Cube film: Encyclopedia II - Cube film - Power Struggles and Character Development

Cube film - Power Struggles and Character Development

The director and writers have stated (On the DVD Commentary) that each of the characters in the film was designed to play through a certain arc of character development. This is presented through many twists in the story and changes in who leads the party of six and who the audience really wants to escape.

Quentin is the character who thrusts himself forwards as the lead and who appears to be the main character as the group assemble. He reveals himself to be a cop and is both strong and level headed, putting himself forward for most of the dangerous tasks and claiming he is looking for 'practical solutions'. However, the film soon reveals (mainly thorugh Quentin's confrontation with Worth in the Red Room) that he is not all who appears. He shows himself to be both violent, especially against women, cruel, especially to Worth, and slightly unhinged with a 'Thing for young girls' as Holloway puts it. As the film transpires and he tries to take control of Leaven (who is generally seen as the most capable of the group) the character becomes more of a villain and is responsible for tearing the group apart as he moves from Hero to Villain.

Holloway is the eldest woman of the group and is a free clinic doctor. Her demeanour shows her at the start to be bitter, paranoid and melodramatic. She is the main source of the conspiracy theories and often states that she thinks the U.S Government is responsible for the Cube. As the film progresses she becomes more human, tending to Quentin's wounds after the 'Sushi Machine Encounter' and being responsible for looking after Kazan when they find him. She also shows herself to be calm when needed and explains to Quentin in the Red Room why they need Worth. She attempts to make a connection with Worth shortly before she tries to reach the outer wall when they are at the edge and is finally killed by Quentin there (realising his change from Hero to Villain) having changed from the most unstable of the group to a pivotal element of calm that opposes Quentin.

Leaven begins the film as the screaming and helpless damsel in distress. Rather than explore her surroundings she begins to scream for help until she attracts Quentin, Halloway and Worth. She is the only member of the group to have any belongings (her glasses) and at first appears to be useless ('I'm nobody, I go to school, I live with my parents; they're just these people. I'm nobody!'). However it quickly becomes clear why she has her glasses with her and she is revealed to be the brains of the group, the only one capable of deciphering the pattern in the numbers (Although Kazan performs her calculations and Worth displays a limited knowledge of the pattern). She forms a friendship with Worth and Kazan and is the most coveted member of the group as both Quentin and the others recognise her as being pivotal to any escape attempt, thus she changes from a damsel in distress to a capable means of escape and the only one who forces Worth to carry on.

Worth's transformation begins with him lying placidly on the ground, injured and grim-looking. He maintains his grim outlook throughout the first part of the film, pausing only to mock Quentin's attempts to leave. He is frequently asked why he even bothers to follow the others and appears to have no reason to live; 'I'm just a guy. I work in an office building doing office building things, ok?'. He functions as nothing but dead weight to the group, capable of doing nothing other than lead Kazan and 'booting' rooms (throwing boots into them to test for motion-sensitive traps). When they reach the Red Room however (shortly after the 'Sushi Machine Trap') Quentin confronts Worth and challenges him. At this point it becomes apparent that Worth worked on designing the outer shell of the cube. He claims to know little about the purpose or construction of the room or about the traps, but did know that people were being put inside for a few months. In the Red Room, Worth reacts to Quentin and explodes in anger as he tells his story. He gives a long, lucid and notable speech about the futility of leadership citing that 'It (The world) is all a headless blunder functioning under the illusion of a master plan. Can you grasp that, Holloway? Big brother is not watching you'. He then says his function in the group is 'The Poison' meaning he sees himself as another obstacle for them to overcome, having no function other than to promote conflict. However, as the film moves on he becomes the replacement hero. He regularly confronts and fights Quentin, engineering plans to disable him. He receives severe beatings and abuse from Quentin and is extremely lucky in avoiding trapped rooms that Quentin throws him into; he rescues Kazan when he is separated from himself and Leaven, and rescues Leaven from Quentin before leading them to the edge. At the end, however, he decides he has nothing to live for and elects to die in the cube when he reaches the exit. 'What is out there?' Leaven asks him, 'Boundless human stupidity' He replies before Leaven is killed by Quentin. He then tackles and kills Quentin before being sealed in the room, thus completeing a move from 'Poison' to Hero and leader.

Rennes, AKA 'The Wren' begins the film by appearing to be the natural reluctant leader and the most able and knowledgeable. He is an escape artist who 'flew the coop' on several major prisons and who develops the method of using a boot to detect traps. He has good senses and is spry for an older man, despite a facial tic or spasm that is never explained. He detects one trap that the boot does not and establishes the philosophy of 'concentrating on what's in front of you' that the group later have to apply. However, despite his apparent knowledge and calm it is whilst becoming involved in the argument and just after saying this that he dies (having broken his own rule to become involved in the petty squabbles of the group). Rennes is killed when acid is sprayed in his face and shows his change from a specialist character and the group's only hope to simply a victim with little use at all.

Kazan shows his change most simply as being the autistic man who seems left only to slow them down. Immediately distrusted by Quentin and almost discarded by Leaven before the 'silence trap' it is presumed he exists either to cripple their speed or to kill them off. However, it transpires that he is a pivotal part of their escape as he is the only one who can complete the calculations needed to reach safety. Over time he changes from a means of slowing them to their embodied ability to move safely.

There is also Alderson, a character who appears at the opening of the film (and on the DVD packaging). This character does not meet up with the rest of the group and is killed in seconds. However, it is set so that he appears to be a main character at the start before dying and being revealed as nothing other than a taste of the carnage to come. There is some speculation as to what "purpose" Alderson was meant to serve should he have survived long enough to meet the group. The fact that the actor who played him was fitted with a headpiece to make the Alderson character shaven-headed and that the group lacks any moral or spiritual authority has led to the notion that Alderson may have been a Buddhist or Catholic monk.

All the characters are named after prisons: Quentin after San Quentin State Prison in California; Holloway after the Holloway Prison in England; Kazan after the prison in Kazan, Russia; Rennes after a prison in Rennes, France; Alderson after the prison in Alderson, West Virginia; Leaven and Worth after the prison in Leavenworth, Kansas.

Not only are the characters named after prisons but they reflect the prisons themselves. Example: Kazan (the mentally challenged character), in Russia is a disorganized prison. Rennes (the "mentor") was a jail that pioneered many of today's prison policies. Quentin (the detective) is known for its brutality. Holloway is a women's prison, and Alderson is a prison where isolation is a common punishment. Leavenworth runs to a rigid set of rules (Leaven's mathematics), and the new prison is corporately owned and built (Worth, hired as an architect).

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Power Struggles and Character Development", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki