Can social pressure be used to convince someone to push a human being to their death? Well, one man is going to try and find out.
Derren Brown is a psychological illusionist who is going to try to answer that very question in the Netflix special Derren Brown: The Push. This deep dive into social compliance and obedience is an attempt to expose what Brown believes is our natural instinct to obey when confronted with authority. Using an elaborate web of lies and 70 actors who have trained for the scenario, Brown will test a man named Chris, who is unaware he is being filmed, by attempting to pressure him into killing a man.
In the first of his Netflix specials, Brown puts Chris in a situation where a millionaire at an auction has heart attack at Chris’ feet. From there an increasing amount of pressure is put on the unsuspecting man that this millionaire has got to go. At one point in the trailer an actor says to Chris “He’s a millionaire. He’s going to make sure you go to jail.”
In addition to The Push, Brown will two other specials coming to Netflix. Miracle, which like The Push, previously aired in the UK, is a television adaptation of his stage show and has religious influences. The other will be an all-new special.
While this is Brown’s U.S. television debut, he has been quite successful in the UK. He has been using his skills as mentalist and illusionist to test the public since 2000 on various television programs.
The Push premieres on February 27 on Netflix.
