CUBE

Canada, 1998, 90 minutes, Colour.
Maurice Dean Wint, David Hewlett, Nicole de Boer, Nicky Guadagni, Andrew Miller, Wayne Robson.
Directed by Vincenzo Natale.

The Cube series has a special place in regard by horror buffs, solvents fiction buffs, terror fill buffs.

The first film takes place entirely in a giant cube, in moving rooms which have cube designs everywhere. Each cube has cube designs as well as doors which can lead to safety with the right interpretation or to disaster and death. A group of people find themselves in the cube, sometimes cooperating, always with the will to survive, with a dominant policeman, Quentin, taking charge but ultimately becoming a destroyer himself. And the end of the film is quite nihilistic.

The second film is situated in a cube which is called a hypercube. Once again there is a group of strangers, sudden deaths, moving rooms. Once again, the group help each other, clash with each other, some killing some of the others. However, this time there is an explanation, a focus on a large weapons factory, and experiments, and the elimination of those who do go the tests.

The third film, Cube Zero, goes once again inside the cube but it is the story of rescue, with some scenes outside the cube but offering some interpretations of explanations of the whole series..

1. A terror film? The ingenuity of the ideas in the screenplay? Science and mathematics? The story of survival and fight the survival?

2. The title, the visuals, the various cubes, the art and design, colour? Beauty and death? The shutters, the various rooms, traps, initial slicing of the man, violence with sound, the moving rooms, the bridge?

3. The people trapped, the movement of the rooms, leaving the rooms, possibilities?

4. The prologue, the man, venturing into the room, being sliced?

5. The groups there, how, wearing uniforms and nametags?

6. The variety of interactions, friendship, hostilities, changing, exploiting the situation, rage, confrontations? Hurt, deaths?

7. Rennes, escaping from so many prisons, his confidence, the destruction of his face – and his later reappearance?

8. Quentin, in himself, police background, wife and children, separation, his story, his pride in being able to read people, race issues? His anger and range? His response to the maths and numbers? His irritability with Kasan and his disability? The antagonism towards Worth? His taking charge, irritable
with Holloway, a clash, telling each other of the truth, his dropping her? His antagonism towards each of the characters, attempting to kill? Murder and his death?

9. Worth, cynical, slack, the architect, building the outer cube? The antagonism with Quentin? His death?

10. Holloway, the background, doctor, doing pro bono work, helping Kazan, clash with Quentin, the strong argument, his dropping her?

11. Leaven, student, seeming unobtrusive, knowledge, the issue of prime numbers, the change to understanding the numbers as positioning the rooms, the permutations? Helping, Kazan, character? With Worth and the suddenness of her death? Seemingly random?

12. Kazan, disabled, hitting his head, crying, causing anger in the others? Autism, his being silent, his cry leading to dangers? His information about the factors and the group being able to get through the exits?

13. The moving rooms, the return to the original room? Progress, stopping, waiting, death? No Exit?

14. An artificial world, an allegory about human existence, No Exit? The beauty, yet the traps, deadly? Any overall control and intelligence? Human nature,
survival, the urge to kill to survive?