# Pusher (film series)
**Pusher** is a Danish crime film trilogy directed by [Nicolas Winding Refn](https://www.edgepedia.org/nicolas-winding-refn), consisting of *Pusher* (1996), *With Blood on My Hands: Pusher II* (2004), and *I'm the Angel of Death: Pusher III* (2005). The films chronicle criminals in the Copenhagen underworld, with each installment shifting perspective to a different character from the original film: the dealer Frank, the small-time crook Tonny, and the Serbian drug lord Milo.[1](https://europeanscreen.com/titles/pusher/) • [2](https://www.magpictures.com/profile.aspx?id=21a5d9cf-7b7d-4765-9bc2-eb7918042695)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Films | *Pusher* (1996), *Pusher II: With Blood on My Hands* (2004), *Pusher III: I'm the Angel of Death* (2005)[1](https://europeanscreen.com/titles/pusher/) |
| Director | Nicolas Winding Refn, for whom *Pusher* was his feature debut[3](https://www.dfi.dk/sites/default/files/docs/2018-02/dfi_FILM_cannes_2013_low_res_spread%20%281%29.pdf) |
| First film's opening | Premiered in Denmark on 30 August 1996; running time 1 hour 45 minutes[4](https://www.danskefilm.dk/film.php?id=689) • [5](https://filmdatabasen.dk/film/pusher-1996/) |
| Principal cast | Kim Bodnia (Frank), Mads Mikkelsen (Tonny), Zlatko Burić (Milo), Laura Drasbæk (Vic), Slavko Labovic (Radovan)[2](https://www.magpictures.com/profile.aspx?id=21a5d9cf-7b7d-4765-9bc2-eb7918042695) |
| Structure | Each sequel centers on a supporting character from the first film, Tonny and Milo respectively[1](https://europeanscreen.com/titles/pusher/) |
| International premiere | The completed trilogy premiered at the Toronto Film Festival in 2005[6](https://cdn-media.festival-cannes.com/film_film/0002/27/bdcfd7a2739eaf2ffbc3b5690e351acc008bc787.pdf) |
| Remake | A British remake was released in 2012, produced by Refn[7](https://sightlines.media/film/2061/pusher-1996/reception) |
## The first film
*Pusher* was Refn's first feature. He had been accepted to the National Film School of Denmark but left to make the film when funding came through; in an interview with Netflix's Tudum he recalled receiving what he called the equivalent of $800,000 to make a movie after a phone call with the Danish Film Institute.[3](https://www.dfi.dk/sites/default/files/docs/2018-02/dfi_FILM_cannes_2013_low_res_spread%20%281%29.pdf) • [8](https://www.netflix.com/tudum/articles/nicolas-winding-refn-copenhagen-cowboy) A French account in *Le Monde* adds that the diffusion of a short film titled *The Pusher* on a Danish television channel is said to have prompted producers to invite the young director to expand it into a feature, and that Refn partly financed the film himself.[9](https://www.lemonde.fr/cinema/article/2025/07/09/la-trilogie-pusher-chronique-criminelle-de-nicolas-winding-refn_6620188_3476.html)
The film follows Frank ([Kim Bodnia](https://www.edgepedia.org/kim-bodnia)), a pusher in the Vesterbro district of Copenhagen who works for the drug lord Milo (Zlatko Burić) and plunges into crisis when Milo demands repayment of a large debt.[5](https://filmdatabasen.dk/film/pusher-1996/) • [4](https://www.danskefilm.dk/film.php?id=689) It was shot on handheld 16 mm in the neighborhoods around Vesterbro, largely without permits, with locations used as found and the cast encouraged to inhabit rather than perform their roles.[1](https://europeanscreen.com/titles/pusher/) The film became a domestic hit and a cult item, and it marked the feature debut of [Mads Mikkelsen](https://www.edgepedia.org/mads-mikkelsen), cast as the shaven-headed sidekick Tonny; Refn later built an entire sequel around the character.[7](https://sightlines.media/film/2061/pusher-1996/reception) • [3](https://www.dfi.dk/sites/default/files/docs/2018-02/dfi_FILM_cannes_2013_low_res_spread%20%281%29.pdf)
## The sequels
Refn did not return to the Pusher world for nearly a decade, and the sequels have a documented financial origin. His English-language thriller *Fear X* (2003) failed at the box office and his production company went bankrupt; he made *[Pusher II](https://www.edgepedia.org/pusher-ii)* and *Pusher III* afterward, in the words of one account, to pay off his debts, a saga captured in Phie Ambo's 2006 documentary *Gambler*.[10](https://sightlines.media/film/11328/pusher-ii-2004/reception) • [11](https://www.danskefilm.dk/skuespiller.php?id=7030) *Le Monde* likewise reports that Refn turned to two sequels after the heavy failure of *Fear X* left him broke.[9](https://www.lemonde.fr/cinema/article/2025/07/09/la-trilogie-pusher-chronique-criminelle-de-nicolas-winding-refn_6620188_3476.html)
**Pusher II: With Blood on My Hands** (2004) shifts the spotlight to Tonny (Mads Mikkelsen), a man newly released from jail who learns he is a father and owes money to his father, Copenhagen's most brutal gangster.[12](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/44418/) The film was released in Denmark on 25 December 2004, in the United Kingdom on 16 September 2005, and in France on 26 July 2006.[12](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/44418/)
**Pusher III: I'm the Angel of Death** (2005) takes place over the course of a single day, with the middle-aged Milo struggling to prepare his daughter's 25th birthday party while fighting a heroin addiction he is trying to kick. His position is threatened when a shipment of ecstasy arrives in place of the heroin he expected, and by a younger Albanian immigrant gang moving in on his territory in the Copenhagen underworld.[2](https://www.magpictures.com/profile.aspx?id=21a5d9cf-7b7d-4765-9bc2-eb7918042695) • [13](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/44422/) The film's Serbian-Danish milieu and bilingual dialogue make it, in one analysis, a portrait of a multicultural Denmark not often centered in the national cinema of its time.[14](https://sightlines.media/film/11330/pusher-3-2005)
The completed trilogy premiered at the Toronto Film Festival in 2005.[6](https://cdn-media.festival-cannes.com/film_film/0002/27/bdcfd7a2739eaf2ffbc3b5690e351acc008bc787.pdf)
## Style and influences
Refn has named Martin Scorsese's *Mean Streets* (1973) as a model for transplanting American-style gangster cinema to Copenhagen, and the raw, handheld, actor-driven realism of [John Cassavetes](https://www.edgepedia.org/john-cassavetes) as a touchstone for the film's documentary-like style.[7](https://sightlines.media/film/2061/pusher-1996/reception) *Le Monde* describes the method as quasi-documentary: light cameras carried on the shoulder, choppy editing, and permanent tension, applied to a world of shabby dealers, addicts, and gangsters.[9](https://www.lemonde.fr/cinema/article/2025/07/09/la-trilogie-pusher-chronique-criminelle-de-nicolas-winding-refn_6620188_3476.html) The Danish Film Institute credits the first film with marking a new departure in Danish cinema through its genre-consciousness, raw realism, handheld camera, and gritty images.[3](https://www.dfi.dk/sites/default/files/docs/2018-02/dfi_FILM_cannes_2013_low_res_spread%20%281%29.pdf)
The three films share a common suspense structure: each protagonist must escape reprisals by repaying a debt to dangerous criminals, and each sinks through a spiral of bad choices. *Le Monde* identifies family as the trilogy's other curse, with *Pusher II* depicting a monstrous father destroying a son and *Pusher III* showing how Milo's relationship with his daughter wrecks his life.[9](https://www.lemonde.fr/cinema/article/2025/07/09/la-trilogie-pusher-chronique-criminelle-de-nicolas-winding-refn_6620188_3476.html)
## Reception and legacy
*Pusher* was a domestic hit in 1996 but traveled slowly abroad, first as a video-store cult item; it is now regarded as one of the notable crime debuts of its era and the founding text of the Refn cult.[7](https://sightlines.media/film/2061/pusher-1996/reception) Within Nordic film scholarship, the film is described as part of the Danish new wave that Dogme helped catalyze while remaining resistant to that movement's ideological framework, and as a founding document of a specifically Danish urban crime aesthetic whose influence on later Scandinavian crime drama and [Nordic noir](https://www.edgepedia.org/nordic-noir) is real even if the lines of transmission are diffuse.[15](https://sightlines.media/film/2061/pusher-1996) A scholarly chapter on Refn argues that *Pusher* was a local box-office success that helped usher in the era of the Nordic crime film.[16](https://academic.oup.com/edinburgh-scholarship-online/book/41648/chapter-abstract/353650403)
The sequels were barely seen outside Denmark on release and gained a second life after *Drive* (2011) raised Refn's international profile and *Casino Royale* (2006) brought Mikkelsen international recognition; many viewers now call *Pusher II* the peak of the trilogy, though the debate over whether the raw original or the second film is stronger is a perennial one among fans.[10](https://sightlines.media/film/11328/pusher-ii-2004/reception) • [7](https://sightlines.media/film/2061/pusher-1996/reception) • [18](https://www.iffr.com/en/iffr/2021/events/big-talk-mads-mikkelsen) The trilogy introduced international audiences to Mikkelsen and to Zlatko Burić, whose genial drug lord Milo became the trilogy's beloved constant across all three films.[8](https://www.netflix.com/tudum/articles/nicolas-winding-refn-copenhagen-cowboy) • [7](https://sightlines.media/film/2061/pusher-1996/reception) The 2012 British remake, produced by Refn, is generally judged to have shown that the original's grime could not be transplanted.[7](https://sightlines.media/film/2061/pusher-1996/reception) Refn later pitched his 2023 Netflix series *[Copenhagen Cowboy](https://www.edgepedia.org/copenhagen-cowboy)* as an extension of the Pusher trilogy, and it was his first Danish production since 2005.[17](https://www.jstor.org/stable/jj.13524443)
## References
1. [Pusher, European Screen](https://europeanscreen.com/titles/pusher/)
2. [The Pusher Trilogy, Magnolia Pictures](https://www.magpictures.com/profile.aspx?id=21a5d9cf-7b7d-4765-9bc2-eb7918042695)
3. [Profile: Nicolas Winding Refn, Danish Film Institute (Cannes 2013)](https://www.dfi.dk/sites/default/files/docs/2018-02/dfi_FILM_cannes_2013_low_res_spread%20%281%29.pdf)
4. [Pusher (1996), danskefilm.dk](https://www.danskefilm.dk/film.php?id=689)
5. [Pusher (1996), Filmdatabasen.dk](https://filmdatabasen.dk/film/pusher-1996/)
6. [About the Filmmakers, Festival de Cannes press kit](https://cdn-media.festival-cannes.com/film_film/0002/27/bdcfd7a2739eaf2ffbc3b5690e351acc008bc787.pdf)
7. [How Pusher (1996) was received, Sightlines](https://sightlines.media/film/2061/pusher-1996/reception)
8. [Nicolas Winding Refn interview, Netflix Tudum](https://www.netflix.com/tudum/articles/nicolas-winding-refn-copenhagen-cowboy)
9. [La trilogie « Pusher », chronique criminelle de Nicolas Winding Refn, Le Monde](https://www.lemonde.fr/cinema/article/2025/07/09/la-trilogie-pusher-chronique-criminelle-de-nicolas-winding-refn_6620188_3476.html)
10. [Pusher II (2004): reception, legacy & influences, Sightlines](https://sightlines.media/film/11328/pusher-ii-2004/reception)
11. [Nicolas Winding Refn, dansk film database](https://www.danskefilm.dk/skuespiller.php?id=7030)
12. [With Blood on My Hands – Pusher II, Cineuropa](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/44418/)
13. [I'm the Angel of Death – Pusher III, Cineuropa](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/44422/)
14. [Pusher 3 (2005), Sightlines](https://sightlines.media/film/11330/pusher-3-2005)
15. [Pusher (1996): analysis and influences, Sightlines](https://sightlines.media/film/2061/pusher-1996)
16. [Criminal Undertakings: Nicolas Winding Refn, European Film Aesthetics, and Hollywood Genre Cinema, Oxford Academic](https://academic.oup.com/edinburgh-scholarship-online/book/41648/chapter-abstract/353650403)
17. [The Films of Nicolas Winding Refn: Genre, Gender, Glamour, JSTOR](https://www.jstor.org/stable/jj.13524443)
18. [Big Talk Mads Mikkelsen, iffr.com](https://www.iffr.com/en/iffr/2021/events/big-talk-mads-mikkelsen)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Franchise and series entries as standalone works › Action, thriller, and crime series film entries › Entries released in the 1990s*
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