Max Steel 2016

Teenager Max McGrath moves with his mother Molly to the town of Copper Canyon, where he was born and where his father Jim McGrath died in a supposed storm. In his first few days at school, he realizes that almost everyone in town knows more about Jim than he does because his mother refuses to talk about Jim’s past or death. During dinner with Jim’s friend Miles Edwards, Max learns that his father worked for N-TEK, an advanced research company now run by Miles. Concurrently after arriving, Max discovers he emits a unique form of tachyonic energy called TURBO which is powerful enough to overload any electrical item, but he has no control over when he emits it. After sensing an oncoming overload during a date with classmate Sofia, Max encounters an amnesiac alien creature named Steel, who symbiotically bonds with Max to absorb the energy.

Finding themselves chased by mysterious men, Max takes Steel to his high school to hide and finds himself opening up emotionally for the first time in his life. Max learns to control and harness his powers, including linking with Steel to form a suit of armor. While linked, Max starts to see his father’s life through flashbacks shared with Steel and learns that an alien race called the Ultralinks with the power to manipulate the elements launched an attack on N-TEK. In search of answers, Max goes there to visit Miles, who explains that Jim was working on creating a generator capable of creating an unlimited source of power, and suggests that Jim died in an accident caused by not following safety procedures. Feeling another energy spike, Max finds solace but is soon caught in a powerful storm, which he realizes is an Ultralink. Working together, Max and Steel defeat the Ultralink and, to their shock, find it looks identical to Steel. Another flashback hints that Steel was responsible for Jim’s death, causing Max to lash out at Steel and walk away.

Max discovers Molly is missing, borrows Sofia’s car, and calls Miles, who reveals he is aware of the Ultralinks and that Molly was kidnapped as a trap for Max at the old N-TEK Facility where Jim died. Max goes to the facility and finds Steel captured, where he has a flashback that shows the truth: Jim McGrath was an alien who naturally generated TURBO, Steel was his partner, and the power generator was a machine designed to harness and focus his natural energy; however, Miles became addicted to infusing the TURBO for the power it gave him, and allied with the Ultralinks to absorb Jim’s energy for himself. Jim overloaded the core to stop Miles and, with his final words, told Steel to find and protect Max at all costs.

Miles entraps Max, having created a suit of armor that drains TURBO, seeking to harvest the energy for himself. Learning to use his armored form as Max Steel, Max fights Miles aided by the mysterious men, revealed to be an N-TEK Special Forces Squad who were working for Miles to find Steel, but are now working for Molly (as majority shareholder of the company). Working together, Max and Steel generate so much energy that Miles is unable to absorb it, overloading him in a massive explosion. Molly reveals that after Jim’s death, she feared the Ultralinks would come after Max, so she constantly moved until Miles suggested they move back to Copper Canyon in case Max started to emit TURBO. Max apologizes to Sofia for his behavior and makes a date for that night, then goes for a flight in the armor with Steel’s assistance.