328: Cube (1997)

SPEAKER_02 0:04

Cut my life into pieces. This is my last resort.

SPEAKER_00 0:13

Greetings and salutations, and welcome to Hackerslash. If you're joining us again, welcome back. It's alright. I'm not gonna hurt you. If this is your first time listening, welcome to the party. We are a horror movie review podcast dedicated to telling you whether a movie is a hack.

SPEAKER_03 0:28

A total joke, a waste of time, or a slash. Totally killer punintended.

SPEAKER_00 0:33

We believe horror is for everyone, and as such, we're writing these movies with a perspective we've gained from our varying walks of life and the flavors of fear we fancy most. My name is Chris, I'm your friendly neighborhood slasher enthusiast, and this week I'm joined by the classic horror connoisseur, Sean.

SPEAKER_03 0:48

Stuck on it, keeps the saliva flowing.

SPEAKER_00 0:51

The people have spoken, and our patrons have decided we're covering a film that explores themes of isolation, cooperation, and the innate will to overcome the odds, no matter how insurmountable they may seem. The film features a group of strangers who wake to find themselves within the confines of a vast mechanized labyrinth, and each room seems to be a potential death trap. They're tasked with leveraging their unique skills in a desperate bid for freedom, and they must navigate the maze without any clue why or how they ended up there. And each move could be their last. This week, after winning 48% of the overall patron vote, we're finally talking about Cube.

SPEAKER_03 1:27

And this movie was nominated by Joe, who says, This movie is what inspired Saw and Escape Room. I find it to be entertaining and suspenseful. Cube and Cube 2 are solid entertaining movies. They have a slasher level of gore, but not with the typical kill count. Give it a watch.

SPEAKER_00 1:46

Joe, it's been a long time coming. It's been nominated for quite some time, and we're finally getting to it. Sean, had you ever seen this one before?

SPEAKER_03 1:53

No, I definitely have not seen this film before. This film was never even on my radar. I had no idea that this film existed, to be honest.

SPEAKER_00 2:03

This film was only on my radar within the context of knowing it was nominated, but for some reason, Cube 90s also equated in my mind to that Jennifer Lopez movie The Cell.

SPEAKER_03 2:13

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 2:14

So completely different, has nothing to do, one or the other, completely separate entities. And yet, in my mind, that's what it was. When reviewing this though, and looking at the description of the movie and looking back on Joe's nomination, I thought, okay, if this is escape room and it's all put together, then this is gonna be filled with incredible traps, especially with what Joe promised in terms of slasher level of gore. I was expecting some real brutality here.

SPEAKER_03 2:42

I think that's fair because based on what I read in the synopsis, is what's all I had to go on going into this film. I was expecting some type of saw feeling to it. Just reading the synopsis makes you feel like you're going to see some kind of saw trap game for these individuals, right? Maybe saw mixed with a little bit of, I don't know, something more modern, like a maze runner or Hunger Games or some crap like that. But that's kind of what I was expecting, and that's all I had to go off of.

SPEAKER_00 3:10

I wish I had even expected a little bit more in terms of like maze runner or Hunger Games. I feel like that would have made me a little bit more interested in this. But here's where I struggle, Sean. I realize that I'm just not a huge fan of 90s and early 2000s films. And I think I know what it is. It's that I like films that are particularly cinematic, and for some reason, within this era, we have very narrow apertures that create a very deep depth of field. And so everything's in focus, it just feels too it feels too detailed, it feels too gritty, it feels too granular. And I realize that that really translated into this watch experience because there's a lot in here that is really cool. It starts out with a bang, and I think it really piques your interest. But the more it goes on, I'm kind of torn and whipped back and forth between liking the potential and then being disappointed in the reality of the time that it's made. Because I'm sorry, they break down the roles of the individuals who are in this situation, and someone actually writing the description of the movie describes the individuals, and you have like a former cop, you have a scientist or a doctor, you have an architect, you have a math whiz, and then you have a master of escapes, and then all of a sudden someone is described as an autistic savant. What the fuck?

SPEAKER_01 4:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:36

It's a mishandling of autism in this movie. So again, it's the 90s. How much can you hold against it? Not for me to say, but I can say that it left a bad taste in my mouth as I was watching it.

SPEAKER_03 4:49

Yeah. You know, the 90s for films in general, I wouldn't say like I hate films from that decade, but I definitely feel like I'm not a big 90s horror film fan. You know what I mean? Like I love the 90s for a lot of things. I think the music scene in the 90s was pretty great. I loved the music that came out of the 90s, but horror films, I don't even think I can count 10 movies from the 90s horror-related that I really, really love.

SPEAKER_00 5:15

Okay, let me try. Scream, Scream 2, The Faculty, The Crafts. I know what you did last summer.

SPEAKER_03 5:22

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 5:22

I still know what you did last summer.

unknown 5:24

I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 5:24

Is that still yeah, I guess it could be.

SPEAKER_00 5:26

I think so. Halloween H2O. Yeah, that one was okay.

SPEAKER_03 5:30

Yeah, that was good. That was good.

SPEAKER_00 5:31

I'm getting I'm getting fuck fuck. I'm getting close. I'm getting close. People under the stairs. Oh. Fuck, two more, two more. Shit. You got two more. Come on. I don't know if I have two more. Insert Friday the 13th and uh something 90s movie here. Number N Shree. I don't know, man. I got maybe eight. I got eight.

SPEAKER_03 5:49

Maybe. Listen, you got eight, and arguably you may just not be remembering some because you got farther than I did, and I didn't think about anything outside of Scream and H2O. Like it's just either way, it's not a great decade for horror, right? They're few and far between. You got a few good slashers out there, things like that, but not really my thing. And I had a lot of mixed feelings about this movie, to say the least, while watching this. I feel like it's definitely one of those films that is it's like a bad film that's somehow kind of interesting to watch. There's a lot of confusion though, all the way to the end. And I know we're gonna talk about that later, but yeah, I think just confusion was one of the key words to describe my feeling of this movie, that and this underlying sense of just claustrophobia, because I would absolutely hate to be stuck in that thing.

SPEAKER_00 6:39

Okay. Actually, I don't know that I would mind being stuck in that thing because it reminds me of general quarters drills in the Navy, specifically when you have to open and close hatches behind yourself to maintain watertight integrity of the ship. It was really just making me feel some very specific things about my past. So I didn't mind that. I actually thought that was cool. I thought the set design was really, really cool. And I was surprised how interested I was once it got going. Because if you watch this movie for the first time after seeing things like escape room, after seeing things like Saw, okay, we're here, we wake up, people are in a place they don't know why they're there, they have to figure out how to get the fuck out. Okay, on paper, maybe you feel like this is something that's gonna feel familiar. But the further this movie goes and the more insane it gets in terms of its like levels of absurdity. Honestly, it's really creative, and there's also some really clever depth here in terms of the correlations of prison. So even the characters' names are representative of different prisons around the world, which I thought was really cool. It was surprising how much depth there was with a really simple plot.

SPEAKER_03 7:53

Oh, I didn't catch that part of it.

SPEAKER_00 7:56

Yeah, you think Levin is just a fucking normal name, Sean? It's Leavenworth.

SPEAKER_03 8:01

I did think it was a little bit strange, but you know.

SPEAKER_00 8:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 8:05

I'm just thinking of, you know, you're how old in the 90s, and maybe you had some hippie parents that just came up with some interesting names. I don't know. I wasn't really giving a whole lot of thought to it, but I do think that's pretty cool.

SPEAKER_00 8:18

Yeah. You can throw this movie a bone.

SPEAKER_03 8:20

Yeah, I'll throw it a bone. I mean, it was interesting until it wasn't. You know what I mean? That's kind of how I feel about it. And I think that despite all of that, the most surprising thing for me was how engaged that this movie keeps you, at least in the first like two acts of this film. It really keeps you engaged in what's going on, despite how low budget and not really great this movie really feels. But the most disappointing part of this film is the way the plot just falls apart in the third act all the way to the end. So you got this really engaging, really interesting, really just intriguing like first act going into the second act, and then the third act to the end, you're just like, what the fuck happened to this film?

SPEAKER_00 9:02

Yeah, it's because this movie really feels like it outstays its welcome. It's like it's running a race, and then all of a sudden you realize that the shoes they're wearing are becoming unlaced, and then they're tripping over themselves at the finish line, and it gets really messy. Technically, they finished the race because they collapsed onto the tape that has to break, but they didn't finish the race cleanly. And I think that's where I struggle with this movie. It was really interesting and then it wasn't, and then it got interesting again, and then it got disappointing, and it was a roller coaster of emotions, and I don't know how much to really discredit the movie for that because it made me feel something, but one thing it never made me feel was fear. I was annoyed most of the time with some of these characters, but at no point did I feel a real sense of threat that could resonate with me past being mildly concerned for some of the people I became moderately invested in.

SPEAKER_03 9:59

Yeah, it did this okay job at trying to build some suspense or tension throughout the film, but it's just not a frightening film, and it didn't do a super great job at it. You've got these little hints of moments throughout the film where you're like kind of suspenseful about what's gonna happen when they go into this next chamber or whatever the hell, right? But then it kind of loses everything because of the way that it delivers and the visuals, or maybe it's the acting, I don't know, maybe it's all of it together because it just doesn't land. It does have that sense of like I feel like hopelessness, maybe the claustrophobia type thing of it all, of just like the fear of being stuck in this cube. How long have you been in there? How long can you be in there? Are you gonna run out of maybe oxygen at some point, right? They kind of leave that. They don't really talk about that stuff, but they do leave that lingering in the back of your mind as you watch the film progress. But this is definitely not anything that's gonna keep you up at night. It's not gonna keep the lights on after you watch this film. It's not a super frightening film. It feels a lot more sci-fi than it does horror, but I know it's a sci-fi horror, you know, but it feels a lot more sci-fi.

SPEAKER_00 11:06

It really does, which is why it's so sad for me that Mac isn't here to really soak this up. I felt like this is one that he really would have appreciated. But let me tell you, I think one of the things that stands out to me the most is how this movie is wildly unfrightening and unin and not intimidating at all. And yet you look at the movies that come after it who take a page out of its book, and those have moments of suspense. Those have those they have moments of of tension and fear. And maybe it's because it's these characters in their own existence that we have to really contend with. Whereas, okay, I'll give you an example. There's a quote in the movie Does anybody remember how they got here? Very basic, very straightforward. It feels like a reasonable thing to ask. This isn't spoiling anything. But the second that question gets asked, Sean, I think about Saw, the pigface bitch, and the roar and the flashing camera, and I think, well, okay, this could have been scarier.

SPEAKER_03 12:02

Of course, a hundred percent. And that's the thing. Every you're watching this film now. I had never seen it before, never heard about it before. I'm watching it now, and I'm thinking, man, this feels a lot like Saw. It feels like this movie, that movie, whatever. But despite how much you feel like it is that movie, it came out before any of the movies you're thinking of. So you gotta give it credit because it is a unique film with a very unique concept. So it gets that credit, but did it perfect it? No. Did it really set the bar? No. It introduced a really cool concept for cinema, and then other people picked it up and perfected it.

SPEAKER_00 12:39

Yeah. I still think I can appreciate what it does with it. I think to some extent it does set a bar, maybe not the highest bar possible. But one thing that really stands out to me is how I felt about the ending. Because it's not a great ending. I don't feel super about it. I remember at some point being pissed off, which that in itself maybe it's a good ending, because again, it elicits a response from me. But I have some mixed feelings because there's a certain action that happens, there's a certain expiration of someone that absolutely tickles me to no end. I fucking love it. I'm living for it. But then beyond that, I just find the rest of the ending kind of like damn, I did all this for that.

SPEAKER_03 13:23

I can tell you right now, I absolutely hated the ending to this film. I absolutely hated it. The entire film completely fell apart at the end. This ending leaves you with absolutely nothing. I'm just gonna say it it leaves you with nothing. There's no questions answered, there's not even clues or hints to anything that would allow you to piece something together to try to come up with some reason for this insane cube bullshit, right? Despite what happens, who survives, whatever, you get fucking no rhyme or reason. You get no reason for any of this bullshit happening. There's even a character that completely does a 180, and it was just a little bit much for me. It was a little bit much, and I just don't know. Like, I just feel like you have this such this you have this great concept, you've got this great idea that you're putting forth and you're making this movie, and it's so cool, you got me engaged, and then all of a sudden, whatever direction you go in writing this screenplay, it just goes down, it becomes maybe not confusing at the end, it just leaves you with nothing to go off of, and you just kind of feel let down, I guess is maybe the best way to put it, you know what I mean? So absolutely hated the ending to this film.

SPEAKER_00 14:38

Yeah, it's very much giving I'm not mad, I'm just disappointed. And we'll see how that actually impacts our ratings. But before we start scoring this movie, Sean, how would you describe the gore score?

SPEAKER_03 14:50

Well, this movie really started out strong because the first kill, we see some wild shit. Hell, even the second kill is pretty good, and we're gonna talk about that a little bit later when we go through those kills, but after that, it really loses any conviction it really had because it went from high gore potential to mid at best. So this one is getting a low gore score.

SPEAKER_00 15:13

And what about the animal report?

SPEAKER_03 15:15

That's all good. There's no animals up in this cube.

SPEAKER_00 15:18

At the very least. Well, let's go ahead and get into our ratings. Cube, as chosen by our patrons, released in 1997. Was it a hack or a slash? And I think I'll go first here, Sean, just to really surprise no one at all. I have mixed feelings about this one. I feel as though it's ripe for a remake, honestly, and there's a lot here to appreciate, but there's so much of it that left a bad taste in my mouth. And there are moments where it felt like the pacing just dragged way too much for my liking. I'm glad I watched it because I do think it's important in the context of trap-based movies. This movie very much walked so saw, so escape room can run, and I tip my hat to it. I think there's a lot in here that's worthy of a lot of respect. But overall, looking at the sum of all its parts, it's just not something I'm interested in ever revisiting. And listen, maybe at the end of the year I'll retract this. Maybe absence will make the heart grow fonder, and maybe I'll appreciate it a little bit more. But for now, I would say it's uh almost 50-50 split, except for this is a 50.1% hack.

SPEAKER_03 16:26

I think that's fair. I think you're gonna be a little bit nicer than I am, maybe potentially on the scoring aspect here. But the thing that gets me is that this movie is very highly regarded. It's got a good rating, right? I think IMDB has it a high rating. I think user ratings are high. There's a lot of people giving some really great shout-outs to this movie. Hell, I even talked to a couple friends who had seen this movie to my surprise. As soon as I said I was watching the I was watching, I don't know why I want to say the cube. It's just cube. It's because of the cell. It's the cell, it's the cell of it all. But as soon as I said I'm watching cube, they're like, cube? And I'm like, you've seen it? And they're like, hell yeah, I've seen cube and cube two and cube three, and let me tell you this and that, and they're going off. And I'm like, okay, but this one doesn't give you shit. Like it gives you nothing as far as any kind of reason or any kind of resolution, and they're like, Yeah, the second one doesn't either, and then they do this prequel in the third one, and that one's even less, it gives you even less or kind of some bullshit. And I'm like, it's not boding well for me to ever revisit this franchise. So I'm not excited for the next two installments in this, but let me tell you, this movie really had a lot of potential. It did, it had a lot of potential. It started out extremely strong with a stunning visual, a captivating premise. It had all of that, and then it was spoiled with bad acting and terrible writing. The way they ended this film, giving you literally nothing, was a major, major letdown. I know I talk about less is more a lot on here, but this was literally nothing. And it sucks because the first half of the movie kept me engaged and it was thought-provoking enough for me to be really invested in seeing how this escape attempt progressed. Even trying to figure it all out with this crazy number game and the math of it all, but then they make this drastic turn with one character, and it all just starts to feel like it unravels into mediocrity. It just literally, it's like you've got like this great birthday present, it's this huge box, it's got this nice wrapping, a big boat, you're undoing it, and then you open the box and it's like a pair of socks. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00 18:35

Oh no, not the socks!

SPEAKER_03 18:38

Yeah, like that's what it that's what this movie this is like giving you a shitty birthday present. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00 18:44

They're not even good socks, they're like dress socks.

SPEAKER_03 18:47

Yeah, dress socks or some bullshit, shitty cheap socks. I don't know, but it's not a horrible movie. That's the thing. It's not a horrible movie, but it's definitely not a good movie. And if you're gonna be dumb, you better be tough. And this movie wasn't tough enough for me, so it's a hack.

SPEAKER_00 19:04

Well, there you have it, folks, with that tantalizing score, Cube from 1997. Sorry, patrons, has earned a universal hack. Now you can find this movie streaming online. You can check it on Tubi, or you can check the link in our show notes to see where you can find it right now. Either way, check it out, then join us in the second half so we can solve this cube together. See you in a bit.

SPEAKER_03 19:32

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SPEAKER_00 22:14

Oh, absolutely. My favorite kill is the Casey Becker of this movie. Okay. In 1996, Drew Barrymore did her best Drew Barrymore and got got at the beginning of the scream. Yeah. For one year later, this guy to get gotten cube.

SPEAKER_02 22:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:28

It's inspired. It's a vision, honestly. I really enjoyed this because it actually set a high bar for me of what this movie could be. And then the movie fucking failed to deliver every other fucking step of the way. We get the first two kills, and all of a sudden, it's not the rooms that are trapped, it's the people. The real trap of the movie is Quentin being a fucking maniac.

SPEAKER_03 22:50

For sure. No, a hundred percent. And we're gonna talk about Quentin later because that dude was just over the top from his acting to the way he just completely switched around his character towards the third act. But yeah, that first kill, Alderson's death or whatever, gotta be top for sure. Because one, it was the sickest kill. Like getting literally sliced into different pieces of cubes yourself is amazing. Cool little visual for the 90s. We love it, right? And what's cool about this kill is that it's all practical effects.

SPEAKER_00 23:26

Okay. This is actually very wild to me because I thought when the wire is revealed at the end, it looked like a little bit of CGI action. Impressive that it's not.

SPEAKER_03 23:38

Well the wire, the wire, I don't know, but the kill itself.

SPEAKER_00 23:42

Like the disemb disassembly of him?

SPEAKER_03 23:44

The disassembly of him was all practical effects. The wire, maybe at the end, because that did kind of look a little wonky.

SPEAKER_00 23:51

It was giving Silent Hill Revelation.

SPEAKER_03 23:53

It was giving, yeah, it was giving Silent Hill Revelation. It was giving maybe what's the it was it even Resident Evil with the lasers, you know what I mean? It was giving that kind of vibe for sure, obviously.

SPEAKER_01 24:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 24:04

But I just really love some good hard work. You know what I mean? When you put in the practical effects, just looks so good. You know what I mean? But this kill was giving that Papa Roach song, Cut My Life in Two Pieces.

SPEAKER_00 24:17

This is my last suffocation.

SPEAKER_03 24:21

No breathing, yeah. To a whole new meaning. It really gave that song a whole new meaning for sure.

SPEAKER_00 24:27

Absolutely incredible. What a fucking throwback. Actually, when did Last Resort come out as a song? Late 90s, early 2000s?

SPEAKER_03 24:34

It's it's right in there somewhere for sure. I I want to say late 90s because I feel like it was even I was in middle school when that came out.

SPEAKER_00 24:42

So fucking incredible. Yeah, honestly, best kill of the movie all around. But also, can we talk about how embarrassing it is for the next guy?

SPEAKER_03 24:51

Uh Ren?

SPEAKER_00 24:52

You're supposed to be so good at this, and yet here we are, you fumbled.

SPEAKER_03 24:57

Yeah. The cocky escape artist. He was just like, you know, sticking his nose in the air, but shit doesn't stink. He's really just kind of telling everybody how it is. I'm the escape artist. You guys, I don't have to work with you, that kind of thing. And as soon as he had that whole elaborate speech, man, it really took a turn for the worst for that gentleman. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00 25:18

Congratulations, you played yourself.

SPEAKER_03 25:20

Yeah, but another great kill. The whole acid to the face thing, and just getting to see the face slowly melt into this gaping hole. Ooh, that was good. That was good.

SPEAKER_00 25:32

I felt like they were trying to set some stakes there.

SPEAKER_03 25:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:37

Hey, he is a professional and even he can get fucked. But yeah, I don't know. It still didn't somehow sell me on the stakes of it all. Maybe it would have felt more intense had we killed a few more people with fucking traps.

SPEAKER_03 25:50

Yeah. It's yeah, the whole trap of it all only went so far. You know what I mean? I feel like we learned early on how to progress through the chambers of this cube without really any danger. They figured that part out, I think, fairly quickly, which to me is kind of a letdown. Let's get down to like two or three people. You know what I mean? Let's see like at least three, maybe four traps and some brutal kills. Let's give us that for the at least the first half of the movie, and then we can start to see some people figure some shit out and maybe survive. You know what I mean? There was an opportunity there to give us a little bit more gore, you know?

SPEAKER_00 26:28

Yeah. But instead, what did we get? We got fucking Scar and Mufasa when Quentin drops Holloway down this fucking edge.

SPEAKER_03 26:36

Yeah, man.

SPEAKER_00 26:38

Ska, my brother, help me.

SPEAKER_03 26:41

It truly was that. Long live the king.

SPEAKER_00 26:44

Get the fuck out of here, bro. Get the fuck out of here.

SPEAKER_03 26:48

It truly was that. I didn't even oh, at that time I didn't even think about that, but it's so true.

SPEAKER_00 26:53

It's all I could think about. It's all I could fucking think about.

SPEAKER_03 26:57

It's so true. Man.

SPEAKER_00 26:59

Down to like the pretending to help, and then to just look, and then the realization between the two of them. It's kind of like the Spider-Man meme. Like, I know what you're about to do. Do you know what I'm about to do? What the fuck? Bomb. Done.

SPEAKER_03 27:12

That was a pivotal moment in Quentin's descent into madness. You know what I mean? It was just the moment he just couldn't take anymore. Listen, what about Levin? You know what I mean? That just was tough.

SPEAKER_00 27:25

Bullshit is what it is. Fuck Quentin. She's out here busting her ass, carrying these men on her fucking back this entire way. She's pulling out the great commentary, the fact that it's not a gift, it's a br it's just a brain. She's really doing the most. And when she could have just walked out of there, she stopped to get worth worthless ass to get fucking come to his senses. Yeah. And she gets stabbed for it. She overcomes Quentin being a fucking sexual predator and still gets stabbed. And that was just really disappointing. If there's one thing that this movie could have done to make me slash it, maybe it's harm Levin, but don't kill her and make her the one that kills Quentin.

SPEAKER_03 28:12

Yeah, that would have been really good. I don't think anyone really wanted to see Levin die. And maybe that's the film was trying to do this whole impactful moment where it's like, haha, you're not gonna get this final girl moment or whatever with Levin, and that's what we wanted. And maybe it kinda got there, but it just it was more of a letdown than anything. It didn't impact me in that way. It wasn't like gut wrenching, it was just kind of like, really, you're gonna take Levin out, you know what I mean? And that's the whole thing, guys. This is why you just don't go back for people. You just keep on going. Fuck them. If they don't want to leave, if they don't want to go, if they can't make it on their own, this is the whole thing, they gotta go. I I said it one of the last recordings we did. We're doing a lot my wife and I were binge watching Walking Dead again, going through it. We're now at the end of season seven. It's really a lot of Walking Dead. I feel like I hear walkers in my sleep. And and let me tell you, when they say sometimes people aren't gonna make it, you know what I mean? And you just gotta move on, that's a reality in life. All right, sometimes people aren't gonna make it and you gotta move on. If you want to survive, you gotta keep on trucking.

SPEAKER_00 29:25

Wow. So you're just saying if Levin was on the Sean program, her ass would still be here.

SPEAKER_03 29:32

A hundred percent. A hundred percent. If Levin was on the Sean program and just said, fuck you worth, I'm moving on. You can be, you can sit here and sulk and deal with whatever emotional bullshit you got going on in your head. I'm out of here, then bam, you're alive.

SPEAKER_00 29:50

Fucking hysterical. Absolutely hysterical. But you know what? Maybe she should have. I'm not always here for the Sean program, but I am here for the program that allows Levin to live. Because she was the only thing worth saving in this fucking movie. Actually, no, she wasn't the only thing. I would think our last three survivors apart from Quentin, I'd be okay if they all lived. Worth I get him not wanting to exist beyond this prison since he helped make it, sure, whatever. But at least he did the right thing and stepped up in those key moments. But let me tell you, no death was more satisfying emotionally, that is, than Quentin's death.

SPEAKER_03 30:27

For sure. Quentin's death was super satisfying. The only thing that could have made Quentin's death more satisfying is if we got to see more of that death. You know what I mean? That was a missed opportunity. I think it's really cool how he was killed, like holding him in between that last chamber of the cube and the you know, the inner shell or the outer shell or whatever the hell we're looking at, and then the cube inside starts to move around, and like him just getting crushed and annihilated in between that really cool way to go. And I like the little blood smear we get on the inner the inner shell walls. Like a little garnish, like a little garnish on a plate, very well done. Chef's kiss, but I want to see the carnage after that. Like I want to see what's happening there.

SPEAKER_00 31:13

Yeah, because here's my struggle now. The reason why he dies isn't just because worth is holding him, it's because of his own pride and ego. Because he could have felt what was happening, and he could have at any point made the decision to fall back into that previous cube.

SPEAKER_02 31:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 31:30

But instead, he kept trying to pull forward, he kept trying to resist.

SPEAKER_03 31:35

Right.

SPEAKER_00 31:35

And that's what got him killed. Now, let's think about this. Strike it, reverse it. Let's think about Levin living, and let's think about her and this other gentleman right on the outside, worth holding Quentin, Levin holding Quentin, and then together they tear him apart. That'd be fucking incredible.

SPEAKER_03 31:53

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 31:54

Wow, I just made your movie better, and that's crazy.

SPEAKER_03 31:57

That see, that would have been crazy for sure. That would have been much better. That would have been much better for sure. So then I guess there's a couple of questions here, right? I put Worth on the kill count because it's implied that this motherfucker dies in the cube, but could he not have just waited for this thing to move around back to the bridge and then got out eventually? Or was he like gonna just die from injury, or was he, you know, what's going on there?

SPEAKER_00 32:27

Such a great question, Sean. I think practically could he have waited for the reset? Sure. Also, how many days has it been? It it takes a couple days for this entire prison to make a rotation. They don't have any food or water.

SPEAKER_03 32:40

Oh, that's true.

SPEAKER_00 32:42

So there's that at some point he's gonna die just from that capacity.

SPEAKER_03 32:46

That's true.

SPEAKER_00 32:46

But that in addition to that, this means we'd have to watch a sequel, and I'm not trying to fuck with it.

SPEAKER_03 32:51

Well, we may eventually get to a sequel, unfortunately, but but will they answer those questions? From what I hear, probably not. Don't hold your breath.

SPEAKER_00 33:05

Oh, great. So no skeleton worth with skeleton levin and skeleton quentin leg in one room.

SPEAKER_03 33:13

Who knows? I really don't know. We'll find out, I guess, one day, but whenever that comes, we'll see. But the other question is okay, what happens when you get to this exit? Like, we don't even get to see what the outside looks like. Are you just on in the middle or the top of this giant cube? And is it just a straight shot down? Can you get out of there? Or is it a catch 22? And are you just stuck in that little whatever hallway that leads to a cliff, if you will?

SPEAKER_00 33:42

You want to know the fucked up part? It was filmed. We know what it looks like, but the director fucking cut it, and it was the first thing he cut for runtime in the editing room.

SPEAKER_03 33:51

Of course. Cut it the fuck out because why does the audience need to know shit?

SPEAKER_00 33:56

Cut it out.

SPEAKER_03 33:57

Why do we need to know anything? Cut out all the important information and then give us whatever. That's great. Good shit.

SPEAKER_00 34:05

Here, is this what we want? Get rid of it. Who fucking cares?

SPEAKER_03 34:10

That's like, oh my god, that's like, oh yeah, this is this is just supporting, you know, the roof. I'm just gonna knock this wall down. No big deal.

SPEAKER_00 34:17

Yeah, this whole fucking support beam. No, no, who needs it?

SPEAKER_03 34:20

That's cool. We'll really open this house up, you know?

SPEAKER_00 34:23

Yeah, fuck it, skylight.

SPEAKER_03 34:25

Absolutely ridiculous.

SPEAKER_00 34:27

It is fucking ridiculous. Almost as ridiculous as some of the way this movie looks, honestly. And here's the thing, Sean. A few things that are excessive in this movie. One, the sound of this man's breathing in the very beginning of this film. What the fuck was happening here? We see him die a really gruesome death, but I dare say his breathing was more gruesome than his actual death. It was so intimate. I heard that shit in my ears.

SPEAKER_02 34:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:55

Didn't love that. Second, what I mentioned earlier, a very deep depth of field with using a very narrow aperture. Everything is in focus in this movie, and I fucking hate it. I need some depth. I don't want everything to be so sharp in focus because it is not how we actually see things. We don't see things perfectly in focus all the time. And so I think that is supposed to psychologically have some kind of influence on us and make us feel a certain way where we're watching this movie. The only thing it makes me feel is pissed off and like it's poor technical execution. The third thing, the camera had some quick whips and pans. Wasn't a fan of it.

SPEAKER_03 35:33

Yeah. I can tell you right now what my least favorite element of this film was, and it was the horrendous score for this movie because there was this one ridiculous recurring song with the whole like whatever the fuck was going on with that song. It was every time it came up, I'm like, what the fuck is this song? And why is it here?

SPEAKER_00 35:56

Damn.

SPEAKER_03 35:57

Why is it here?

SPEAKER_00 35:58

I couldn't even be bothered by the song.

SPEAKER_03 36:00

Oh, how could you not be bothered by the song? It was so strange and out of place and off-putting and weird. I was too bothered by the rest of the fucking movie, Sean. You know? Give me the ominous, menacing, mechanical hum. That's cool. But this song, the whole whatever the hell is going on in it, no, I'm not here for it. I did really enjoy what they did with the practical effects in this movie. I just wish that they were able to carry that effort through the entirety of the film. But they didn't. It's like they just only had the budget for a couple of really cool things, and then they were just like, okay, well, we just gotta work with what we got here and hope for the best.

SPEAKER_00 36:42

So Yeah, sorry guys, our funding fell through. Some of you might not get paid. Guess we can't kill everyone with the trap.

SPEAKER_01 36:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 36:49

Here's what I did love though.

SPEAKER_01 36:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 36:52

I loved the coloring of the rooms, specifically the red rooms.

SPEAKER_03 36:56

Sure. Mm-hmm. Do you like red? You got red in your room, you know?

SPEAKER_00 37:00

My room is very square. So if I turned on my cube lights right now, they would absolut I would be in the red room. I'd be fucking in my death trap right now.

SPEAKER_03 37:10

And I I know I can get down with any of those. Give me a blue room, a purple room. It's all good. It just depends on the mood, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00 37:17

Okay, so you could have a little purple prison cell then, and you'd be fine with that. You'd just be fucking great. I'm here, I'm live, let's do it.

SPEAKER_03 37:24

Yeah, I'd be vibing. Let's chill.

SPEAKER_00 37:26

Yeah, no need to move forward, guys. We'll just wait right here.

SPEAKER_03 37:30

Yeah, now, despite the shirt that I'm wearing right now, which is yellow, yellow is is probably one of my least favorite colors. It's not like I have a pure hatred for yellow, but if you put me in a yellow room, it's probably gonna be not so great for me.

SPEAKER_00 37:43

Well, yellow feels like the fucking color of psychopaths. Why would anybody like that shit?

SPEAKER_03 37:47

Yeah, that's true.

SPEAKER_00 37:48

Considering the prison cells, I think my favorite scene in this movie has to be when they fucking finally turn the tables on Quentin and they thrust the door and the hatch up on his throat. And also I feel like if they had all just committed to this action, they could have decapitated him right then and there. But I digress. But they're running through these cells, and then Quentin runs right over one while Worth opens it up and he falls straight through. Absolutely loved that. It was giving, in some ways, a Scooby-Doo chase.

SPEAKER_03 38:25

Kind of, yeah. I can see that for sure. I have a favorite scene and a worse scene, so I'm gonna go through those. And my favorite scene is that opening scene where the film opens up and you get the close-up. They're both close-up scenes, mind you, but this one, my favorite one, the close-up on Alderson's eye. You got the close-up on the eye, it's a stunning visual that was just being introduced to this cube. And you're looking at this eye, and you look at the eye, and it's like, wow, this is a really crazy looking eye. What's going on here? And then you realize that it's just the eye looking at the abstract shape and angles of this room, and it's just a really cool visual to behold. And just that one opening scene right there, just fading from like the close-up on the eye and fading or panning out and just revealing what where this person is was really cool. It was really cool. It was a great way to open the film.

SPEAKER_00 39:18

It was really aesthetically pleasing, and that's why, again, I say this whole opening scene really sets a high bar for the rest of the movie, and then it just does some dumb shit from there.

SPEAKER_03 39:29

It does, it does, including my worst scene of this entire film, which was that montage of watching Levin do math, watching Levin do math and getting that Blair Witch close-up on her eyes or her face. Oh my gosh. What was going on with that scene? And maybe it was because it was backed by that god-awful song again, because that whole time it was the ta-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da. What the fuck? I didn't need to see it.

SPEAKER_00 40:00

All we needed was a little bit of snot.

SPEAKER_03 40:02

Yeah, just a little bit of snot.

SPEAKER_00 40:04

And a little bit of breathing, a little bit of apologizing for bringing us all here. It's my fault. I didn't mean it. What the fuck? What the fuck, Levin? But also, how did you have enough room to fucking calculate all this shit? Like she had less room than I have on this fucking card. And if I start writing some shit on there, I am quickly running out of space. And I think I can be very efficient with my handwriting.

SPEAKER_03 40:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 40:32

But that's just fucking crazy. No way.

SPEAKER_03 40:34

That's a tough one.

SPEAKER_00 40:35

No how.

SPEAKER_03 40:36

I have no idea how she did what she did.

SPEAKER_00 40:39

And she's doing it with a fucking coin or some shit?

SPEAKER_03 40:41

It was like a button, wasn't it? Was it a coin or a button?

SPEAKER_00 40:44

Who fucking knows, bro?

SPEAKER_03 40:46

They were all s what but they were all sucking on buttons. What the fuck is going on with these button suckers, dude? The whole film, everyone's got something in their mouth, dude. Buttons. Yeah. So strange.

SPEAKER_00 40:55

I guess this is how they're fucking hydrating themselves, huh? Sucking on to keep the saliva in.

SPEAKER_03 41:00

Keep this keep the saliva flowing. Just suck on it. There it is. I'm pretty sure that was the whole context of the whole thing.

SPEAKER_00 41:08

Oh, I hate it. I hate it so much.

SPEAKER_03 41:11

Yeah. But I don't know how they etched math into the metal walls with a button, but hey, it happened. It doesn't explain anything else, so why would they explain that?

SPEAKER_00 41:21

No, you're absolutely right. At least there was some commitment from the actress who played Levin and really just diving into that shit. It's even funnier because apparently she flunked math in school.

SPEAKER_03 41:34

Ah, perfect. Perfect. I love it so much. How great is that? You get to act like you know math, but you really don't know math.

SPEAKER_00 41:43

Exactly. I would look just as confused, darling. It can't happen. I will say that she did grow on me throughout the rest of the movie. Now, when Quinton first encounters her and he tells her to sharp, he tells her to stop very suddenly, and she stops very suddenly, almost like red light, green light, and a bunch of kids playing that game. I thought it was overacting in the very beginning. But the longer the movie went, the more I felt like she was growing on me as both a character and as an actress.

SPEAKER_03 42:12

Yeah, she grew on me too. There were some moments where I feel like she got a little bit too cocky as the film progressed, as she was like starting to figure out the prime numbers and the equations and the logistics of this cube. And that's cool, but she really got ahead of herself in some moments. And, you know, that's okay. We're all human, I guess, right? But it didn't ruin the character for me. There were just some moments where she got a little bit too ahead of herself and too confident, but overall, probably one of the one of the few characters that you actually really cared about as the film progressed. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00 42:48

For sure. And I don't even mind her cockiness because honestly, if I was a fucking math wizard, I would have been really excited about this too. When else is my niche understanding of math gonna be fucking relevant in a life or death situation.

SPEAKER_03 43:02

It finally came to fruition.

SPEAKER_00 43:04

In the most critical moment.

SPEAKER_03 43:06

Yeah. All of those years of just mathing and wondering and asking your teachers, what am I gonna use this for in the real world? Well, folks, there may be a day that you get thrown into some giant ass fucking cube and you have to do this crazy ass math to get yourself out. You just never know. And that's a life lesson.

SPEAKER_00 43:29

Absolutely fucking wild.

SPEAKER_03 43:30

But let's talk about Quentin. I think we have to talk about Quentin because, first of all, overacting from the start to the end, and we're not even talking about his character turn into just a madman, but even at the beginning of the film, just the overacting, his facial expressions, everything just felt over the top and just way too cheesy for me. His eyes were always just like wide and crazy. You know what I mean? He was just Always just way too invested and way too hyped for whatever was going on and too intense. He was too intense for everything. Why was he so intense?

SPEAKER_00 44:08

Dude, I don't fucking know. It's honestly just mind-blowing because I feel like it was an intensity that this movie didn't need, but then also I felt like it was maybe trying to ratchet up the tension. Like I was supposed to be more intimidated about the situation.

SPEAKER_02 44:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 44:23

But that intensity was very fucking present even when things were kind of chill in the beginning.

SPEAKER_03 44:28

Yeah, that's what I'm saying. I can see okay, his character he loses it a little bit, right? And he descends into mandice, he becomes unhinged, whatever you want to call it, and he now becomes the antagonist, right? Inside of this cube, and that's cool, but it was it just felt weird, and he it felt like he was already almost there from the moment that we were introduced to his character by the way he was giving off. And I don't know if that's you know, I don't know if that's a fault of the script or if that's a fault of the actor. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00 44:59

Yeah. It's honestly it's the way that his eyes got really big and his eyebrows got really furrowed. It felt again like overacting.

SPEAKER_03 45:10

It was overacting, a hundred percent. It was overacting.

SPEAKER_00 45:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 45:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 45:14

Hate it. Absolutely fucking hate it. The more unhinged he becomes, the more the movie goes on, the more I hate him. But also, is that something that compels me more towards feeling something for this movie? That's what I'm having trouble deciphering and understanding. And this is, I think, partially why I want to see a remake of this movie, because I feel like a better performance in this arena could make Quentin a more interesting character.

SPEAKER_03 45:42

I'm here for the remake. I think if somebody can pick this up and redo it, redevelop these characters, rewrite this thing with a little bit more depth, some better visuals, maybe some more kills or some better looking kills as the film progresses, and then also just don't leave us hanging on the edge of this cube at the end. I think there is potential for a pretty good remake or reboot for this film. I don't know if that's ever gonna happen, but I'm here for it if it does. I'll give it a fair shake.

SPEAKER_00 46:16

Yeah. If we did that, I'm thinking one, how much better would the set quality be? How much more intense would the acting be? But also, imagine and I can't remember I don't know why I'm thinking about this specifically, Sean, but imagine Evil Dead rise level gore in this fucking movie.

SPEAKER_03 46:35

Whoa.

SPEAKER_00 46:36

Wouldn't that be something?

SPEAKER_03 46:37

That would be wild.

SPEAKER_00 46:38

I would fucking love it. I would absolutely fucking love it.

SPEAKER_03 46:41

That would be crazy. Yeah. Holy shit, that would be crazy. We'll see. There's so much potential for what these traps in these rooms could be, could have been, could have done. We've got the room with like all the spikes and stuff that we didn't really get to see do a whole lot. And what other rooms and what other traps were there? I just wanted to see a little bit more. I'm interested to see what other things this cube has in store for people. And maybe we do get to see that in the second and third installments of this franchise, but I would love to dive a little bit deeper into how we can kill more people in more of these chambers.

SPEAKER_00 47:21

Yeah, I would fucking love that. Honestly, the potential of that is what I find to be the best part of this movie. This isn't really a situation in which the movie we get on paper is the best it could have been. I don't think it lives up to everything the movie was capable of giving us. But I think the fact that I'm so interested in what else could lie around the corner, the fact that I'm considering what other traps could exist, who else could be trapped in this prison, why does this prison exist? I think the potential of that is a really promising thing, which is why it's so disappointing to hear that the rest of the franchise doesn't live up to that either.

SPEAKER_03 48:02

And who's to say, right? We haven't seen it. I'm going off of word of mouth and take it for what it's worth, but I'm with you. The best part of this movie being the premise or the overall concept is probably the best part of the film hands down. I think the fact that these random people are stuck in this cube trap, you know, I could see it. This whole philosophical experiment about human behaviors or whatever. Like, I get that underlying meaning. Like I get that that is there. It just didn't really dive into the whys behind why that's there. That's really the troubling part for me. This whole don't think about anything that's not right in front of you thing is kind of a cool concept. The fact that these seemingly random individuals are most likely very intentional. Everything is very intentional. It feels like Saw, but it predates Saw, and I get the whole people turning on people out of distrust or fear or desperation. But man, the acting was so bad and and too over the top to be taken seriously, and I just couldn't buy into it at a certain point. But I think the concept was just really cool, and I wish they did more with it.

SPEAKER_00 49:11

Yeah, I do wish they did more, and I think that's exactly why I'm not gonna ever watch this fucking movie again, man.

SPEAKER_03 49:19

Yeah, plain and simple.

SPEAKER_00 49:20

Yeah, no, plain and simple. I'm just not gonna fucking do it. Maybe in the short-term near future, I might explore the others for shits and giggles if I'm desperate, but I don't think I have enough time to be desperate, to be honest. But I don't think this is one I ever really care to re-watch, unless Mac really wants to watch it for some reason, because I feel like he'll give me a special appreciation.

SPEAKER_03 49:42

Oh man. I just hope it's not a rewind because there's just no need. I I don't think I'll find myself ever re-watching this one again, but I do obviously know that there is the sequel from the early 2000s. However, we also know that early 2000s horror isn't the best horror out there, so it's not boding well for the sequel. And then we have the third installment somewhere in the mix that's maybe I I don't know what year, maybe in the mid-2000s, something like that, but it's supposed to be this prequel type thing, maybe an origin story from what I'm told, but doesn't really give you much of what this film did. So you're still there's still no answers for this film here. And so even if I did watch those other ones down the road, I don't know. I'm definitely not watching this again. Even if I felt like I didn't remember everything from this film, it wouldn't even matter because none of the answers are there. So fuck it. That's what it's giving. Fuck it.

SPEAKER_00 50:37

Fuck it indeed. Not this movie in its entire franchise being in the exact sweet spot of years of movies I don't give a fuck about in horror.

SPEAKER_03 50:46

It is. It's in that it's in that bucket for sure.

SPEAKER_00 50:48

It's a small window, guys. It's a real small window. I love a lot of shit. This is a very find a needle in the haystack in the era of movies that Chris Rojas doesn't like. And yet here we are. But there you have it, folks. Cube from 1997 as chosen by our patrons, so sorry to break your hearts. For now, for Sean and I, it's earned a universal hack. We've certainly had a robust discussion here, but the conversation doesn't end here by any means because we want to know what you think. Could you escape the cube? Let us know. You can join in on the conversation by hanging out with us for free over in our Discord. Click the link in our show notes to sign up.

SPEAKER_03 51:24

And if you've enjoyed trying to find the meaning of this cube with us, consider becoming one of our patrons. Visit patreon.com slash hackerslash to enjoy more of the show with early access, extended episodes, bonus content, and live shows.

SPEAKER_00 51:39

We'll see you next time, folks. And remember, you have no idea where your tax dollars go.

SPEAKER_03 51:44

Well, I guess that means we're not having dinner.