Cube (1997)

Director:

Vincenzo Natali

Writers:

André Bijelic (written by) &
Vincenzo Natali (written by) ...

Release Date:

11 July 1998 (Netherlands)

Genre:

Drama | Horror | Mystery | Sci-Fi | Thriller

Tagline:

Fear... Paranoia... Suspicion... Desperation

Plot:

7 complete strangers of widely varying personality characteristics are involuntarily placed in an endless kafkaesque maze containing deadly traps.

Plot Keywords:

Stranger | Trap | Maze | Room | Escape

Awards:

13 wins & 6 nominations

Cast

Nicole de Boer	...	Leaven
Nicky Guadagni	...	Holloway
David Hewlett	...	Worth
Andrew Miller	...	Kazan
Julian Richings	...	Alderson
Wayne Robson	...	Rennes
Maurice Dean Wint	...	Quentin

Also Known As:

El cubo (Argentina) (Mexico) (Peru) (Venezuela) [es]
Cubo (Brazil) (Portugal) [pt]
Куб (Russia) [ru]
Cube (Denmark) [da]
Cube (France) [fr]
Cube (Spain) [es]
Cube - Il cubo (Italy) [it]
Cube - kuutio (Finland) [fi]
Küp (Turkey: Turkish title) [tr]
Kocka (Hungary) [hu]
O kyvos (Greece) (video title) [el]

MPAA:

Rated R for some strong sci-fi violence/gore and language.

Runtime:

90 min

Country:

Canada

Language:

English | German

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Ultra Stereo

Certification:

Iceland:16 | Singapore:PG (cut) | Canada:16+ (Quebec) | Singapore:NC-16 | Spain:18 | Argentina:13 | Australia:M | Canada:18A | Chile:14 | Finland:K-16 | France:-12 | Germany:16 | Hong Kong:IIB | Mexico:B | New Zealand:M | Norway:15 | Peru:14 | Portugal:M/12 | South Korea:18 | Switzerland:16 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:16 (canton of Vaud) | UK:15 | USA:R | Brazil:14 | Netherlands:16

Filming Locations:

Wallace Avenue Studios, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Company:

Cube Libre

Trivia:

Not only are the characters named after prisons but they reflect the prisons themselves. Example: Kazan (the mentally challenged character), in Russia is a disorganized prison. Rennes (the "mentor") was a jail that pioneered many of today's prison policies. Quentin (the detective) is known for its brutality. Holloway is a women's prison, and Alderson is a prison where isolation is a common punishment. Leavenworth runs to a rigid set of rules (Leaven's mathematics), and the new prison is corporately owned and built (Worth, hired as an architect).

Goofs:

Plot holes: After you enter a new room, the chamber doors automatically spin their handles and close shut. There is a scene near the end where Quentin closes a chamber door himself while another character is talking. The director admits in the commentary that this is because that particular shot was done earlier in the filming before he decided they would close automatically.

Quotes:

Holloway: It's all the same machine, right? The Pentagon, multinational corporations, the police. If you do one little job, you build a widget in Saskatoon, and the next thing you know, it's two miles under the desert, the essential component of a death machine.

Movie Connections:

Spoofed in "Muchachada nui: (#1.12)" (2007)

Soundtrack:

Distorted Reality

Cube: 7/10

I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm pretty tired of all these wanna-be horror movies that are out now. All of those movies are rated PG-13 and can't seem to scare anyone. But right at the verge of these so-called horror movies came Cube, a low-budget horror film with an original idea and a good idea of how to execute it. It could have gone belly-up, but it works for the most part and creates a suspenseful movie.

A group of seven people find themselves trapped in some sort of maze of cubes. They're all different colors and to make matters more interesting, some are booby trapped. They have no recollection of how they got there, nor do they have a clue how to get out. It becomes a battle of wits to stay sane and survive.

There's an overall sense of creepiness, doom, and claustrophobia that overshadows the whole movie, not to mention the paranoia that sinks into both the characters and you as you watch. You only know as much as the characters-you don't know how they got into the cubes, what they're for, or any of the typical exposition. And although most of the characters were annoying, it put you side by side with them, which helped a lot. If you get to be next to the characters, you can understand their actions more. However, you do (somewhat) find out what these cubes were made for, which kind of dampers the whole thing, but it's still very interesting to go through.

But when the climax comes about, the movie descends into hokey B-horror land, with a terrorized killer stalking most of the people. When the original exploration of the cubes subsides and you get the people walking around, also, the interest starts to wane. It's often repetitive, but the booby traps are quite, for lack of a better word, fun. But that doesn't mean that the original creativity has gone away, it's just not as interesting. But I really liked Cube, and if you see it, you will too.

My rating: 7/10

Rated R for some strong sci-fi violence/gore and language.