Push (2009 film)

For the 2009 film directed by Lee Daniels previously titled Push, see Precious (film).

Push
Promotional film poster
Directed by	Paul McGuigan
Written by	David Bourla
Produced by	Bruce Davey William Vince Glenn Williamson
Starring	Chris Evans Dakota Fanning Camilla Belle Djimon Hounsou Li Xiaolu Ming-Na
Cinematography	Peter Sova
Edited by	Nicolas Trembasiewicz
Music by	Neil Davidge
Distributed by	Summit Entertainment
Release date	February 6, 2009
Running time	111 min.
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$38,000,000
Box office	$45,465,299

Push is a 2009 American science fiction thriller film directed by Paul McGuigan. The film stars Chris Evans, Dakota Fanning, Djimon Hounsou, and Camilla Belle. The plot centers on a group of psychics, granted various powers when they were born, who band together to attempt to take down a government agency that is using a dangerous drug to enhance their powers in hopes of creating an army of super soldiers.

Plot

During the opening credits, a narrator (Dakota Fanning) tells us how those with abilities have been involved with the government since 1945. The opening scene shows two Movers, Nick Gant and his father on the run from the "Division". Realizing that escape is impossible, Nick's father tells him of a vision he received from a Watcher; a girl will give him a flower and he is to do what she says in order to "save us all." He then throws him through an air vent as Agent Henry Carver (Djimon Hounsou) of Division arrives. Nick's father then fights the Agents, taking out only two (on screen) before he is killed while Nick escapes.

Ten years later, the American Division is testing a potentially deadly augmentation drug on a Pusher named Kira (Camilla Belle). While the test seems like a failure, when the doctor moves in to check Kira's pulse, she reveals herself to be alive (the one and only to ever live). Knocking the doctor out, Kira steals his card and a syringe which has the drug in it and escapes with the help of her enhanced abilities and interference from a nearly-catatonic Watcher.

Two days later, the scene changes to Hong Kong, where an adult Nick Gant (Chris Evans) is hiding from Division as an expatriate. Though he attempts to use his ability to make a living, he displays a poor skill at "moving" and is not successful at fixing a local dice game, leaving him in debt to a local Triad—which happens to be controlled by Bleeders bred by the now defunct Chinese Division. After making his escape from the gamblers, he returns to his apartment and finds that the American Division has located him. Two Sniff Agents, Mac and Holden (Cory Stoll and Scott Michael Campbell), demand to know if he has seen a certain girl. While Mac sniffs around Nick's apartment, Holden psychically reads about Nick's actions in this apartment, and finds out he hasn't yet met the girl. The two Agents then leave, taking Nick's toothbrush in case they need to find him again.

Almost immediately following the encounter, a young girl named Cassie Holmes (Dakota Fanning) comes to Nick's apartment. Cassie lets herself into his apartment and explains that she is a Watcher and that they are going to find a case containing 6 million dollars. Nick and Cassie then go to a restaurant to further discuss their plans. After a brief chat, Nick is unsatisfied with Cassie's explanations and refuses to help her. While Cassie tries to convince him to help her, Cassie has a vision and proceeds to run ahead, claiming that "they" are here, confusing Nick as to who "they" are. Attempting to escape, the duo's attempt is thwarted by "they" —who are revealed to be the Triads— and after a short pursuit, both are subdued. Nick helps Cassie escape and as the Bleeders prepare to kill him, they are stopped by the Watcher (Li Xiaolu) in the Triad's group, who states that without Nick they find no chance of finding the girl. The Triads then leave. As Nick lies on the ground, dying, an unknown woman comes and retrieves him. Cassie then has a vision of a building, finds it and enters. She finds an unconscious Nick lying face-down on a table. The woman who rescued him, a female Stitcher (Maggie Siff), then heals his wounds because of a favor she owed to Cassie's Mother. As Nick reawakens, Cassie gives him a lotus flower and he recalls the words of his father, knowing now that he has no other choice than to help Cassie.

Meanwhile, Agent Mac and Holden manage to recapture Kira who has had her memories wiped so it is more difficult for Division to track her. While in the car returning to Carver, Kira tries to Push Holden but he manages to reject it. They then pull over because Kira has to use the bathroom. Mac goes into the bathroom with Kira while Holden waits outside. Inside the restroom, Kira pushes thoughts of a fictional brother into Mac's head and says that Holden killed him. In anger, Mac storms out of the bathroom and shoots Holden in the back of the head. He then tries to incapacitate Kira, but she manages to incapacitate him instead and escape.

Meanwhile, Nick and Cassie go to Club Bee Boss after Nick sees one of Cassie's drawings of the future which shows the club's sign and a clue to where they should go next to find this girl. Upon entry, Nick sees an old friend, "Hook" Waters (Cliff Curtis), who happens to be a Shifter and is using his abilities to swoon local ladies and scam the club. After a discussion, he uses his abilities to take a replica of the clue in Cassie's drawing and he tells them to go to Emily Hu (Ming Na), a highly skilled Sniff who can help them find Kira.

After Nick and Cassie find Kira who is trying to get a ride by using her abilities to trick a young couple into believing the three are all old friends, it is revealed that Nick and Kira know each other prior a former romantic relationship. Kira was apparently captured by Division and Nick failed to realize this. They recruit a Shadow named "Pinky" Stein (Nate Mooney) to hide Kira from the Sniffs, knowing that it is merely a stopgap measure; a Shadow cannot hide a subject from a Watcher at all, but from Sniffs for a short time, and Division has several tracking Kira. Later that night, Nick and Kira manage to rekindle their relationship while Cassie goes and purchases alcohol in hopes of boosting her powers (it is mentioned earlier that her mother did the same thing), but the plan ends up failing quite humorously.

Then in the morning, Cassie awakens suddenly. The team departs from their apartment and is shown that the Triads had located them. While Nick, Cassie, Pinky and Kira find a new hiding place at Emily’s place, Nick decides that it is time to make a stand. With the help of Emily, he finds Agents Henry Carver and his partner, an advanced Mover named Victor Budarin (Neil Jackson) and confronts them. Now with greater control over his abilities, Nick holds both Agents at gunpoint and chats with them where Carver reveals that Kira will die if she does not come with them. Soon, Budarin and Nick battle and despite Nick's improved skill, he is easily outmatched by Budarin's superior strength. While Nick and Budarin fight, Carver confronts Cassie. Carver tells Cassie he will not hurt her for if she dies, the future will change to one Carver may not like. Cassie then says that the same will happen if Nick dies. Carver then returns to the Movers' battle where Nick is being severely beaten. Carver tells Budarin it is time to go and both agents depart.

When Nick returns, he finds that Kira is in bad shape and that Carver was telling the truth about the side-effects of the drug. As he comforts her, Cassie barges in and thanks to one of her drawings, finds the key to a locker in which Kira hid a valuable case. With the aid of Cassie's visions, they are able to roughly piece together the events that led them to meet; Cassie's mother used her visions to set a complex plan in motion that will lead to the destruction of Division. Knowing that they are being tracked by Watchers from both Division and the Triad, Nick comes up with an elaborate plan that involves seven envelopes in which he puts instructions in; each person in their group is entrusted one envelope, and none are supposed to open them until the time to act is right.

First, Pinky pretends to sell Kira out, then turns the reward (though he is somewhat disappointed he does not get to keep the money for his efforts) over to Nick. Nick uses the money to pay a Wiper to erase his memories of the plan, ensuring that Watchers from both Division and the Triads will no longer be able to interfere. Meanwhile, after Budarin injects Kira with an immunosuppressant to counteract the adverse effects of the drug, Carver introduces himself to Kira as a friend, saying that her memories are false; she is actually a Division agent volunteered to take the augmentation injection, and suffered memory loss as a side-effect and shows Kira her badge.

During this time, Hook retrieves the case (which doesn't have 6 million dollars, but instead has the syringe Kira stole) and brings it back to Cassie and Emily. He then shifts another case to look exactly like the case with syringe. Cassie then takes the shifted case to Nick's apartment as her instructions stated she should do and waits. Meanwhile, Nick regains consciousness, not having any memory of the envelopes or his plan as he had planned. He then opens his own envelope which simply tells him to return home and does so. When he returns home he finds the case in his room, the female Stitcher who healed him returns the injuries he received from the Bleeders earlier and he collapses in agony. The Stitcher then hands the case over to the Bleeder Triads who give her a great deal of money in return. As she prepares to leave, Nick uses his abilities to take the guns Cassie hid (as she was instructed) and holds the Stitcher at gunpoint, forcing her to heal him. As Cassie and Nick leave the Stitcher tied up in his apartment, Cassie fears the worst because all of her drawing which have to do with her death. Nick promises that she will not die and the two depart, Nick telling Cassie to go and find somewhere to hide without even thinking about it.

Cassie finds her hiding place in a large apartment building, but unfortunately, the Triad Watcher finds her and holds her at gunpoint. Prepared to kill Cassie, the Watcher tells Cassie that she made her look like a fool in front of her family. Before she is able to pull the trigger, the Wiper that wiped Kira and Nick jumps out and wipes all of the Watcher's memories without trouble. It turns out that Cassie had just lured the Watcher out.

Meanwhile, Nick goes to retrieve the augmentation drug himself and confronts Carver, Kira and Budarin. Kira reveals that she has been using Nick the entire time and Nick, defeated, takes the three to the building which holds the lockers and the case. Nick then handcuffed and thrown in the trunk of the car as Kira, Carver and Budarin go to obtain the case. As they do, they are suddenly ambushed by the entire group of Triads. Budarin, Kira and Carver make short-work of most of the Triad's forces and unintentionally free Nick from the car. He then joins the large battle and commences a rematch with Budarin. As Nick finally overpowers Budarin, both are attacked by a Bleeder Triad. Budarin manages to kill the Bleeder and as Nick and him try to once again fight, the Leader of the Triads reveals that he too is a Bleeder and kills Budarin. As the Bleeder continues to scream, Nick causes a very large amount of building material to come down on the Bleeder and successfully kills the leader of the Triads.

He then rushes over to Kira and Carver to confront them once more. Carver beats Nick and then pushes him to go and walk off of the roof of the building. Right before Nick walks off, he suddenly turns and knocks Carver to the ground, grabs the case and jams the syringe in his arm. Carver tries to tell Nick it's a bad idea to use the drug. Despite this, Nick injects himself, falls over and dies. Carver and Kira then depart. Moments later, Cassie walks over to Nick's body and tells him that she told him bring an umbrella. Nick opens his eyes and stands up, and Cassie retrieves the true case, revealing that Nick really only injected himself with soy sauce as they had planned. The duo then leave, Cassie saying that they'll meet Kira again soon enough.

On the flight back to America with a sleeping Agent Carver, Kira opens her purse and finds her red envelope. She remembers Nick telling her to open when "she started doubting the truth" and opens it. Inside, she find a picture of her and Nick at Coney island —proof Carver had altered her memories. Written on the picture is the message "KILL HIM. See you soon, Nick." Kira then pushes Carver, commanding him to put his gun in his mouth and pull the trigger.

As the movie fades to black, a gunshot is heard, suggesting that Carver did as Kira commanded.

Types

There are nine types of psychics in Push: (1) Movers, (2) Pushers, (3) Watchers, (4) Bleeders, (5) Sniffs, (6) Shifters, (7) Wipers, (8) Shadows, and (9) Stitchers.

Movers: Movers manipulate inanimate objects at varying distances. The actual technique is known as kinetic signature control, where the Mover is trained to hear and identify the specific atomic frequency of any given material and alter the gravity wave around it, usually producing the nearby air to appear warped. Advanced Movers can work at the molecular level creating protective shields in the air around them.

Pushers: Pushers push specific thoughts, memories, and even emotions into their targets. This technique can be used to gain a subject's trust or to have them perform any action, thinking it was their own agenda.

Watchers: Watchers are trained to self-induce visions of the future, very much like a prolonged sense of déjà vu. The technique of following the future, either of a person or object, is called subject tracking. A Watcher's skill is primarily rated by how far they can see into the future.

Bleeders: Bleeders have the ability to emit high-pitched sonic vibrations that cause ruptures in a target's blood vessels.

Sniffs: Sniffs are highly developed psychometrics who can track the location of either people or objects over varying distances. Like psychic bloodhounds, their tracking ability is increased if they have tactile access to an object that has been in direct contact with the subject. Sniffs receive information based on images, not specific addresses, which is why identifiable landmarks help increase their effectiveness.

Shifters: Shifters can temporarily shift patterns of light on any object to create illusions to the naked eye. They work mostly on a touch basis, but once the illusion is established, it remains with the object for short periods of time. For example, a Shifter could momentarily touch a one dollar bill, altering its light pattern to appear as a one hundred dollar bill for hours until the effect expires. The length of the shift is based on experience and ability.

Wipers: Wipers are skilled at either temporary or permanent memory erasure, an invaluable asset in espionage. Experience will dictate the accuracy of their wipes, though the danger is always present that they will eliminate a desired memory.

Shadows: Shadows are trained to block the vision of other clairvoyants such as Sniffs, making any subject within their target radius appear "dark". Experience will enhance the size of the area they can shadow and the intensity of their shielding effect. Shadows need to be awake to perform their ability, and it is common for a detail of two Shadows to operate in shifts while protecting a person or object for extended periods.

Stitchers: Stitchers are psychic surgeons trained to quickly reconstruct cells to their previous or healthy state. Using only their hands, they can heal and even "unheal" whatever they have done. For more detailed work, Stitches use a silver based cream on their hands which acts as a conductor to their ability.

There is a tenth type of psychic that appears only in the prequel comic book series, called Phasers. They have the power to pass through any solid object with almost complete ease.

Cast

• Nick Gant (Chris Evans, Colin Ford) is a Mover living in Hong Kong in order to stay hidden from Division, whose father was killed by Carver. He was born in America and once had a relationship with Kira. One form of income - although not always successful - is to manipulate betting games involving dice using his ability.
• Cassie Holmes (Dakota Fanning) is the daughter of the greatest Watcher Division has ever encountered, and a Watcher in her own right. Like all abilities, hers is not fully developed as this happens through training. She is sometimes confused by what she draws in her premonitions.
• Kira Hudson (Camilla Belle) is a high-level Pusher, a recent escapee of Division, and the only Division patient to have survived experimentation.
• Agent Henry Carver (Djimon Hounsou) is a Division agent and the powerful Pusher that killed Nick's father. He is sent to recapture Kira.
• Emily Hu (Ming-Na) is a Sniff who helps Nick & Cassie find Kira. She works as a fortune teller in Hong Kong.
• "Hook" Waters (Cliff Curtis) is a Shifter. He used to live in America until Division caught him while he was 'trying to get something nice for his wife'. He lives in Hong Kong, hanging out in high class escort bars where he uses his shifting ability to pay his way.
• "Pinky" Stein (Nate Mooney) is a Shadow who hid Kira from the Sniffs.
• Agent Mack (Corey Stoll) is a Sniff agent.
• Agent Holden (Scott Michael Campbell) is a Sniff agent.
• Victor Budarin (Neil Jackson) is an advanced Mover and Carver's right hand man.
• Teresa Stowe (Maggie Siff) is a Stitch. She helps Nick heal after an encounter with the bleeders. This is done on the request of Cassie's mother who told her to be in a certain place at a certain time and help whoever was there. She is, however, not seen as a good guy, but out for personal gain rather than helping Cassie and Nick to overthrow division.
• Wo Chiang (Paul Car) is a Wiper who lives on a house boat in Hong Kong Harbour.
• The Pop Girl (Xiao Lu Li) is a Chinese Triad Watcher femme fatale who tries to find Nick and Cassie around Hong Kong. Like Cassie, she draws her visions.
• The Pop Boy #2 (Jacky Heung) is a Triad Bleeder.
• The Pop Boy #1 (Kwan Fung Chi) is a Triad Bleeder.
• The Pop Father (Haruhiko Yamanouchi) is Triad Bleeder and father to the three 'Pop' siblings.
• Nick's Father (Joel Gretsch) was an advanced mover who refused to join the Division and died for it.
• Cassie's Mother (no credit) is a powerful Watcher who was captured by Division and forced to work for them. It is through her that most of the events occur as she helped Kira escape Division HQ as well as get Teresa to be in the right place to heal Nick.

Reception

Push has received negative reviews by critics. Rotten Tomatoes reported that 21% of critics had given the film positive reviews, based upon a sample of 106. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the film has received an average score of 36, based on 21 reviews.

On its opening weekend, the film opened #6 grossing $10,079,109 in 2,313 theaters with a $4,358 average. As of May 6, the film has grossed $44,427,122 worldwide, just passing the budget cost.

There are more critics to come:

Variety - “A confused jumble of parts in search of a whole, Push plays like a mix-tape sample of scenes from Heroes, Fringe, Alias and The X-Files as it follows good guys gifted with paranormal powers trying to stave off bad guys with the same…”

The Hollywood Reporter - “While the concept of corralling assorted Movers (those with telekinetic talents), Watchers (clairvoyants) and, of course, Pushers (mind controllers with the ability to alter one’s memories) and placing them against a stylish Asian backdrop is intriguing, the picture seldom rises to the occasion. …monotonous…”

Screen Daily - “The most compelling thing about Push is its setting. The film was shot entirely on location, which affords it a fresh look and feel, be it in a chase through a local fish market or the juxtaposition of modern skyscrapers and bamboo scaffolding…[The screenplay] is a jumbled mess of narrative clichés.”

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 write The Highwaymen for Wildstorm) and Bruno Redondo supplied the art.

Issues

PUSH #1 (of 6) released on November 12, 2008
PUSH #2 (of 6) released on November 26, 2008
PUSH #3 (of 6) released on December 24, 2008
PUSH #4 (of 6) released on January 14, 2009
PUSH #5 (of 6) released on January 28, 2009
PUSH #6 (of 6) released on February 25, 2009

DVD Release

The movie will be released on DVD and Blu-Ray on July 7, 2009

External links

• Official website
• Push at AllMovie
• Push at IMDb
• Push at Metacritic
• Push at Rotten Tomatoes
• Template:Myspace
• Movie's trailers
• Interview with Chris Evans and Camilla Belle, The Lance, Feb. 4, 2009