Cube (Pacific Rim?!)

[Admiral X]

Basically...Chuck is looking at this through the eyes of a Libertarian.

As a libertarian, I'm more likely to believe in malevolence on the part of the government rather than just "bureaucracy." So I very much agree with your assessment of the making of the cube and putting people into it, and the kind of people they put into it. The concept of this thing reminds me very much of unethical experiments that were conducted by both the US and Canadian governments. The Tuskegee experiment and MK Ultra come to mind.

[TheStarWarsTrek]

Cube is implicitly set in a more technologically advanced world than our own. While you could maybe, theoretically build the Cube using 1997 technology, it seems like a bit of a stretch (especially since it seems to have been built by the Canadian government, not one of the world's financial and technological superpowers).

As for the kidnappings, it's explicitly said that this was done because, otherwise, everyone would have to admit that building the Cube had been a complete waste of time and money. So, yes, at some point someone had to make the decision to put people in the Cube, and someone (not necessarily the same someone) had to decide who to put in. However, these people were not the masterminds behind the Cube. They were just more middle-management types, commissioned to build and operate the Cube, without ever being filled in on what purpose, if any, it was meant to serve. Turning it into a deadly and elaborate testing ground is simply them making their best inference of what they're supposed to be doing with it.

Sure, maybe it was supposed to be a space ship or something and a middle management type looked at the plans upside down and said "I think we're supposed to build a torture chamber". But once that decision was made that manager or mangers decided "yes, building a torture chamber is something I am morally ok with". And these people who supposedly "weren't looking at the big picture" . . . developed a complex code that not only shows which rooms are trapped, but the location of each room and how they move. For a supposed treatise on the unthinking nature of bureaucracy, there sure seems to have been a lot of forward thinking involved.

I'll buy uncaring, dumb bureaucracy hurting or even killing people in a "Papers Please" kind of way, but the cube seems like the bureaucratic equivalent of a tornado going through a junk yard, and by sheer chance throwing together the right parts to make a functioning airplane.

[Nevix]

This is a great history of, and a great review of a movie that I can see has an appeal to many people.

And while I get why people like it... I will NEVER watch it myself. Well, unless forced into the choice between this movie and anything from the Saw franchise, or the Final Destination franchise, or... well lets just say there's a LOT of "horror" movies below this on my list.

EDIT: Yes, this is a compliment to Cube. It's too gory and cynical for me, but I can't deny the quality. I also don't think that Cube is wholly cynical, even though it's bleak at times.

[Fianna]

Think of it like how people will follow all these weird and sometimes harmful rituals because "it's tradition". Whatever the initial reason for those rituals was has largely been lost to time, and the way those rituals are currently performed may have mutated considerably from how they were originally supposed to work. Despite that, many people will defend these rituals to the death, and create all sorts of bizarre justifications for them, simply because it's what they've always done, and they don't intend to stop.

The Cube is a similar sort of thing. Whoever conceived the idea for it, they haven't been involved in the project for a long, long time, and with them went any sort of master plan about what the Cube is supposed to achieve. Despite that, the Cube project has continued forward on its own inertia, being constructed and implemented by people who don't know why you would ever want to build something like the Cube, just knowing it's what they're "supposed" to be working on. Plus, as Worth says, it's a "public works project" that provides a lot of people with good jobs, so even if it means sending other people to their deaths, folks don't want to knock over that gravy train.

[AllanO]

I have never seen this movie but I did see Hypercube (or most of it), which would be Forever Knight crossed over with I can't think of what because I forget who else was in it (a quick check of the cast suggests La Femme Nikita). Yeah kind of bleak, but Chuck's discussion was interesting as ever....

On the making of segment, just to be that nitpicky guy, I have only ever heard Nelvana pronounced Nell-van-a, the wall-o-Canadians who made it in New York and Hollywood includes Olympic figure skater Elvis Stojko and raiser of profile for cancer funding Terry Fox (who attempted to run across Canada after losing a leg to cancer to raise awareness before dying of a relapse) which don't seem to fit, plus some music stars like Gordon Lightfoot seem inapt to the purpose. Many of the others fit well (actors, directors or writers that have had success in television or film in the US).

Note the history of the Canadian film industry is a huge rabbit hole full of subsidy and other government efforts to this day that go to its rep etc. Also the fact that Canada is divided into largely separate English and French speaking film and TV productions shrinks the market still further (the French market while smaller is actually, as far as I know, a producer more vibrant/actually watched original content). There have long been jokes about how unlikely is the idea of someone being famous for being in (English) Canadian showbiz (there are clear exceptions to the idea).

[clearspira]

Cube is implicitly set in a more technologically advanced world than our own. While you could maybe, theoretically build the Cube using 1997 technology, it seems like a bit of a stretch (especially since it seems to have been built by the Canadian government, not one of the world's financial and technological superpowers).

If you take the sequels into account, yes, it is set in a universe more advanced than ours. But there is no evidence of that in the original film. In fact it looks pretty damn low tech given the mechanical nature of it.

[SiskosMuthaFknPmphnd]

Cube is implicitly set in a more technologically advanced world than our own. While you could maybe, theoretically build the Cube using 1997 technology, it seems like a bit of a stretch (especially since it seems to have been built by the Canadian government, not one of the world's financial and technological superpowers).

If you take the sequels into account, yes, it is set in a universe more advanced than ours. But there is no evidence of that in the original film. In fact it looks pretty damn low tech given the mechanical nature of it.

Not really. How do you suspend a bunch of cube shaped rooms in the middle of a cube shaped shell without any visible means of suspension? Unless all of the rooms just sit on the bottom of the shell. But that would look kinda weird to whoever designed/built/runs it.
(The one on the right looks more aesthetically pleasing to me anyway.) And at least one of the rooms moved down in the movie, which would be impossible unless there was room at the bottom to move into. Considering the second movie shows that whoever built the Cube is technologically advanced enough to make and control hypercubes, I'm thinking that keeping it suspended with antigravity isn't beyond the realm of possibility for them in this movie.

But even still, how do the rooms even move without any visible means of propulsion? These rooms need to move horizontally and vertically and there's nothing that even remotely looks like it could make them move. So again, seems like they have technology more advanced than we have.

[King Green]

I remember seeing the other Cube films; 2 and zero but this one Chuck reviewed was not on the Tv movie options. As much as its debated of who or why created the cubes.
Mostly its believed that the cube is some sort of extra-dimensional monster that is tricking people to go inside to die, however the latter of a theocratic-hard-right wing government makes a bit more sense even if that government would kill its own companions.

Regardless, Cube is a good franchise for only one thing: crossover fics, because I can easily see some crazy high government zealot making a mistake of putting a human with superhuman to cosmic-horror feats break out of that cube and murder every human being of the planet. Besides, I writing a fic on Ao3/Archive of Our Own where SCP-682"Hard to Destroy Reptile" or SCP-076-2"Abel" get captured by that theocratic agency, put in the cube and rampage begins!

[Linkara]

Cube is a brilliant film and I love it and have rewatched it several times. Never actually thought of the comparison to Saw, but it makes sense especially as both are largely about character stuff but said character stuff is overshadowed by reputation of gore/horror and the like (when I was a teen, the film was sold to me on the cool trap ideas).

I've largely avoided Cube 0 because as suggested in previous posts, having any explanation for the cube would just be unsatisfying. I lean into the "rich asshole" explanation because some people have so much money and are really, really horrible people and could see them doing so as some kind of "Most Dangerous Game" type of "I'll test these people and give them every opportunity to win and prove that humanity is blah blah blah" thing. However, reason cannot be put into a thing that is not reasonable.

Cube 2 is... disappointing for a number of reasons. A lot of that actually has to do with the marketing, which pointed out "The first cube had rules... this one has none!" Except if there are no rules, no structure, etc. then it just suggests that the filmmakers can shrug at any kind of logic and instead just care more about the KEWL stuff they can put in vs. making sense. The Hypercube's traps are more unique and imaginative... but making everything bright white, everyone in normal clothes just screws over the oppressive atmosphere and pacing of the original. There are moments of true thought, but the story is lacking and feels like a pale imitation of the original's great writing and characterization.

[Independent George]

The thing the cube reminds me most of is the Modron 'dungeon' from Planescape: Torment. The Modrons (from the elemental plane of order) built an experimental dungeon to study why adventurers keep going into dungeons. They populated it with an evil wizard construct, monsters, and clues, then ran adventurer constructs through it to try and understand why it was so popular. Torment was published in 1999, so development probably would have started right around when The Cube was released.