Cube 2: Hypercube

"Cube 2" redirects here. For the video game, see Cube 2: Sauerbraten. For the digital audio player, see Cube2.

Cube 2: Hypercube
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Andrzej Sekuła
Produced by	Ernie Barbarash Peter Block Suzanne Colvin
Written by	Sean Hood
Starring	Kari Matchett Geraint Wyn Davies Grace Lynn Kung Matthew Ferguson Neil Crone
Music by	Norman Orenstein
Cinematography	Andrzej Sekuła
Editing by	Mark Sanders
Distributed by	Lions Gate Entertainment
Release date(s)	April 15, 2003 (United States)
Running time	95 minutes
Country	Canada
Language	English

Cube 2: Hypercube is a 2003 Canadian psychological thriller/horror film film and the sequel to the psychological thriller/horror film Cube. Released in 2002, Cube 2: Hypercube had a bigger budget than its predecessor, and a new director, Andrzej Sekuła. The industrial-style rooms of the first film are replaced with high-tech, brightly-lit chambers; instead of traps such as flamethrowers and extending spikes, the rooms themselves are the danger as they distort time and move through each other.

Plot

The films starts with psychotherapist Kate (Kari Matchett), detective Simon (Geraint Wyn Davies), a blind girl named Sasha (Grace Lynn Kung), engineer Jerry (Neil Crone), game developer Max (Matthew Ferguson), lawyer Julia (Lindsey Connell), and an elderly woman named Mrs. Paley (Barbara Gordon) trapped in brightly lit cubes, each with six panels on each side which are doors to other rooms. They come across Colonel Maguire (Bruce Gray), who says that they have to solve the code in order to leave the mysterious place. A wall begins to close in on the group. The group escape while Thomas stays behind and handcuffs himself. They realize that the wall is non-physical and evidently dangerous due to Thomas's reaction to it. Kate and Simon watch in horror as Thomas is disintegrated by the wall, the suitcase he was holding reduced to tatters. Later experiences around the cube reveal that gravity can operate in different directions in each room, while Mrs. Paley and Jerry realize that they may be in a tesseract. Kate begins to notice the numbers "60659" everywhere they go.

The group realizes that they are connected to Izon, a weapons industry. Mrs. Paley then opens a panel to reveal her and Simon being killed. Jerry thinks that it is a parallel universe, while Max and Julia think it is an optical illusion. Later, while the group are sleeping, Simon realizes that he is in the tesseract to look for Becky (Greer Kent), a missing Izon worker. Meanwhile, Sasha, who has acute hearing, hears a noise and awakens everyone. The group finds a floating square in the middle of the room which initially grows into several shifting variations of a tesseract, before expanding into a lethal and rapidly spinning frame.

The group flees into another room, but Jerry is caught and dies after being pulled into the tessaract. Sasha and Kate are separated from the group. Simon starts to suspect that Mrs. Paley is an undercover spy, so he gags and ties her up, but crystal beams start protruding from the walls. Simon tries to save Mrs. Paley, but instead stabs her with his knife and leaves her to die. Max and Julia, disturbed that Simon killed Mrs. Paley, leave him. They start to have sex, but unbeknownst to them, they are in a room where time speeds up, and they age prematurely. Simon, alone and hungry, goes insane. He encounters a parallel Jerry and the missing Becky.

Meanwhile, Kate finds grisly alternate realities in other rooms. Sasha tells Kate that time and space are distorted at where they are; the tesseract will implode and reality is collapsing. She then reveals that she is Alex Trusk, a computer hacker who is responsible for the creation of the tesseract. She also reveals that when she discovered that Izon was actually putting people inside the tesseract, she tried to stop their operation, but was pursued so she "fled into the only place they wouldn't follow." Kate, however, still believes that there is a way out. Kate finds Simon and stabs him in the eye after he grabs her. Simon then appears behind Alex, old and blind in one eye, proving Alex's time theory. Alex claims that they "are all dead", which causes Simon to snap her neck. Kate finds that the tesseract is shrinking, and kills Simon with the knife. She looks at the numerous watch duplicates of Jerry's and realises that "60659" is the time that the tesseract will implode (6:06:59) and that she is there to take back Alex's necklace which was filled with confidential information on Izon. The hypercube starts wearing away, and Kate opens a panel in the bottom, revealing a black void. At 6:06:59, she jumps in just when the Hypercube implodes. Kate wakes up in the hands of Izon authorities. She gives them the necklace and is executed. Izon authorities then report that "Phase 2 is terminated".

Alternate ending

The longer alternate ending included in the special features on the DVD reveals the "owners" to be the government; in the shorter version it is unclear who they are, but it is assumed they are Izon. Kate is executed in both versions, but she is praised for being the first operative to make it out alive. In the alternate ending it is revealed to Kate that she was in the Hypercube for just six minutes and fifty-nine seconds. It was an experiment used for quantum teleportation.

Original screenplay

The original screenplay written by Sean Hood, which was subsequently rewritten by Producer Ernie Barbarash, had substantially different plot, theme and characterization, as well as a set of over 70 production illustrations, which visualized quite different traps, environments and four-dimensional concepts.

Cast

• Kari Matchett as Kate Filmore, who is a psychotherapist. She is portrayed as the most empathetic character in the group.
• Geraint Wyn Davies as Simon Grady, a private detective hired to locate a young woman named Becky Young who is missing.
• Grace Lynn Kung as Sasha / Alex Trusk, a blind teenager and hacker.
• Neil Crone as Jerry Whitehall, an engineer who worked on the hypercube's touch panels for the doors. He is shown to have an understanding of Quantum Physics.
• Matthew Ferguson as Max Riesler, a computer hacker and game developer.
• Lindsey Connell as Julia Sewell, an LA defense lawyer representing Izon.
• Greer Kent as Becky Young, a missing young Izon worker whose parents hired Simon Grady to find her.
• Bruce Gray as Colonel Thomas H. Maguire, a man who is intimately linked with at least the first Cube.
• Barbara Gordon as Mrs. Paley, a retired theoretical mathematician who worked for Izon.
• Andrew Scorer as Dr. Phil Rosenzweig, a Nobel Prize nominee, former colleague of Mrs. Paley, and former employee of Izon.
• Paul Robbins as Tracton.
• Philip Akin as The General.

Reception

Cube 2: Hypercube currently holds a rating of 56% "rotten" on Rotten Tomatoes. Reviews have been mixed, with Sci-Fi Movie Page and Film Threat giving positive ratings for the movie while sites such as Filmcritic.com, JoBlo.com, and DVD Verdict panned the film. EfilmCritic.com wrote that "while the acting isn’t quite top-shelf, the cast is still serviceable enough to carry the increasing claustrophobia and confusion that sets in, and they’re all quite likable in their own B movie way." Bloody Disgusting also rated the film, writing "With pacing that's snail like slow at times mixed with the horrid FX and lack of unique kill scenes, the film falls way short of my expectations, especially after waiting six years! But if you are a big fan of the first Cube, and expect a little less, you will enjoy Cube 2: Hypercube."

See also

• Simulated reality
• Tesseractic honeycomb

External links

• Cube 2: Hypercube at the Internet Movie Database
• Cube 2: Hypercube at AllRovi
• Cube 2: Hypercube at Rotten Tomatoes