Push Movie Review Summary

In a hospital, Carver watches as they inject a drug into a woman named Kira (played by Camilla Belle). She appears to die. After they assume she is dead, she comes back to life and escapes from the hospital. Carver tells the other man to do whatever it takes to get her back, as she is the first one, of hundreds of attempts, to survive the drug. The man says she will not get far on foot. Carver says, since she is a "Pusher", she can use anyone she sees (Pushers have the ability to hypnotize anyone to believe anything, if they can look directly into their eyes).

Nick is now a grown man, living in a run-down apartment in Hong Kong. He tries to perfect his skills in telekinesis (a skill they call being a "Mover") so he can win at a street dice game. However, his skills are not strong enough and he loses a lot of money in the game using credit to play. He owes a lot of gambling debts. He gets away from the street thug that wants to beat him. He gets back to his apartment. Two agents from Division, Mack (played by Corey Stoll), and Holden (played by Scott Michael Campbell barge in on him. They are "Sniffers" which means anything they touch or smell gives them the history of where it has been and who has touched it, as well as where they are in the present moment. They found Nick by using a ten-year old toothbrush he used as a child. They are looking for someone (Kira) but won't tell him who or why. They leave when they find no evidence that she has been there.

Nick goes to the market. He meets Cassie Holmes (played by Dakota Fanning). She is a "Watcher" which means she gets visions of the future that she draws in a notebook. Her mother was a Watcher also, the best one ever. So she is a second generation psychic like Nick. Cassie's mom is being held, sedated, in a mental hospital by the Division because they are afraid of her. Cassie shows Nick a drawing of a case she says is worth $6 million. She says they are going to find it together, so all of Nick's money troubles will be over. While they are talking, the Chinese mafia attacks them. There is another Watcher with them, a Chinese woman named Pop Girl (played by Xiaolu Li), and her two brothers that are "Bleeders" with the ability to make deafening high-pitched sounds that break glass and kill humans, making them bleed from their ears. They chase Nick down. The market becomes full of broken glass from gigantic fish tanks that explode. Cassie gets away. They are about to kill Nick when, Pop Girl tells them to stop, not to kill him, because she sees that would change the future. They won't find the case unless they leave him alive. They leave him near dead instead.

Nick is lying unconscious on a table in the back room of a temple. Cassie gets a "Stitcher" named Teresa (played by Maggie Siff) to put him back together. A Stitcher can heal any broken bones or wounds in a few moments. Cassie tells Nick their real mission is to get that case because it contains something powerful enough to destroy the Division.

Kira wakes up on a boat in the Hong Kong harbor. She is with an old Chinese man who says nothing. She cannot remember how she got there. He is a "Wiper" with the ability to erase exact portions of a person's memory. Kira had him erase a portion of her memory so it will be harder for the Division to find her. Before the memory wipe, she wrote Nick and the number 4100 on the mirror with her lipstick. She writes Nick again and the handwriting matches so she knows to go look for him. The two Sniffer agents from Division catch Kira. They try to take her to Division in their car. She convinces them to stop to let her go to the restroom. Inside the restroom, she uses her skills as a Pusher (one that can hypnotize others) to make one agent think the other one killed his brother, and make him go out of the restroom and shoot him. Then Kira escapes stealing their car. Later the agent who lost Kira is told to shoot himself by his boss Carver who is also a Pusher. The agent kills himself satisfying the boss for his mistake in letting Kira go.

Cassie shows Nick a drawing of a nightclub that has a bead in the drawing. Nick recognizes the club. They go there. They meet one of Nick's friends Hook (played by Cliff Curtis). He is a "Shifter" who has the ability to change the shapes and look of any material things into something else. He gives them the name of Emily (played by Ming-Na Wen) who is a Sniffer. Emily tells Nick where to find the woman who is the key to locating the case. They go there. When Kira sees Nick, at first she shoots at him thinking he is from Division. He is surprised to see Kira. They used to be in love. She is mad at him for not coming to save her in the hospital. He thought she was dead. Nick, Kira, and Cassie team up. Nick hires Pinky (played by Nate Mooney) who is a "Shadow" with the ability to hide people and things from everyone except Watchers who see the future. He hides Kira by staying close to her. They stay in a room over night but Kira starts to get sick. She needs more of the drug they injected her with to avoid death. When Cassie realizes that Pop Girl has figured out where they are, they leave just before Pop Girl gets there. They decide it would be safer to split up.

Nick goes looking for Carver. Nick finds him, gets the drop on him using his Mover powers to put a gun to his head, but does not kill him when he is told that the only way Kira will stay alive is by taking more of the drug and Carver is the only one that has any sure supply of the drug. Nick let's him goes and is almost beaten to death by another Mover until Cassie tells them that if they kill Nick they will never find Kira, so they let him go.

Nick figures out the case containing the drug is in a building that is being Shadowed. This is why no one else has found it yet. He makes a plan to thwart the efforts of Pop Girl to see what they do in the future. He writes letters to each one, telling them what to do and when to open it. He gives them all their instructions including Kira. He tells Kira open your envelope, when you start to doubt. Then he goes to have his memory erased so no one knows the plan including himself, only when they each open the envelopes right before they do something is when the plan exists. Pop Girl is infuriated when suddenly she no longer sees the future.

Pinky takes Kira to Carver. He turns her in because she is sick. Hook goes to the building where the case is hidden. He uses a piece of paper he changes into an ID to get past the security guard.

He tells the old woman shadowing the building that her job is now done. He retrieves the case. He makes an exact duplicate. Cassie takes the real case and goes off with it. Cassie lures Pop Girl to follow her to the place that Pop Girl saw before where she thinks Cassie will be killed, but the future has been changed and Pop Girl gets her memory wiped instead.

Nick wakes up after his memory wipe, opens his envelope, which tells him to go home. At his apartment, he sees the case. Teresa tries to steal it from him, but the Bleeders from the Chinese Mafia gang take it instead. This is a fake case made by Hook. Hook has made more than one fake case. Because the Shifter effects are temporary, it turns back into a bottle of soy sauce. This makes the mafia boss take all his men to the building, that is no longer shadowed, where they think the real case is located.

Kira is now much better and much stronger because she has gotten more of the drug. Carver uses his Push skills to convince Kira that she is actually a Division agent, his partner, and that she never knew Nick. She begins helping Carver and they go to the building as well to look for the missing case.

There is a massive fight between the Division people and the Chinese Mafia. They find a case in the locker where Hook originally found the real one. Nick gets the fake case and injects himself with the drug, which appears to kill him. They leave him for dead now that there is no more of the drug to worry about falling into the wrong hands. Later, Cassie wakes him. She takes him out of the building and pulls the real case out of the dumpster. They make plans to trade the drug for Cassie's mother.

On a private jet, Carver is asleep. Kira thinks about Nick. She finds the envelope Nick gave her. She opens it to see a photo of the two of them. Her memory comes back. She Pushes Carver to kill himself, which he does.

Best part of story, including ending: It is interesting to see how there are different kinds of psychic super powers and how they are used is very clever.

Best scene in story: I like the scene when Cassie thinks she may be facing her own death but Pop Girl gets her memory wiped instead, because we are rooting for Cassie all through the movie.

Opinion about the main character: His plan to hide the future by using letters to all the others is ingenious.