Line #117 Main/OminousCube


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3	%% Examples have been alphabetized. Please place your example in the correct spot.
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6	[[quoteright:350:[[Toys/{{Bionicle}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/gsrpowersource.png]]]]
7	[[caption-width-right:350:You can tell it's important because it's [[PowerGlows glowing]] ''and'' [[PowerFloats floating]].]]
8
9	->''"The Cube is, at the same time, a symbol of simplicity and complexity."''
10	-->-- '''Ernő Rubik'''
11
12	Sometimes the PlotDevice has a unique shape, [[IconicItem carefully designed by the work's artists to look like no other]].
13
14	[[WellThisIsNotThatTrope Other times it's a box]].
15
16	A cube's inherently unnatural shape, combined with its general lack of visual cues, instantly makes it an EerilyOutOfPlaceObject. The mere sight of it invites several questions. Is it [[ArtifactOfPower mystical]] in nature or a piece of SufficientlyAdvancedTechnology? So volatile that it'll explode if you poke it, or benign enough to move around if you're careful? Something that can be used for good or a tool for evil? Why is it [[SicklyGreenGlow glowing]]? Does anyone else hear [[DroneOfDread that humming noise]]?
17
18	In addition to the atmosphere, making plot devices cube-shaped can also bring to mind imagery of "PandorasBox". Some writers go the extra mile and even name their artifacts after it, even if the work in question [[FauxSymbolism doesn't have a lot in common with the classical myth]].
19
20	Almost exclusively happens in ScienceFiction, {{Fantasy}}, and {{Horror}}, as more contemporary genres have no reason for their Plot Devices to have a foreboding atmosphere since they're usually just mundane objects.
21
22	SisterTrope to SinisterGeometry, which evokes the same feeling of dread that this trope often does, but is significantly larger in scale, and can take any geometric shape, such as diamonds or pyramids.
23
24	----
25	!!Examples:
26
27	[[foldercontrol]]
28
29	[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
30	* Downplayed with the Spell Cube from ''Manga/SazanEyes'': it's a metal cube-shaped artifact infused with magic formulae taken by [[EvilGenius Spazug's stash]] of spells hidden in Benares' own stronghold on the Moon... but it's only purpose is to allow the temporarly powerless Yakumo to cast four spells in combat (a fireball spell, a binding spell, a short-range teleport and a shockwave spell).
31	* ''Manga/JujutsuKaisen'': In order to seal away the powerful Satoru Gojo, the Disaster Curses conspire to use a cursed tool known as "Prison Realm", which takes the form of a cube-like object with strange markings on it.
32	* ''Anime/YuGiOhTheDarkSideOfDimensions'': The Quantum Cube grants {{Reality Warp\|er}}ing powers to the Plana, a group of children that were protected by Shadi, the guardian of the Millennium Items.
33	[[/folder]]
34
35	[[folder:Comic Books]]
36	* In the final panels of ''ComicBook/{{Hellboy}}'', [[spoiler:while wandering Hell after Satan is killed, three glowing objects suddenly appear in front of Hellboy: a sphere, a pyramid, and a cube. [[AmbiguousEnding The comic ends immediately after they appear.]]]]
37	* In the Franchise/MarvelUniverse, a Cosmic Cube is an artifact capable of [[RealityWarper causing anything its owner wishes to become real]]. Over time, a Cosmic Cube will eventually become sapient. Once it does so, its personality will be based on those of the people who used its powers.
38	[[/folder]]
39
40	[[folder:Films — Live-Action]]
41	* ''Film/{{Cube}}'': The eponymous Cube is a BigLabyrinthineBuilding made up of a bunch of smaller cube-shaped rooms. The entire building is one colossal DeathTrap, which the protagonists are expected to navigate and escape.
42	* ''Franchise/{{Hellraiser}}'': The Lament Configuration is a puzzle box that, when solved, opens a {{Hellgate}} that the Cenobites -- demonic entities that derive pleasure from suffering -- can pass through.
43	* ''Film/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy2005'' depicts the Vogon constructor fleet as a net of identical, featureless black cubes encircling the Earth, hovering in the way bricks don't.
44	* Franchise/DCExtendedUniverse: The Mother Boxes are three alien cubes from the world of the evil New Gods, Apokolips. They were left behind by a failed Apokoliptian invasion force -- one was entrusted to the Amazons, another to the Atlanteans, and the last to the humans.
45	** ''Film/BatmanVSupermanDawnOfJustice'': the New God Steppenwolf appears as a hologram to Lex Luthor in the Ultimate Edition, along with the three Mother Boxes that he's seeking.
46	** ''Film/{{Justice League\|2017}}'': Steppenwolf wants to form the Unity with the three Mother Boxes in order to perform a HostileTerraforming.
47	** ''Film/ZackSnydersJusticeLeague'': this version of the Unity can turn into a devastating FantasticNuke. In addition, the Mother Boxes are sentient and tempt Cyborg when he's trying to dismantle them.
48	* ''Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse'':
49	** ''Film/{{Thor}}'': Whoever holds The Casket of Ancient Winters instantly becomes AnIcePerson. The Casket also has the ability to plunge a planet into a new ice age.
50	** The Tesseract, one of the six Infinity Stones, generates essentially limitless amounts of energy and has been used to open portals to other worlds. It is also extremely volatile, the first of the aforementioned portals was completely accidental, which (seemingly) killed the BigBad of ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheFirstAvenger''.
51	* ''Film/MulhollandDrive'' features a mysterious blue cube that seems to be a portal between realities. At one point, Rita opens it with a matching key and is then sucked into it. The scene transitions to a different reality where characters take on different roles.
52	* ''Film/{{Transformers\|2007}}'': The [=AllSpark=], the source of all life on Cybertron, instantly transforms any mechanical device that it comes into direct contact with into a sapient entity with its own transforming abilities. The [=AllSpark=] itself is also a SizeShifter, starting off larger than Bumblebee, who is already enormous, then compacting itself to be small enough for a human to carry.
53	[[/folder]]
54
55	[[folder:Literature]]
56	* ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'': The Escafil Device is an Andalite invention that looks like a blue cube, and whoever touches it gains the power to morph into other lifeforms.
57	* In ''Literature/TheGoblinReservation'', the Time Museum has the "Artifact", a large, vaguely cubical thing whose origins nobody has ever been able to discern. [[spoiler:It later turns out to be a container for the last known dragon in the universe.]]
58	* In ''Literature/{{Neuromancer}}'', [[AIIsACrapshoot Wintermute]] is represented by a glowing white cube in cyberspace, and being surrounded by black [=ICE=] means that nobody can hack into him [[YourMindMakesItReal without having their brain fried]].
59	[[/folder]]
60
61	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
62	* ''Series/AgentsOfSHIELD'': The Toolbox is a tiny cube-shaped database that contains the entirety of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s files.
63	* ''Series/{{Chuck}}'': The Intersect is a cube-shaped device capable of NeuralImplanting. At first, it can only upload massive amounts of information into somebody's brain, but at the end of Season 2, it gets upgraded to upload abilities like martial arts and surgery.
64	* ''Series/DoctorWho'':
65	** The UrExample for ''Doctor Who'' appears in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS6E7TheWarGames The War Games]]", in the form of the [[GodzillaThreshold telepathic distress signal]] which the Doctor is forced to create at the story's conclusion. It's good news for the armies which the War Lords have kidnapped, but it's ominous because it means the end for the PowerTrio of the Second Doctor, Jamie, and Zoe.
66	** In "The Key to Time" StoryArc, the titular [[CosmicKeystone Key]] is comprised of a set of six puzzle pieces, which when assembled make a crystal cube.
67	** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E12ThePandoricaOpens The Pandorica]], a giant, cube-shaped, "perfect prison" [[TailorMadePrison built specifically to contain the Doctor]].
68	** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E4ThePowerOfThree The Power of Three]]" opens with millions of small cubes suddenly appearing on Earth one day. They remain dormant for a year, then they suddenly activate and cause one-third of humanity to go into cardiac arrest.
69	* ''Series/KamenRiderBuild'': The Pandora Box is an AncientArtifact retrieved from Mars that, once it was activated, raised gigantic walls that separated Japan into three sections. It also increased the aggression of everyone that was in the vicinity when it was first activated. [[spoiler:If the box is fully opened, it has the power to completely annihilate all life on a planet.]]
70	* ''Franchise/StarTrek'':
71	** The Borg Cubes, they're the definition of TheDreadedDreadnought when compared to the Federation's much smaller, lighter-colored, and more rounded vessels; they're color-coded with evil's SicklyGreenGlow; the music often shifts to a battle theme or the DroneOfDread when they appear; and they tend to silently ignore anything they don't deem to be a threat or interesting enough to assimilate.
72	** In the [[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries Original Series]] episode, "[[Recap/StarTrekS1E10TheCorbomiteManeuver The Corbomite Maneuver]]", the Enterprise encounters a cube-shaped buoy that blocks their path and eventually begins emitting harmful radiation forcing them to destroy it. Of course, it turns out that it was a marker buoy belonging to The First Federation and destroying it signals a massive ship to come out and attack the Enterprise.
73	** In another ''ST:TOS'' episode, "[[Recap/StarTrekS3E17ThatWhichSurvives That Which Survives]]", a computer left by the extinct Kalandan people on an artificial planet outpost is in the form of a glowing cube suspended from the ceiling. It's left continuing it's last programming to defend the outpost from any non-Kalandans by creating constructs in the form of the outpost's long-dead commander to kill intruders and sabotage their ships.
74	* ''Series/{{Supernatural}}:'' The Season 10 episode, "[[Recap/SupernaturalS10E19TheWertherProject The Werther Project]]", featured the Werther Box, an enchanted vault that protected its contents by compelling anyone who attempted to open it without doing the proper ritual to commit suicide.
75	* ''Series/TheUmbrellaAcademy2019'': Christopher is a [[LivingPolyhedron living cube]] who not only can induce dread into people, but also has quite a malicious personality.
76	* ''Series/Warehouse13'': One of the artifacts featured in the Season 4 episode, "The Ones You Love", was a box made from human skin that featured a tattoo that could cause SpontaneousHumanCombustion by transferring itself to different hosts. The box itself acted as a PowerNullifier, by preventing the tattoo from transferring to other hosts.
77	[[/folder]]
78
79	[[folder:Music]]
80	* The multi-purpose "Black Box" in the ''Music/EvilliousChronicles'' can range from this to an UnusuallyUninterestingSight, but the large, looming one in ''Literature/MasterOfTheHeavenlyYard'' is a standout example of this trope. Especially with what happens [[YourSoulIsMine when you touch it...]]
81	[[/folder]]
82
83	[[folder:Myths & Religion]]
84	* PandorasBox may be thought of as an example, but wasn't always. The term "box" is a mistranslation; the container described in the original Greek story was a large and presumably round storage jar.
85	[[/folder]]
86
87	[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
88	* There are many magical devices in ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' that take the form of cubes, ranging from the ''cubic gate'' and ''Daern's instant fortress'' to the significantly less impressive ''cube of sweetness''. The most ominous, however, is the Bringer of Doom -- a small box with a button that, when pressed, conjures an entire army of low-rent fiends but also [[SuicideAttack flashfries the user]].
89	* In ''TabletopGame/{{Planescape}}'' Acheron is the LawfulNeutral plane with a tendency toward LawfulEvil. It is an infinite expanse of space with metallic cubes floating through it that range from the size of small islands to the size of continents. Armies of evil-aligned beings like hobgoblins and orcs live on these cubes, as do the souls of anyone who ever died in combat for a cause they didn't believe in but accepted money to fight in, and when two cubes come together, their inhabitants swarm out to attack each other.
90	[[/folder]]
91
92	[[folder:Toys]]
93	* ''Toys/{{BIONICLE}}'':
94	** The Nuva Cube functioned as the lock on the Bahrag's prison. By placing the Toa Nuva's six unique Nuva Symbols into the Cube, the cage would be opened. It is also, in some way, connected to the Toa Nuva's elemental powers, as they [[{{Depower}} lost them]] when the Nuva Symbols were stolen.
95	** Pictured is the power source for the prototype Great Spirit Robot, a smooth silver cube with strange markings on each side. It was extremely unstable and caused the original robot to explode violently, throwing its pieces across the planet. [[MutagenicGoo Energized Protodermis]] was capable of stabilizing it, making it safe to use.
96	[[/folder]]
97
98	[[folder:Video Games]]
99	* ''VideoGame/{{Antichamber}}'': Throughout the game, a black, floating cube known as "The Black Ghost" can be seen just out of reach of the player. In the final area, "The Escape", the player catches up with it, captures it in the Matter Gun, and transports it to a secluded area. After releasing it, the Black Ghost encloses the area in a black dome and creates the game's logo with some debris that was scattered around the area, which then begins sucking the world into it like a giant vacuum. [[AmbiguousEnding Roll credits.]] Interpretations of what the Black Ghost represents vary wildly.
100	* ''VideoGame/AstralChain'': To further emphasize the otherworldly-ness of the [[EldritchLocation Astral Plane]], nearly its ''entire geography'' is made up of [[RedAndBlackAndEvilAllOver red and black]] cubes. Many things that come from it subtly incorporate cubes in their designs as well; Chimeras and Aberrations disintegrate into cube-like pixels when killed, and Legions warp the ground below them into cube-like deformations when released.
101	* The Large Cube from ''VideoGame/BeyondOasis'' is what holds Agito's power in place.
102	* ''VideoGame/Bomberman64'': The Omni Cube, which is used by the game's villain Altair to drain the energy from the planets he seeks to conquer.
103	* ''VideoGame/CubeColossus'': The protagonists are exploring a giant, clearly artificial cube floating in space with mysterious defenses that they already lost comrades in.
104	* ''VideoGame/CubeEscape'': A series of puzzle games revolving around some ''very'' ominous and mystical cubes, which seemingly allow the user to change the past and future.
105	* ''VideoGame/Doom3'': {{Inverted}} with the [[spoiler:Soul Cube]], which is a artifact used against TheLegionsOfHell and eventually seals the portal to Hell that opened up.
106	* ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'':
107	** In ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIIMorrowind Morrowind]]'', the very first mission of the main quest sends you to a [[OurDwarvesAreAllTheSame Dwemer]] ruin to recover a Dwemer Puzzle Box in order to appease an informant. The roughly fist-sized bronze cube turns out to be a key which allows you to go deeper into the ruin where better treasure and tougher enemies await.
108	** ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim Skyrim]]'':
109	*** ''Skyrim'' reveals that the Dwemer are quite into their ominous cubes. One type, called Dwemer Lexicons, appear as glowing {{Magitek}} cubes and are used to store vast amounts of information. The now-extinct Dwemer even devised a means to (relatively safely) divine an [[TomeOfEldritchLore Elder Scroll]], bypassing the usual side effects on mortal readers such as blindness and insanity, using a machine to store the information on a Lexicon. The main quest mission "Elder Knowledge" and the side quest "Unfathomable Depths" both feature Lexicons. In the latter, retrieving the Lexicon grants you the passive ability "Ancient Knowledge" which increases your skill while wearing Dwarven Armor and causes your Blacksmithing skill to increase faster.
110	*** Another Dwemer cube is featured in the [[OurGodsAreDifferent Daedric]] side quest "Discerning the Transmundane", which sees you attempting to open a giant, mysterious, cubic Dwemer lockbox.
111	* In ''VideoGame/FateGrandOrder,'' the fourth Lostbelt has a mysterious black cube that has persisted through all the cycles. Despite its unusual nature, Arjuna Alter thinks nothing of it, and Pepe decides to keep it around against the advice of Wodime to see what it does. [[spoiler:It turns out, it's Jinako/Ganesha and Lakshmibai sent back in time by Ashwatthama in order to help foil Arjuna Alter's rampage.]]
112	* ''VideoGame/{{Fez}}'':
113	** A giant, floating, ambiguously sentient yellow cube that speaks in a StarfishLanguage grants the player character, Gomez, a fez which lets him perceive the third dimension. Something causes this cube to shatter into multiple, smaller cubes,[[note]]and some of ''those'' cubes shatter into ''even smaller'' cubes[[/note]] which causes reality to start falling apart. The game centers around reassembling it.
114	** Gomez is also accompanied by a sentient Tesseract named Dot, who acts the game's ExpositionFairy.
115	* ''VideoGame/{{Fortnite}}'': a giant purple cube first appeared in Battle Royale during Season 5 of Chapter 1. During its [[spoiler:initial]] lifespan, the cube would repeatedly engage in the destruction of parts of the world.
116	* ''VideoGame/LegendOfGrimrock'' has this as the FinalBoss, as the cube was an ancient threat that Grimlock [[SealedEvilInACan was intended to keep contained.]]
117	* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsInTheSky'': The 3rd game has the Arca of Recluse which uses [[spoiler: Kevin's memories to recreate places in Phantasma]], allows teleportation across explored places and activates monuments, among other things.
118	* ''VideoGame/ManifoldGarden'': The climax of each level involves placing one of these on a dark, glitching tree to help restore life to the garden.
119	* While just about everything in ''{{VideoGame/Minecraft}}'' is made out of cubes, the End Crystals, which heal the [[FinalBoss Ender Dragon]] and explode when hit, manage to look ominous with their otherworldly appearance and rotating/[[PowerFloats floating]] animation.
120	* ''VideoGame/{{Psychonauts}}'': Sasha Nein's mindscape is a giant floating cube, representing his tightly-wrapped, stoic personality. Finding out some of the things he's keeping bottled up in there can be rather disturbing.
121	* ''VideoGame/TheSecretWorld'' features the Gaia Engines, a series of giant cube-shaped machines scattered across the world. Their main function is to keep [[EldritchAbomination the Dreamers]] asleep and purge [[MysticalPlague the Filth]] before it builds to dangerous levels, though many have sought them out for the limitless energy supply they offer - often with disastrous results, as ''VideoGame/ThePark'' illustrates. [[spoiler: If all else fails and an apocalypse occurs, the Engines work in unison, harnessing the Dreamers' reality-warping powers to restore the world to factory settings.]]
122	* ''VideoGame/SkiesOfArcadia'': The Yellow Moon Crystal, which was imbued with the power of lightning. It was the means of controlling the yellow Gigas, Yeligar. It was also one of the six keys to raising the lost continent of Soltis, and awakening the PhysicalGod, Zelos.
123	* ''VideoGame/SonicForces'': Infinite's HardLight illusions often take the shape of a swirling mass of black and orange cubes, always accompanied by a distinctive DroneOfDread.
124	* Parodied in ''VideoGame/SouthParkTheFracturedButWhole'' with "The Cube of Ultimate Destruction", which is just a Rubik's Cube. The Coon remarks it has the power to destroy the Milky Way galaxy. [[spoiler:If you mess with it too much, it'll fall on the floor and [[NonStandardGameOver you get a game over]].]]
125	* ''VideoGame/{{Spellbreaker}}'': Featureless white cubes serve as the game's "treasures" and, with the aid of a spell, make up its transportation system. The cubes are actually [[spoiler:symbolic representations of the basic building blocks of reality, which the shadowy figure is tricking you into collecting.]]
126	* ''VideoGame/StreetFighterXTekken'': "Pandora" is the name given to the mysterious cube that fell to Earth that the game centers around. It is capable of granting its wielder's wishes, as well as amplifying the strength of those around it well beyond natural levels.
127	* ''VideoGame/SuperMarioOdyssey'': The Power Moons that Mario and Cappy collect throughout the game are revealed to come from cube-shaped moon rocks that fall to the Earth and explode, scattering the Power Moons across the region.
128	* ''VideoGame/{{Ultima}}'': The three Generators in ''Ultima VII: The Black Gate'' take the form of a [[Creator/ElectronicArts pyramid, sphere, and cube]]. The Prisms, the games' [[ArtifactOfDoom Artifacts of Doom]], are housed within. The most powerful of the three is the Cube, which [[spoiler: compels Fellowship members to be completely truthful when brandished at them]].
129	[[/folder]]
130
131	[[folder:Webcomics]]
132	* Inverted in ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'', where weird green cubes called Perfectly Generic Objects act as the "default item" in the comic's world. As the name suggests, they are generic and do not do anything. They are the result of using alchemy without "carving" a certain tool first and [[spoiler:they're the first, and for a while only, thing Roxy makes with her power to steal from nothingness]].
133	* ''Webcomic/{{SSDD}}'' brought in a creepy glowing cube as a MacGuffin in [[http://www.poisonedminds.com/d/20120329.html 2012]]. It then passed through multiple hands who didn't know what it was, just that a certain VoiceWithAnInternetConnection wanted it, then GCHQ speculated it was buckminsterfullerene and put it in storage [[spoiler: where it unfolded into a small robot and plugged itself into a network jack.]]
134	* Some of the earliest strips from ''{{Webcomic/XKCD}}'' depicted spherical, red spider-like creatures ominously riding red cubes through the skies, sometimes towards cities.
135	[[/folder]]
136
137	[[folder:Web Videos]]
138	* ''WebVideo/AHeistWithMarkiplier'': The strange cuboid-shaped artifact that [[SecondPersonNarration you]] and Mark stole from a museum ends up having [[SchrodingersGun wildly different traits]] depending on [[StoryBranching which path you take]]. A few include: [[spoiler:it being a TimeMachine, a record of all of an alien species' knowledge, and a salt shaker.]]
139	* ''WebVideo/SacredCowShipyards'': It's unclear why the Dockmaster cubes ships that are overdue on his docks, or even what he does with the cubes.
140	[[/folder]]
141
142	[[folder:Western Animation]]
143	* In ons of ''WesternAnimation/{{Archer}}'''s comatose fantasies, he imagines himself as the plucky captain of a space-exploration team. On one journey they manage to uncover a cube of unknown origin and possessing logic-defying properties floating in space. As soon as the crew leaves it, the cube shows signs of changing its chemical properties. When the crew comes back for it, the cube has vanished, not only physically, but eventually also from everyone's memories.
144	* ''WesternAnimation/ReBoot'': Game Cubes ([[Platform/NintendoGameCube not those ones]]) sectioned off large portions of the system-cities of The Net, which would either be left intact or destroyed, depending on whether the User lost or won.
145	* The Eliacube in ''WesternAnimation/{{Wakfu}}'' is a piece of ancient technology left behind by {{Precursors}}, with sinister applications and appearances and that may or may not be sentient and speaking to those who wield it. It vastly powers up its user's magical abilities at cost of LifeEnergy - whether from [[CastFromLifespan the user]] or [[PoweredByAForsakenChild somewhere else]] is of no concern to it. It drove its most notable wielder, Nox, completely insane.
146	* The Black Cube of Darkness from ''WesternAnimation/WanderOverYonder'' parodies this trope. While introduced as a sentient, terrifying supervillain capable of [[SoulEating sucking souls]], he is later shown to be rather lackluster at anything that doesn't involve villainy. After his second appearance, he ends up giving up on villainy and tries his hand at a number of odd jobs. However, everyone (besides Wander) still fears him.
147	[[/folder]]
148
149	[[folder:Real Life]]
150	* The SinisterGeometry aspect is actually subverted in that salt, sodium chloride, forms cubic crystals, and is both extremely common and useful.
151	* The mineral [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyrite pyrite]] frequently forms nearly perfect cubic crystals: [[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/95/2780M-pyrite1.jpg an example]].
152	[[/folder]]
153	----
154	->''[[VideoGame/MetalGearSolid "Huh... just a box..."]]''

Context Main / OminousCube