Taglines: You Are The Experiment.
Norma and Arthur Lewis are faced with a terrible dilemma when a mysterious glass box turns up at their door. If they press the button inside the box, they’ll get enough money to save their ailing son, but in exchange, someone, somewhere in the world will die. When the temptation to save their beloved son becomes too much to bear, Norma pushes the button. Immediately, a gunshot rings out somewhere nearby. Consumed with guilt, Norma must do everything in her power to solve a murder she has knowingly caused.
Based on the short story by Richard Matheson, “The Box” stars Cameron Diaz as Norma Lewis and James Marsden as Arthur Lewis, a suburban couple with a young child who receive a simple wooden box as a gift, which bears fatal and irrevocable consequences. A mysterious stranger, played by Frank Langella, delivers the message that the box promises to bestow upon its owner $1 million with the press of a button. But, pressing this button will simultaneously cause the death of another human being somewhere in the world…someone they don’t know. With just 24 hours to have the box in their possession, Norma and Arthur find themselves in the crosshairs of a startling moral dilemma and must face the true nature of their humanity.
The Box is an American psychological thriller film based on the 1970 short story “Button, Button” by Richard Matheson, which was previously adapted into an episode of the 1980s iteration of The Twilight Zone. The film is written and directed by Richard Kelly and stars Cameron Diaz and James Marsden as a couple who receive a box from a mysterious man played by Frank Langella who offers them one million dollars if they press the button sealed within the dome on top of the box. However once the button has been pushed someone, somewhere, will die.
About the Story
In December 1976, a financially strapped couple, Norma (Cameron Diaz) and Arthur Lewis (James Marsden) find a package on their doorstep. Inside is a locked wooden box, with a transparent dome top and large red button visible underneath. An accompanying note reads: “Mr. Steward will call upon you at 5:00 pm”, which is the next day. They leave it in the kitchen.
At 5 p.m. the next day, Mr. Steward (Frank Langella), a mysterious man with the left side of his face torn off, arrives to deliver a key to the box. He tells Norma that if the button is pushed, he’ll give her $1 million. However, someone she does not know, somewhere in the world, will die. Arthur, a NASA engineer, disassembles the box to find only a button and nothing under it.
Later, Norma and Arthur have ethical and moral arguments about pushing the button, wondering whether a young and ambitious, or old and fragile person will die. Norma decides to push the button. Miles away, a man has simultaneously killed his wife and then fled, leaving their daughter locked in the bathroom. Police are perplexed as to why Jeffrey Carnes (Ryan Woodle), a NASA employee like Arthur, shot his wife to death since they had a happy relationship.
At Norma’s sister’s wedding rehearsal, Arthur wins a chance to select a gift from presents provided by the dinner guests. A plain brown box exactly like his and Norma’s is among them. Arthur opens it to find a photo of Steward before the disfigurement. Arthur asks Norma’s father, a police officer, to run the license plate number of Steward’s Lincoln Continental. Shortly after, Norma is asked to take a phone call at the wedding rehearsal. The call is from Mr. Steward who asks why her husband is having his car license plate run by the police department. Norma asks Mr. Steward how he knew that and warns that her father has employees everywhere.
Later on, Arthur drives the babysitter (Dana) home. She tells him she is living in a motel because her family are moving, but their new house is not ready to move into yet. As he’s driving, she begins to ramble and tells Arthur to “look into the light” and asks is “somebody pushing his buttons.” Her nose begins to bleed and she passes out just as he is approaching the motel. Arthur pulls into the motel parking lot and sees her ID states that her name is Sarah Mathews, not Dana. She suddenly wakes and rushes into the motel. In her room, she has surveillance photographs of Arthur & his family all over the walls. It’s obvious she’s not who she said she was. Once back home, Arthur asks Norma how she met the baby-sitter; she said on a tour of the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.
Later, while in the supermarket, Norma is approached by a woman who tells her to look up a certain call number in the library and not to trust anyone, not even her husband. The woman also passes out with a nose-bleed. Norma’s father discovers Steward’s car is registered to the NSA and allows Arthur to visit the Carnes home crime scene. Arthur finds pictures of Steward and a Human Resource Exploitation Manual along with a library call number.
Norma and Arthur separately visit the library. Arthur approaches Steward’s wife (Deborah Rush), who leads him into a room with three upright rectangular-shaped cubes of water. Two will lead him to eternal damnation, while the other leads to salvation. Arthur enters one and he vanishes, while Steward’s wife leaves the library alone. Norma is led by two women to Steward and has a discussion about how he had gotten his facial disfigurement as a consequence of being struck by lightning while working at NASA. He causes her nose to bleed and she passes out. She finds herself back at home upon her bed. Above her, Arthur emerges within a rectangular cube of water and he is flushed out and falls on her. They both leave in shock and prepare for the wedding reception which is that evening.
Back at the NSA, the NSA chief and Arthur’s boss at NASA discuss Steward. The chief tells Arthur’s boss Steward is “something else.” When Steward was struck by lightning, he died, but at the morgue, a nurse heard Steward laughing. His body supernaturally regenerated; he was transferred. The NSA chief talks to Steward, they discuss the ‘box and button.’
At the wedding reception of Norma’s sister, Arthur and Norma’s son Walter (Sam Oz Stone) is kidnapped. Arthur is forced to leave at gunpoint, by Jeffrey Carnes, who reveals that he had been forced to choose between his wife or daughter, and also informs him that they have to save Walter or Norma will die, and that he will kill her if they don’t save him.
Meanwhile, NSA employees round up large groups of people, including Arthur and Walter. Steward oversees the process. Steward’s boxes are an experiment to judge whether a majority of individual members of the human race will put other lives before any personal gain. If a majority push the button, the human race will be exterminated. All the test subjects are couples under 40 years of age with one child.
Steward offers Arthur and Norma a final choice. Walter is now deaf and blind. Either they live on with a disabled son, or Arthur can shoot Norma through the heart, at which point Walter’s sight and hearing will be restored. Norma begs Arthur to shoot her. Elsewhere, a woman pushes the button on her box and Arthur shoots Norma, killing her. As Arthur is taken away by police, Steward leaves the other couple’s house with the box. Walter is shown through an upstairs window in the home with his grandfather, (Holmes Osborne). The final scene shows Steward standing in the snow by his car, parked in a street, with the box.
The Box (2009)
Directed by: Richard Kelly
Starring: Cameron Diaz, Frank Langella, James Marsden, Gillian Jacobs, Deborah Rush, Celia Weston, Lisa K. Wyatt, Mark S. Cartier, Kevin Robertson, John Magaro, John Magaro, Michele Durrett
Screenplay by: Richard Kelly
Production Design by: Alec Hammond
Cinematography by: Steven Poster
Film Editing by: Sam Bauer
Costume Design by: April Ferry
Set Decoration by: Tracey A. Doyle
Art Direction by: Priscilla Elliott
Music by: Win Butler,Régine Chassagne, Owen Pallett
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for thematic elements, some violence and disturbing images.
Distributed by: Warner Bros. Pictures
Release Date: November 6, 2009
Visits: 68
