Cube (1997)

People trapped inside the Cube wake up to find themselves in a cube shaped room with nothing but a door on each wall linking to other cubes. Each person stuck in the Cube seems to have a special ability to help the team make their way out of the cube. With no food or water, they must find their way out or slowly die of dehydration.

"Well they have to feed us, don't they?"

I remember watching this in junior year of high school and having nightmares for a few days after. It's not the idea, but the execution of the movie that invokes such emotions of desolation and despair.

Some cube rooms are trapped, and these traps come in a variety of fashions. For example, the sushi machine:


Walking into this trap causes razor sharp wire to surround the victim and constrict in a spiral motion, shredding flesh to ribbons.

In the Acid Trap, a faceful of acid is sprayed at the victim, causing permanent rhinoplasty.

The spike room causes spikes to shoot out from the walls in all directions. Be quiet, because it's triggered by sound. And if you think you can just climb onto the spikes, the spikes have spikes on them. The characters eventually figure out to throw their boots into a room before entering a room to check for traps, but not all traps use motion sensors.

There's other traps, like the fire trap and dicer wire trap, but after playing Wilderness Survival, my mind wonders how people in the Cube can use these traps to their advantage. Since everyone in Cube has no items other than their clothes, boots, and removable door handles, you have to be creative. For example:

Boot = Trap Detector

Boot + Shoestring + Shoestring = Reusable Trap Detector

Coat + Coat + Pants = Rope

Boot + Fire Trap = Glue

Rope + Door Handle + Door Handle + Glue = Grapple

Door Handle + Door Handle = Spear

Spear + Acid Trap = Acid Spear

Door Handle + Coat + Fire Trap = Torch

Human Corpse + Wire Dicer Trap + Door Handle + Fire Trap = Kebab


With no other setting than the Cube and its many rooms, the movie is highly dependent on character interactions. Just watching these characters fumble around and argue is fun by itself. Each character eventually takes on a role. There's Quentin, the policeman who takes on the role of leader and strong guy, Worth, the construction engineer, Leaven, the high school math student, Holloway, the doctor, Kazan, a savant, and Rennes, an escape artist. If they can all work together, maybe they can figure a way out of the maze. Just don't get your head stuck in a door:


And as always, occasionally check your teammate for rape face:


Rating: A