Described by Stephen King as a “push,” Andy has the capacity (with proper focus) to alter a person’s perception of reality, such as making a taxi driver see a five-hundred dollar bill instead of a normal single.
It’s a delicate thing for two reasons, however: the first is that it does extreme damage to the young father’s brain, and second in the long term it can have the effect of driving an individual insane.
The primary goal of Andy McGee throughout Firestarter is ensuring the health and safety of his daughter, a six-year-old girl with pyrokinesis – but what comes in handy is the fact that he is able to perform a kind of mind control.