Cube Zero 2004

Ryjkin is a man trying to escape from the Cube, and when a spray of liquid hits him he fears it’s acid—yet it proves to be a sweet-tasting base that melts his body after a few minutes. In the control room that watches the Cube, two technicians work behind a wall, unaware of who actually runs the operation. The pair pass the time by playing chess, and it’s here that Wynn displays unsettling abilities to predict the cube’s moves, even as his colleague, Dodd, stays close at hand.

The two are ordered to record the dream of a subject. In Wynn’s vision, Rains is seen being chased in a forest with her daughter, a scene that bleeds into reality when Rains later wakes up inside the Cube and joins the other captives. The man with the tattoo on his forehead—Haskell—shares the same mark as the soldier who captured Rains, and he cannot recall his life beyond his name. Everyone in the Cube has a backstory that hints at consented participation in experiments, yet the files reveal that [Rains]’ form doesn’t appear in her own records, leaving a haunting gap in her past.

As the group navigates the labyrinthine rooms, the occupants face deadly traps. Bartok and Meyerhold are claimed by the Cube’s perilous devices, underscoring the cruel math of the experiment. The tension peaks when a call from “above” orders Wynn and Dodd to perform a procedure for Owen, who has reached one of the exits. The attempt spins out of control after Owen answers the crucial question—> Do you believe in God? —with a negative, and Dodd is forced to push a button that incinerates Owen. The result is a chilling reminder that no one has ever answered positively, and Wynn begins to suspect that the Cube is a place where people are placed against their will.

Back in the control room, Jax and the supervising analysts learn of the incident. They trap the occupants in one room and then electrify the walls to execute a brutal rescue, but Dodd relents and sabotages the panels that power the Cube’s traps. The sabotage buys the prisoners a ten-minute window to escape as the rooms reset and a new procedure looms to vaporize everything inside. When Jax uncovers the betrayal, he kills Dodd and activates a chip that injects Haskell with a hostile directive. The once-cooperative group must contend with a now-alien threat as they push toward an exit, while Wynn and Rains fight to stay ahead of the cycle’s end.

The escape culminates when Wynn and Rains leap through the exit just as the final vaporization sequence begins. They emerge into a lake, then sprint through a forest that eerily mirrors the dream Wynn witnessed. Soldiers close in, and Wynn is tranquilized and recaptured. He wakes in a room to learn that he has been sentenced for treason and that he allegedly agreed to become a subject—yet he recalls neither the trial nor any form of consent. His brain has been altered, and he drifts between memories of Rains reuniting with her daughter and praising him as a superhero. Now handicapped, Wynn is found by the captive group and pressed to reflect on the room’s color, wanting to return to a room of a different color, a reminder that the Cube’s mysteries—and its control over him—are far from resolved.