Push (2009 film)

In 1945, the United States government sets up The Division, an agency that tracks and experiments on people who possess 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 Agent Carver of Division. 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, Division has developed a drug which can boost psychic abilities. All of the test subjects died until a Pusher named Kira successfully adapted to it. Kira escapes from 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 gambling debts he incurred while attempting to use his power as a Mover to cheat the games. Nick is visited by Cassie Holmes, a moody teenage Watcher. Her mother, Sarah, is considered the strongest Watcher ever born and directly aided in Kira's escape. Nick realizes Cassie is the girl his father saw in his vision and decides to help her find Kira and the briefcase containing the stolen drug. They are attacked by the Chinese triads at a market and Nick is wounded by a Bleeder before he and Cassie get away. Nick meets a Stitch named Teresa Stowe who heals him from his wounds.

Nick and Cassie use her Watcher abilities to track down Kira, who is actually Nick's ex-girlfriend. Kira hid the case and then had a Wiper erase her memory of its location. Nick recruits a Shadow named Pinky Stein to hide Kira from Division. Cassie attempts to foresee the case's location, competing with the Triads Watcher Pop Girl. As Kira begins to get sick from withdrawal, Nick feels he must meet with Carver to save her life. Nick learns that Kira will get sicker and eventually die without more of the drug, which only Carver has. 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 their every move can be seen by both Division and Triad Watchers, 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 Shifter Hook Waters and Sniff 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 instructions from Nick. 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. Nick uses the opportunity to kill the triad leader. Nick seizes the fake syringe and Carver allow 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.

• Chris Evans as Nick Gant, a Mover living in Hong Kong in order to stay hidden from Division. He witnessed his father being murdered by Agent Carver and also once had a relationship with Kira. Nick is an untrained Mover who has difficulty controlling his power.
  • Colin Ford as young Nick

Dakota Fanning at the film's premiere

• Dakota Fanning as Cassie Holmes, a Watcher and the daughter of the greatest Watcher the Division has ever encountered. Like Nick, her abilities are not fully developed. 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 at the film's premiere

• 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 Wu, a Sniffer who helps Nick and Cassie find Kira. She uses her Sniff abilities to make money.
• Cliff Curtis as Hook Waters, a former Division Shifter. He believes that Division murdered his wife to keep him in line. 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 Division and the Triads. His nickname is derived from his missing pinky finger, which he implies was done to him by Division.
• 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. Her motives are not genuine, and she is shown to be out for personal gain.
• Paul Che 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.

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.

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.

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