Cube (1997) - 7 questions

Question: How much money and work was required to build the cube? I know that only one actual cube was built.

Answer: No specific amount of money is ever mentioned, and it isn't the only cube. The one in Cube 2: Hypercube is very different.

Question: Is it revealed, in the Cube trilogy, the destiny to which Kazan is reserved when he walks into the bright light?

Answer: No, but given the nature of the organization behind the Cubes, it can be assumed he was either tracked down and executed or detained in order to place him back into that Cube or into another version.

Question: Is there any particular reason that Leaven refers to the Z coordinate as "zed?" I know that it would be used to differentiate between similar sounding letters, but since spacial coordinates only use X, Y, and Z, (to my knowledge) it doesn't really seem necessary. I'm guessing it's a mathematics thing that I just don't know, but if anybody can answer, it would be greatly appreciated.

Answer: Cube is a Canadian film. In Canada, the last letter of the alphabet is pronounced "zed" rather than "zee".

Question: In the Trivia section for this movie, there is an entry that says that all of the characters are named after prisons around the world, and it gives some examples. Can someone identify all of the prisons and how they relate to the character?

Answer: Quentin is named after San Quentin State Prison in California, notorious for a high-level of brutality. Holloway is a women's prison in London, leading to a female character. Alderson Prison is in West Virginia and uses isolation as a major punishment, thus Alderson never meets the other characters. Rennes Prison in France pioneered many modern prison policies, so the character Rennes appears as a knowledgeable mentor to the other characters. The Kazan prison in Russia is disorganised, tying in to the autistic Kazan character. Finally, Leaven and Worth are both named for Leavenworth prison in Kansas, which is corporately built and run, relating to Worth, the corporate architect, and runs on a very rigid set of rules, which ties in to Leaven's mathematical ability.

Question: This is probably been asked over and over again, but please. Just why were these people stuck in a cube? Why them? Why not somebody else? Is this set in the future? Anybody with any details is helpful here.

Answer: In Cube Zero (part 3, a prequel to Cube), it's revealed that the people in the Cube are criminals who chose the Cube over the death penalty, but then have no memory of anything.

Question: In one scene, Kazan is lead into a corner of a room to relieve his bladder. After three days, it would seem that all of them would have had to indulge in similar relief. How come no one was electrocuted through the urine stream, or there was no apparent damage done to the electrical systems of at least that room?

Answer: The designers would anticipate that people might be in there for a long period of time - they presumably insulated the systems in the cubes against that particular possibility.

Question: Anyone who has the Cube DVD, is it really true that if you put the dvd disc upside down in your player, that there is another film on it?

Answer: Having just tried it with my copy (Region 1), no, it doesn't appear to be true.