Release Date: 10 SEPTEMBER 2009
Running Time: 111 minutes
Rating: M
THE STORY
Telekinesis. Clairvoyance. Telepathy. For decades, governments around the globehave investigated the possibility of using paranormal abilities as highly effective, covert weapons against their enemies - and even their friends. In 1945, the Nazis launched the first effort to develop psychic warriors. Soon after, the Soviets and the Americans began to conduct their own top-secret research programs, including the CIA’s notorious MKUltra mind control experiments, to develop paranormal operatives, the ultimate tool for undetectable surveillance.
Those real-life experiments inspired the riveting action-thriller Push, set in a deadly world of psychic espionage where the ability to move objects using only the mind, see the future, create new realities and kill without ever touching the victim can turn a person into lethal weapon - or a target. In Push, a young man and a teenage girl with extraordinary gifts take on a clandestine agency in a battle they can win only if they can change the future.
Starring Chris Evans (Fantastic Four), Dakota Fanning (War of the Worlds), Camilla Belle (When a Stranger Calls) and Academy Award nominee Djimon Hounsou (Blood Diamond), Push combines the bold visual style of director Paul McGuigan (Lucky Number Slevin) with heart-pounding special effects and an unforgettable story.
Push is produced by Bruce Davey (Braveheart), William Vince (Capote) and Glenn Williamson (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) from a script by David Bourla (Larceny). Executive producers are David Bourla, Michael Ohoven (The Devil’s Rejects), Gretchen Somerfeld (Careful What You Wish For), David Valleau (Shattered) and Stan Wlodkowski (In the Valley of Elah). Director of photography is Peter Sova (The Strangers). The editor is Nicolas Trembasiewicz (Unleashed). Nina Proctor (Grindhouse) and Laura Goldsmith (Clay Pigeons) are the costume designers. Production designer is François Séguin (Silk). Push is a co-production of Infinity Features, Icon Productions and Summit Entertainment, and was filmed on location in Hong Kong.
SYNOPSIS
A shadowy government agency known as the Division is rounding up psychics for experiments designed to boost their powers and assemble the most commanding army the world has ever seen. Unfortunately, almost no one has ever survived these trials. Nick Gant (Chris Evans), a second-generation telekinetic, or “mover,” has been in hiding since the Division murdered his father more than a decade earlier. He has found sanctuary in densely populated Hong Kong.
Nick is forced out of hiding when Cassie Holmes (Dakota Fanning), a 13-year-old clairvoyant, or “watcher,” seeks his help in locating a briefcase that she claims holds $6 million. To find it, they will also have to find Kira, (Camilla Belle), an escaped “pusher” who is the only person ever to live through the Division’s experiments. Pushers possess the most dangerous of all psychic powers: the ability to influence others’ actions by implanting thoughts in their minds. But Cassie’s presence soon attracts the attention of the Division’s human bloodhounds, forcing Nick and Cassie to flee for their lives.
With the help of a team of expatriates with an array of special abilities, the unlikely duo winds a path through the city’s most secret corners, trying to stay one step ahead of the authorities in their search for Kira. With Cassie’s visions guiding them, the pair moves closer to their goal, but finds themselves competing with a family of deadly psychics for the suitcase. Even more dangerous is Division Agent Henry Carver (Djimon Hounsou), a powerful pusher who needs both the contents of the case and Kira in order to create an unstoppable paranormal militia. Outgunned and outnumbered, Nick, Cassie, Kira and their allies must figure out a way to outsmart Carver if they are to prevent him from carrying out his sinister plan.
THE ABILITIES
Movers - Nick Gant (Chris Evans), a second-generation mover, can transport objects though space with his mind. From dice to guns to a foe’s body, a mover can remotely manipulate the physical world to his advantage.
Watchers - A watcher has the ability to see the future. Some, like Cassie Holmes (Dakota Fanning), produce detailed drawings of their visions. The problem for watchers is that the future can be changed by events both large and small, so they have to keep checking make sure their past visions are still accurate.
Pushers - Far more advanced than mere telepaths who communicate through thought, a Pusher can plant ideas so powerful in a subject’s mind that it is impossible to distinguish them from actual thoughts or memories. Both Kira (Camilla Belle) and Carver (Djimon Honsou) are pushers, the most feared and dangerous of the psychically gifted.
Stitches - A psychic healer like Stowe (Maggie Siff) can lay hands on a person and heal their wounds, but beware - cross a Stitch and he or she can return the patient to their injured state.
Sniffs - Like human bloodhounds, sniffs can track their quarry by scent, even if all they have to go on is a decade-old toothbrush. Feared by their fellow paranormals, sniffs are often used by the Division to hunt down its targets.
Shadows - Shadows like Pinky Stein (Nate Mooney) can use their minds to hide anything - from a renegade psychic to an entire skyscraper - from sniffs. But they can only shield people and objects temporarily from watchers.
Bleeders - Bleeders like the Pop boys possess the ability to shatter glass and blood vessels with the sound of their voices.
Shifts - A person with this skill never needs cash. A shift like Hook (Cliff Curtis) can transform the appearance of any object can at will. But there’s a hitch: the effect doesn’t last long.
Wipers - A wiper can erase any memory merely by laying hands on a subject. Nick and Kira turn to a local Chinese wiper to keep the watchers - who can predict future actions based on intentions - off their trails.
THE PRODUCTION
The premise of Push - a world in which ordinary people capable of astonishing acts are tested and controlled by a secretive government agency - stirred director Paul McGuigan’s curiosity and sent him to the Internet for more information. “I typed in ‘Psychic Powers Experiments,’” says McGuigan. “Out comes this amazing stuff. It’s 1949 and the Cold War is about to begin. People are starting to experiment on what the brain can do.”
McGuigan learned that in the years immediately following World War II, the idea of the use of psychics for information gathering began to take hold in government circles in the US and the Soviet Union.
“Think about it,” says Glenn Williamson, producer of Push and president of Back Lot Pictures. “You have someone who can truly see the future or manipulate the thoughts of others. It's a great counterintelligence asset.
“The movie is very much rooted in those real experiments,” notes Williamson. “The files are still pretty confidential, so I don't know how much of what really happened we will ever know. The darkest part was during Nazi Germany, but more recently, during the Cold War, both Soviet and American intelligence conducted experiments with people who appeared to have these abilities.”
In Push, a sinister government agency hunts down people with special abilities in an attempt to harness those powers for its own benefit. “The Division is the organization in charge of monitoring people with paranormal abilities,” says Williamson. “But they've taken things to the next level and try to control and manipulate them.”
The filmmakers believe the reality behind the movie’s story sets it apart from other films revolving around superheroes. “We wanted to tell a fantastical story in a way that makes it feel very real,” says McGuigan. “I liked the idea of bringing this whole world of people with extraordinary powers to life.
“But the film is not about supernatural powers,” he continues. “It’s about natural powers - things that people could actually do. For example, there are documented cases of people who do what they call ‘remote viewing.’ They would fly people over, say, the American Embassy and these people could get a sense of the building’s layout and they could tell you which room is used for what.”
With that knowledge, it became essential to McGuigan that the characters seemed to be real people in a real world. “I want people to be able to emotionally connect to it. We have all the big effects, but to me, that’s only a little bit of it. It is an action movie, but it’s much more based on the characterizations than action films usually are.”
Williamson adds: “There's a real story that revolves around Nick and how he turned his back on the world. Cassie is the character that gets him out of it and it becomes a real human relationship. It's a great ride, but it's filled with human connection, which I think the best movies have. It's filled with unexpected situations and real drama.”
One of the decisions McGuigan made that helped keep the focus on the film’s characters was to use CGI effects sparingly. “I didn’t want to do it in green screen or blue screen,” he says. “I wanted to do it for real, through the camera. You can learn a lot from the great filmmakers of the past. They didn’t have the benefit of CGI. They just used their imagination. In the end, the only thing on green screen is people driving, because the traffic in Hong Kong doesn’t move much.”
Chris Evans, who plays Nick Gant, a telekinetic hiding in Hong Kong, found the premise of the script fascinating. “When I first read it, I believed it all,” he says. “Paul and I went back and forth on a daily basis searching for a truth level for the movie. He kept reminding me that there has to be some suspension of belief and that it’s okay just to let the audience go for a ride with us.”
The filmmakers have created a world that closely resembles the one we all live in, but with a few new rules of its own. “There are a lot of great moments in the movie where you're just not sure what's going on,” according to Williamson. “Dakota Fanning’s character can see images of the future. Her images are critical to what is happening, but they aren’t crystal-clear and they may be unreliable, like memories.
“That idea helped us show the limits of what people can and can't do,” the producer says. “One reason we go to movies is that they take us into a world that's different from our own, whether it's a complete fantasy or slightly enhanced reality. We want the world of Push to be our world, but with a heightened visual style. So it's our world, but not our world.”
The film’s young star Dakota Fanning characterizes Push as an action film, but also says, “It's so much of a personal story. I hope people think it's really fun. It's very action-packed and fast-moving, and the visual part of it is amazing.
Her co-star Evans adds, “We're not sending any deep messages. This is a pure entertainment film, like a lot of my favorite movies. It has a great script, great action and great characters, so it’s fun all around.”
THE CAST
Push gives its four leading actors an extraordinary opportunity to step out of their comfort zones and into roles unlike any audiences have seen them in before. For example, Dakota Fanning transitions from child star to a full-fledged teenage actress. Djimon Hounsou portrays his first villain and, instead of a damsel in distress, Camilla Belle plays a lethal weapon.
Chris Evans, who plays Nick Gant, found himself on a complex emotional journey. “Nick has had a lot of people whom he loved leave him for reasons he can't answer. And that has led him to build walls. “There are lot of surprise turns and twists in the story,” Evans adds. “It's like a page-turner. Some people are clairvoyant. Some people are can transform the appearance of everyday objects. Nick is a mover, which is a telekinetic.”
McGuigan had seen Evans in the award-winning sci-fi film Sunshine. “I was so impressed by his commitment to that part,” he says. “And I liked his realness. Even though he’s a good-looking guy, he still feels very real to me.”
“Chris has exactly what the part needed,” says Williamson. “Nick is an appealing, vulnerable character, which is very different from the character in the Fantastic Four movies he’s starred in previously. He had to play the layers of this character, as he learns to embrace his destiny.
“Chris also brought a real physicality to the part, which is great, because even though this movie is very much about the characters, there’s always violence around the edges. He not only embraced the physical part, he had the time of his life. Our stuntman was actually a little frustrated, because he didn’t get to do as much as he rehearsed for.”
Dakota Fanning plays Cassie, a watcher, or clairvoyant. At the age of 14, Fanning has delivered more remarkable performances than many actors do in a lifetime. Playing opposite Academy Award-winners including Robert De Niro (Hide and Seek), Denzel Washington (Man on Fire), Sean Penn (I Am Sam) and Reese Witherspoon (Sweet Home Alabama), Fanning has been Hollywood’s go-to child star for half her life. In Push, she takes on a more mature role. “There isn’t a 14-year-old more perfect to play Cassie,” says Williamson. “Dakota is definitely a teenager now. There has been a physical transformation. You've never seen her like this before.”
McGuigan sees the film as a chance for Fanning to grow up finally in the eyes of both the audience and the industry. “She’s still the sweet little girl from War of the Worlds to a lot of people. It’s her time to go through her 14-year-old phase, where she gets to be a bit badly behaved.”
The actress particularly enjoyed her character’s irreverence and edge. “She's very sarcastic and she has these funny lines in the movie,” says Fanning. “It’s stuff that I would never really say in real life, so it’s fun. She just thinks mostly about herself, but during this movie she learns to let other people in.”