How Hong Kong setting gave Chris Evans superhero movie Push a real feel a world away from the Marvel films he would go on to star in as Captain America

Before he became a household name playing Captain America in Marvel movies, Chris Evans starred in Push, a 2009 film set in Hong Kong about psychic warriors

Although not a huge hit, it stands apart from The Avengers and other superhero films in its authenticity, achieved by harnessing the unique energy of the city

Reading Time:3 minutes

Chris Evans and Dakota Fanning in a still from “Push”. The movie harnessed the energy of Hong Kong, where it was set, to make for a superhero that feels more real than those of the Marvel films Evans would go on to star in. Photo: Hirotake Okazaki/Summit Entertainment.

Published: 7:15am, 4 Aug 2023

Before Hollywood actor Chris Evans was cast in Captain America: The First Avenger (2011), beginning the run of Marvel films that made him a household name and raked in billions at the box office, he tried a lot of different comic-book roles for size.

The most famous was Johnny Storm/The Human Torch in the less-than-fantastic Fantastic Four (2005) and its 2007 sequel. But he also appeared in TMNT (2007), The Losers (2010) and Scott Pilgrim vs The World (2010).

One of the better efforts was Push, a 2009 superhero movie set and shot in Hong Kong. Though it’s no Avengers, and it borrows liberally from its more famous brethren, it’s one of those movies that gets better with age because it has an intriguing indie sensibility.

The plot is based around an alternative history that X-Men fans might recognise. Experiments conducted by the Nazis during World War II have created a series of psychic warriors, called pushers (telepaths), movers (telekinetics), watchers (precognitives) and so on, and they’re wanted by the evil Division.

The film also has an alternative history of its own. Director Paul McGuigan (Lucky Number Slevin) had been working on a movie based on Marvel’s Deathlok character, which might have co-starred Tony Stark himself, Robert Downey Jnr, and changed the course of the Marvel Cinematic Universe as we know it.