History Film / Cube

* KillerCop: [[spoiler: What Quentin reveals to be, as he introduces himself as a beat cop in life, but becomes a murderer when he's had enough. Assuming he was telling the truth about being a cop...]]

* HumansAreBastards: The film repeatedly rams this point home while intertwining it with HumansAreMorons as the entire reason why the Cube exists in the first place. The Cube is apparently the result of a bureaucratic mix-up with separate agencies all working on different parts of the structure and putting people in it without knowing about each other's existence then being too dumb to actually just get rid of the Cube. Everyone is part of and uphold a broken system run by incompetent and uncaring stooges and are so content to go about their lives they never question it. The revelation essentially destroys Holloway's ConspiracyTheorist mindset and puts Quentin through SanitySlippage. Both end up chewed out by Leaven and Worth for their ignorance.

* IdiotBall: Holloway continuing to insult and argue with Quentin after the point it has become blatantly obvious he has become a violent psychopath. Generally speaking, going out of your way to mock such a man is fairly counter-intuitive to your own survival which she unfortunately finds out to her cost.
* IdiotSavant: Kazan, a severely mentally handicapped man who, to the rest of the people trapped in the Cube, is a nuisance at first, constantly banging his head against the walls, making weird honking noises and babbling about gumdrops. But later on it's discovered that he could find the prime factors of huge numbers in his head, and he ends up as their savior.

* InventionalWisdom: Worth believes that the only reason they were put into the Cube was because it had been built, rather than to admit building it was pointless.
* ItCanThink: Applied to a structure instead of a monster, but it still fits the purposes of the trope. The protagonists openly wonder if the Cube is actually watching them and calculating. According to the sequels, there are human operators.

* DisabilitySuperpower: Kazan is revealed to be an autistic savant, low-functioning in most situations but also to factorize prime power series nearly instantly in his head.
* DomesticAbuse: [[spoiler: It's implied that Quentin's wife left him because of his violent temper and that he was also abusive to his children.]]

* DownerEnding: [[spoiler:Characters are repeatedly set up as heroes in an escape for their lives from a mechanical maze, but they all end up dying or being killed by another character, except for the mentally disabled character. He would be the only person who could sound the alarm or summon help, but would not be able to communicate the situation, assuming he understood it at all.]]
* DramaticDrop: Quentin drops the boot when he finds Rennes' body despite travelling several rooms away from where he died.
* EnclosedSpace: The individual cubical rooms, which in the first movie are no more than 15 feet in diameter on the inside.
* EverythingTryingToKillYou: A good 95% of the rooms and maybe half of your fellow prisoners.
* EvilIsPetty: Quentin starts to hate Holloway because she laughs at his theory of the Cube being constructed purely for some random rich asshole's pleasure.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: Quentin's introduction is his hand covered in blood that can't possibly be his. [[spoiler:Later we see him give Holloway a DeathGlare that at first could be chalked up to annoyance...right up until he slaps her.]]

* TheGovernment: At the end, one character declares that the eponymous deathtrap was built by the government, but no one in the government really knows why; it just sort of organically grew out of too much red tape and "boundless human stupidity".

* HanlonsRazor: The doctor's assumption that the Cube is part of some maniacal government plot is immediately shot down by the revelation that it's just a senseless project on which no bureaucrat had the cojones to pull the plug. Once the truth sinks in, she admits that is actually worse.

* TheHeroDies: [[spoiler:Worth is stabbed in the stomach by Quentin.]]

-->'''Worth:''' I have nothing... to live for out there.\\

* DecoyProtagonist: Alderson. Most of the other characters also fit this trope at one point or another; one of the selling points of the movie is that the viewer's perception of the characters is meant to change as the movie progresses.

* CutAndPasteEnvironments: All of the rooms look the exact same minus the colours; justified, because it's a maze. The set of the first movie actually ''is'' the same room over and over, with different color lights. (They didn't even have the budget to use six different colors, so it gets somewhat repetitive.)
* DeadEndRoom: The titular Cube is a gigantic series of these. Some are booby-trapped, while others are safe, with almost no way of knowing until it's too late. Escape is made all the more difficult because [[spoiler:the rooms move]]. ''Film/CubeZero'' implies that even if you escape, [[spoiler:the monitors kill you, or worse lobotomize you and throw you back into the Cube]].

* CanadaEh: A Canadian film, although probably the only hints would be a single mention of Saskatoon and the way Leaven refers to the letter "z" as "zed".
* CantKillYouStillNeedYou: When it's revealed that [[spoiler:Worth designed the outer shell, Quentin tries to kill him in a rage, but Leaven and Holloway both convince him that would be completely insane, because he's literally the only one who knows anything about the place they're stuck in.]]

* ChekhovsGunman: The film includes a seemingly detrimental character, Kazan, who [[spoiler:turns out to be an idiot savant, and critical to solving the formula needed to escape.]]

* ColorMotif: Played with. The room color has nothing to do with if there is a trap or not; however, on a meta level, the colors sometimes signify what happens within them;

* ConspiracyTheorist: Holloway believes that the Cube was constructed by an evil government, while she mocks Quentin for his own ideas that it's some rich psycho's entertainment. She turns out be only half-right; Worth (who worked on the Cube) explains that the Cube is a public project with no bureaucratic oversight.
* ContrivedCoincidence: The characters all end up meeting each other very quickly, despite the huge maze. No matter if this was intended by the people who put them in, or if it's simply the writer's choice - it's this trope. [[spoiler: Although the ending suggests they were just all dumped one room from the entrance.]]
* CruelAndUnusualDeath: Alderson (who serves no real purpose in the film other than serving as a DecoyProtagonist) enters a orange-lit room from an adjacent one. When he takes a few steps, a loud sound is heard, and for a while, he just stands erect and in place. He then collapses into a loose pile of bloody chunks that fall to the floor. It is only then the audience sees a razor-wire trellis silently folding up and realise how he has been killed.

* AssholeVictim: [[spoiler: Quentin. From letting Holloway fall to her death, to actively killing Leaven and stabbing Worth, he was the only one who deserved to be in the Cube in the first place. Definitely deserved getting [[HalfTheManHeUsedToBe crushed between the walls.]]]]
* AudibleSharpness: The Razor Wire trap gives a sharp *whoosh* as the victim is diced.

* ArbitrarySkepticism: Holloway and Quentin both during their discussion of each other's pet theories on the origins of the Cube. She believes that the military-industrial complex created the place, but he points out that for the most part, government organizations are just composed of people like him, whose goals in life are to "[[OnlyInItForTheMoney buy big boats]]", not conspire. Quentin's theory is that the structure is a rich psychopath's entertainment, and the two argue over this.

* ClosedCircle: The eponymous contraptions of the series are these. The protagonists are doomed to roam around a maze of cuboid rooms until they can figure out its particular structure and escape. [[spoiler:[[EverybodyDies Or not]].]]

* AnyoneCanDie: It's rare for anyone to survive the cubes, and they don't tend to have much of a lifespan even if they do.

* KillEmAll: Fitting with the series' deep cynicism and the utter lethality of the eponymous mazes, nearly all characters usually die, either by the cubes or by their own hands. The survival rate in the series' entries is, successively, [[spoiler:1:0:2.]]

[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cube_poster_1369.jpg]]

** Leaven, the team mathematician, also takes much longer than she should in working out if a number is prime or not, given it ends in a 5, and then factors a more difficult composite number relatively quickly.

* OffscreenTeleportation: [[spoiler:Quentin]], now insane, gets pulled down into a cube room and left by the other survivors, who have to use the composite of their knowledge and mathematical prowess to figure out how The Cube works and avoid the traps. [[spoiler:They manage to get to the exit but then [[DiabolusExMachina he shows up, kills Leaven and mortally wounds Worth]].]] How he managed to get there without their aid to avoid trapped rooms and to figure out the final pieces of The Cube's puzzle is unknown. Even if he did somehow get there by sheer blind luck, Leaven and Worth also don't notice him opening the door, which is quite loud and clunky. That in itself leans on ''BreakingTheFourthWall''- The door opening sound effect is played before Quentin reappears. Be honest, viewer- Did you hear it?

* OffscreenTeleportation: [[spoiler:Quentin]], now insane, gets pulled down into a cube room and left by the other survivors, who have to use the composite of their knowledge and mathematical prowess to figure out how The Cube works and avoid the traps. [[spoiler:They manage to get to the exit but then [[DiabolusExMachina he shows up, kills Leaven and mortally wounds Worth]].]] How he managed to get there without their aid to avoid trapped rooms and to figure out the final pieces of The Cube's puzzle is unknown. Even if he did somehow get there by sheer blind luck, Leaven and Worth also don't notice him opening the door, which is quite loud and clunky. That in itself leans on [[BreakingTheFourthWall]]- The door opening sound effect is played before Quentin reappears. Be honest, viewer- Did you hear it?

* {{Foreshadowing}}: Quentin's [[spoiler:FaceHeelTurn was built up through a few minor hints. The first we see of him is his hand covered in blood. Later we see him give Holloway a DeathGlare that at first could be chalked up to annoyance...right up until he slaps her and later murders her.]]

* ThrewMyBikeOnTheRoof: Worth postulates that the Cube's designers don't even have an end-goal in mind with what they're hoping to get out of putting people in it. They just figured that since they had already put so much money into building it, they might as well use it merely to justify the expense.

* Foreshadowing: Quentin's [[spoiler:FaceHeelTurn was built up through a few minor hints. The first we see of him is his hand covered in blood. Later we see him give Holloway a DeathGlare that at first could be chalked up to annoyance...right up until he slaps her and later murders her.]]

* TheWorldsExpertOnGettingKilled: [[spoiler:The group of people trapped in the death maze are quickly joined by Rennes aka "The Wren", a notorious escape artist who has gotten out of six different prison around the world. He introduces the idea of checking trapped rooms by throwing their boots in, advises the others to focus only on getting out [[AHouseDivided lest they turn on each other]] and promises to get them all out of there if they can keep up. He dies minutes after being introduced due to a molecular-chemical sensor he didn't notice.]]

* OffscreenTeleportation: [[spoiler:Quentin]], now insane, gets pulled down into a cube room and left by the other survivors, who have to use the composite of their knowledge and mathematical prowess to figure out how The Cube works and avoid the traps. [[spoiler:They manage to get to the exit but then [[DiabolusExMachina he shows up, kills Leaven and mortally wounds Worth]].]] How he managed to get there without their aid to avoid trapped rooms and to figure out the final pieces of The Cube's puzzle is unknown. Even if he did somehow get there by sheer blind luck, Leaven and Worth also don't notice him opening the door, which is quite loud and clunky.

Not to be confused with ''Film/TheCube''. A [[ForeignRemake Japanese Remake]] of the first film is also slated to release in October 2021.

* HighConcept: A group of strangers, trapped in a strange, shifting cube, fighting both each other and the Cube itself.

* BaitTheDog: [[spoiler: Quentin at first appears as a protective and brave cop who will lead the prisoners out of the Cube. It turns out he's actually a vicious psychopath with homicidal tendencies who cares only for himself. Inverted with Worth who, though seeming like someone who doesn't care about anyone but himself and believes there is no way out of the Cube, over time shows himself to be a kindhearted man who eventually starts to genuinely care about the group and proves himself in the end to be more of a hero than Quentin.]]

* ScaryBlackMan: Quentin -- a police officer -- starts out as the potential hero and leader of the victimized group. [[spoiler: However, by the end of the film, he slowly turns into an evil scary black man. He ends up becoming the film's biggest threat, besides the dangerous Cube itself.]]

* BaitTheDog: [[spoiler: Quentin at first appears as a protective and brave cop who will lead the prisoners out of the Cube. It turns out he's actually a vicious psychopath with homicidal tendencies who cares only for himself. And Inverted with Worth who though looks like he doesen't care about anyone but himself and believes there is no way out of the cube but over time he shows himself to be a kind hearted man who eventually starts to genuinely care about the group and proves himself in the end to be more of a hero than Quentin.]]

* DeadEndRoom: The titular cube is a gigantic series of these. Some are booby-trapped, while others are safe, with almost no way of knowing until it's too late. Escape is made all the more difficult because [[spoiler:the rooms move]]. ''Film/CubeZero'' implies that even if you escape, [[spoiler:the monitors kill you, or worse lobotomize you and throw you back into the Cube]].

* FiveSecondForeshadowing: [[spoiler: As the characters stand at the exit of the cube, moments before Quentin reappears and stabs Leaven, the sound of one of the doors opening can faintly be heard.]]

* HighConcept: A group of strangers, trapped in a strange, shifting cube, fighting both each other and the cube itself.

* HumansAreBastards: The film repeatedly rams this point home while intertwining it with HumansAreMorons as the entire reason why the cube exists in the first place. The cube is apparently the result of a bureaucratic mix-up with separate agencies all working on different parts of the structure and putting people in it without knowing about each other's existence then being too dumb to actually just get rid of the cube. Everyone is part of and uphold a broken system run by incompetent and uncaring stooges and are so content to go about their lives they never question it. The revelation essentially destroys Holloway's ConspiracyTheorist mindset and puts Quentin through SanitySlippage. Both end up chewed out by Leaven and Worth for their ignorance.

* MeaningfulName: The characters themselves reflect [[LocationThemeNaming the prisons they are named after]] in their personality traits. Kazan (the autistic man) is a disorganized prison. Rennes (the "mentor") pioneered many of today's prison policies. Quentin (the policeman [[spoiler:who eventually goes AxCrazy]]) is known for brutality. Holloway is a women's prison. Alderson (who is killed before even so much as seeing another human being within the cube) is a prison where isolation is a common punishment. Leavenworth runs on a rigid set of rules (Leaven's mathematics), and the new prison is corporately owned and built (Worth, hired as an architect).

* {{Room 101}}: While never specifically revealed, there is some speculation that the cube is one of these. Even if you manage to live through the [[DoomyDoomsOfDoom deadly deathtraps of death]], the massive psychological horror experienced within might make you wish you hadn't. [[spoiler:And that's only if the people ''outside'' the cube don't immediately kill you.]]

* SoleSurvivor: [[spoiler:Kazan is the only one out of seven people to escape the cube alive, only to disappear in a white void right before the credits roll.]]

* TakeMyHand: Subverted. As [[spoiler:Holloway]] is lowered into the unthinkable abyss outside the cube by the other characters, using a rope made of their clothes, the structure shakes and everyone drops the rope. She begins to fall and [[spoiler:Quentin]] is the only one who quickly manages to grab the slipping rope, almost getting pulled down himself. He then manages to pull back all of the rope and grab [[spoiler:Holloway]]'s hand, [[spoiler:but just as she lets out a sigh of relief his smile turns to a psychopathic stare and he drops her]].

* ThrewMyBikeOnTheRoof: Worth postulates that the cube's designers don't even have an end-goal in mind with what they're hoping to get out of putting people in it. They just figured that since they had already put so much money into building it, they might as well use it merely to justify the expense.
* TraitorShot: In the beginning, Worth gets a fairly extreme and suspicion-raising closeup. About halfway through the movie, he confesses that he helped design the cube the characters are trapped in.

* IdiotBall: Holloway continuing to insult and argue with Quentin after the point it has become blatantly obvious he has become a violent psychopath. Generally speaking going out of your way to mock such a man is fairly counter-intuitive to your own survival which she unfortunately finds out to her cost.

** Quentin believes that the Cube is just some rich weirdo's fun house, like [[Film/TheManWithTheGoldenGun Scaramanga's]].

** After [[spoiler:Holloway almost falls to her death climbing outside of the Cube, Quentin lunges out and grabs the clothing she was using as rope. He pulls the rope back up, and [[TakeMyHand grabs Holloway's hand]]; both of them are relieved. [[WhatYouAreInTheDark And then Quentin's expression hardens.]] [[OhCrap Holloway's turns to fear.]] [[KickTheDog He then lets go.]]]]

** Factoring a 3-digit number into its prime factors is not actually that difficult to do mentally; it just takes a minute, and some are easily memorised (e.g. the powers of 2).