Push (2009 film)
| Push | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Paul McGuigan |
| Produced by |
|
| Written by | David Bourla |
| Starring | |
| Narrated by | Dakota Fanning |
| Music by | Neil Davidge |
| Cinematography | Peter Sova |
| Edited by | Nicolas Trembasiewicz |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | Summit Entertainment |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 111 minutes[1] |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $38 million[2] |
| Box office | $48.9 million[2] |
Push is a 2009 American science fiction action-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 a group of people born with various superhuman abilities who band together in order 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.
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
An organization within the United States government called the Division has been secretly hunting down and experimenting on people with psychic abilities since 1945. Two "Movers", Nick Gant (Colin Ford) and his father Jonah (Joel Gretsch), are running from Agent Carver (Djimon Hounsou), a Division "Pusher". Jonah tells Nick of a vision he received from a "Watcher" about a young girl he must help in the future in order to take down Division. Jonah helps Nick escape as Carver arrives and kills Jonah.
Ten years later, Nick (Chris Evans) is hiding in Hong Kong, as an expatriate. Meanwhile, Carver tests a power boosting drug that has killed all previous test subjects on a Pusher named Kira (Camilla Belle). Rendering her doctor unconscious, Kira steals an augmentation drug-filled syringe before escaping. A young girl, Cassie Holmes (Dakota Fanning), arrives at Nick's apartment, explaining that she is a Watcher and that they are going to find a mysterious case that will help them take down the Division. The case is also sought by the Pop Family, psychic Triads composed of Pop Father (Haruhiko Yamanouchi) and his two sons (Kwan Fung Chi and Jacky Heung) who are "Bleeders", and his daughter Pop Girl (Xiao Lu Li), who is a Watcher like Cassie.
Following Cassie's predictions, they go to a nightclub to meet Nick's friend Hook (Cliff Curtis), who is a "Shifter". He tells them to go to a "Sniff" named Emily (Ming-Na Wen), one of many Sniffs Carver and his right hand Mover, Victor (Neil Jackson), are trying to enlist to find Kira. With Emily's help, Nick finds Kira; the two had a romantic relationship prior to Kira's capture by Division. Kira hid the syringe inside the case, then had a "Wiper" erase her memories to keep the Division Watchers off her trail. Nick recruits a "Shadow" named Pinky (Nate Mooney) to "shade" Kira from psychic detection. Cassie finds a key in Kira's shoe to a locker in a construction building that is shaded by a powerful Shadow, indicating Kira hid the case there.
Nick devises a complex plan by giving his allies instructions in envelopes to open at specific times, while having a Wiper erase his memories of the grand plot to obstruct the Watchers' efforts to discern the entire plan. Meanwhile, Hook retrieves the case and creates a duplicate to match the real case with the syringe. As part of the plan, Kira surrenders herself to Carver, who introduces himself to Kira as a friend. Pushing his thoughts into her, Carver convinces Kira that she is actually a Division agent who volunteered to take the augmentation injection and suffered amnesia as a side effect.
Pop Girl hunts Cassie and corners her at a secluded spot but The Wiper appears at the right moment to dispatch Pop Girl with a massive memory wipe. Nick meets with Carver, Victor and Kira to trade the drug for Kira's freedom but Kira tells him their past relationship when Nick revealed his love at Coney Island was a false memory she pushed into his mind. The three force Nick to take them to the construction site that contains the locker holding the case, where the Triads lie in wait to ambush them. Victor kills several Triads before Pop Bleeder unleashes a powerful scream that kills Victor but also kills Pop Bleeder in a wave of collapsing debris.
Nick surprises Carver and grabs the syringe from him. Unable to convince Kira that their relationship was real, Nick jams the syringe into his arm, apparently killing himself. After Carver and Kira leave Nick for dead, he wakes up. Cassie appears and retrieves the true case with the syringe, revealing that Nick took the duplicated case and injected himself with soy sauce. Cassie plans to exchange the syringe to Division for releasing Cassie's mother, a powerful Watcher who foretold her vision to Nick's father and set the preceding events in motion even before Cassie's birth to ensure her and Nick's eventual success.
Flying back to America with Carver, Kira opens her purse and finds the envelope from Nick. Inside is photograph of Nick and herself together at Coney Island with a message: "KILL HIM. See U soon - Nick." Kira pushes Carver to put his gun in his mouth and fire; the screen fades to black and a single gunshot is heard.
Cast
- Chris Evans as Nick Gant, 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. Nick uses his ability to control dice, in order to affect betting games, as a source of income; although not always successfully.
- Colin Ford as young Nick
- Dakota Fanning as Cassie Holmes, the daughter of the greatest Watcher the 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.
- Cassie's mother Sarah Frank is uncredited; a powerful Watcher who was captured by the Division to prevent her use of powers against them. It is through her that most of the events occur as she helped Kira escape Division HQ, paid Wo to erase Kira's memories, as well as get Teresa in the right place to heal Nick, and told Nick's father to tell his son to follow the one who gave him a flower. This alone shows the strength of her Watcher abilities, as she saw this all happen at least a decade ago where most can only see a few hours or days into the future.
- Camilla Belle as Kira Hudson/Hollis, a high-level Pusher, a recent escapee of the Division, and the only Division patient to have survived experimentation.
- Djimon Hounsou as Agent Henry Carver, a Division agent and a powerful Pusher who killed Nick's father. He is sent to recapture Kira.
- Joel Gretsch as Jonah Gant, Nick's father and an advanced Mover whose refusal to join the Division cost him his life. It is implied that he and Hook once worked in the Division together.
- Ming-Na Wen as Emily Hu, a Sniffer who helps Nick and Cassie find Kira. She works as a fortune teller in Hong Kong.
- Cliff Curtis as Hook Waters, a Shifter. He used to be in the Division and after getting out, his wife died in a suspicious car accident and he knew the Division was involved. Since he moved to Hong Kong he has begun hanging out in high-class escort bars where he uses his shifting ability to pay his way. He implies that Nick's father had a similar past and it is confirmed in the comics that both used to work for the Division. He has a habit of saying "that won't last long" after he uses his abilities.
- Nate Mooney as Pinky Stein, a Shadow who hid Kira from the Sniffs. His nickname is derived from the Division's removal of his right pinky finger.
- Corey Stoll as Agent Mack, a Sniffer agent.
- Scott Michael Campbell as Agent Holden, a Sniffer agent.
- Neil Jackson as Victor Budarin, an advanced Mover and Carver's right-hand man.
- Maggie Siff as Teresa Stowe, a Stitch who helps heal Nick after an encounter with the Bleeders, as requested by Cassie's mother, who told her to be in a certain place at a certain time and help whomever was there. She is, however, not seen as altruistic, but, instead, out for personal gain rather than helping Cassie and Nick overthrow the Division.
- Paul Car as Wo Chiang, a Wiper who lives on a house boat in Hong Kong Harbour.
- Xiao Lu Li as Pop Girl, a Chinese Triad Watcher who tries to find Nick and Cassie throughout Hong Kong. Like Cassie, she draws her visions. Her visions are based on others' intentions and decisions.
- Kwan Fung Chi and Jacky Heung as Pop Boys, the two Triad Bleeders.
- Haruhiko Yamanouchi as Pop Father, Triad Bleeder and father to the three 'Pop' siblings.
Reception
Box office
On its opening weekend, the film opened #6 grossing $10,079,109 in 2,313 theaters with a $4,358 average.[3] 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.[2]
Critical response
Review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 23% approval rating based on 126 reviews and a rating average of 4.3/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "The sci-fi thriller Push is visually flashy but hyperkinetic and convoluted."[4] Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average to critic reviews, gave the film an average score of 36 out of 100, based on 21 critics.[5] 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."[6] Robert Koehler of Variety also gave a negative review calling the film: “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…”[7]
Michael Rechtshaffen of The Hollywood Reporter gave a negative review: “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.”[8] Tasha Robinson of The AV Club was more positive towards the film, 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."[9]
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.[10] Issues were published between November 2008 and February 2009, and a softcover collection (ISBN 978-1401224929) was published in September, 2009.
Home release
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.
Soundtrack and score
No official soundtrack has been released, although the full score is available to stream online on the official Neil Davidge website.
| Artist | Title |
|---|---|
| The Kills | What New York Used to Be |
| Yin Xiangjie | The Love Of Boat Trackers |
| Radio Citizen and Bajka | The Hop |
| Working for a Nuclear Free City | Rocket |
| Neil Davidge | Original music for Push |
| UNKLE | Glow |
| Daniele Benatie and Fernando Paterlini | Everybody Ciao |
| South Rakkas Crew | Elevator China |
| The Notwist | Consequence |
| South Rakkas Crew | China Funk |
| The Old Ceremony | Bao Qian |
| Jiang Xianwei | A Visit to Suzhou |
See also
- Stargate Project, the real U.S. Federal Government project to investigate psychic phenomena, used as a basis for the film.
References
- ↑ "PUSH (12A)". British Board of Film Classification. January 19, 2009. Retrieved September 29, 2015.
- 1 2 3 "Push (2009)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2009-05-06.
- ↑ "Weekend Box Office Results for February 6–8, 2009". Box Office Mojo. 2009-02-08. Retrieved 2009-02-10.
- ↑ "Push (2009) - Rotten Tomatoes". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved May 1, 2016.
- ↑ "Push Reviews - Metacritic". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved May 1, 2016.
- ↑ Ebert, Roger (February 4, 2009). "Push Movie Review & Film Summary (2009)". Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved May 1, 2016.
- ↑ Koehler, Robert (February 1, 2009). "Push Variety". Variety. Retrieved May 1, 2016.
- ↑ Rechtshaffen, Michael (February 2, 2009). "Film Review: Push - Hollywood Reporter". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved May 1, 2016.
- ↑ Robinson, Tasha (February 5, 2009). "Push Film Review - AV Club". The AV Club. Retrieved May 1, 2016.
- ↑ SDCC 08: Wildstorm Snares Push License, IGN, July 22, 2008
External links
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Wikiquote has quotations related to: Push (2009 film) |
- Push at the Internet Movie Database
- Push at Box Office Mojo
- Push at Rotten Tomatoes
- Push at Metacritic
- Push at ReelSoundtrack
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