The New Mutants

The film begins with Danielle “Dani” Moonstar, a young Cheyenne Native American, hidden in a tree by her father as her entire reservation is devastated by a tornado, leaving her the only survivor.

After falling unconscious, Dani awakens in an oddly empty hospital run by Dr. Cecilia Reyes (Alice Braga), who comforts Dani, explaining that she is not an ordinary human being but, rather, has unique mutant DNA, and she advises her to remain in the hospital until she learns the effects and how to control them.

Dani is introduced to 4 other teenagers: Samuel “Sam” Guthrie, Illyana Rasputin, Roberto “Bobby” da Costa and Rahne Sinclair. Like Dani, the others possess superhuman abilities due to the mutations in their DNA.

Reyes is a mutant herself and a mentor to the group. She can manipulate plasma-energy barriers to generate a protective bio-field around herself. She has brought each of them to the hospital, after they have each either experienced, or accidentally caused, a horrible tragedy:

Illyana Rasputin, aka Magik (Anya Taylor-Joy) has inter-dimensional sorcery powers and survived sexual abuse when she was enslaved as a child. She is a Russian mutant who uses teleportation discs to travel.

Rahne Sinclair, aka Wolfsbane (Maisie Williams) is a Scottish mutant who can transform into a wolf or wolf-human hybrid with enhanced senses. She escaped her devoutly Catholic village by killing the priest who branded her as a witch.

Danielle Moonstar, aka Mirage (Blu Hunt) is a Native American mutant who has the power to create illusions drawn from the fears and desires of a person’s mind.

Sam Guthrie, aka Cannonball (Charlie Heaton) is a Kentuckian mutant who can propel himself into the air. He can generate energy around his body to fly at jet speed and render himself temporarily nigh-invulnerable. After his powers manifested, he accidentally collapsed an entire coal mine, killing his father and coworkers in the process.

Roberto da Costa, aka Sunspot (Henry Zaga), is a Brazilian mutant who can manipulate solar energy and in doing so accidentally burned his girlfriend to death.

During her first day, where Illyana implies there is nothing stopping her, Dani attempts to escape, but is stopped by a force field created by Reyes surrounding the entire hospital grounds. Further frustrated from Illyana’s harshness, being stirred by the grief of losing her family, she plans to commit suicide from the church clock-tower, but is prevented by Rahne, earning a friend in Dani.

The two begin to form a romantic relationship, but Illyana antagonizes Dani, who discovers that Illyana has a hand puppet of a purple dragon called Lockheed. Collectively, the 5 teenagers believe they are being trained to join the X-Men, hence the strict supervision.

Reyes warns them that they are considered dangerous and should not leave until they have mastered their abilities. Soon, the group all begin to have horrifyingly real visions of their past tragedies, one of which results in Rahne getting branded on the neck by the same priest whom she previously murdered.

During this, Dani undergoes a neural test, inadvertently discovering Reyes’s true intentions. Both Illyana and Reyes deduce that the visions are the result of Dani’s powers manifesting themselves: the ability physically manifest the greatest fears and darkest secrets from a person’s mind into reality as tangible illusions. Reyes consults her employers, the Essex Corporation, who instruct her to collect Dani’s DNA and then terminate her.

As Reyes straps her to a gurney, Dani’s panic causes her powers to go haywire. Illyana and Sam are attacked by physical manifestations of Illyana’s childhood abusers—monstrous humanoid creatures called the “Smiling Men”—while Roberto, who was attacked by one of the Smiling Men, tries in vain to break through the hospital’s outer barrier, which has now contracted in diameter.

Rahne, who was suspicious of Reyes’s next “procedure,” arrives in half-wolf form and mauls Reyes, forcing her to flee. The five regroup in Reyes’s office and realize that Reyes was training them to be assassins for Essex and that, to escape, they must kill Reyes to deprive the barriers of their power source. They find and confront Reyes, who warns them that Dani is too powerful and will destroy them all due to the lack of control over her power.

Reyes restricts them all with barriers and tries to again kill Dani by asphyxiating her inside a barrier, which unleashes the Demon Bear—Dani’s own fears manifested through her power, and the true cause of her reservation’s destruction—on her; Reyes is devoured and Dani is rendered unconscious.

Rahne tries to reach through to Dani’s subconscious and urges her to wake up, while Illyana uses her powers to travel to her “special place,” an alternate dimension, where she retrieves a glowing sword, armor and a tiny, physical manifestation of Lockheed to battle the Demon Bear.

Eventually, Sam and Roberto join the fight, as well as Rahne, all to no avail. Dani is visited by her father’s spirit, who encourages her to face her fear; she awakens and confronts the bear, calming and thus dissipating it. As day breaks, the group leaves the now unshielded facility to find the nearest town.

See list of Relevant Issues—questions-and-answers.

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