Push packs a rich superhero universe into a single film

The opening credits of the 2009 film Push are packed with so much exposition and terminology it feels like director Paul McGuigan and writer David Bourla are introducing viewers to an entire superhero universe. Instead, it ended with a single film. Push was part of the trend of cape-free superhero stories led by the 2006 premiere of Heroes that was quickly eclipsed by the Marvel Cinematic Universe. But Push stands on its own thanks to an excellent cast and rich setting, and it’s definitely worth watching for fans of Stranger Things, Sense8, and X-Men.

The world of Push is filled with psychics, who are neatly categorized into power sets with names like Movers (telekinetics), Watchers (precognitives), and Pushers (people with mind control). There are also Bleeders (people with the power to blow things up by screaming).

Chris Evans stars as Nick Grant, a Mover whose control over his power is so mediocre he can’t even manage to use it to cheat at dice games. Nick lives a sad, lonely life in Hong Kong, just trying to avoid being captured by Division, the shady government organization that killed Nick’s father and uses psychics as soldiers and guinea pigs. But Nick’s world is turned upside down when the precocious 13-year-old Watcher Cassie Holmes (Dakota Fanning) shows up at his doorstep with a plot to make $6 million.

The two have great banter as Cassie tries to guide the stubborn Nick toward the best outcome she can foresee. Much of the film is framed as a battle between various Watchers trying to engineer circumstances according to their plans, while predicting the actions of their rivals. An excellent early sequence shows Cassie’s mother Elizabeth (Sarah Frank) drop a ball that slides into a door at just the right moment to allow the Pusher Kira (Camilla Belle) to escape Division custody.

While they’re fairly one-note characters, the Bleeders provide a great excuse for an absurd amount of shattered glass in their fight scenes. (A battle in a market filled with fish tanks is particularly spectacular.) The special effects used to depict Moving also look great, with rainbow hues representing enhanced punches and psychic shields. Pushing manifests on screen with the eerie effect of multiple soldiers acting in synergy to guard their psychic master.

The character archetypes may be broad, but the world of Push is extremely rich. Hong Kong has an underground network of psychics Nick and Cassie enlist for help. Categorizing powers also allows Bourla to create counters for each of them. Nick hires a Shadow, whose power can negate other abilities, to hide Kira from Sniffers, human bloodhounds who can track someone with as little as a 10-year-old toothbrush. The dynamic is similar to the underground world of magic in Brandon Sanderson’s first Mistborn book, 2006’s The Final Empire, and I hope that the Mistborn film in the works captures Push’s vibe.

Photo: Merrick Morton/Summit Entertainment/Everettt Collection

Push has a shockingly deep cast. Billions star Maggie Siff plays a sadistic Stitch who heals Nick but makes it look extremely painful. Djimon Hounsou brings a cool, ominous gravitas to Division agent Henry Carver. He seems to always be in control of a situation and is only concerned with wasting resources. Ming-Na Wen plays a Sniffer Nick and Cassie work with, while Corey Daniel Stoll is a Sniffer working for Carver. Those last three would all go on to roles in the MCU, so while Push didn’t continue, it did provide a career boost to many future superheroes and supervillains.

The world laid out in Push’s intro may have been too dense for many viewers at the time, but audiences who’ve been trained on years of superhero stories by the dominance of the MCU will have no trouble keeping up. The film never got the sequels it was clearly supposed to, but that just makes it a perfect watch for superhero fans looking for a quick adventure without committing to a new sprawling multiverse.

Push is streaming for free on Pluto TV.