Those were the last words uttered by “the Wren” right before his eventual demise, and those would be the words that ring true in the ears of the five remaining characters of Cube. Vincenzo Natali’s 1997 sci-fi horror film was an eerie, claustrophobic experience that left audiences wondering if what they had witnessed was just another run-of-the-mill horror film or something else entirely. The Cube movie posed many questions about morality, faith, and identity in a unique narrative that kept it all tightly wrapped in a single location.
On the surface, Cube is a seemingly brutal film about five people stuck inside a maze of sorts that’s filled with vicious traps set to kill them at any given moment. The movie could be considered as being one of the pioneers of the now-infamous torture porn genre, pre-dating films like Saw and Hostel that have exploited the idea so much with countless sequels, spin-offs, and rip-offs over the years.
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However, what makes the 1997 Cube movie stand out from the rest of the bunch is that the film never relies just on its grotesque kills to achieve its scares. No, what makes Cube scary is its haunting philosophical ideas and the constant fear of the humans within its confined space who could turn on each other at any given moment.
The Service of Distrust
Cineplex Odeon Films / Trimark Pictures
Cube only has two intensely violent scenes involving the traps, and they all happen within the first 15 minutes of the film. Everything else from there on out is essentially about the group actively trying to avoid those traps; instead of the gore, what helps make Cube so terrifying is the constantly dreaded thought of trust and vulnerability.
As cliché as it sounds, the Cube movie goes to great lengths to show us that no one within those walls are as honest as they seem. It taps into the psyches of the characters as they slowly reveal their true motives and intentions as time goes on, taking us on this wild and twisted ride as they try to uncover the mystery and escape death and the cube. Identity (or the fundamental lack thereof) is therefore a key element to the film.
After the shockingly intense opening scene, we’re introduced to our five main characters, or six if you include “the Wren,” who dies early on in the film but is essential for narrative purposes and thematic ones (a cube has six faces, after all). These characters are all basically archetypes and aptly named after well-known prisons — a metaphor of sorts about one of the overall themes of the film, being trapped. Cube deliberately chooses to put a diverse group of people together in this torture chamber and makes it a point to tell its audience where each of them comes from, but little else.
Here, we learn that Quentin (played by Maurice Dean Wint) is a divorced police officer, Leaven (played by Nicole de Boer) is a young student who’s great at maths, Holloway (played by Nicky Guadagni) is a free clinic doctor, Worth (played by David Hewlett) is a nihilistic office worker, and Kazan (played by Andrew Miller) is an autistic man. The only thing they seem to have in common is that they are stuck in the shifting boxes of the cube, where the entire film takes place.
It’s easy for a movie like this to not have proper character development and detailed character arcs that are specific to their needs and goals. A lot of the times, these traits are not expected by the audience who, let’s face it, are only there to see them die. However, Cube goes the extra mile to make this the absolute point of the film. As mentioned earlier, the film isn’t interested in shocking its audience with its nifty little traps, jump scares, or to up the body count with no real payoff. It’s interested in the terror of ideas, and what personhood even means.
The horror in Cube comes down to the human element and, more specifically, the distrust among humankind. It forces you into the perspective of being another victim in the chamber, demanding you to first trust these characters for what they are, only to then completely dismantle that trust through a series of revelations. Cube taps into the psyche of the characters, crafting them to be vulnerable individuals with secrets and desires who must work together, and takes its time to unravel them as the film progresses. The film plays its audience by immersing them in a world that’s relatable and creating empathy, before pulling the rug out from under the viewer.
Two of the most obvious character turns are of Quentin and Holloway, where we first see Quentin being the dominant leader of the pack before evolving into a vicious antagonist by the end of the film. Holloway, on the other hand, starts out being calm and collected, but ironically becomes the first one to go frantic in the group. She goes on theorizing how this could all be a governmental agenda and how it’s all one big evil conspiratorial plan devised by political authorities and the military-industrial complex:
She soon assumes a motherly position in the group, being the one to look after Kazan, and she also boosts Worth’s self-confidence (or self-‘worth’). In turn, Kazan goes from being the most underestimated person of the group to perhaps its most significant, and Worth begins to assume a leadership position by the end of the film. Even Rennes, or “the Wren,” diverted expectations and failed his supposed identity; the famed escape artist who had escaped seven different prisons becomes the very first person of the group to die. The Cube movie reminds us of the fragility of identity.
Existential Nihilism
Throughout the first act of the film, the characters get into an altercation trying to figure out who or what put them in the cube and the reasoning behind it, with theories ranging from governmental experiments to straight-up extraterrestrials. However, when the dust settles just before the second act, an angry Worth explains to Holloway that maybe there is no explanation at all. It is here that he reveals that the company he works for helped design the outer shell of the cube. He then goes on a tangent about how maybe there is no conspiracy or hidden agenda, and that maybe some things just happen because they simply do:
Quentin says something similar when he tells Holloway, “Who do you think the establishment is? It’s just guys like me. Their desks are bigger, but their jobs aren’t. They don’t conspire, they buy boats.” The point that the film tries to make during these moments (that there may be no point) is often overlooked.
Audiences went to great lengths analyzing the film, regardless. There’s even been academic studies on the symbolism in the Cube movie, and how it relates to existentialism, psychoanalysis, and many other concepts. There have also been countless video essays and articles discussing what the true meaning behind the film may be —and that’s the genius of Cube. The movie never tries to explain itself to the audience and is left to the viewer’s interpretation (or at least it was until it became a franchise and undid all of that). What if the meaning behind Cube is that there’s no real meaning at all?
This opens up an interesting premise for a film like this. See, what if Worth was actually right and there was no “big plan?” While the thought of one being watched is already terrifying in and of itself, the flip side of that is even more horrifying, because what if there’s no one watching at all? Everyone wants a definite end to things, it’s what makes us want to get up in the morning because gives us a sense of fulfillment. The comfort of knowing that an outcome exists is what we all look forward to; perhaps the appeal of conspiracy theories like ‘Q’ is the strange satisfaction derived in believing that everything has an answer.
However, Cube gives us none of that. It instead explores the nihilistic possibility — what if there truly was nothing there, no plan, no meaning, and that everything is arbitrary and pointless? Scholar Mark Featherstone discusses this in his paper The Obscure Politics of Conspiracy Theory, writing about the Cube movie and similar films: “Caught inside this nonsensical machine […] the alienated individual attempts to create meaning through the degraded medium of conspiratorial thinking.”
The film is almost a sci-fi horror adaptation of the famous play No Exit by French Existentialist Jean-Paul Sartre. In it, three characters are stuck in a room, forced to emotionally torture each other with conversation for eternity; the play is where the phrase “hell is other people” originated. The Cube movie takes this idea and strips it of the humanism and hope that some Existentialists attempted to develop, even if their philosophy was founded upon the inherent meaninglessness of ’existence preceding essence.’ It is these philosophical questions that make this sci-fi horror very intriguing and unlike any other.
In a paper published by scholars Miguel B. Llora, PhD and Juan F Cordero, MSE in 2016, a new angle of the film’s philosophies were formed explaining the narrative of Cube through the lens of a capitalistic society:
The paper goes into great detail on how the entire film might be a visual metaphor on how large corporate organizations look and treat their employees as they make their way up the corporate ladder. From this angle, the characters are essentially the employees who have entered a certain business organization. They all come from different backgrounds and are put together in this system that forces them to work together, with each of them having their own personal dreams and goals.
However, the cube, which in this context signifies the corporate organization itself, has its own agenda, trapping its employees into the system that they’ve grown so accustomed to and eventually diminishing their personal goals and eliminating their identities, turning them into mindless corporate zombies who now only work to fulfill the goals of their employer.
Despite all this, there is still an escape. Just like the cube in the film, if people can make it through the deadly traps of neoliberal capitalism and find the right sequence of numbers, they can try to leave the maze. This is proven through Worth’s constant cynical attitude and nihilistic approach on life, which makes him one of the few perfect candidates who don’t conform to the ways of a corporate organization, and thus, he finds a way out but doesn’t fully commit to it.
Kazan is yet another candidate who is of no use to the organization, as he’s viewed as a liability whose autism would only make things harder in the corporate world, and thus, he too finds his way out and becomes the only one to actually leave the organization. Quentin, Leaven, and Holloway are all ideal candidates who would appear to flourish within the organization, and thus, the cube keeps them within the confines of the space, never allowing them to leave; as Worth screams, “There is no way out of here!” It’s another interesting take on the film and does indeed open up new theories about the Cube movie while, once again, leaving it up to the audience’s interpretation.
Cube became a surprise hit at the box office, grossing $9 million against its very small $350,000 budget, and has achieved cult status over the years. It was followed up with a sequel and prequel, as well as a Japanese remake which was released last year. An American remake has been in development under Lionsgate with no release date announced yet. Whether it’s a despairing nihilistic cry against the painful absurdity of existence, an anti-capitalistic screed warning against the dehumanizing powers of corporations, or simply just an efficient little horror movie, one thing’s for sure — Cube is a haunting and unforgettable film.
