Push (2009 film)

''Push '' is a 2009 American superhero thriller film directed by Paul McGuigan and written by David Bourla. Starring Chris Evans, Dakota Fanning, Camilla Belle, 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. 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. 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, 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, 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 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 as young Nick

* 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 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 as Pinky Stein, a Shadow who hides Kira. He is missing his pinky finger.
* Corey Stoll as Sniffer Agent Mack.
* Scott Michael Campbell as Sniffer Agent Holden.
* Neil Jackson 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 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 website Rotten Tomatoes 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, 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 of the Chicago Sun-Times 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'', ''Fringe'', ''Alias'' and ''The X-Files''." Michael Rechtshaffen of ''The Hollywood Reporter'' 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 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, an imprint of DC Comics, published a comic book mini-series that acts as a prequel to the film. It was written by Marc Bernardin 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 on July 7, 2009. The DVD included deleted scenes, 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 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'', a 1981 film written and directed by David Cronenberg which also features characters with psychic abilities.

References

External links

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''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