[VenomGGXX]

I just saw a midnight screening of the box, and boy, was it a doozy.

SPOILERS AHEAD



Select the black box below with your cursor to view the spoiler text

Ok, so you eventually find out that the box is a device used to test humanity. The guy who hands out the box is a deceased NASA employee that has been controlled by an alien after a lightning strike. Cameron Diaz teaches English and the book she is giving a lecture on is people caught in purgatory together having to deal with their flaws. The whole time people who are also being ''mind controlled'' visible by nosebleeds are trying to help James Marsden and Cameron Diaz from being ''eternally damned.'' If she pushes the button someone she doesn't know will die. Cameron Diaz pushes the button and recieves 1 million dollars. So during the middle of the movie James Marsden's character goes to a library and the wife of the dead NASA guy with half a face tells him to choose a portal to save himself. Some wierd people have been showing him the number two with their fingers so he chooses portal number 2 ( Just like a gameshow) and he sees a bright light that happens to be heaven. His son gets abducted and the alien makes him lose his hearing and his sight and the only way to restore him is to kill Cameron Diaz. BUT he was warned by a guy who's wife made the same mistake not to do that and he shows him a ''HUMAN EXPLOITATION MANUAL''. Coincidentally, the second Cameron Diaz pushed the button is when the guy shot his wife. ANyway, he kills Cameron Diaz and his son is saved and the exact same thing happens to another couple. So...I was thinking this is what the movie's about 1) Cameron Diaz died from radiation poisoning in her foot accident and James Marsden is trying to help her get to heaven. 2) The Alien is really god and the whole experiment is in hell and to get out of hell you have to not push the button. 3)The whole thing is a government experiment to test mind control devices and the aliens have been selling them to NASA. But what was wierd was the kid laughing and telling James Marsden that it's ''tragic'' which means that the test is set up for the couples to fail?? I keep thinking that the alien was testing human compassion but it was done in such a manipulative way that the aliens just wanted to see how far they could control humanity before they took over.

So anyone else have any ideas?

[electric mud]

You have any non spoiler quick thoughts?

[VenomGGXX]

Um not really, to get into the thoughts I would have to post the plot details without spoilers. But you can come back after you've seen the movie

[Popeye Doyle]

"So anyone else have any ideas?"

Avoid this film?

[Optimus Pixels]

That sounds awful.

[Chaotic]

Wow. Didnt expect anything like that.

[Raphael S.]

I'm expecting this film to be majorly awful. Delayed so many times and released out of the blue. Didnt even know it was coming out today until I saw a commercial for it mid-week.

The films body language doesnt look good.

[Ghost Robot]

I wish studios would stop ruining Richard Matheson's writing. Here's how matheson ended the original story: Select the black box below with your cursor to view the spoiler text

In the original short story, the plot is resolved differently. Norma presses the button, and receives the money — after her husband dies in a train incident where Arthur is pushed onto the tracks (the money was the no-fault insurance settlement, which is $50,000 instead of the $200,000 in the Twilight Zone episode). A despondent Norma asks the stranger why her husband was the one who was killed. The stranger replies that Norma never really knew her husband.

[Traz]

sounds absurd

[Optimus Pixels]

Originally Posted by Ghost Robot

I wish studios would stop ruining Richard Matheson's writing. Here's how matheson ended the original story: Select the black box below with your cursor to view the spoiler text

this is based on a book? I just assumed they were ripping off the whole press the button and something BAD happens thing from LOST. haha.

[zpt4x]

Im not going to see this so I went ahead and read those spoilers. Sounds terrible. Like almost so bad I do want to see it terrible. It can't possibly be worse than Southland Tales could it

[Steve Brandon]

If I remember correctly, and it's been a couple of decades, the ending for the Twilight Zone adaptation was simple. Select the black box below with your cursor to view the spoiler text

They press the button, then the button-keeper comes and gives them the money and tells them "I'm going to give this box to another couple. People you don't know." implying that one of them would be the next one to die if the next couple presses the button. That ending was enough to leave a lasting impression on me even at age 11 or 12.

[LEAVES]

Originally Posted by Ghost Robot

I wish studios would stop ruining Richard Matheson's writing. Here's how matheson ended the original story: Select the black box below with your cursor to view the spoiler text

This is stupid. Matheson should be ashamed.

Originally Posted by Steve Brandon

If I remember correctly, and it's been a couple of decades, the ending for the Twilight Zone adaptation was simple. Select the black box below with your cursor to view the spoiler text

This is the obvious one, and the one I figured Kelly would go for. I'm glad he's doing something that at least I couldn't think up, say, immediately upon hearing the premise. In fact, the film sounds as if it is a giant meta-fictional parody of such silly situations. Take, for example, the resolution of the Twilight Zone episode - if you don't push the button and the box is given to 'people you don't know' - did you really gain anything by not pushing the button? It seems to be a 'get what you give' situation, but maybe it's just a 'get while the gettin is good' situation, which renders the situation entirely moot.

[bacon]

That doesnt sound good. That sounds bad.

[Bag of Magic Food]

Originally Posted by LEAVES

Take, for example, the resolution of the Twilight Zone episode - if you don't push the button and the box is given to 'people you don't know' - did you really gain anything by not pushing the button? It seems to be a 'get what you give' situation, but maybe it's just a 'get while the gettin is good' situation, which renders the situation entirely moot.

My understanding is that by not pushing the button, the box would still be set to kill the previous person who did push the button. So you'd only get to enjoy your prize money as long as everyone after you fails to push the button, while by not pushing the button, you would be perfectly safe, and you would be extending the previous button-pusher's life for as long as the box was given to you. Does this make sense?

[Marv]

Mkay.

[Ico fan]

ouch, and I was just foolishly defending Kelly in another thread. You'll have to excuse me, I seem to have a foot lodged in my mouth at the moment.

[LEAVES]

Originally Posted by Bag of Magic Food

My understanding is that by not pushing the button, the box would still be set to kill the previous person who did push the button. So you'd only get to enjoy your prize money as long as everyone after you fails to push the button, while by not pushing the button, you would be perfectly safe, and you would be extending the previous button-pusher's life for as long as the box was given to you. Does this make sense?

That's what I figured it would be. It's the obvious way of doing it. Doesn't make it any good, still. Just a little moral parable undeserving of Aesop.

[RememberTHISguy]

Slant Magazine gave it 3 stars, so I'm still pretty jacked to see it.

[getrhythm]

Wow.

[Panthro]

Originally Posted by Steve Brandon

If I remember correctly, and it's been a couple of decades, the ending for the Twilight Zone adaptation was simple. Select the black box below with your cursor to view the spoiler text

i came into this thread to say almost this exact same thing.. that was one of my all-time favorite Twilight Zone episodes and the first thing i thought of when i saw the first trailer for The Box..

[Steve Brandon]

Originally Posted by LEAVES

Take, for example, the resolution of the Twilight Zone episode - if you don't push the button and the box is given to 'people you don't know' - did you really gain anything by not pushing the button? It seems to be a 'get what you give' situation, but maybe it's just a 'get while the gettin is good' situation, which renders the situation entirely moot.

I've always just presumed that the previous person who did push the button would die, so, if you don't press the button, fate skips over you.

[orchard blues]

I was truly blown away by it, and it really shook me to the core. I wasn't expecting to be so affected by it, but I was. I never saw Southland Tales, and I was expecting this one to be rather silly and there are times where it certainly flirts with silliness, but it never crossed the line, for me anyway.

Really good (possibly great) movie.

+++1/2 (out of ++++)

[A Tension Whore]

That sounds pretty awesome, actually. You all are terrible.

[LEAVES]

Originally Posted by Zachary Q. Pwnhammer

That sounds pretty awesome, actually. You all are terrible.

It could be either awful or awesome. We shall see. Or, I should say, I may, at some point in the distant future, see.

[A Tension Whore]

Originally Posted by LEAVES

It could be either awful or awesome. We shall see. Or, I should say, I may, at some point in the distant future, see.

Southland Tales is so good, it's retarded.

[Chip]

I really loved, and although I loved I loved Southland Tales as well, I think The Box is really nostalgic of the material it's recreating and I think people might appreciate it for that. I found it struck all the right chords in all it's efforts and it's just really kind of cool.