''Push '' is a 2009 American
superhero
A superhero or superheroine is a stock character that typically possesses ''superpowers'', abilities beyond those of ordinary people, and fits the role of the hero, typically using his or her powers to help the world become a better place, ...
thriller film
Thriller film, also known as suspense film or suspense thriller, is a broad film genre that evokes excitement and suspense in the audience. The suspense element found in most films' plots is particularly exploited by the filmmaker in this genre ...
directed by
Paul McGuigan
Paul may refer to:
*Paul (given name), a given name (includes a list of people with that name)
*Paul (surname), a list of people
People
Christianity
*Paul the Apostle (AD c.5–c.64/65), also known as Saul of Tarsus or Saint Paul, early Chris ...
and written by David Bourla. Starring
Chris Evans,
Dakota Fanning,
Camilla Belle
Camilla Belle Routh (born October 2, 1986), known professionally as Camilla Belle, is an American actress, director, and producer.
Early life
Belle was born to Deborah Cristina Gould and Jack Wesley Routh, a country music performer and compose ...
, and
Djimon Hounsou, the film centers on people with superhuman abilities who band together to take down a government agency that is using a dangerous drug to enhance their powers in the hope of creating an army of super soldiers.
The film was released on February 6, 2009, by
Summit Entertainment and
Icon Productions
Icon Productions is a production company founded in August 1989 by actor/director Mel Gibson and Australian producing partner Bruce Davey, which, unlike most other independent production companies, funds most of its development and production cos ...
. It was a moderate box office success, though critical reception was mostly negative.
Plot
In 1945, the United States government sets up The Division, an agency that tracks and experiments on people with
psychic abilities
This is a list of alleged psychic abilities that have been attributed to real-world people. Many of these abilities pertain to variations of extrasensory perception or the ''sixth sense''. Superhuman abilities from fiction are not included.
Psyc ...
. Each psychic is categorized into a group based on what powers they have. Two
Movers, teenager Nick Gant and his father Jonah, are hiding from Division agent Henry Carver. Jonah tells Nick about a vision he received from a
Watcher about a young girl Nick must help in the future to bring down Division. Nick watches Carver murder Jonah before he escapes.
Years later, The Division has developed a drug that can boost psychic abilities. All of the test subjects died until an unknown female
Pusher successfully adapted to it. The woman escapes from The Division and steals a syringe of the drug before fleeing to Hong Kong, a common hiding place for psychics. Nick now lives in Hong Kong as an
expatriate
An expatriate (often shortened to expat) is a person who resides outside their native country. In common usage, the term often refers to educated professionals, skilled workers, or artists taking positions outside their home country, either ...
, but is in trouble due to the debts he incurred while attempting to use his power as a Mover, which has become blunt due to lack of training, to cheat in gambling. Nick is first visited by two Division agents, who are looking for leads on the escaped female patient, but they find none. Nick is visited immediately after by Cassie Holmes, a moody teenage Watcher, who wants Nick to help her in tracking down the woman who is supposed to have a case with six million dollars inside. While pleading her case to Nick, they are attacked by the
Triads at a market, and Nick is severely wounded by a
Bleeder before the pair can escape. After being separated, Cassie finds an unconscious Nick in the care of a
Stitch named Teresa Stowe who owes a favor to Cassie's mother and was told to be in the market at the exact day and time they were attacked. She heals Nick's wounds to repay her debt to Cassie's mother, while also taunting Cassie about her mother's current captivity. Her mother, Sarah, is considered the strongest Watcher ever born and was detained by The Division to ensure their control over her abilities. Unbeknownst to them, her mother was the patient who directly helped the female Pusher escape. After talking to Cassie about her past and her most recent drawings, Nick realizes she is the girl his father saw in his vision and decides to help her find the woman as well as the briefcase containing the stolen goods.
Nick and Cassie use her Watcher abilities to track down the woman, who is actually Nick's ex-girlfriend, Kira Hudson. Kira hid the case and then had a
Wiper erase her memory of its location, protecting it from Division agents. Nick recruits a
Shadow
A shadow is a dark area where light from a light source is blocked by an opaque object. It occupies all of the three-dimensional volume behind an object with light in front of it. The cross section of a shadow is a two-dimensional silhouette, o ...
, named Pinky Stein, to hide Kira from Carver and other Division agents. Cassie attempts to foresee the case's location, competing with the Triad Watcher, Pop Girl. As Kira begins to get sick from withdrawal, Nick learns that Kira will get sicker and eventually die without more of the drug, which only Carver has, and realizes he must meet with Carver to save her life. Victor, a talented Mover and Carver's assistant, battles Nick and nearly kills him before Cassie convinces Carver to spare him. Cassie then finds a key in Kira's shoe which unlocks a locker atop a construction site where the case is hidden.
Knowing that Division Watchers and especially Pop Girl, who tracks intents of her targets rather than possible outcomes like Cassie, can see their every move, Nick proposes an elaborate plan to obtain the drug and eliminate their enemies. He creates several envelopes containing instructions for each of his friends, including the
Shifter called Hook Waters and the
Sniff
Sniff may refer to:
* Sniff (Moomin character), a character in the Moomin stories
* ''Sniff'' (film), a 2017 Indian Bollywood film
* Sniff, the action of inhaling
* Sniff, odor sampling, see olfaction
* Sniff (domino game)
Muggins, sometimes ...
called Emily Wu. Nick seals each envelope and gives them to his friends before hiring the Wiper who erased Kira's memory to do the same to him. With his memory wiped, the Watchers are unable to see his future, enabling the group to execute Nick's plan. Hook locates the case and creates a duplicate of it and the syringe, while Pinky delivers Kira to Carver as part of the plan. Carver then pushes her into believing she is actually a Division agent and her relationship with Nick was a lie.
Cassie is confronted by Pop Girl, only for the Wiper to appear and erase Pop Girl's memory per Nick's instructions. Nick visits Carver and discovers Kira's brainwashing. They travel to the construction site where Carver unknowingly retrieves the fake case, but the Triads arrive and attempt to steal the case. A battle erupts between all three groups which leads to the Triad Bleeders being killed. Nick uses his newly discovered Mover power to battle Victor. The Triad leader uses his Bleeder powers and kills Victor when the young Bleeder dies. After using the opportunity to kill the Triad leader, Nick seizes the fake syringe and Carver allows him to inject himself with it, apparently dying. After Kira and Carver leave, Cassie appears and reveals Nick is alive. They retrieve the real case and syringe from a dumpster and discuss using it to free Cassie's mother from Division, who might have planned the whole thing years before Cassie was born.
Kira discovers her unopened envelope, which contains photographs proving her relationship with Nick was real. She then pushes Carver and a gunshot is heard.
Cast
*
Chris Evans as Nick Gant, an untrained Mover hiding in Hong Kong from the Division. As a child he witnessed his father being murdered by Agent Carver and has difficulty controlling his power.
**
Colin Ford
Colin Ford (born September 12, 1996) is an American actor. He is known for his roles as Josh Wheeler in '' Daybreak'', Joe McAlister in '' Under the Dome'', the voice of Jake on ''Jake and the Never Land Pirates'', Mikey on '' Can You Teach My A ...
as young Nick
![Dakota Fanning, 2009](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/78/Dakota_Fanning%2C_2009.jpg)
*
Dakota Fanning as Cassie Holmes, a 13-year-old Watcher and the daughter of the most powerful Watcher the Division has encountered. Her abilities are not fully developed and she is sometimes confused by the premonitions she draws.
** Cassie's mother Sarah Frank (uncredited); a powerful Watcher imprisoned and drugged by the Division to prevent her using her powers against them.
![Camilla Belle 2009](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fc/Camilla_Belle_2009.jpg)
*
Camilla Belle
Camilla Belle Routh (born October 2, 1986), known professionally as Camilla Belle, is an American actress, director, and producer.
Early life
Belle was born to Deborah Cristina Gould and Jack Wesley Routh, a country music performer and compose ...
as Kira Hudson/Hollis, a high-level Pusher escapee from the Division. The only Division patient to have survived experimentation.
*
Djimon Hounsou as Division Agent Henry Carver, a powerful Pusher who killed Nick's father and is tasked to recapture Kira.
*
Joel Gretsch as Jonah Gant, Nick's father. An advanced Mover killed for refusing to join the Division.
*
Ming-Na Wen as Emily Wu, a Sniffer who helps Nick and Cassie find Kira.
*
Cliff Curtis as Hook Waters, a former Division Shifter who believes the Division murdered his wife.
*
Nate Mooney
Nate Mooney (born January 26, 1972) is an American actor best known for his recurring role as Ryan McPoyle on the FX comedy series ''It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia''.
Career
He appeared on various television series, including ''Breakout Ki ...
as Pinky Stein, a Shadow who hides Kira. He is missing his pinky finger.
*
Corey Stoll
Corey Stoll (born March 14, 1976) is an American actor. He is best known for his roles as Congressman Peter Russo on the Netflix political thriller series ''House of Cards'' (2013–2016), for which he received a Golden Globe nomination in 2013, ...
as Sniffer Agent Mack.
*
Scott Michael Campbell as Sniffer Agent Holden.
*
Neil Jackson
Neil Jackson (born 5 March 1976) is an English actor, singer, musician and writer who has appeared in several television series and films, but is probably best known for his role as Marcus on '' Blade: The Series'' and Sasha on ''Make It or Brea ...
as Victor Budarin, an advanced Mover and Carver's right-hand man.
*
Maggie Siff as Teresa Stowe, a Stitch who heals Nick.
* Paul Che as Wo Chiang, a Wiper living on a boat.
*
Xiao Lu Li as Pop Girl, a Triad Watcher who draws her visions and tracks Nick and Cassie.
* Kwan Fung Chi and
Jacky Heung as Pop Boys, Triad Bleeders.
*
Haruhiko Yamanouchi
, also known as , is a Japanese-born actor, dancer, choreographer and writer. He has resided in Italy since 1975 and holds Italian citizenship.
Beginning his career as a mime, he has performed in and choreographed for numerous stage productions ...
as Pop Father, Triad Bleeder and father to the Pop siblings.
Reception
Box office
On its opening weekend, the film opened No. 6 grossing $10,079,109 in 2,313 theaters with a $4,358 average. The film grossed $48,858,618 worldwide, and $16,285,488 in DVD sales in the US alone making $65,157,106 (not including worldwide DVD sales) surpassing its budget cost of $38 million by over $27 million.
Critical response
Review aggregator
A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...
website
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
reported approval rating based on reviews and a rating average of . The site's critical consensus reads, "The sci-fi thriller Push is visually flashy but hyperkinetic and convoluted."
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
, which assigns a weighted average to critic reviews, gave the film an average score of 36 out of 100, based on 21 critics.
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...
of the
Chicago Sun-Times
The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has the second largest circulation among Chicago newspapers, after the ''Chicago T ...
gave the film one and a half stars out of four stating: ""Push" has vibrant cinematography and decent acting, but I'm blasted if I know what it's about." Robert Koehler of
Variety called the film “a confused jumble of parts in search of a whole", and said it "plays like a mix-tape sample of scenes from ''
Heroes
Heroes or Héroes may refer to:
* Hero, one who displays courage and self-sacrifice for the greater good
Film
* ''Heroes'' (1977 film), an American drama
* ''Heroes'' (2008 film), an Indian Hindi film
Gaming
* ''Heroes of Might and Magic'' ...
'', ''
Fringe'', ''
Alias
Alias may refer to:
* Pseudonym
* Pen name
* Nickname
Arts and entertainment Film and television
* ''Alias'' (2013 film), a 2013 Canadian documentary film
* ''Alias'' (TV series), an American action thriller series 2001–2006
* ''Alias the ...
'' and ''
The X-Files
''The X-Files'' is an American science fiction on television, science fiction drama (film and television), drama television series created by Chris Carter (screenwriter), Chris Carter. The series revolves around Federal Bureau of Investigation ...
''." Michael Rechtshaffen of ''
The Hollywood Reporter
''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Cinema of the United States, Hollywood film industry, film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade pap ...
'' said “While the concept of corralling assorted
overs, Watchers, and Pushersand placing them against a stylish Asian backdrop is intriguing, the picture seldom rises to the occasion.”
Tasha Robinson of
The A.V. Club
''The A.V. Club'' is an American online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was cre ...
was more positive, giving it a B+: "Superhero fans will likely be into Push just for the cool-factor of watching embattled heroes and villains in a tense war of wits, wills, and skills. That broader audience is less likely to come along for the ride, but this particular gateway drug at least has ambition and brains going for it, as well as the usual spastic style."
Comic
Wildstorm
Wildstorm Productions, (stylized as WildStorm), is an American comic book imprint. Originally founded as an independent company established by Jim Lee under the name "Aegis Entertainment" and expanded in subsequent years by other creators, Wilds ...
, an imprint of
DC Comics
DC Comics, Inc. (doing business as DC) is an American comic book publisher and the flagship unit of DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery.
DC Comics is one of the largest and oldest American comic book companies, with thei ...
, published a comic book
mini-series
A miniseries or mini-series is a television series that tells a story in a predetermined, limited number of episodes. "Limited series" is another more recent US term which is sometimes used interchangeably. , the popularity of miniseries format h ...
that acts as a prequel to the film. It was written by
Marc Bernardin
Marc Bernardin (born November 29, 1971) is an American journalist, public speaker, TV and comic book writer, and podcaster. He has served as film editor for the ''Los Angeles Times'' and senior editor for ''The Hollywood Reporter'' and ''Entertai ...
and Adam Freeman (who wrote ''The Highwaymen'' for Wildstorm) and Bruno Redondo supplied the art. Issues were published between January 2009 and February 2009, and a softcover collection () was published in September 2009.
Home media
''Push'' was released on DVD and
Blu-ray
The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of sto ...
on July 7, 2009. The DVD included
deleted scene
A deleted scene is footage that has been removed from the final version of a film or television show. There are various reasons why these scenes are deleted, which include time constraints, relevance, quality or a dropped story thread. A similar o ...
s, a commentary, and a 'making of' featurette.
Wal-Mart released the film as a double-feature DVD with ''
Knowing''. Push was released on 4K UHD Blu-Ray on April 10, 2018.
Soundtrack and score
No official soundtrack has been released, although the full score is available to stream online on the official
Neil Davidge
Neil Davidge (born 29 June 1962) is an English record producer, songwriter, film score composer, musician, and occasional backing vocalist. Once an associate of dance producers DNA, he is best known as the long-term co-writer and producer for ...
website.
See also
*
Stargate Project, the real U.S. Federal Government project to investigate psychic phenomena, used as a basis for the film.
* ''
Firestarter'', a 1984 film (based on the
Stephen King novel of the same name) with a similar plot.
* ''
Scanners
''Scanners'' is a 1981 Canadian science fiction horror film written and directed by David Cronenberg and starring Stephen Lack, Jennifer O'Neill, Michael Ironside, and Patrick McGoohan. In the film, "scanners" are psychics with unusual telepathic ...
'', a 1981 film written and directed by
David Cronenberg
David Paul Cronenberg (born March 15, 1943) is a Canadian film director, screenwriter, and actor. He is one of the principal originators of what is commonly known as the body horror genre, with his films exploring visceral bodily transformation ...
which also features characters with psychic abilities.
References
External links
*
*
*
*
''Push''at ReelSoundtrack
{{DEFAULTSORT:Push (2009 film)
2009 films
2000s action thriller films
2000s superhero films
American action thriller films
American science fiction action films
American superhero films
Films about amnesia
Films about mind control
Films directed by Paul McGuigan
Films produced by Bruce Davey
Films set in Hong Kong
Films shot in China
Films shot in Hong Kong
Fiction about memory erasure and alteration
Smart drugs in fiction
Films about telekinesis
Films adapted into comics
Icon Productions films
Summit Entertainment films
2000s English-language films
2000s American films