Line #125 Film/Push


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/push_movie.jpg]]
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3	A 2009 movie about Nick (Creator/ChrisEvans), a man who lives in perpetual fear of [[MutantDraftBoard Division]] - a worldwide agency of major governments whose goal is to train and employ psychics for governmental use. Not content with their normal levels of power, the US branch of Division has been testing a [[SuperSerum drug]] to boost psychic abilities. Only one person, Kira (Creator/CamillaBelle), has been able to survive this drug, and she quickly escapes with a sample after the first test of the drug on her.
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5	When a 13-year-old precognitive girl named Cassie (Creator/DakotaFanning) tracks down Nick in Hong Kong and makes him an offer he can't refuse, the two team up to track down Kira and the stolen sample with the hope that finding it will help them bring down Division.
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7	A short comic series was also created, but any further entries in the series are unlikely due to the movie's generally poor performance and reception. There was [[http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=62491 a television series]] in development being written by Creator/DavidHayter at some point in 2010, but the lack of updates since then means it has fallen victim to DevelopmentHell and is effectively cancelled.
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9	If you're looking for the 1996 novel of the same name that was made into the 2009 movie ''Precious'', click [[Literature/{{Push}} here.]]
10	----
11	!!This movie provides examples of:
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13	* AdaptationalDyeJob: Cassie's mother, Elizabeth, is shown with black hair in the film, but is blonde in the tie-in prequel comic (though it's entirely possible she dyed it herself during her time as a fugitive of the Division).
14	* AntiHero: Nick has shades of the morally bankrupt type. Our introduction to Nick is him trying to cheat at dice. And failing. He gets better as the movie goes on.
15	* ArtisticLicenseBiology: The movie has Nick [[spoiler:inject soy sauce into his arm with no consequences.]]
16	* BadassFamily: The Chinese Triad we meet features a family consisting of a few Bleeders and a skilled Watcher.
17	* BadassInANiceSuit: Victor. Both he and Carver are very well dressed, and very good at their jobs.
18	* BaldOfEvil: Both Carver and Mac sport chrome domes.
19	* TheChessmaster:
20	** Both Cassie and the Pop Girl are constantly trying to prove that they're the best chessmaster in the film. Little do they know that they're really just fighting for second place. [[spoiler: The ''real'' chessmaster is Cassie's mom. See Gambit Roulette below.]]
21	** Nick becomes one mid-movie, as he was the one who came up with the idea of using notes and mind-wipes. He also wrote all the notes, not showing them to anyone until the right time.
22	* ClickHello: [[spoiler:Pop Girl clicks off the safety right behind Cassie near the end.]]
23	* CompetenceZone: Averted. Competence and power are pretty well linked to age and experience, with the one exception of Kira, who is supercharged by the drug above everyone else.
24	* TheConspiracy: In the comics [[spoiler: it's revealed that this is the Division's true role. They perfected Hitler's psychic soldier research, then proceeded to kidnap potential psychics from all over, and Push them into thinking they were "rescued" by the Division, so they could be trained and employed to do things no government agency could do with ordinary man power, so they could steer the direction of the world's growth however they see fit]].
25	* CoversAlwaysLie:
26	** The scene in the poster on this very page never happens.
27	** Promotional images also seem to imply that [[TitleConfusion a "push" involves telekinesis]], when it actually revolves around implanting thoughts. Movers are the ones capable of moving objects with their mind.
28	* DeadlyUpgrade: The serum has killed every test subject, save Kira.
29	* DeadpanSnarker: Cassie is chock full of these, and Nick has his occasional moments.
30	-->'''Cassie:''' ''(having just drawn a picture of her, Nick, and her mother, all dead)'' You better do something quick, 'cause I'm getting ''sick'' of drawing dead bodies.
31	* DeathByIrony: [[spoiler:Carver, killed the very same way he killed Mac earlier in the movie.]]
32	* DifferentlyPoweredIndividual: See the PsychicPowers entry, below
33	* TheDragon: Victor to Carver, Pop Girl to her father.
34	* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: The Triad Dad is distraught at the sight of his dead sons.
35	* EvilBrit: The mercenary Stitch, as her accent gives it away.
36	* EvilCounterpart: Victor to Nick, Pop Girl to Cassie, and Carver to Kira.
37	* FaintingSeer: Cassie and her evil watcher counterpart have occasional flutters, but neither of them go full-on unconscious.
38	* FaceHeelTurn: [[spoiler:Subverted. Kira is originally Pushed into different loyalties most of the way through the movie, but a photo of her and Nick allows her to remember who she really is and where the lies are. Immediately afterwards, she kills Carver.]]
39	* FakeMemories: A specialty of the Pushers, they "push" thoughts into peoples' heads, such as false or manipulated memories or ideas.
40	* ForceAndFinesse: Nick and Victor, respectively. While Nick is capable of extremely strong bursts of power, Victor has significantly more fine control and depth of using his powers, and completely outmatches Nick [[spoiler: until he makes the incredibly poor decision to try and trade power-enhanced blows with him. Needless to say, in a close in fight of simply trading power blows, the brute force user (Nick) comes out on top.]]
41	* GambitRoulette:
42	** [[spoiler:The entire movie was one gigantic one by Cassie's mother to get the serum into the hands of her daughter. Cassie jokes that her mom must've been planning this since before Cassie was born. Chances are good that she's ''right''.]]
43	** [[spoiler:Nick's letters are a sub-gambit of this one, and they're all improvised without any Watcher foresight, especially the one of he and Kira at Coney Island at the end. This is justified by them having dated for quite some time and Cassie's abilities.]]
44	* {{Gorn}}: Nick spends half of his screen time on his back writhing in pain.
45	* GunsAkimbo: A favorite technique of the good guys, [[spoiler: not that they ever get to use them]].
46	* HealingHands: It's here, but it's quite painful, and can work in reverse.
47	* HellishPupils: When Screamers do their thing, their irises narrow horizontally into slits.
48	* HimeCut: Pop Girl's got one.
49	* HoistByHisOwnPetard:
50	** [[spoiler: Carver]] is killed in exactly the same way that he killed a character earlier in the movie.
51	** Maybe the Division should have only used people whose abilities could actually be restrained for those lab experiments. A super-powerful Shifter or Watcher doesn't sound all that dangerous or difficult to imprison compared to someone with the power of Mind Control. The most powerful Watcher in the story spends the entire story off-screen in their possession (possibly due to her own plan, but still imprisoned).
52	* HostageForMacGuffin: At the end, [[spoiler:where Carver wants to trade Kira for the drug.]]
53	* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice: At least one mook gets killed this way on screen in the climax, due to two extremely powerful Movers and an effectively endless supply of bamboo scaffolding fighting off a bunch of gun-toting gang bangers.
54	** How [[spoiler: Ezra]] dies in the tie-in prequel comic: Impaled by a metal pipe launched by a powerful Mover.
55	* ImprovisedWeapon: A wet floor sign by Kira, chairs and bamboo shoots by Victor.
56	* InspiredBy: A mild case, as it turns out there actually ''was'' a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stargate_Project government project]] for investigating psychics.
57	* InstantExpert: Nick has been a Mover all his life, and he sucks at it at the beginning, barely able to cheat some dice. As the movie progresses, it becomes clear that he's simply not practiced or refined with his power, but he is naturally talented - he tends to do fine with larger, more forceful movements than smaller, precise ones. He's consistently surprised when he does manage to do something powerful, and watching Victor at work gives him a lot of ideas that he successfully copies.
58	* IntergenerationalFriendship: Between Nick and Cassie. He's easily double her age, if not more.
59	* KarmicDeath:
60	** Nick stays his hand and doesn't [[spoiler: kill Victor, who is killed anyway three seconds later by a Bleeder.]]
61	** Averted when [[spoiler: Kira]] kills [[spoiler: Carver]] in a fairly sadistic but fitting way.
62	* LaserGuidedAmnesia: Wipers can remove specific memories, which doubles as a way to throw off Watchers - if you don't know what you're doing, neither do they.
63	* LensFlare: Mover impacts sometimes have this effect, likely to show the distortion of light, and two Movers squaring off create the equivalent of a small light show.
64	* LittleMissBadass: Cassie. 13 years old and a fairly accomplished Watcher, she tracks down Nick by herself, is often an early warning system for being tracked, and is essential to the group's ending plan.
65	* LivingMacGuffin: Kira isn't the MacGuffin ''exactly'', but she stole it, has it in her bloodstream, and is chased after by the villains as the only successful survivor of the super-psychic-serum.
66	* MagicSkirt: Cassie. Necessary, because the character's all of 13.
67	* MakingLoveInAllTheWrongPlaces: Kira starts to kiss Nick while in the bathroom, and then he closes the door. It's implied the two have sex in there.
68	* ManipulativeBastard: All Pushers to a degree, with Kira being on the low end and Carver on the high. Being able to essentially control people's minds leads to a warped worldview.
69	* ManOfWealthAndTaste: Carver, with his expensive suits and private jet. Division pays well.
70	* MasterOfIllusion: Hook, one of Nick's friends. It helps that he's a Shifter, and he uses his abilities to live the high life in casinos and nightclubs by shifting pieces of paper into high-currency bills.
71	* MeanBoss: Downplayed, but it appears that The Division aren't exactly good employers to those not dedicated to the cause. Hook notes that he worked for ten years with "no thank you, no pension", just a warning to not shift again.
72	* MeaningfulEcho: Carver's "What a waste" line, said after he killed Nick's father and [[spoiler:after he thinks Nick killed himself]].
73	* MeaningfulName: Cassie is probably named after Cassandra, a prophetess from Greek mythology.
74	* MeleeATrois: Nick, Cassie and friends vs the Chinese Triad vs Division
75	* [[spoiler: MemoryGambit]]- Tack on some OmniscientMoralityLicense and you essentially have a non-traceable future, since Watchers [[spoiler: work off of everyone's hypothetical plans and intentions; by erasing their conscious memory of the plan and leaving themselves instructions to read later, they are able get around the Watchers.]]
76	* MenAreTheExpendableGender: [[spoiler:Despite the relatively high total bodycount, shown female character deaths number exactly zero, though that number rises to one counting the deleted scenes]]. The two female villains [[spoiler: 3 if you count Kira]] are menacingly threatening but they're stopped right before they cross the MoralEventHorizon:
77	** [[spoiler:Stowe, the Stitcher tries to kill/interrogate Nick, only for Nick to pull a gun on her and tie her up in his apartment. In a deleted scene, Pop Girl kills her for [[YouHaveFailedMe her failure]]]].
78	** [[spoiler:Pop Girl finally tracks down Cassie and pulls a gun on her but the old man Wiper sneaks up behind her and erases her mind, which is either better or worse, depending on your viewpoint.]]
79	** [[spoiler:Pushed!Kira spends the final battle running, fleeing and using her power to push mooks into dropping their guns or coming to her defense, never directly killing anyone unless Carver tells her to, and when she is freed from Carver's push, she kills him after reading Nick's note telling her to]].
80	* MindRape: Remember that brother you don't have? Well, now you remember every moment of growing up together, and that your best friend/fellow Sniff brutally killed him. And even after you realize it's a push and that you killed the Sniff in revenge for nothing, the memories will still be there clear as day.
81	** In the comics, Carver "shoots" a guy, but reveals that he's not even armed, and just planted the image of a gun, causing the guy to unconsciously put himself into a self-induced coma for a few days.
82	* MoreThanMindControl: Being Pushed is this, as it replaces or adds memories to the victim. It can be overcome or resisted under the right circumstances.
83	* MutantDraftBoard: Division hunts down psychics to perform SuperSoldier experiments on, or to draft into voluntary service. Any psychic they don't directly control, or who refuses to be recruited, Division agents either kill them outright or threaten them to ''not'' use their powers, and they employ Sniffs to track down any who disobey this edict. Many psychics live abroad in Hong Kong to keep as far away from the Sniffs as possible.
84	* NightmareFuelColoringBook: Cassie's drawings of the future.
85	* NoteToSelf: Played straight twice with [[spoiler:Kira and Nick.]]
86	* NotEvenBotheringWithTheAccent: Neither Djimon Hounsou (from Benin) nor Cliff Curtis (from New Zealand) even bothers to try to sound like Americans. Neil Jackson (England) drops in and out of it with the 2 or 3 lines he has. While Carver specifically says he's working for the U.S. Division near the end, their home countries are never specified so they could have been recruited before or after they became U.S. citizens or have picked up the accents elsewhere.
87	* OnePersonOnePower: Strictly observed - each person seen with powers in the film has only one kind, and no multiply powered people are said to exist.
88	* ProphecyTwist: Cassie's drawing of a tiger clawing her to death: [[spoiler: Pop Girl getting her memory eviscerated by the wiper with clawed hands in a room filled with cardboard boxes with the logo of a tiger]].
89	* PsychicAssistedSuicide: Pushers can make you eat your gun at their strongest.
90	** Carver to one of his men who had just failed him (he pushes him to think the gun's empty though).
91	** During the final battle, Carver pushes two mooks to shoot each-other while Kira commands two under her control to walk off the edge of a building.
92	** [[spoiler: Kira to Carver at the end of the film.]]
93	* PsychicPowers: The basis of all powers in ''Push'':
94	** Pushers are able to use MindControl to a degree. Initially it's MoreThanMindControl, since it works by implanting and/or overwriting memories or ideas. At the strongest, it is pure MindControl
95	** Wipers are able to erase all or parts of a person's memory, though it can be triggered.
96	** Movers are [[MindOverMatter telekinetics]], moving objects with mind along with augmenting physical blows with burst of psychic energy.
97	** Shifters are [[MasterOfIllusion Masters Of Illusion]], allowing them to morph any object of their choice, though it seems the object does have to be of the same relative size of the object it's being shifted to, and it's temporary.
98	** Bleeders [[SuperScream emit powerful screams]] that cause internal bleeding (most of their targets bleed through the ears) though at peak strength and or in numbers, can shatter glass and damage structures.
99	** Stitchers have HealingHands. It's a painful progress though can be augmented with a salve. They can also undo their healing.
100	** Sniffers can see where any object has ever been and who's used it. They get their name from how their ability works: literally by sniffing the object in a form of {{Psychometry}}.
101	** Watchers predict the future through reading the intentions of others, so the future they see isn't permanent (though it usually is). They can be countered by not knowing what you're going to do until right before you do it, and having your memories erased can stop them dead in their tracks.
102	** Shadows can hide people by "shadowing" an object from them, allowing their subject to not be found. They are generally used to cancel out Sniffers. Extremely powerful ones can cancel out Watchers, though there's only one known occurrence of this.
103	** A few other kinds are comic-exclusive, and venture well outside of the realm of what you'd expect from psychic powers:
104	*** Phasers can [[IntangibleMan move through solid objects]].
105	*** Porters can...well, [[TeleportationTropes teleport]].
106	*** Changers can [[VoluntaryShapeshifting shapeshift]].
107	* ReedRichardsIsUseless / ComesGreatResponsibility: {{Inverted}}; in China, where Division has less of a hold, many psychics hold down occupations using their powers for profit (except the Shifter, who just carries a wallet full of money-shaped blank paper).
108	* ScarilyCompetentTracker: The Sniffs. They used a 10-year old toothbrush with a weak scent to track Nick across several countries before finding him in Hong Kong.
109	* ScaryBlackMan: Carver. He's played by Djimon Honsou, what do you expect?
110	* [[IJustShotMarvinInTheFace Screw Gun Safety]]:
111	** Some would say that if you're a telekinetic who's not very good at it, you would take extra care to make sure that the pistols you are levitating are not pointed at you when you work the slide.
112	** Justified in one case: Carver pushes a Sniffer into shooting himself because he convinces him that the gun isn't loaded, but since mind control is at work, flagrant disregard for gun safety is excused.
113	* ScrewDestiny: Cassie is trying to prevent the future she sees. The villains love YouCantFightFate since their watchers foresee a future in which the heroes all die.
114	* ScryVsScry: Cassie versus Pop Girl.
115	* SealedOrders: The film centers around Sealed Orders to get around the mind-reading capabilities of a psychic. The one who came up with the plan also [[MemoryGambit has his memory of coming up with it wiped]] to further ensure its success.
116	* SequelHook: [[spoiler: Nick and Cassie defeat the Pop Gang and US Division agents, and they have the super drug with them. Kira gets Carver to kill himself, meaning she's off scot free, likely to go meet up with Nick and Cassie. US Division wants to keep the drug, and the fact that it exists at all, away from rival Divisions of other countries. Cassie's plan is to trade the drug for Cassie's mom and take down Division. [[IndyPloy How they are going to do that isn't really known yet]], and since the movie was not a commercial or critical success, we'll likely never know.]]
117	* ShootTheDog: The Chinese Triad leader [[spoiler: killing Victor]] before Nick has to.
118	* ShoutOut:
119	** Mind control being described as "pushing" someone was first used in Creator/StephenKing's ''Literature/{{Firestarter}}'', although as the power works here it's more evocative of a drug dealer "pushing".
120	** To ''Series/TheXFiles'' episode, "Pusher", whose eponymous villain was also able to push people into suicide.
121	** The marble scene in the beginning is taken almost directly from a part in Creator/TedDekker's book ''Blink'', a book where the main character can see potential futures. When he's about to be arrested, he rolls a rubber ball down the hall, timing it so that it will bounce off the right walls, causing a distraction so he and his {{love interest}} can get away.
122	* SlidingScaleOfFreeWillVsFate: Of the "Prophecies as predictions based on people's intentions" variety.
123	* SloMo: A dramatic walk down a hallway. Verges on {{Narm}}.
124	* StrongAsTheyNeedToBe: Nick kept a lid on his powers to evade detection by Division so he starts off a relatively unskilled Mover. Once he shook off the cobwebs, he began to develop more finesse; his encounters with the much more skilled Victor seem to boost his competency via AwesomenessByAnalysis to the point that in their final battle, [[spoiler: he's able to use his improved skills and talent for brute force over finesse to beat down Victor once he lures Victor into a match of blows.]]
125	* StylisticSuck: Cassie's drawings.
126	* SuperHumanTrafficking
127	* SuperSerum: The MacGuffin of the plot; Division is testing it on psychics to enhance their powers. It's failed so far in every case, save one.
128	* SuperSoldier: Division's ultimate goal from their inception during WW II is to weaponize psychics into an unparalleled army.
129	* TrailersAlwaysLie: Some of the trailers are edited in ways or even straight up use different takes to imply that Nick was some telekinetic con man using his powers to win at gambling. In the movie proper, he's still a novice with his Mover powers and his arc goes from barely able to push over a die to enhancing his fists to give his punches more power.
130	* TheTriadsAndTheTongs: A Hong Kong Triad is one of the antagonists in the film.
131	* TookALevelInBadass: Nick goes from a rusty and out-of-practice user to becoming more skillful in his usage of his powers, mixing it well with his power blows.
132	* XanatosSpeedChess:
133	** Once Nick and Cassie realize how they can shut down Pop Girl, things change very quickly, especially when the letters come into play.
134	** The entire ''movie'' is this, as it's basically a MeleeATrois between two {{Chessmaster}}s and a ManipulativeBastard.
135	* YouHaveFailedMe: Carver "pushes" one of his Sniffs to shoot himself for letting Kira escape and falling for Kira's push that caused him to kill his partner. Carver was willing to send the agent home until the agent insisted he was [[TemptingFate willing to bet his life that there was no way he could be "pushed" again]]. He may have also been genuinely worried that the guy had other implanted thoughts he didn't know about.

Context Film / Push