Hypercube: Cube 2 (2002) - Synopsis
While not much of a hit with mainstream American audiences, the clever and unusual 1997 Canadian horror/sci-fi film "Cube" scored big with international audiences in places like France and Japan. "Cube" features six strangers in prison-camp uniforms who wake up one day trapped in an enormous maze of cubes filled with lethal boobytraps. No one remembers how they got there, but to get out alive this ragtag band must pool their skills to bypass the traps. While criticized for trite dialogue, the film earned kudos for its special effects and understated tension. It was named best Canadian debut feature at the Toronto Film Festival.
Since the original film easily earned back its small budget, the filmmakers have come out with a sequel titled "Hypercube: Cube 2 (2002)." In "Hypercube," things are even more intense, with eight prisoners trapped in a strange, four-dimensional cube with physics-defying attributes that is packed full of deathtraps. The traps include a razorsphere shredding machine and time gears that disfigure bodies by warping time around them. As the people try to escape the hypercube, they learn of a deadly conspiracy associated with the structure. The film stars various minor Canadian actors, including Geraint Wyn Davies (appeared in the Canadian miniseries Trudeau), Kari Matchett (Men with Brooms), and Neil Crone (The Red Green Show). Production started in the summer of 2001 in Toronto, Canada.
Of course, hypercubes are a valid geometric concept, although they are not generally associated with death and destruction. One of only six four-dimensional regular polytopes, the hypercube is constructed from eight cubes meeting three per edge. While hard for us three-dimensional creatures to visualize, they can most basically be described as mathematical functions with four variables. Hypercubes are actually a pretty tame concept by the standards of n-space geometry. For their next sequel, perhaps the filmmakers should consider the "600-cell," a four-dimensional monstrosity which is comprised of 600 tetrahedra, with five tetrahedra meeting at an edge.
