| Gen¹³ | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Kevin Altieri |
| Produced by | Jim Lee Karen Kolus John Nee |
| Written by | Kevin Altieri Karen Kolus |
| Based on | Characters by J. Scott Campbell Jim Lee Brandon Choi |
| Starring | Alicia Witt John de Lancie Flea Elizabeth Daily Mark Hamill Lauren Lane Cloris Leachman |
| Music by | Amotz Plessner Joseph Magee |
| Studio | WildStorm Productions |
| Distributed by | Buena Vista Pictures CIC Video (Brazil) |
| Release date(s) | 1999 |
| Running time | 90 minutes |
| Language | English |
Gen¹³ is a 1999 animated feature film based on the WildStorm comic book Gen¹³. The film was directed by Kevin Altieri (Batman: Mask of the Phantasm) and was distributed by Buena Vista Pictures, and produced by WildStorm Productions. It remains unreleased in the United States, since Disney Studios shelved the film as they were ambivalent about the idea of promoting a film based on a product from a rival production company. However, a home video release was sold in the European and Australian market for a limited time.
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College student Caitlin Fairchild is offered a scholarship by the National Security Committee to attend a secret military-based school set in a U.S. desert. While there she meets new friends Percival Chang (Grunge) and Roxanne Spaulding (Freefall). But unknown to them, they are secretly subjects to genetic testing by the school's headmasters, Ivana Baiul and Matthew Callahan, who plot to develop the students into Super-Powered Beings (or go Gen Active) to spearhead an insurrection against the government. The only person standing in their way is Colonel John Lynch, of Internal Operations, an original member of Gen 12, investigates the Gen 13 project and is determined to expose their illegal operations. He introduces himself to Caitlin and revealed that he knew her father, Alex Fairchild.
Soon enough, Caitlin begins to start having headaches and throwing up. She tries making her way to the infirmary before she finds a lab. While searching through its databases for information on her father, she is surprised by Grunge and Roxy, who both were looking for a place to having a midnight snack and smoke respectively without being spotted by the cameras. Unfortunately, they are discovered by a guard, who catches them for entering a restricted area. A fight breaks out when Caitlin tried to explain how she got there. Then suddenly, Caitlin displays superhuman abilities and defenestrated the guard. Her headaches start to get worse before her body mass increased. The trio hide in the air vents as the base goes on high alert. But Caitlin is separated from her friends after the guards drop a grenade down the vent, who soon capture them.
Caitlin is chased through the wastelands by her drill sergeant, Helga in an exo-suit. She is able to knock Helga out, before commandeering her exo-suit to go back to Phoenix base and rescue her friends, sensing them being tortured. Ivana is convinced that they are Lynch's spies and doesn't believe them when they deny it. Soon, she is alerted that Lynch is arriving with a squadron to investigate their illegal activities. After she leaves, Matthew reveals to Grunge and Roxy that he knows that they are telling the truth, revealing himself to have psychic powers. He intends to torture them until they go Gen Active or die. Grunge goes Gen active, able to take on the properties of any objects he touched, and breaks free, knocking out Threshold and freeing Roxy. They then kiss afterwards.
After a skirmish with Ivana, the trio intimidate a pilot to fly a helicopter for them back home. Unfortunately, Threshold prevents their escape and destroys the helicopter. Roxy unknowingly manifests her gravity controlling powers, slowing their fall. Threshold descends to reveal that he intends to overthrow the allegedly corrupt government that killed his parents. But the trio view him as fanatical and start to fight him. Lynch arrives to defuse the situation, revealing that Caitlin and Threshold are siblings. Lynch explains that the NSC was after the two of them, so their mother turned to her ex-husband Callahan, Matthew's father, to get them out of the country. But the NSC killed both of them and captured Matthew. Lynch himself found the infant Caitlin and returned her to her uncle once the government's SPB program was discontinued. Caitlin then soon comes to the conclusion that her recurring nightmares were in fact repressed memories of her childhood when her parents were killed.
Meanwhile, Ivana had sets the Phoenix base to self-destruct. A landslide is caused by the explosion, heading right for the others. Threshold holds off the boulders, to allow his sister to escape. Because IO doesn't accept resignations, Lynch offers to help train the trio in use their powers to make the world a better place. Caitlin and her friends accepted his offer, before asking Lynch to tell her about her family.
In the mid-1990s Wildstorm owner Jim Lee put the company on the market as comic book sales began to decline. It was during this period that Disney Studios expressed interested in developing a Gen¹³ film. The film project was already in full production when Lee began talks with DC Comics, a Time Warner company, to purchase Wildstorm. The sale was finalized in January 1999. By the time the film was finished Disney decided to shelve the film as they did not want to market a film that had ties to a rival production company. Because of this the film was never released in the U.S., although it did receive a limited video release in Europe and Australia and also was aired on Russian 2×2 channel on August 1, 2010.[1] Unlike most Disney films, the Gen¹³ film contained suggested nudity, adult situations and adult language.