“Push” Movie Trailer - Didn’t this used to be a TV series called “Heroes”?
Over the last few weeks, you may have seen the trailer for the upcoming movie Push in front of other films at the cinema. It is also available online here or embedded below. My initial reaction was, “Hey, this looks cool, but I liked it better the first time I saw it, when it was called Heroes.”
Now, I’ll be the first to admit, Heroes is by no means an original concept, it borrows heavily from comic book source material, not the least of which is the popular X-Men series, but the list of similarities between Heroes and the trailer for Push is utterly ridiculous. Has Heroes creator Tim Kring seen this trailer? Let’s take a “short list” approach and look at some of the “incredible” plot coincidences.
Similarity 1
Heroes: Certain seemingly “ordinary” people discover that they have extraordinary abilities similar to those of fictional “superheroes.” Examples: some people can move objects with their mind, some can see into the future, some can push their thoughts into other people’s minds.
Push: Certain seemingly “ordinary” people discover that they have extraordinary abilities similar to those of fictional “superheroes.” Examples: some people can move objects with their mind, some can see into the future, some can push their thoughts into other people’s minds.
Similarity 2
Heroes: There a secret organization trained to track down these people with “abilities.” This organization is called “The Company.”
Push: There a secret organization trained to track down these people with “abilities.” This organization is called “Division.”
Similarity 3
Heroes: One character that can see the future manifests his ability by painting images of future events. Some of these images are disturbing and predict the death of some of the characters in the program, including his own. Characters predicted to die make it part of their mission to change the future and avoid their own death.
Push: One character that can see the future manifests her ability by drawing images of future events. Some of these images are disturbing and predict the death of some of the characters in the movie, including her own. Characters predicted to die make it part of their mission to change the future and avoid their own death.
Similarity 4
Heroes: One character has a psychic ability to injure or kill others with her mind. When she uses that ability her eyes become glazed over pitch black.
Push: One character has a psychic ability that is unclear in the context of the trailer, but when he uses that ability his eyes become glazed over pitch black.
Similarity 5
Heroes: Many of the action/conflict scenes center around the telekinetic manipulation of objects and people including much use of characters in violent confrontations pushing, manipulating and harming people by violently assaulting them with mind power
Push: Many of the action/conflict scenes center around the telekinetic manipulation of objects and people including much use of characters in violent confrontations pushing, manipulating and harming people by violently assaulting them with mind power
Similarity 6
Heroes: One character has powerful abilities to cause chaos and destruction sonically with the pitch of his voice (from the HEROES webisodes)
Push: One character has supersonic abilities to cause chaos and destruction sonically with the pitch of his voice
Similarity 7
Heroes: In Season 1, one character uses his abilities to to win at gambling.
Push: In the trailer, one character uses his abilities to to win at gambling.
Similarity 8
Heroes: A major season 3 standoff includes one character facing down another with a gun, telekinetic manipulation of the gun/bullet is vital to the outcome of the standoff.
Push: A standoff in the Push trailer includes one character facing down another with a gun, telekinetic manipulation of the gun is a factor in the standoff.
Okay, I’m not making the accusation that Push was a direct lift of Heroes. A 2-minute trailer certainly isn’t enough to see this in context. Hell, for all I know, the script for Push may have been floating around Hollywood for 15 years and Tim Kring may have read it a decade ago and lifted Heroes from THAT. But still, when it comes down to “astounding” similarities, this is a bit of an eyebrow raiser. If you watch Heroes, what do you think?
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7 Responses to ““Push” Movie Trailer - Didn’t this used to be a TV series called “Heroes”?”
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December 31st, 2008 at 8:42 am
Woah, woah, woah… You’re saying someone in Hollywood saw a successful formula, then copied it in a derivative knockoff to make money for themselves? No way!
December 31st, 2008 at 9:43 am
All right smart ass. “borrowing” a formula is what I considered Heroes did from X-men. I thought there were at least a couple of “similarities” here that went beyond paying “homage” to heroes and tantamount to taking the script and changing the names. Of course, in the grand scheme of things, Heroes will probably get the axe before this movie releases anyway. Far be it from me to get pissy with a filmmaker that wants to copy a television show that has progressively degraded into rooster shit over the last year or so.
The killer for me was this whole, “character paints the future” business. It’s like the screenwriter fell asleep watching the season 1 DVD box set of Heroes and woke up the next day and wrote the script.
January 5th, 2009 at 1:57 pm
I have to admit this is exactly what I thought of when I first saw this trailer. I was thinking of Serenity and Firefly since the only thing I know about Heroes is what Scuzz puts on this site and “OMG SAV()R THE CHEERLEADERZZ.”
Making me think of the Go-Bots here.
January 9th, 2009 at 9:59 pm
ah, but whos to say that any of it was stolen from any one? fact is there is plenty of creativitiy out there, it’s possible that 2 people from opposite sides could come up with similar ideas.
January 10th, 2009 at 10:01 pm
The sticking point for me on this was that third one I listed. It’s one thing to have similar themes and concepts, but when you heap one similarity THAT specific on top of it that’s just a bit much. Now, just to back up and say that it’s certainly likely that two different people developed extremely similar stories independently down to something so specific as that whole “painter/artist” that draws the future thingy, However, HEROES has been on for several years now. At SOME point during the development of PUSH don’t you think someone should have at least considered that “hey, we’ve developed a script here that ends up being strikingly similar to a popular TV series right now down to some specific details” and then at that point consider that they should rework it a little.
Like I said in the article, I’m not really accusing anyone of anything (…if it hadn’t been for that, I wouldn’t even have raised an eyebrow (I probably would just said…ahhhh…ANOTHER X-men knockoff like Heroes if it handn’t been for the paint the future bit.) , but ultimately it’s still a bit much. If nothing else, it certainly is interesting discussion. I got nuthin better to do this weekend.
Thanks for reading!
Scuzz
January 23rd, 2009 at 4:28 am
When I saw the Trailer for this movie, I being a heroes fan, was upset. This is a blatant rip off of Heroes in every facet; I noticed everything u pointed out, down to the blackening of the eyes (Mya) - Heroes is similar to X-men, but is a totally different story with ‘messages’ mixed in with thought provoking ideas, all based in the real world we’re in today - where as X-men often seems to be taking place in an Alternate Universe - where most of the people Know they’re “mutants” at a very young age - and Non-Mutants know about them too.
Heroes in a way seems to be what happens, “before” X-men - where as they are trying to keep the ’secret’ about their abilities a Secret; it’s before everyone finds out … so far at least…(nate did give that folder to, the president …) but I digress.
This movie looks like Crap.
I hope fans of Heroes speak up and persuade people not to see this movie.
Crap
January 23rd, 2009 at 8:30 am
Thanks for the comments. I think I may have to see and review Push for the site. I’ll try to be fair. Check the site the weekend it comes out. I’ve been surprised that even on some Heroes forums that a lot of people aren’t really making more of a deal about it.