'The Push' Trailer: A Netflix Special About Convincing Someone To Commit Murder

There's a new special coming to Netflix that's literally about tricking a man into committing murder. It's called The Push, and it hails from a "psychological illusionist" from the UK named Derren Brown. Brown is one of the world's greatest mentalists, and he's been making shows in the United Kingdom for years, but this is his first American special – imagine Punk'd, but instead of making it look like Justin Timberlake's assets are being hauled away, it's convincing some poor sap to murder a guy.

Check out The Push trailer below.

I'm always highly suspicious of hidden camera projects, and there's something about this that feels – as /Film's Chris Evangelista put it in our team Slack channel – "needlessly cruel." It's the same concept as the strip search phone call scam that inspired the 2012 movie Compliance: a psychological experiment to just see how far a regular person would go when faced with orders from a person in authority. (There are vague hints of the Stanford prison experiment, too.)

I suppose there's value in watching someone else make bad decisions based on social pressure; perhaps physically seeing someone endure something like that will make others think more critically about their decisions in the future. But imagine being the unwitting subject of this special. Yikes.

Here's The Push's official synopsis:

Psychological Illusionist Derren Brown makes his much-anticipated US debut with the groundbreaking special The Push, which premieres on Netflix February 27. In The Push, Brown exposes the psychological secrets of obedience and social compliance. He expertly lifts the lid on the terrifying truth that, when confronted with authority, our natural instinct is to unflinchingly obey without question – to such an extent that even the most moral people can be made to commit the most horrendous acts, simply because they are told to do so.

It's also worth noting that it appears this special has already aired in the UK – or at least a version did that had the same premise. If you're interested in seeing more, you can watch a spoiler-filled video of Brown confronting contestants after they make their decision. I won't embed it because the title may spoil something for you, but you can check it out on YouTube right here.

If you're looking for more of Brown's twisted set-ups, be sure to check out The Apocalypse, a scenario in which he essentially convinces a guy that he woke up during a zombie outbreak:

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The Push will be available to stream on Netflix on February 27, 2018.