The Cube (Cube)

The Cube is a fictional location, with an unknown origin and mysterious controllers. So far, only three Cubes have been shown in the film series, with each film representing their own Cube. The two Cubes are similar in shape and design, with some slight, minor differences, while the third Cube is rather futuristic in design, and is technically a tesseract (which cannot exist as a physical structure).

The purpose of each Cube, as well as its benefactors, are unknown, although it can be assumed that each Cube is either closely related, or is directly controlled, by the U.S Government, as all Cube participants (and Cube technicians) are American.

First Cube[]

The original Cube, before the first film, was featured prominently in the 2004 prequel, Cube Zero. While this was the last film in the trilogy, chronologically, this is the first Cube. This Cube was shown to have three exits. One was an "official" exit to the Cube that was meant to be found by any participants, the second one was a service entrance directly connected to an elevator shaft to be accessed by Cube technicians (in case of emergencies or in need of repairs), and the last one, the auxillary exit, was a secret exit that lead directly into a lake and was known only to the management of the Cube (but it was still rumored upon by Cube technicians, and was also discovered by Wynn).

This Cube, like the second Cube, featured an industrial design, with a minor difference being that the door mechanism was changed: the clamp of the door didn't pull outward, but instead was rotated 90 degrees to the right, and the door would automatically open. Also, the texture design of the Cubes was different, with the first Cube going for a simplistic design. Unlike the second Cube, where the room panels itself were painted in different colors, the first Cube achieves this effect by simply having the lamps illuminating a different hue. While the second Cube had the wall panels to illuminate the room, the first Cube had simple external lights.

This Cube also boasted highly advanced technology: each room had a mechanical arm that could detect and record neural pathways during REM cycles, essentially recording dreams and projecting them in a form of digital footage.

As with the second Cube, this one also features traps. Most of them have motion sensors, but some are triggered using other means (never stated which ones, but used to prevent the traditional "boot tossing" method that the participants usually employ). It was shown that the code letters also detect which room is safe, and which one is trapped, but never explicitly stated how (Wynn knows the code, but it's unknown if it operates via prime power numbers as in the first film).

Like the second Cube, it featured 17.576 rooms (although this number was never explicitly stated). Unlike the second Cube, which was set on Cartesian coordinate numerical system, the first Cube had a simplified letter system based on the English alphabet (which, since it consists of 26 letters, hence 26x26x26 = 17.576). The letters also indicate the position of the room inside the Cube at zero position(latitude, longitude and elevation). The letters were set on the metal plates featured at the edges of the adjoining room entrances.

The first Cube also had a security system: In the event of a malfunction, the Cube would "reset" during which all the traps would deactivate while the Cube would "reboot" back. During this time, the Cube is harmless to explore, as none of the rooms would move, and all the traps are set off. However, after a 10-minute countdown, the Cube would "erase" all participants by flash burning, which would immediately incinerate and vaporize all participants.

The official Exit of the Cube was located on one of the edges of the Cube, which featued a large hall, which was illuminated white (which would temporarily blind a participant). Shortly after, external chains would rise up and chain a participant to his legs and neck. During this, two Senior Technicians have to perform an official "Exit procedure", using a large apparatus which would they remotely connect to the Cube and featured a screen for a remote feed, a microphone and two buttons labeled "YES" and "NO". In this event, a Senior Technician has to ask the participant of his name and whether or not do they believe in God (symbolizing the theocratic nature of the Cube's benefactors). If the participant responds NO, they are then incinerated and killed. It's unknown what happens if they say YES, since Dodd stated that nobody ever said YES (although it is implied that in any case, they are incinerated regardless of their answer).

It can be theorized that this Cube is controlled by a totalitarian, theocratical government (shown twice, where Wynn and Dodd pray before a meal, and another, more direct one, was with the aforementioned official exit procedure). According to what Wynn has been told, all participants are death row inmates who consented to the punishment, and had their entire memories wiped out. However, it seems that the government has began using the Cube as a political tool against enemies of the state (political activists, journalists, opposition, etc.), such as Rainns, who has no consent form. Because all subjects have their memories wiped at this stage of the project, it cannot be verified if any of the consent forms, judgements, or even crimes are real to begin with. What's more, at least Wynn's level of Cube employees are mind wiped Individuals who, reportedly, chose the Cube over the death sentence.

In an event of an emergency, a senior Cube Supervisor would arrive from "upstairs", where he and his own technicians would assume direct command of the Cube, granting full access to additional features that regular Cube technicians are unable to do. During this, the Supervisor technicians, equipped with cybernetic exoskeletons mounted on their arms, palms and fingertips would override the main room and assume direct command. This way, they could initiate shutdown of the Cube, or manually perform clean sweep of all the rooms.

Participants[]

Cassandra Rains - Alive (successfully escaped the Cube via auxillary exit)

Robert T. Haskell - Deceased (vaporized via flash fire incineration during "reset")

Jellico - Deceased (killed after being injected by a flesh-eating virus)

Bartok - Deceased (killed after being strung with multiple fiber wires and decapitated)

Meyerhold - Deceased (killed when high energy sound waves caused his body to disintegrate)

Ryjkin - Deceased (killed after being sprayed with highly corrosive acid, causing his body to melt)

Employees[]

Eric Wynn, Junior Cube Technician - Alive (lobotomized, memory wiped and placed in the Cube as a participant for illegally entering the Cube and aiding a participant to escape)

Dodd, Senior Cube Technician - Deceased (disemboweled by Jax after swallowing a key)

Owen, Senior Cube Technician - Deceased (abducted, memory wiped and placed in the Cube as a participant, incinerated after answering No in the exit procedure)

Chickliss, Senior Cube Technician - Deceased (died in the Cube after having his memory wiped)

Jax, Senior Cube Supervisor - Alive

Mr. Finn - Alive

Mr. Quigley - Alive

Second Cube[]

The second Cube, like the original, was the setting of the original 1997 film. Unlike the first Cube, the exterior nor the staff was never shown, so the purpose of the Cube was never stated.

The second Cube features a different coding of the room's position, shown in three-digit numerals which indicate the location in the Cube (latitude, longitude and elevation), and, unlike the first Cube, where the coordinates are read through the alphabetic position using the English alphabet (26X26X26 = 17,576), the number of the rooms is calculated using Carthesian coordinates. As with the first Cube, the second Cube consists of 17,576 rooms. As with the first Cube, it also contains traps, activated via sensors (motion, heat and sound sensors).

While it was never stated why the participants were placed inside this particular group, each of them possessed a skill which would aid them in their escape. David Worth surmised that the purpose of the Cube was originally lost over time, and that people were placed in it for no particular reason other than to keep the facility running.

Participants[]

Kazan - Alive (successfully reached the Cube's exit)

David Worth - Deceased (died from injuries sustained from Quentin, likely internal bleeding)

Quentin McNeil - Deceased (decapitated by the exterior Cube walls after being trapped in a hallway between two rooms by David)

Helen Holloway - Deceased (died from a masssive fall from the Cube's edge after being deliberately let go by Quentin)

Joan Leaven - Deceased (impaled by a Cube door rod by Quentin)

Rennes - Deceased (sprayed with hydroflouric acid in the face, partially melting his skull in a trap room)

Alderson - Deceased (bisected by a rack of crossmatched wires in a trap room)

Third Cube[]

The third Cube was the setting of Cube 2: Hypercube, featuring a Cube that is completely different from the original two. Unlike the first two Cubes, the third Cube is a tesseract. Because a tesseract is set in a four-dimensional space (4D) that cannot practically exist in real life, it is implied that the third Cube exists in a dimension seperate from the real world or it is an advanced virtual reality system (as shown in the intro, all test subjects are intubated and unconscious in a storage room, covered in plastic on bed gurneys). Also, unlike the first two Cubes, which both had 17,576 rooms, it can be theorized that the number of rooms in the third Cube is infinite. While both Cubes feature sporadical moving of each rooms, it has been theorized that the rooms in the Hypercube are constantly moving at impossible speeds, and each room can specifically shift you far away from the other survivors. This was proven when one of the trapped victims was in another room and the doors briefly closed, with them being gone seconds later when the room door was open again.

Furthermore, unlike the first two Cubes, which had conventional traps based on proven feats of engineering, the traps in the third Cube border on impossibility; a room adjacent to the room in which Becky first woke up had inverse gravity, causing her to shoot upwards. Another room both had altered gravity controls and time dilation that could rapidly age anyone inside the room. Another room featured a semi-transparent wall of beam that shredded its victims to death, and another room suddenly activated a form of crystals that could amputate the limbs of anyone who touched them. In another room, a tiny floating Cube eventually grew into a massive bladed tesseract that shredded Jerry to pieces. Because the Cube dilated time and space, multiple versions of participants could appear at random intervals, and multiple versions of themselves can even appear in the same place and interact (as shown when Mrs. Paley interacted with herself and even grabbed each other's hands before the mirror version of Mrs Paley was killed by another version of Simon), shown with two versions of Simon, the original one spent years inside the Cube, another version was decapitated, and also shown with multiple versions of Jerry, one being bisected, and multiple other versions of Jerry encountering and being killed by Simon. Kate also encountered a room where each participant was shown deceased and in various stages of decay, presumably died from malnutrition and dehydration.

While the first two Cubes featured a heavily industrial design, the Hypercube is designed to be clean and sleek; all rooms are completely white with no discernable colors, with all the panels directly up, down, left and right to the doors painted black. While the doors in the first two Cubes required an external clasp that would be rotated to open the door, the doors here opened by merely placing an open palm on the panel itself, that would automatically retract and open-

All 9 participants in the Hypercube were connected to IZON, a defense contractor who created the Hypercube; Kate Filmore was an IZON agent sent to retrieve confidential information from Alexandra "Sasha" Trusk, designer of the Hypercube who fled inside to hide from IZON. Simon Grady is a private detective who found himself in the Cube while searching for Becky Young, an IZON technician also trapped within the Cube. Jerry Whitehall was an independent contractor and engineer who designed the door panels, Max Riesler was a computer programmer who was in a protracted lawsuit with IZON, Julia Sewell was an IZON corporate attorney, and Mrs. Paley was a theoretical mathematician and former IZON employee, while Colonel Thomas Maguire was a probable IZON employee and had knowledge of the second Cube.

Participants[]

Kate Filmore - Deceased (successfully escaped the Cube and was then executed afterwards, another version was killed by Simon, another version was decapitated by crystals, and another version was deceased from malnutrition and dehydration)

Alexandra "Sasha" Trusk - Deceased (neck snapped by Simon, another version deceased from malnutrition and dehydration)

Simon Grady - Deceased (one version of Simon was decapitated by crystals, another version was killed by Kate, third version was deceased from malnutrition and dehydration)

Jerry Whitehall - Deceased (one version sliced into pieces by a lethal Tesseract, multiple other versions were killed by Simon, another version was deceased from malnutrition and dehydration)

Max Riesler - Deceased (died from old age from time dilation, another version was deceased from malnutrition and dehydration)

Julia Sewell - Deceased (died from old age from time dilation, another version was deceased from malnutrition and dehydration)

Becky Young - Deceased (stabbed to death by Simon)

Mrs. Paley - Deceased (two versions were stabbed to death by Simon, another version was deceased from malnutrition and dehydration)

Thomas Moore - Deceased (died from a energy wall that stripped his flesh from his body, another version of him is shown to have committed suicide by hanging)