Musings on Cube

Rating: 10/10 (8 June 2007)

In a situation where the characters are unaware of why they are in the cube, each character's assertion is more of a revelation about themselves and their own prejudices. One claims that they are there for a rich man's kicks, another that a facility that size could only have been built by the 'military industrial complex'. Whist yet another that they have been abducted by aliens. It is one of the central horrors of the film that no attempt is made to explain the reasoning behind the tests they are put through. It is also its major success (especially when compared to the prequel Cube Zero) because it allows us to focus on the psychologies of our archetypal characters and the nature of human society.
Quentin's own prejudices are laid bare in particularly brutal fashion. His eyes-down foot-forward approach to policing and belief in the system is shown to be moral irresponsibility, his authoritarian principles equated with simple misogyny, or more accurately a complete inability to relate to women. We see that this family man, with three children, is a simple brute. His assertion that he needs to get out for his kids in fact hides his base need to survive and dominate. This transition or unmasking is shown to harrowing effect when he proceeds to beat the architect with a boot, swinging it by its laces, as if he is brutalising a particularly naughty child. In a sense this is a highly feminist film or perhaps female chauvinist. The only three positive characters are two women and a severely mentally disabled man (an idiot savant).
The cube is basically a metaphor. The architect's description of the building of the cube is vague and almost metaphorical. He describes a hideous bureaucracy in which people are only responsible for small parts of the construction and planning, and says that there really is no oversight for the project, it has simply become self-fulfilling. This is more a description of the ills of our sleepwalker society than a logical explanation for the genesis of the cube project. It is reminiscent of the dictum that whilst there may not be any evil bankers, the international banking system is evil.
The simple premise of the movie is that the characters are trapped as much by themselves as by any diabolical machinery. They must group together to survive. All of this metaphor and philosophy aside, the movie is a masterclass in paranoia, horror and murders with a touch of elan. If if doesn't terrify you, one way or the other, you haven't a nerve left in your body.