kyoob

*ADVISORY* explicit content *ADVISORY*

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Everybody up in this bitch needs to watch Cube (1997).

Fucking everybody needs to see Cube.

HUMANS LIKE SQUARES. Cube

Ugh, fine. logistics. The room is a cube. There’s six doors that could connect this cube to

another cube! ...

In this connected system of cubes, there are a group of people who find each other and have to figure out a way to escape the god damn cube, or e l s e.

Or else death, by a number of voluntary and involuntary methods, namely the traps rigged in the rooms, starvation, dehydration, infection, suffocation, sewer slide, etc. etc.

Awakening in a mysterious cube room with no personal belongings, no memory of how they got there, and rare bits and pieces of their past and identity, a group of strangers find themselves in a maze, or a puzzle, or some shit, and discover that they need each other’s help to figure out the maze’s exit. As people meet their true selves and are faced with wonderful obstacles and clues, they meet their untimely demise one by one in their attempts to escape the place that has no business existing at all.

If you don’t like blood, you won’t like it :/ If you don’t like violence, aggressiveness, big brain moments, mystery plots, numbers (heavy on the numbers), idiots in groups, jumper suits, or if you’re so empathetic you can feel claustrophobic from seeing a closed space on a flat screen, then watch this with an adult :/ As they make their way around the puzzle cube, they learn from their mistakes and learn some distasteful things about each other. Whether the cube or a friend kills them first, I’ll never tell >:[ (I can be convinced)

Cube is a psychological thriller, it’s definitely at least half a mystery, and the whole thing is suspenseful from start to finish. The other movies in the franchise are also worth the time, especially the prequel to this one. The visual storytelling is pretty impressive, considering the setting for the room has to remain largely unchanged, and the characters are designed in a way that makes sense for something of a oneshot. Every installment in the series follows a different set of characters, new batches to the Cube, and the updates given to the cube are pretty sharp. For the worst movie being the latest one, the mystery of the cube, how it works, and how it was created is a fun idea. I rewatch this movie every now and then because there’s something repeatable about the way this mystery unfolds. Usually when the magician reveals the secret, the trick is null from that point, but watching this story develop from a simple cube doesn’t get old for me.

It’s hard to talk about a mystery without spoiling it really, so this is the warning.

The first death in the movie happens a short time after we discover that one of these old hoots is an infamous escape criminal, well known enough that a random other stranger-who-may-or-may-not-have-a-thing-with-the-law recognizes them by name. For a veteran of this type of gameplay to be the first to fall victim to it really sets the tone for the rest of the movie. Picking up his tricks up to that point with the boot scouts, the button trick, and the general idea to keep moving, the rest of the group forms a pretty good algorithm for picking safe rooms.

Until it doesn’t work anymore, someone gets unalived or injured, they revise the plan, reflect on the errors, and repeat until the terror of being trapped and doomed forever leads to some conflict in the group. Having the main macho guy be the typical aggressive and selfish type is pretty lukewarm for the genre, a classic trope that could use a good update, but his the scene where he let’s go of the makeshift rope just on a whim, and his comeback right at the finishing scene really redeems his role there (functionally, I mean. He’s still a bitch). I just don’t appreciate that he had to be a convict (he could’ve been a politician or a suit or something nastier)

The plot twist for me when I first watched it was the reveal of the prime numbers and the human calculator. I hate the trope because it relies on a stereotype around disabled people, but the moment he came in clutch with the speedy numbers really seemed to turn the tides (I watched it when I was 11, hear me). I realize that there’s probably some metaphor about being nice, taking care of others, and it’ll benefit you or something, but his whole role really was just being babysat until you asked him for prime factorizations. In this movie, it falls short, but after finishing the series, I appreciate this character more.

The main girl shoulders a big chunk of the forward progression because ~numbers~ but her sense of reading the room and keeping tabs on people and their state is notable too. I would argue that she was really leading the group rather than the big guy who was quick to give people orders.

The doctor lady was an interesting character addition, and I didn't really sense her purpose in the film until the drop towards the end. Functionally, she did her job, but I wasn't really expecting fully fleshed out characters for this genre and set up anyway. Still, her and the Wren played complimentary roles and were some pretty good bookends for where the journey part of the mystery starts and ends. After her drop, there's very little mystery left to uncover, but it becomes a race at that point. After some more escalating, the climax of the whole story comes pretty quickly, and the end leaves a good checkpoint for the story line.

The mystery of the cube continues after Cube, but it's pretty solid by itself. Did it leave me wanting more? yes because... because cubes

But was it like leaving off on a cliff hanger and rushing to the internet to sate it? no.

You get closure, but it's pretty clear there was room for expansion. It's one of those movies that burns steadily, so pay attention, but you don't really miss anything by going on your phone until the halfway mark, really.

So again, watch Cube.

Humans like squares.