- Following a horrifying experience in Brazil, each of the four members of the Powell family develop individual, extraordinary superpowers.
- The Powell family must learn to deal with the super powers each has mysteriously acquired after the crash of their plane in the Amazon River. Jim discovers he has the power of super strength and immediately feels a new sense of purpose and empowerment. With the aid of his best friend and confidant, George, he sets his sights on becoming a hero. Stephanie struggles to balance her family life with working 80 hours a week as an award-winning scientist, and after developing the power of speed, she can now move effortlessly through her daily responsibilities. Always the scientist, Stephanie immediately questions the phenomenon and, with the aid of her lab tech, Katie, the two begin to research the mystery behind the powers. For 16-year-old Daphne, she turns telepathic and hears other people's hopes, dreams, fears and joys, whether she cares to or not. And 14-year-old JJ struggles constantly to satisfy his parents and teachers as he grapples with a learning disability and bad grades. But he suddenly finds his mental abilities strengthened to a super genius level.—ABC Publicity
- "Every story has a beginning. But ours doesn't start the way you think."---Jim Powell
Jim Powell (Michael Chiklis) wants his family to get together and do things as a family. Apparently, playing charades (where he throws out his back trying to give an Iron Man clue) doesnt count, according to his daughter, Daphne (Kay Panabaker). Jim's suggestion is to join Stephanie's (Julie Benz) excursion to Brazil, where she needs to do some research as part of her job for a bioengineering company. Daphne is more than happy to let them go on their own and have them Photoshop her in later, since they TwitterSpy on her anyway. But he insists they go. Stephanie isn't too enthused, but it'll beat getting poison ivy at the Grand Canyon.
All well and good, only the small plane they go on to look at the rainforests gets caught in a storm. They crash into a river in the Amazon. The pilot doesn't survive, but the rest of the family does. Obviously all of them are grateful to be alive, and Jim hopes the near-death experience makes them closer as a family. But it turns out things are back to the way they were once they return home. Or so they think.
Jim had been lamenting the fact that his family had grown up and didn't need their dad anymore, nor did Stephanie need her husband with how busy she was at work. She tries for a romantic "date night" (I'm single, and even I know it's not a good sign when you have to arrange dates when you're married), but even that gets pushed back by work. This is what Jim relays to his best friend and co-worker at the police station, D.A. George St. Cloud (Romany Malco). He recommends couples' counseling, admitting one of his two marriages might have worked if he did that. That may help the marriage, but it won't help his increasingly-frustrating job as a police sketch artist. It was the job he took when he couldn't make a dime as a real artist, and since everything is computerized, he works with a mouse instead of a paintbrush. Suddenly, a detained criminal grabs a beat cop's pistol and tries to fire. Jim pushes one of his co-workers out of the way and steps in front of the bullet. He caught the bullet...in his hand instead of a vest. He is, to say the least, shocked.
"In the morning, there's that split second just before you wake up when the world hasn't pressed itself in on your chest, before you remember your work, or the husband you can't connect with, or the kids you fear you'll disappoint."---Stephanie Powell
This particular morning, however, she woke up to seeing her husband giving himself two tickets to his own gun show in the mirror. She wondered why he's so happy...and suddenly able to rip door handles off the door. She really hadn't noticed anything since she didn't have time due to work. But there was no time, as she had to drop off the kids and deal with Daphne making moves on her boyfriend. As Stephanie goes to work and talks about her successful trip to Brazil (minus the plane crash, of course), Jim has to find out about that bullet. He goes to a batting cage and sets the pitching machine to max, even breaking into the machine to set it higher. The machine gives him the heater, and he catches every single one, even crushing several of them in the process. Now for the ultimate test: having George fire a gun at him. The squeamish George (understandably squeamish about shooting his best friend) finally does it, fires it nowhere near Jim, but he still catches the bullet. George has a sudden desire to be the Q to Jim's James Bond. He's completely on-board, even encouraging Jim to find out if he can fly. (A "Greatest American Hero" joke would have worked so well right then.) Jim leaps off of a building and falls right to the ground...20 stories below. The street will need serious work, but Jim's OK. He returns to George, by jumping all the way up. He can't fly, but he can jump really, really high and far.
Stephanie has a problem, as she has to meet the chairman of the company to talk about researching her project, but she also has to get to her son's school, as JJ (Jimmy Bennett) has to meet with a counselor. She has to run...and she does. At blinding speed. Instead of running for her car, she ends up on the 405, thanks to an "unexplained phenomenon." She goes to her assistant in the lab, Katie (Autumn Reeser). She tells Katie in confidence about her new ability, although Katie was a bit on the neurotic side to handle it. But a little demonstration of getting Katie's Kitty Pryde X-Men doll from her cubicle (several floors down) in seconds amazes her. She is a scientist, and experimentation is the name of the game. Using a speed gun, Katie clocks Stephanie doing over 700 miles per hour around a horse racing track. Yet Stephanie doesn't get dust sandblasting her eyes...and her clothes don't shred...and windshear doesn't bother her. All good questions. Stephanie's increased metabolic rate makes her life "like a never-ending spin class, but now she could wolf down an extra value meal and keep her size zero figure...and every woman on the planet now hates her. Thanks to her newfound speed, she suddenly had an extra hour of free time. She calls Jim and decides she wants to do something where she's grateful he isn't the fast one.
One tiny problem: both of them also gained the power of being super-honest, as Stephanie complains Jim had given up on their marriage long ago, and Jim complained Stephanie doesn't even know what's going on with her own family, such as Daphne fearing losing her boyfriend because another girl is willing to sleep with him or JJ could have a learning disability. She's none too happy about being grilled like that, but suddenly he's about to look like a hypocrite as George calls him about a bank robber Jim was trying to sketch earlier. He goes into action, doing the Spiderman thing with jumps instead of shooting spiderwebs out of his wrists. He finds the getaway car...by landing on it. He pulls out the man wearing an Obama mask and easily takes him down. Unfortunately, he never saw the crook's partner in another Obama mask, who puts a bullet through the back of Jim's head. The bullet doesn't go through, but enough damage is done where Jim can't pursue the man any further.
George finds him and stiches him up...in his house. Jim's first thought is that Stephanie will never understand what he is going through, but obviously Stephanie is quite sympathetic to his plight. She runs and gets the sketch Jim did of her on their first date...in about half a second.
GEORGE: OK, you people are freaky.
Stephanie figures out that there was a phosphorescent glow in the river where they crashed, which she originally thought was gasoline from the plane. Except gasoline floats on water. Daphne calls from school because she started hearing the thoughts of every single person on the basketball court where she was playing, including the girl who was secretly taking her boyfriend away from her. Stephanie gathers the family to explain, but Daphne is just freaking out. She tries to deny everything, and JJ is upset because nothing has happened to him.
DAPHNE: We went on a vacation to reconnect? Why did we want to connect in the first place?!? All of the vacations we go on won't fix this family because this family isn't broken! You two are!
Both kids retreat to their rooms, and Jim and Stephanie have to admit Daphne's right. Unfortunately, Daphne finds out the hard way her abilities are not temporary, as she reads her boyfriend's mind and finds out he's sleeping with her best friend. (ouch!)
Jim sketches the man he found, Reed Koblenz, and hands it off to a couple of detectives. Detective Cho tell him it's not his case, but he feels that itch and arranges his own transportation to find the man. The detectives find the woman who last posted his bail, and he shows up. One detective is killed, and Koblenz takes the other hostage. He puts Detective Cho in the trunk of his car as Jim finds him. Jim thinks he can take Koblenz...but Koblenz has powers, too. He can disappear and reappear (kind of like the Albino twins in The Matrix Reloaded (2003)), and played his own partner when he shot Jim in the alley. Jim gives it his best, but the man is just too quick. Fortunately for Jim, Koblenz does the classic stupid move of talking too much. Apparently, there are plenty of people like Jim and Koblenz. However, Detective Cho kills Koblenz before he can say anything else.
After dealing with what Jim typically went through with the family, Stephanie appreciated how he kept the family together and begs him to promise her not to go running into danger just to prove himself. Which he does. JJ aces an algebra exam the next day as he can see the answers in his mind quite easily. George builds Jim a lair...with wi-fi. Unfortunately, someone wants the family dead for knowing abut Koblenz. The man? Stephanie's boss.
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What is the broadcast (satellite or terrestrial TV) release date of Pilot (2010) in Australia?
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