Cube

Is Cube (2000) a film about mathematics? Not like Pi. ( one of my favourite movies ). Cube is however based on mathematical ideas. People travel around in a 26x26x26 Rubik cube. Some rooms are safe, other rooms viciously kill upon entry. Safety depends upon the coordinates of the room being prime or not. Despite all that Cube is not about mathematics but about psychology and group dynamics. When seven strangers meet in the cube and one says "I'm a cop", the others immediately accept his authority and leadership. The person with the most impressive mathematical capabilities has some sort of mental disability, autism I guess. Well, some mathematicians simply are near autistic. Some merely act as if they were autistic. It is a great way to escape social pressure. While the autists are quiet the manics are rather noisy because they have to carry their colossal genius brains ( read: Ego ) around. Let's face it mathematicians are odd folk. I don't blame the director of Cube for showing that. ( OU trained mathematicians are entirely social and likeable of course! ) Considering the massive scale of conspiracy thinking since 9/11 I liked it when one of the developers of the Cube said: "There is no conspiracy. There is no control. It just happened." A thought I often have myself since the BP oil spill. What if governments only pretend to be in control? - Two more Cube movies were made. HyperCube (2002) and Cube Zero (2004). HyperCube is about a new 4D model of the Cube. Cube Zero goes back in time, it explains what happened before Cube 1. The main character of Cube 0 is the autistic mathematician of Cube 1. In this movie the purpose of the Cube is explained.