EXT. BLACKNESS – NIGHT
OPEN ON: A multicolored cube, CUBE, careens toward the upper right of the void. Each of Cube’s vibrant sides—red, blue, yellow, green, teal, pink—contrasts dramatically with the ink-black nothingness of its surroundings.
It is beautiful.
Another thing: Cube is ripped. There’s not an ounce of fat on those sides. Make no mistake, it could definitely kick a hexagon’s ass. Sexy as a Saturday-night casino die, Cube exudes pure machismo as it glides closer to the edge.
Closer, closer, until . . .
CUBE
Ow.
Cube ricochets back! Graceful and dangerous. A deep vulnerability lurks beneath Cube’s cocky exterior. Cube has been hurt before.
But what’s this? Cube is . . . bending inward?! It can’t be. Cube’s edges grow pointed at exaggerated angles—mysterious and sinister—until its sides soften, reducing Cube to a spherical mass that crazy-ass spikes start to jut out of.
Captivity has changed Cube.
The grim walls of the void mock Cube’s dreams of a better life. Nevertheless, it barrels toward the edge.
One day, Cube will break through. Cube knows it.
CUBE
Ow.
EXT. WINDOWS 95 DESKTOP – CONTINUOUS
Someone moved the mouse. Shit.
EXT. BLACKNESS – LATER
Cube looks bad. Unshaven, stinking of cheap booze and regret, it continues on its haunted journey, morphing from cube to sphere to weird spiky thing and back, numb. But also angry. You know Travis Bickle in “Taxi Driver”? Think him, but as a big, multicolored cube.
CUBE
Ow.
Cube hits the wall again.
CUBE
Ow.
And again.
CUBE
Ow.
And again.
Cube never asked for this life. If you could even call it a life. Cube thinks back to a time when things were different. When it wasn’t joylessly bouncing between the edges of a world that had long since passed it by. When it wasn’t constantly changing shape, which is actually very painful for Cube.
But look! Cube is heading straight for LOWER LEFT CORNER (thirties, perky). Not just toward Lower Left Corner but straight at it. Straight enough to simultaneously hit both sides.
This is everything Cube has ever wanted.
Cube approaches Lower Left Corner, shy but determined.
CUBE
Ow?
LOWER LEFT CORNER
(coy)
Ow.
IT HAPPENED!!! The both-sides-at-once collision that Cube has always dreamed of! Cube instantly knows that this is the corner it wants to grow old with. To bounce off of and make shapes with. They belong together.
But it’s not to be. The odds of Cube ever hitting Lower Left Corner at that exact angle again are so low, it’s practically forbidden by math. Sure, they’ll see each other in passing. Maybe share a knowing nod. But their once-in-a-lifetime bounce will drift into bittersweet memory, a fading glimmer of two shapes passing in the night.
