Paradox

**Paradox** is a short film created by Rusty Lake, released on September 20th, 2018, alongside the game of the same name. The film can be watched on Youtube.

The film was funded by a successful campaign on Kickstarter, with 2146 backers pledging €34,715 from their €15,000 goal. The developers invested 50% of the total budget by themselves to shoot the first part of the film, and the money from Kickstarter went to finishing the movie, providing the first chapter of the game for free, and paying the film crew.

## Plot

Dale Vandermeer awakens on the couch in the Paradox Room, with a wound on his forehead and no idea of where he is. After finding the door is locked, he walks backwards into a small pool of blood on the carpet which only increases his confusion. Suddenly, the telephone rings. A voice tells him that he hopes he is enjoying his stay. He mentions that he is at a place of relaxation to empty his mind, but warns that some find this place hard to leave and that Laura is waiting. Putting the phone down, he picks up the Rusty Lake flier on the table and notices that he wrote himself a note not to drink the blue vial. When he finally walks over to the painting on the wall of Mr. Crow and a Corrupted Soul, he realizes that he must find a way out.

He puts on his jacket and make his way to the locked cabinet. Once he takes the key from a small trinket box, he sees Laura's reflection in the mirror, but she is gone when he turns around. Across the room, he goes to the dresser and takes the matches from the first drawer. After gagging from the fish in the third drawer, he uses the key to open the fourth drawer and takes the wooden cube. He then goes to the television and tries to turn it on, only to realize the cord has been cut. Hearing a noise, he removes the cover over a bird cage and discovers Harvey inside. He places the cover back over the cage and moves onto the bookcase, looking at the sacrifices and the various books. He notices a dusty portrait, revealing it to be him and Laura, before putting it down and picking up a black book beside the picture. After finding the iron cube inside the book, he places both cubes into the slots in the locked cabinet. Looking up into the mirror, he notices a small black dot that briefly transforms his reflection into a Corrupted Soul when he gets closer to it. This causes him to jump backwards, tripping over a small table. He collapses to the ground and falls unconscious when he hits his head hard on the floor.

Eventually, he wakes up coughing. As he gets himself up, the television abruptly turns on. He begins flipping through the channels until he finally comes upon game Dale, who is also trapped in the Paradox Room. The channel flips through more pictures, of Dale collapsing after drinking the green vial, Mr. Crow in the Forest, Laura holding the white cube, deer-headed Dale in the Forest, Dale's Corrupted Soul, and the silhouette of Laura behind the screen. Looking behind towards the screen, he notices there is a silhouette just like in the television. Slowly walking towards it, he pulls the screen back to find there is only a projector with two rolls of film. However, he suddenly hears a loud bang and turns to discover that the bird cage is open and Harvey is no longer inside. He instead finds the glass cube inside the cage, and uses it to open the locked cabinet. There are three strangely glowing vials inside. He looks at the television and sees game Dale collapsed from drinking the green vial, then looks at the painting and sees the blue vial next to the Corrupted Soul. Noticing the doorknob is also red, he decides to pick the red vial. When he takes a drink from the vial, he begins to cough violently until he eventually spits out a key.

Taking one last look at the room, he uses the key to unlock the door and walks out into the Forest. The door closes shut, causing the entire room to disappear and leaving only the red doorknob, which then drops to the ground. Dale looks around the Forest, hearing crows in the distance and seeing nothing but a thick fog covering the trees. All of a sudden, a figure is seen standing in the fog, which quickly clears to reveal Mr. Crow. He asks Dale if he made the right choice, to which he responds that he did as he got out of the room. Mr. Crow remarks that he cannot escape the boundaries of his mind or the consequences of his actions, and neither can Laura. Through his peripheral vision, Dale notices Laura standing off to his side and turns to call to her. Mr. Crow flies away and Laura disappears again, so Dale decides to continue walking through the Forest to find her. Eventually he crosses the Forest’s boundaries and arrives at the edge of the Lake, briefly blinded by the sunlight. While he looks out at the Lake, he realizes Laura is standing in the water. However, a Corrupted Soul is also behind her, and in a quick motion it slits her throat. She falls backwards into the water, and Dale rushes out to try and grab her. Instead, he picks up a black cube, which inside he sees realities switching between movie Dale and game Dale lying unconscious on the couch in the Paradox Room. And then suddenly, he wakes up again.

## Trivia

* On the Rusty Lake Mental Health & Fishing flier, the address is listed as Vanderboom Street 56, 73298 Rusty Lake.
* After unlocking the green vial achievement in the game, the player can then watch a secret clip from the film. It shows Dale drinking the green vial then collapsing, and Laura standing in the Lake with her black cube turning white.
* The Steam version of Cube Escape: Paradox includes 28 unlockable achievements to earn through the game. 16 of these achievements are unlocked by finding clues hidden in the Paradox short film.
* The director, Sean van Leijenhorst, is an old high school friend of the developers. The script took more than half a year to complete.
* There were multiple Kickstarter rewards offered during the campaign.
	+ For €15, 300 backers had their names listed in the phone book.
	+ For €30, 100 backers were given a Paradox T-shirt.
	+ For €40, 100 backers were given a Paradox poster of Johan Scherft's Mr. Crow painting.
	+ For €75, 100 backers had their name and pictures listed on the card catalog in the filing cabinet.
	+ For €100, 100 backers were given a Rusty Lake dossier of pictures and postcards.
	+ For €125, 3 backers were given Laura's dress.
	+ For €250, 1 backer was given the three cubes used in the film.
	+ For €500, 1 backer was given Johan Scherft's Mr. Crow painting used in the film.
	+ For €2500, 1 backer was given the Mr. Crow mask used in the film.

## Gallery

The film poster.The film poster featuring Dale.The movie team.