks it is. Doreen presents, “From young boy genius to intellectual-winning gold-winning decathlete, Star City University welcomes Michael Holt (Lakeith Stanfield), or known to the world, Mr. Terrific!” The crowd cheers as Terrific does a fantastic performance flying through fireworks to landing on stage. Stein mumbles "Always a show-off". Terrific talks about his 14 PHDs and decathlete career. Ronnie thinks he's pretty incredible, but Stein replies "Incredibly egotistic". Before Ronnie can go further Terrific's T-Spheres, floating, round objects with a "T" on them which he'll show-off at the Gathering of The Minds.
As Terrific continues his speech, Doreen sees something in the sky. Terrific, Stein and Ronnie notices too. Everyone begins to turn to see a crew of military drones fly in that start shooting assault weapons. The crowd panics as the stage's attacked. Doreen gets saved by Mr. Terrific’s force field. He gets her to safety and then uses his T-Spheres to fight back.
After getting separated, Ronnie looks through the panic to find Stein. Ronnie rushes through to get to him. Mr. T seems to be handling the drone with his lasers but there are too many. Stein suggests they form, but Ronnie's hesitant by flashes of the nightmare from earlier. Stein slaps him to snap him out of it. Stein grabs Ronnie's hand. Nuclear energy surrounds them as they begin to form.
Doreen peaks her head out to check if it’s safe. She tries to run, but a couple drones catch her. Mr. T is too banged up to help. With fear caking her face, a voice from one of the drones, “Sorry for this… Too bad… He really likes you…” Just as it begins to shoot, a blast is heard. Doreen crouched, slowly looking up to see Firestorm fully formed. Ronnie makes a comment on how that was a close call. In his mind, Stein snaps him back to the other drones, which is turning their attention to them. “Ah, oh…” Ronnie flies up as they follow. Doreen whispers, “Ronnie?”
Ronnie maneuvers through the drones while attacking some. Stein recommends making the drones attack themselves. Ronnie smiles going through a crowd of drones. Ronnie spins to make them shoot other drones. Ronnie loves his work but gets distracted as a drone shoots a plasma trap at him. Falling down, Ronnie tries to burn it off, but Stein says it won’t work. Mr. T saves him as he offers Air Terrific services. Stein groans by Terrific's "ego". Mr. T tells Ronnie to absorb the plasma energy. Ronnie wonders how to, which Terrific tells him the components of it. Reluctantly, Stein agrees. Ronnie focuses as the trap melts into his body. Terrific's impressed recommending a team-up. Ronnie agrees as Stein rather eat some cinnamon powder.
As Ronnie blasts some drones, Terrific conforms his T-Spheres to map the electric frequency of the drones. Ronnie can’t handle them all as Stein yells for Ronnie to get his "hero" to be more assistive. Ronnie repeats Stein's comments. Terrific just needs a few seconds, which Ronnie jokes they’ll be in mortuary papers by then. Terrific floats a sphere in the air. All the drones fly in, but an advanced EMP blasts, shutting down all the drones.
Terrific goes up to one of the drones. He opens it stating that he's never seen this technology before. He begins to scan it as Ronnie wonders who'd do this. Out of nowhere, a voice says, “A force way beyond your feeble compensation.” A beeping's heard from all of the drones. Stein barks to Ronnie he needs to absorb the blast. Ronnie doesn’t think he can absorb it all, but Mr. T does. Terrific says to do what he did before with the plasma trap. Mr. T gathers all drones. Ronnie breathes deep as he focuses on the energy of the drones. Once they go off, a force field seems to hold the blast in—Ronnie groans as the flames circle around him. Ronnie has flashes of attacking the hospital & Caitlyn horrified face, but Stein's there to regain him. Ronnie regains focus and the flames fuse into him. The flames are gone as Ronnie drops to a knee.
Mr. T claps as that was impressive to watch. He helps Ronnie up as he loves meeting new supes in the area. Ronnie thanks him but sees Doreen mention how the drones knew her, which makes Mr. T suspicious. Before Doreen can say anything to Firestorm, he blasts off.
Thawne's walking briskly as news of the attack is everywhere. His chief scientist, Dr. Friedman (Jonathan Banks), gives a report as the drones, which were S.T.A.R. Labs tech, went off by themselves. Thawne thinks that’s unlikely since no one knows they’re making weapons. As they enter Cliff's lab, Cliff's smiling acting like a completely different person. Thawne threatens Cliff but Cliff reminds him he knows too much before, so as they say, he's irreplaceable. Thawne breathes deeply as Friedman volunteers to watch him. As they leave, Cliff stirs his tea looking at Firestorm on a screen, whispering how he may have just found a power source.
In a safe location, Ronnie and Stein untether. Stein didn’t like being unprepared to take on that much energy. Ronnie arrogantly doesn’t think it’s a thing, but Stein snaps. If Stein wasn't there, they could've done a lot more damage than the drones. He mentions how Ronnie's unfocused, which Ronnie shrugs off. Since they have a shared consciousness, Stein knows Ronnie’s nightmares are affecting him. Ronnie doesn’t, but Stein does since Ronnie barely sleeps, eats, or goes out of the house. Ronnie wants to end the talk, which Stein agrees to as he needs to rest. He just wants them to be prepared for anything else. Ronnie makes a joke about what could be worse.
In her apartment, Caitlin tries to call Ronnie after seeing him on the news. Suddenly, she finds something marked "a gift for you." Caitlin thinks Ronnie left something for her. She looks at it seeing it's some kind of totem with icicles that pricks her finger. She starts to hear a humming. She goes to one knee on the floor. She groans feeling a sharp pain all over her body. Then Caitlin notices her breath freezing over, her skin turning bright white, her hair becoming platinum blond, and her eyes turn icy blue. She lets out an echoing cry.
Doreen walks to her office at Star City University but gets scared by a familiar voice. She turns to see a cleanly dressed Cliff, waiting for her. Surprised by his visit, he explains he took their session to heart, deciding to submit his project to The Gathering. He asks for her company, which she happily agrees to.
Cliff gives his presentation of neurological advancement, which goes off great. Yet, the council starts drilling him when finding out it's based on DeVoe's research. They all begin to make fun of him, calling him crazy like DeVoe. Their laughing reminds Cliff of 2009. The class's laughs echoing & merging w/the council's. A sympathetic Doreen watches Cliff runs away.
Cliff mumbles how stupid he was to try but an echoing voice corrects him. Explaining if lif Cliff does his plan, they'll all see his brilliance. This makes Cliff's expression harden charging back to his lab.
Getting home, Clarrisa checks on Stein & Ronnie. Stein remarks the great Mr. Terrific saved everyone. Ronnie thinks Stein's being unnecessarily rude since Holt DID help them. Stein argues Ronnie wouldn't understand, but Ronnie thinks Stein's jelly. Stein remarks if he wasn't the brains, Ronnie would be nothing. Ronne notes it's HIS body on the line, though not like Stein can escape his ego. Ronnie storms out. Clarissa tries to reassure Stein but he shrugs her off.
On a coffee run, Ronnie bumps into Doreen. He acts like they haven’t seen each other for a long time. She offers to catch up, which he isn’t up for, but she convinces him otherwise, knowing his secret.
Stein's studying how to absorb the blast better. He gets a call from a secure line. He answers, and Vixen’s face appears. She warns him one of the totems has been activated. Stein knows this telling her about their day but stops seeing Vixen's confusion. With her connection to the totems, she knows it wasn’t Firestorm. It's one of the missing totems. She shows him the address where it was activated. Stein wide-eyed rushes out.
Ronnie and Doreen talk about their old college days, especially how she arranged for Ronnie and Caitlin to meet. As they talk, a figure walks into the frame outside the shop. The figure blasts ice beams from their hands. Ronnie and Doreen are thrown back as ice forms around the windows.
Ronnie checks on Doreen. “Oh, replacing me already…?” Ronnie's stunned slowly turning his head to see Caitlin. She smiles at his reaction. She blasts a beam at him, sending him stuck on a wall.
As Ronnie struggles out, Caitlin slides to him, mocking how it's his turn to be vulnerable. Ronnie tries to get through to her, but she explains Caitlin isn’t here, not that he showed he cares. After Doreen fails to help hitting Caitlin w/a chair, Caitlin remembers Doreen, the one who started her pain. Caitlin grabs Doreen by the throat. Ronnie screams for her to stop. Doreen's seen fading as Caitlin admits she never liked her. Stein arrives seeing the situation warning Caitlin to back off.
Caitlin laughs at Stein. Ronnie screams for Stein to run then pleads for Caitlin to stop. She corrects him that she isn’t Caitlin, but now Killer Frost. Stein clears his throat. "I warned you..." Stein comments and uses a lighter with a spray can to make a ‘flamethrower.’ Frost screams in pain, letting Doreen go. The ice around Ronnie starts to melt too, as Frost's losing focus. But suddenly, Stein runs out of fuel.
Frost lunges at Stein but gets caught by a T-Sphere melted onto her feet & hands bringing her to the ground. Mr. Terrific remarks it's a good thing he's here all week. Stein rolls his eyes. Ronnie checks on Doreen which upsets Frost making her freeze her containment and escapes as Ronnie looks on.
In the air, a drone's watching the whole thing. Cliff's staring at the footage of Frost. “Useful... Don’t you think?” Cliff whispers. He then calls Friedman for some help. As Friedman comes in, Cliff thanks him for being the first human test. Suddenly, a floating headband latches onto Friedman’s head. Friedman screams in pain, dropping to the floor braindead. Cliff's upsets by the failed test but the echoing voice comments maybe they need inspiration. Cliff looks at Mr. Terrific & his T-Spheres.
Ronnie argues with Doreen, Mr. Terrific, & Stein about Caitlin. Ronnie thinks Caitlin's confused. Ronnie's resistant until Stein mentions knowledge from Vixen. Caitlin's possessed by the water totem, which unleashed her inner evil. Ronnie disagrees, which makes Stein demands Ronnie stop being foolish. Being the voice of reason, Doreen comments how they know Caitlin, whatever she's become isn't her. Ronnie has to believe otherwise since he believes he's the reason it happened.
At the Zoo, Cliff finds Frost sitting in the polar bear exhibit. Annoyed, Frost recommends maybe killing him. Before she does, Cliff offers to help Frost get what she wants. Ronnie dead and ridding Frost’s mind of Caitlin. She disagrees but Cliff notes he's an expert of the mind. To finally move from Caitlin's pain & Ronnie, she agrees to help.
Holt's on patrol around the city looking for Frost, who attacks him sending him crashing down. They fight as Cliff takes one of the T-Spheres. Frost goes to kill him but Cliff thinks Holt can be useful.
At home, Clarissa & Doreen reassure Ronnie Mr. Terrific will find Caitlin. Stein disagrees since Terrific might be too busy stroking his ego. Ronnie snaps asking what's Stein's deal w/Holt. Stein declines until Clarissa convinces him to explain. Stein reveals how he was a grad student who was dormed-up w/a child prodigy, who always out-showed him even stealing one of his ideas that made the T-Spheres. Ronnie comments that's petty which enrages Stein. Clarissa tries to calm them to no avail. Stein thinks Ronnie's reckless & emotional. Ronnie remarks Stein's self-absorbed & narcissistic. Stein never trusts anyone but himself always having to be right. Stein tries to argue but Clarissa butts in agreeing w/Ronnie. Before anything happens, Terrific calls how Frost attacked him w/ Cliff taking a T-Sphere. They rush out as Doreen leaves to find out what Cliff's planning.
Firestorm finds Terrific hostage but Frost quickly attacks them. They have a back-and-forth fight as Frost hates Ronnie for causing her pain. Stein barks Ronnie to handle her but Ronnie can't which causes an argument. This allows Cliff to use the T-Sphere to untether Firestorm, taking Ronnie away. Holt comments how the sphere saw Firestorm as an equation to solve, resulting in untethering.
Doreen sneaks into Cliff's lab and sees stuff about absorbing people’s intelligence at the Gathering of The Minds. Horrified, she doesn’t hear the door opening. She hides as Thawne enters. He yells knowing what Cliff did to Friedman. He wants to know what the game is. Cliff remarks Thawne shouldn’t act innocent since he knows who he is. Out of the shadows, Cliff walks in wearing DeVoe's helmet. Cliff tries to attack but Thawne dodges & escapes in a flash.
Doreen tries to sneak out, but a box falls down. Doreen runs as Cliff chases her. Cliff learns it's Doreen letting Doreen getaway. The voice asks what's wrong learning Cliff can't hurt her.
Doreen knocks on Stein’s door furiously. Clarissa answers as Doreen's frantic explaining Cliff's plan to attack the genius council at tonight's The Gathering of The Minds. Terrific notes Cliff will be excepting them but Stein has an idea.
Cliff uses Ronnie's radioactivity to help power the headbands. Caitlin thinks she has done her side, but Cliff notes he needs her for one more thing. He betrays her, attaching her to the machine to cool Ronnie down. Cliff leaves to display his genius to the world finally getting the recognition he deserves.
At the Gathering of the Minds, Cliff walks into the room with his machine. He stands in front of them to tell them he's Cliff Carmichael. But they can call him The Thinker, and he plans to enlighten them all. As they reject his presentation, he orders flying headbands onto the other geniuses.
Outside, Stein and Terrific show up in Stein's S-Spheres. Terrific pay compliments to them but Stein isn't surprised since Holt stole them. Holt snaps, asking Stein why he hates him since all Holt did was look up to him. He was a kid roomed with the smartest guy in school. Of course, he took some inspiration off of Stein. Stein's embarrassed, realizing Ronnie's right about his stubbornness.
The headbands continue to terrorize at the Gathering as Caitlin begins to leak out as Frost gets drained. She talks to Ronnie about how he kept away because he thought he scared her and she attacked him by abandoning her. Frost tries to interrupt as she feels Caitlin's pain, and that's why she attacked Ronnie. Ronnie apologizes, which makes Caitlin at peace with Frost.
Stein comes up with a plan of Holt distracting Thinker. Holt asks what about him. Stein thinks it's time to take a leap of faith.
Holt fights through the drones to get to the Thinker, but it's too late. Thinker's already developed enough intelligence to outthink any man. Holt shames Thinker for taking over Carmichael's mind, which Cliff's shocked he figured it out. Holt tells him he knows he's Clifford Devoe, as Cliff Carmichael would never do these things. But DeVoe notes they genuinely want the same thing. Stein yells how ironic that's for him and Ronnie right now. They look up to see Stein high up. Thinker's confused, asking what he's doing. Stein replies, "This..."
He jumps toward Ronnie as Stein tells him to get ready to absorb. When Stein gets close enough, the two form into Firestorm. Thinker screams as the machine turns off, and Frost gets let go too. Frost, Mr. Terrific, and Firestorm look at each other. They all fight in unison against the drones. They get close to defeating him until they get tied down. Thinker notes that once he absorbs Holt's & Stein's IQ and harvests Frost and Ronnie's powers, he'll be a living God like he deserves.
Out of nowhere, Doreen comes out to try to bring Carmichael out. Cliff reveals himself in front of Doreen. Doreen tries to comfort him since he's tortured by everyone laughing at him, not seeing his genius. But Doreen never laughed at him. As she comforts him, Doreen apologizes. Quickly, she rips off the helmet.
In agony, Cliff screams as all of the brain waves blast out, shooting power around like lightning. After each person's intelligence returns, the headbands blow a fuse. Hollowed out, Carmichael mutters endlessly on the floor. Holt, Stein, and Ronnie walk up. Doreen coldly says she had to do it. Holt offers to handle the situation. Ronnie looks for Caitlin, but she's disappeared. Stein mentions people need time to heal, but Ronnie's afraid of that.
Far away, Caitlin talks to Frost both agreeing to interact peacefully from this day forward. Caitlin seems to finally enjoy this.
Stein and Clarissa talk and Stein apologizes for being stubborn. They reconnect as Ronnie moves out.
Holt informs Caitlin's "trail went cold." He apologizes as Ronnie waits for Stein to return from a date with Clarissa in many months. Stein asks if he's ready. Ronnie thought he'd never ask. They form together flying through the night sky.
1st PCS: Thawne rushes to Cliff’s lab to collect all the records of Cliff’s experiments. It’s too late, as people begin collecting the records. He's furious, as Amanda Waller (Halle Berry) comes out telling him they must take all the documents to Cliff's actions.
2nd PCS: Cliff, who's in a straitjacket, sits in a room. Outside the room, two orderlies talk about him. One of them's just uneased by Cliff's sight. The other jokes what harm can a vegetable do. As they walk away, we see Clifford DeVoe (Christopher Eccleston) standing in the room. He turns to Carmichael, who slowly makes a sinister smile.
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