| Director | Josh Boone |
|---|---|
| Genre | action film, horror film, science fiction film |
| Runtime | 94 min |
| Country | United States |
| Budget | $80 million |
| Box office | $49.2 million |
Danielle "Dani" Moonstar, a young Cheyenne Native American, is 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, 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 four other teenagers, Samuel "Sam" Guthrie, Illyana Rasputin, Roberto "Bobby" da Costa, and Rahne Sinclair, who also possess superhuman abilities due to their DNA mutations. Reyes, who can manipulate plasma-energy barriers, has brought them to the hospital, after they have each either experienced or accidentally caused a tragedy. Sam can generate energy around his body to fly at jet speed and render himself temporarily nigh-invulnerable. After his powers manifested, he accidentally collapsed a coal mine, killing his father and coworkers in the process. Roberto, who can emit and manipulate furnace-like heat, accidentally burned his girlfriend to death while they were swimming. Rahne can transform into a wolf or wolf-human hybrid with enhanced senses. She escaped her devoutly Catholic village after killing the priest who called her a witch. Illyana has interdimensional sorcery powers and gone away from being sexually abused when she was little.
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 and still grieving the loss of her family, Dani plans to kill herself but is prevented by Rahne. The two become friends and later date, but Illyana antagonizes Dani, who discovers that Illyana has a hand puppet of a purple dragon called Lockheed. The five teenagers all 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. The group experiences visions of their past tragedies, one of which results in Rahne getting branded in the shower by the same priest whom she had previously murdered. During this, Dani undergoes a neural test, inadvertently discovering Reyes's true intentions and seeing the future. 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 liquidate 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 a Smiling Man, tries in vain to break through the hospital's outer barrier, which has shrunken. Rahne, who had been suspicious of Reyes's next "procedure", arrives in half-wolf form and attacks Reyes, forcing her to flee. The five regroup in Reyes's office and realize that she was training them to become killers and that, to escape, they must kill her to deprive the barrier of its 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 again to kill Dani by asphyxiating her inside a barrier, which unleashes the Demon Bear, a manifestation of Dani's own fears and the true cause of her reservation's destruction. Reyes is devoured and Dani is rendered unconscious. Rahne tries to reach 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 (Soulsword), armor, and a small, physical manifestation of Lockheed to battle the Demon Bear. Dani is visited by her father's spirit, who encourages her to face her fear. She awakens and then confronts the Demon Bear, calming and dissipating it. As day breaks, the group leaves the now-unshielded facility to find the nearest town.