Keep The Doctor Away

Synopsis

GENNIE LAFERE, 21, is the anonymous Los Angeles graffiti artist known as STAR. She's also the unemployed daughter of Mayor ANA LAFERE. Weeks before Gennie’s golden birthday, she smokes marijuana through an apple and experiences a premonition of Los Angeles consumed by wildfire. She sees an elementary school burning, her late father’s gold watch, the number 22, and a woman in gold dying in the flames. Convinced she will die on her twenty-second birthday, Gennie decides she will not die unknown.

Gennie transforms the vision into a massive mural warning that a “superfire” is coming. When the piece goes viral and a stranger claims credit, she publicly reveals herself as STAR and shares her premonition. Her sudden fame attracts HAYDEN PORTER, the charismatic leader of the struggling climate organization Holocene Heroes. Gennie needs Hayden’s audience; Hayden needs her relevance. Their opportunistic partnership becomes romantic, distancing Gennie from SURYA, the best friend who fears her obsession with fame will get her killed.

Gennie and Hayden use provocative murals, protests, and viral videos to warn Los Angeles to evacuate before June 22. Their campaign also implicates Ana and JaneAGI, an artificial-intelligence company run by NEIMUS VICTOR. Gennie discovers that JaneAGI has paid her mother to suppress uncertain wildfire projections. Neimus justifies the conspiracy as necessary to protect investments funding research for his terminally ill son.

As Gennie’s following explodes, she becomes increasingly invested in being proven right. On her birthday, she confesses that a fireless Los Angeles would expose her as both delusional and fame-starved. When June 22 passes without disaster, Gennie survives. Her credibility collapses, and the people who evacuated turn against her.

Neimus later attempts to buy Gennie’s silence. After she refuses, someone shoots her bicycle tire, sending her to the hospital. Surya admits that he defaced her first mural in a desperate attempt to stop her. Gennie finally recognizes her central failure: she saw thousands of people dying and placed her own name on the disaster first.

Six days after her birthday, Gennie smokes from another apple. The vision returns, and she recognizes the voice inside the flames as her mother’s.

Now, a real wildfire is approaching Los Angeles.

Gennie races toward City Hall but stops at the burning elementary school from her visions. Believing she sees Hayden nearby, she instead chooses to rescue a fallen child. Ana calls as the smoke surrounds her, managing, “Genevieve, I love—” before the connection disintegrates. After ensuring the child escapes, Gennie closes her eyes. For the first time, there is no vision—only darkness and her father’s voice:

“You’ll always be my—”