Push (2009 Film)
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''Push '' is a 2009 American
superhero A superhero or superheroine is a fictional character who typically possesses ''superpowers'' or abilities beyond those of ordinary people, is frequently costumed concealing their identity, and fits the role of the hero, typically using their ...
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 and written by David Bourla. Starring Chris Evans,
Dakota Fanning Hannah Dakota Fanning (born February 23, 1994) is an American actress. Fanning is known for her roles in blockbuster films and independent features, both as a child actor and as an adult. Her accolades include nominations for a Golden Globe A ...
, Camilla Belle, and
Djimon Hounsou Djimon Gaston Hounsou ( ; ; born April 24, 1964) is a Beninese-American actor. He began his career appearing in music videos and made his film debut in '' Without You I'm Nothing'' (1990). He then earned widespread recognition for his role as C ...
, 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 Summit Entertainment, LLC (formerly the Summit Group, Summit Export Group, Summit Entertainment Group Inc., Summit Entertainment Limited, Summit Films Limited, and Summit Entertainment N.V.) is an American film production label of Lionsgate Film ...
and Icon Productions. It was a moderate box office success, though critical reception was mostly negative.


Plot

Since 1945, various countries have set up Divisions to track, categorize and experiment on people with psychic abilities to turn them into soldiers. 10 years ago, two Movers, Jonah Gant, and his young son Nick are pursued by the U.S. Division. Jonah instructs Nick to help a girl who gives him a flower in the future. A team led by Division agent Henry Carver, a Pusher, kills Jonah, but Nick escapes. In the present, the U.S. Division has developed a drug that can boost psychic abilities, but all test subjects died until Pusher Kira Hudson successfully adapted to it. She steals a syringe of the drug and flees, aided by another woman in the facility. Carver orders the Division to capture Kira and retrieve the syringe. Meanwhile, Nick has moved to
Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...
, a common hiding place for psychics. Nick's powers are blunted from rare usage, and he incurs debt when his powers fail to help him cheat in gambling. Division Sniffers Mack and Holden visit Nick to look for Kira but find no trace. Nick is visited immediately after by Cassie, a moody teenage Watcher, who also wants him to help find Kira. At a market, they are confronted by a triad, who are also looking for Kira. The Triad Bleeders wound Nick, so Cassie calls in a favor from Stitch Teresa to heal him. He realizes Cassie is the girl he is supposed to help. Mack and Holden capture Kira in Hong Kong, but she ''Pushes'' Mack to kill Holden and escapes. Carver dismisses Mack, but he insists on continuing, so Carver ''Pushes'' him to kill himself. Nick and Cassie track down Kira with the assistance of Shifter Hook Waters and Sniffer Emily Wu. Kira has hidden the syringe and had Wiper Wo Chiang erase her memory of its location, protecting it from Division agents. Nick recruits
Shadow A shadow is a dark area on a surface where light from a light source is blocked by an object. In contrast, shade occupies the three-dimensional volume behind an object with light in front of it. The cross-section of a shadow is a two-dimensio ...
Pinky Stein to hide Kira from the Division. Nick and Kira, who are former lovers, reconcile and kiss. He tracks down Carver with Emily's assistance, and attempts an ambush. Carver reveals that Kira will eventually die without more of the drug, which only he has. His right-hand man Victor defeats Nick. However, Cassie convinces Carver to spare Nick, then finds a key in Kira's shoe which unlocks the locker containing the syringe. Aided by Cassie, Nick plans and writes instructions for his allies, then has his memory of them erased by Wo Chiang. Hook creates a duplicate of the syringe, while Pinky delivers Kira to Carver as part of the plan. Teresa betrays Nick to the triad, passing Hook's duplicate syringe to them, before Nick defeats her. Carver convinces Kira that she was a Division agent and that her relationship with Nick was a cover. Cassie is ambushed by the triad's Pop Girl, only for Wo Chiang to appear and erase Pop Girl's memory per Nick's instructions. Nick visits Carver to trade the syringe for Kira, only to discover she had been brainwashed and is restrained. Kira, Carver, and Victor visit a construction site to retrieve the syringe, but the Triad ambushes them. This leads to a battle that kills many Triad members and inadvertently frees Nick, who also joins the battle. Victor is killed by the triad leader, whom Nick defeats. Nick seizes the syringe and injects himself with it. Believing the drug will kill him, Carver leaves with Kira. After they leave, Cassie appears, revealing that Nick is alive, as he used a decoy syringe. They retrieve the real syringe and discuss using it to free Cassie's Watcher mother from the Division, who hatched the entire plan to take down the Division before Cassie was born. Later, Kira discovers her unopened envelope, which contains a photograph proving her relationship with Nick was real, with the instruction to kill Carver. Kira ''Pushes'' Carver to shoot himself.


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 Hannah Dakota Fanning (born February 23, 1994) is an American actress. Fanning is known for her roles in blockbuster films and independent features, both as a child actor and as an adult. Her accolades include nominations for a Golden Globe A ...
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 Djimon Gaston Hounsou ( ; ; born April 24, 1964) is a Beninese-American actor. He began his career appearing in music videos and made his film debut in '' Without You I'm Nothing'' (1990). He then earned widespread recognition for his role as C ...
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 Clifford Vivian Devon Curtis (born July 27, 1968) is a New Zealand actor and film producer. After working in theatre, he made his film debut in Jane Campion's Academy Awards, Oscar-winning film ''The Piano'' (1993), followed by a breakout role ...
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 Maggie Siff (born June 21, 1974) is an American actress. Her most notable television roles have included department store heiress List of Mad Men characters#Rachel Menken, Rachel Menken Katz on the AMC (TV channel), AMC drama ''Mad Men'', Dr. Tar ...
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

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website
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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 an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...
, 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 criticism, film critic, film historian, journalist, essayist, screenwriter and author. He wrote for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. Eber ...
of the
Chicago Sun-Times The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily nonprofit newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has long held the second largest circulation among Chicago newspaper ...
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 Fringe may refer to: Arts and music * "The Fringe", or Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the world's largest arts festival * Adelaide Fringe, the world's second-largest annual arts festival * Fringe theatre, a name for alternative theatre * Purple fri ...
'', '' Alias'' 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 original series aired from September 10, 1993, to Ma ...
''." 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 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 created in ...
'' 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 and Brandon Choi to publish through Image Comics, Wildstorm became a publishing imprint of DC C ...
, an imprint of
DC Comics DC Comics (originally DC Comics, Inc., and also known simply as DC) is an American comic book publisher owned by DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. DC is an initialism for "Detective Comics", an American comic book seri ...
, published a comic book
mini-series In the United States, a miniseries or mini-series is a television show or series that tells a story in a predetermined, limited number of episodes. Many miniseries can also be referred to, and shown, as a television film. " Limited series" is ...
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 from January 2009 and February 2009, and a softcover collection () was published in September 2009.


Home media

''Push'' was released on DVD and
Blu-ray Blu-ray (Blu-ray Disc or BD) is a digital optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006, capable of storing several hours of high-defin ...
on July 7, 2009. The DVD included deleted scenes, a commentary, and a 'making of' featurette.
Wal-Mart Walmart Inc. (; formerly Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.) is an American multinational retail corporation that operates a chain of hypermarkets (also called supercenters), discount department stores, and grocery stores in the United States and 23 other ...
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 David Paul Cronenberg (born March 15, 1943) is a Canadian film director, screenwriter, producer and actor. He is a principal originator of the body horror genre, with his films exploring visceral bodily transformation, infectious diseases, and ...
which also features characters with psychic abilities.


References


External links

* * * *
''Push''
at ReelSoundtrack {{DEFAULTSORT:Push (2009 film) 2009 films 2009 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 Films 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 English-language action thriller films