Cube (1997)
12-month trend
12-month trend
Monthly article views
2025-09 to 2026-08
Seven individuals must navigate a deadly, labyrinthine maze of cube-shaped rooms where every turn could lead to a lethal trap.
The story
A man named Alderson awakens in a room with hatches leading to other rooms, where he is immediately killed by a hidden trap. Shortly after, five other individuals—including a doctor, a student, and a man who designed the maze's shell—find themselves in the same labyrinth. They must navigate a series of cube-shaped rooms, some of which contain deadly mechanisms triggered by motion, pressure, or sound. As they attempt to find a way out, the group faces internal tensions and the constant threat of the environment, trying to decipher the logic of the maze's construction while surviving the deadly traps hidden within each room.
Full plot (contains spoilers)
After Alderson is killed by a wire trap, five others—Quentin, Rennes, Worth, Leaven, and Holloway—meet in a room. They discover that the maze is composed of 17,576 rooms. Worth reveals he designed the outer shell, and the group begins to decode the room numbers to avoid traps. They encounter Kazan, a mentally disabled savant. As they progress, they realize the rooms are moving, shifting the location of the exit. Tension peaks when Quentin's aggression leads to several confrontations. They eventually reach the 'bridge' to the outside. In the final confrontation, Quentin stabs Leaven and Worth. As the bridge moves, it tears Quentin in half, and Kazan is the only one to emerge into the light.
- First release year
- 1997
- Runtime (minutes)
- 90
- Original languages
- English
- Directors
- Vincenzo Natali
- Writers
- André Bijelic · writer; Graeme Manson · writer; Vincenzo Natali · writer
- Cast and characters
- Nicole de Boer · Joan Leaven; Nicky Guadagni · Dr. Helen Holloway; David Hewlett · David Worth; Andrew Miller · Kazan; Julian Richings · Alderson; Wayne Robson · Rennes; Maurice Dean Wint · Quentin McNeil
- Genres
- science fiction; horror
- Themes
- futility; betrayal of trust
- Tone and mood
- surreal; Kafkaesque; tense
- Premise and plot tags
- maze; survival; mystery
- Franchise connections
- Cube
- Reception
- The film received generally positive reviews and gained notoriety for its surreal and Kafkaesque setting.
- Awards and nominations
- Best Canadian First Feature Film · Toronto International Film Festival · 1997 · win; Jury Award · Brussels International Festival of Fantasy Film · 1997 · win
- Production trivia
- The film's set was designed to be used as many times as possible to save costs.; The film's set was a 'weird fusion between sci-fi and the guerrilla-style approach to filmmaking'.
Film metadata comes from the open sources listed in Credits & Contact. Catalogue details may be incomplete.
Your lists
Loading your lists…