the Cube
The Cube is a massive cubical structure composed of many near-identical, cube-shaped rooms that form a high-tech labyrinth with various deadly traps set throughout it. While each film features a different Cube with a different purpose, hazards and rules, they all follow the basic scenario of a group of individuals snatched from their daily lives and trapped in the Cube, forcing them to figure out how it works so they can escape with their lives and hopefully their sanity.
Cube (1997) - Basics
- Each room leads to its six adjacent rooms through automatic doors. (source)
- Doors can be reached by climbing bars lined throughout the room. (source)
- The Cube is covered by an outer shell separated by a dark abyss. (source)
- The Cube is 26 rooms tall x 26 rooms long, equaling a total of 17,576 rooms. (source)
- The rooms periodically shift throughout the Cube. (source)
- A single room acts as a bridge out of the Cube during its original position. (source)
- Each room is labeled by a nine-digit number that marks its position in the Cube using Cartesian coordinates. (source)
- These numbers indicate which room is trapped; trapped rooms are identified by numbers that are the power of a prime. (source)
- Initially believed trapped rooms can be identified by prime numbers. (source)
- Each test subject possesses a skill that contributes to the group’s survival and escape, including a doctor, police officer, escape artist, math student, architect, and savant. (source)
Cube (1997) - Traps
- Most traps use motion detectors, allowing captives to preemptively reveal them by chucking boots from the safety of the door. (source)
- Some traps detect the presence of humans through other means. (source)
- A razor-wire net springs down from the ceiling and dices a victim. (source)
- A trap that almost chopped a victim’s head off. (source)
- Flamethrowers torch anything that enters the room. (source)
- An unseen trap reacts to hydrogen sulfide using molecular chemical sensors. (source)
- A hose sprays corrosive acid that eats away at a victim’s face within seconds. (source)
- A column of razor wires surrounds a victim then joins together. (source)
- Spikes project from every wall in response to sound, except for the noise made by the room’s doors. (source)
Cube²: Hypercube - Basics
- The Cube is a tesseract or hypercube created for quantum teleportation experiments. (source)
- All rooms are identical in appearance and do not have numerical markers. (source)
- Test subjects are connected to the IZON corporation, including military, engineers, physicists, mathematicians, employees, investigators, game designers, lawyers, and operatives; they retain their original clothing. (source)
- The Cube is unstable, causing various effects to merge into a single space until it implodes. (source)
- A recurring number indicates the exact time the Cube will implode, allowing escape. (source)
Cube²: Hypercube - Gravitational Effects
- A victim gets pulled up to the ceiling upon entering a room. (source)
- A victim gets pulled to the other side of the room, requiring others to form a rope from clothes to rescue another. (source)
- Two victims are suspended mid-air during intercourse. (source)
- Gravity is reversed between two rooms, making the other appear upside down. (source)
Cube²: Hypercube - Spatial Effects
- A victim approaches the same room from different sides in quick succession. (source)
- A victim spends hours wandering the same three rooms before finding a fourth. (source)
- The room a victim faces changes when the door closes. (source)
- Three rooms in a row loop, causing a victim to re-enter the room from the opposite side. (source)
Cube²: Hypercube - Temporal Effects
- A victim sees herself in another room from two different points in time. (source)
- Time progresses differently between rooms, causing one victim to see another in slow-motion while the other sees super-fast movement. (source)
- Two victims rapidly age to death during intercourse. (source)
- A victim stabs another in the eye, then immediately meets him years older with the wound healed. (source)
- In an alternate ending, the victim was inside the Cube for only 6 minutes and 59 seconds from the outside perspective. (source)
Cube²: Hypercube - Parallel Universes
- A victim sees herself being stabbed to death by another in a parallel universe. (source)
- A copy of a wristwatch from an alternate reality is found. (source)
- A victim crosses parallel universes, encountering different versions of another and collecting multiple copies of the same watch. (source)
- A victim finds the hanging and decomposed corpse of a previously rescued subject. (source)
- A victim enters a reality where all test subjects have long died in the same room. (source)
Cube²: Hypercube - Traps
- An energy wall that deteriorates anything it touches passes from one end of the room to the other. (source)
- A miniature tesseract forms out of thin air in response to movement, growing to shred a victim; ceasing movement dispels it. (source)
- Crystals protrude from the wall and can decapitate people. (source)
Cube: Zero - Basics
- Each room is marked by three letters that serve as coordinates. (source)
- The Cube is 25 rooms tall x 25 rooms long with two rooms that move around the perimeter. (source)
- Test subjects volunteer for psychological experiments but some are imprisoned unwillingly as political dissenters. (source)
- Test subjects have their minds wiped upon entry, though some retain memories. (source)
- Test subjects are implanted with trackers for monitoring. (source)
- The Cube can be entered from the control room using an elevator. (source)
- There may be more than one Cube. (source)
Cube: Zero - Manipulating the Cube
- Hidden cameras monitor the test subjects. (source)
- Operators melt letters in adjoining rooms to prevent navigation. (source)
- Operators isolate subjects by surrounding their room with trapped rooms. (source)
- Operators cause electric arcs to shoot across the room corners to execute subjects, but it is sabotaged. (source)
- The Cube can be shut down to disable traps, realign rooms, and allow 10 minutes for escape before vaporization. (source)
- A robotic arm wipes a subject’s mind and uploads memories. (source)
- The control panel activates a subject’s biochip to make them attack others. (source)
Cube: Zero - Traps
- Most traps have motion sensors while a few are triggered by other stimuli. (source)
- Hoses spray a liquid that breaks down tissue and melts a victim. (source)
- A victim lost two fingers in an unseen trap. (source)
- Razor wires wrap around and dismember a victim. (source)
- At the exit, a victim is suspended in chains, questioned, and incinerated if answering incorrectly. (source)
- Pipes spray freezing blasts that make objects brittle and shatter. (source)
- A floor-based syringe injects a contagious flesh-eating virus that spreads on contact. (source)
- Speakers emit high-frequency noise that liquefies a victim in seconds. (source)
- Flamethrowers torch anything that enters. (source)
- Spikes protrude from the walls. (source)
- A frame of razor-sharp wires slices anything that enters. (source)
- A room with spikes on walls is entered but deactivated, function unknown. (source)
Cube (2021) - Basics
- Each room contains semi-automatic doors that may not allow access. (source)
- The Cube is made up of 26x26 rooms that move around the structure, with one boundary room leading to the exit. (source)
- Each room is marked with a nine-digit number indicating position via Cartesian coordinates and trapped if prime. (source)
- An android disguised as a captive monitors subjects and triggers traps and effects even in non-prime rooms. (source)
Cube (2021) - Traps
- Sharp cuboids project from the wall. (source)
- Flamethrowers activate. (source)
- Spears fire from all sides. (source)
- Bladed fans lower from the ceiling. (source)
- Sound-activated saws rush across the room. (source)
- Toxic gas spews from the walls. (source)
- Dual turrets lock onto targets and fire deadly lasers. (source)
- Metallic tendrils impale people and branch off into more tendrils. (source)