Push (2009 film)

From 1945 onwards, various countries began experimenting on people with psychic abilities, in an attempt to turn them into soldiers. Countries set up Divisions to track, categorize and experiment on psychics.

10 years in the past, two Movers, Jonah Gant and his young son Nick, are pursued by the U.S. Division. Jonah tells Nick that a woman told him that in the future, Nick must help a girl who gives him a flower. Division agent Henry Carver, a Pusher, leads a team that 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 before fleeing, unknowingly being helped in her escape by another woman in the facility. Carver orders the Division to capture Kira and retrieve the syringe.

Meanwhile, Nick has also moved to Hong Kong, 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 gambles. Division Sniffers Mack and Holden visit Nick, looking for Kira, but find no trace. Nick is visited immediately after by Cassie, a moody teenage Watcher, who also wants Nick to help find Kira. At a market, Nick and Cassie are confronted by a triad, who are also looking for Kira. The Triad Bleeders severely wound Nick, and Cassie calls in a favour from Stitch Teresa to heal Nick, who realises that Cassie is the girl that his father wanted him to help. Mack and Holden capture Kira in Hong Kong, but she escapes after influencing Mack to kill Holden. Carver dismisses Mack, but Mack insists on continuing, so Carver influences Mack to kill himself.

Nick and Cassie track down Kira with the assistance of Shifter Hook Waters and Sniffer Emily Wu. Finding Kira shocks Nick, because she is his ex-girlfriend, and no one searching for her had informed him of her identity. Kira has hidden the syringe and had Wiper Wo Chiang erase her memory of its location, protecting it from Division agents. Nick recruits Shadow Pinky Stein, to hide Kira from the Division. Nick and Kira reconcile and kiss. Nick 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 Carver has. Carver's right-hand man, Mover Victor, defeats Nick. Cassie convinces Carver to spare Nick. Cassie finds a key in Kira's shoe which unlocks the locker containing the syringe.

To prevent Watchers from foreseeing his future moves, Nick creates several envelopes containing instructions for his allies, then has his own memory erased by Wo Chiang. Hook creates a temporary 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 influences Kira to believing that she was a Division agent and her relationship with Nick was a lie. 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, discovering Kira's brainwashing, and is restrained. Kira, Carver and Victor visit a construction site to retrieve the syringe, but the Triad ambushes them for it, causing a battle that kills many triad members and inadvertently frees Nick, who also joins the battle. Victor is killed by the triad leader, who is defeated by Nick. Nick seizes the syringe and Carver allows him to inject himself with it, apparently dying. After Kira and Carver leave, Cassie appears, revealing that Nick is alive as he used a syringe with a fake drug. They retrieve the real syringe and discuss using it to free Cassie's Watcher mother from the Division, who Cassie states hatched the entire plan to take down the Division from before Cassie was born.

Later, Kira discovers her unopened envelope, which contains a photograph proving her relationship with Nick was real, with an instruction to kill Carver. Kira influences Carver to shoot himself and a gunshot is heard.

• 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 at the film's premiere

• 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 at the film's premiere

• 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.

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.[10] Issues were published from January 2009 and February 2009, and a softcover collection (ISBN 978-1401224929) was published in September 2009.

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.[11]

No official soundtrack has been released, although the full score is available to stream online on the official Neil Davidge website.

• 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.

Wikiquote has quotations related to Push (2009 film).

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