It’s hard to think about Chris Evans and not think about him as a Marvel star. The actor is of course well-known for playing Steve Rogers/Captain America in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and before that he made a mark as Johnny Storm/Human Torch in the Fantastic Four films. But while those might be Evans’ best-known superhero roles, they aren’t his only ones. Between his time as Human Torch and his debut as Captain America, Evans played a very different sort of hero in a superhero movie that has been almost completely forgotten — but it’s available to stream for free this month on Plex.
Released in 2009, Push is a little unusual in terms of superhero movies in that it isn’t based on a comic book or any existing IP. Instead, Push follows a group of people, each with superhuman abilities, who come together in order to take down a government agency that wants to create an army of super soldiers by using a dangerous drug to enhance their powers. Evans plays Nick, a Mover — someone with telekinetic powers — who saw his father killed by an agent as a child and ends up protecting a young girl (Dakota Fanning) who has telekinetic powers that the government wants to use for ill. It’s streaming for free on Plex this month.
Push Is a Surprisingly Underrated Superhero Movie
Push didn’t exactly fare well when it was first released. The film barely made back its production budget at the box office and it was widely panned by critics, sitting at a 23% on Rotten Tomatoes. The biggest critical complaint was that the film’s story was convoluted and hard to follow. However, in retrospect Push is actually a lot better than it was initially given credit for. One of the things about Push that is unique is that all of the superpowers portrayed in the film are psychic. This isn’t a film where you have big muscular heroes that have super strength running around punching things or hurling them great distances. Instead, the powered characters of Push outwardly seem very normal they can just do things with their minds. There’s the telekinetic “movers”, “pushers” who can put thoughts in people’s minds, “shadows” that block or mute abilities, “bleeders” that use sound waves to create damage-causing vibrations, “shifters” that cast illusions, “watchers” with powers of precognition, and many more.
These more internal powers changes the perception of what it means to be superpowered and also gives Push a different visual sense than one might expect. It’s one thing to depict physical powers on screen but powers of the mind require different effects which makes Push very visually striking. The film also has a surprisingly well-established set of rules for how powers do and do not work within its universe. The worldbuilding for the film is unlike anything we’d really seen before and still stands out as very different from most superhero fare today. This careful worldbuilding also gives one the sense that there are many more stories that could be told and the one we’re getting with Push is just a small fragment of things. This also gives the film a very intimate, personal scale to it because, while there is the government agency aspect of it, Push is ultimately a much more constrained story. It’s very well-done and definitely worth checking out — especially ahead of Evans’ MCU return.
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