Cube (1998)
Where to Watch
- The original script for Cube was written over a decade before production finally began in 1998.
- Many of the practical effects used in the climax were achieved without any CGI.
- Vincenzo Natali originally wanted a completely different ending for the film, but test audiences preferred the one we see today.
Cube is a 1997 Canadian science fiction psychological horror film directed by Vincenzo Natali. The film follows seven strangers who awaken with no memory of how they arrived inside an enormous, maze-like structure composed of thousands of identical cubic rooms, some of which contain lethal traps β acid spray, razor wire, flamethrowers β while others are safe. The group, whose members include a cop, a doctor, a math student, an autistic savant, an escape artist, and an architect, must work together to navigate the cube using mathematical patterns to identify safe rooms and find an exit before they are killed by the traps or by each other.
Vincenzo Natali created one of the most effective low-budget science fiction films ever made β the entire cube was a single set that was relighted and redecorated for each "room," yet the claustrophobic atmosphere and escalating paranoia between the characters made the limited setting feel vast and terrifying. The film never explained who built the cube or why. Cube earned modest theatrical returns but became an enormous cult classic.
