the box

Director: richard kelly

Actor: cameron diaz,james marsden,frank langella,james rebhorn

Data Published: Thu Oct 29 2009

Genres: Drama,Fantasy,Mystery,Sci-Fi,Thriller

Key Words: moral dilemma,nosebleed,alien,library,supernatural power

IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0362478/

WIKI: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Box_(2009_film)

Description: The Box is a movie starring Cameron Diaz, James Marsden, and Frank Langella. A small wooden box arrives on the doorstep of a married couple, who know that opening it will grant them a million dollars and kill someone they don't know.

Plot: In December 1976, financially-strapped couple Arthur (a NASA engineer) and Norma Lewis find a package on their doorstep. Inside is a wooden box, with a large red button locked under a transparent dome top. An accompanying note reads: "Mr. Steward will call upon you at 5:00 pm." Mr. Steward, a mysterious man with the left side of his face burned off, arrives to deliver the key for the box. He tells Norma that, if the button is pushed, he will give her a tax-free payment of $1 million in cash. However, someone she does not know will die. $100 is given to Norma by Mr Stewart as penance for allowing him to enter the house and voice his deal. Norma and Arthur have ethical and moral arguments about pushing the button, wondering whether the death will be a young and innocent person, or a person on death row. Their son, Walter, is attending private school where Norma teaches, and she had just been informed that the school would no longer offer her a discount for his education, making the million dollars all the more enticing. While discussing it, Arthur and Norma open the box, and discover that the box is 'just a bunch of wood'. The couple discuss it further, with Arthur chastising Norma for being scared about the deal. No resolution is made and the two go to sleep. The next day, they discuss it further before they attend work. After work, Arthur reveals that the $100 dollar bill given to them is real. After further discussion, Norma impulsively pushes the button, whispering 'It's just a box'. It is revealed that someone is shot, and that the gunman ran from the scene carrying a briefcase. Mr. Steward arrives at the house and presents them with the $1 million dollars. Mr. Steward tells them that someone did indeed die as a result of their actions, and assures them that the offer will be presented to someone whom they do not know. Before Mr. Steward can leave, Arthur attempts to return the money to him, he declines and states that while he is sorry, he can do nothing because "the button has been pressed". The police treat the murder as a domestic homicide, and it is discovered that the husband whose wife was shot, was a colleague of Arthur's working at NASA. The police are confused because the astronaut was known as a loving husband, whom they would not initially suspect. NSA chief Martin Teague and Norm Cahill, Arthur's boss from NASA, discuss Cahill's missing NASA colleague, Arlington Steward. The chief tells Cahill that Steward became "something else" after being killed by lightning shortly after NASA received the first photograph transmitted by the Viking 1 Mars lander in July 1976. Life for Arthur and Norma becomes far worse. The two are constantly plagued by odd and seemingly supernatural happenings, a result of pressing the button. It is revealed throughout the film that Arlington has been conducting business with a group of benefactors using the box to decide if the human race is worth preserving. The couple are alarmingly visited by people who have also fallen victim to the box, pressing the button themselves and falling into the same fate as the Lewis family. After a number of paranormal incursions, Arlington ultimately returns to the Lewis home and informs them that their son Walter, who had been kidnapped by unknown assailants earlier, is locked in the family's bathroom upstairs. However, he has been stricken completely and irreversibly blind and deaf. Arlington laments that he had hoped for the family to be better than succumbing to the temptation of the money and left the box alone, but that it had to come to this for the choice that they made. Arlington makes the couple a final ultimatum: Keep the money and live out their lives with their disabled son, or have Arthur kill Norma, restoring Walter's sight and hearing, with the million dollars being placed in a high-interest banking account available to him when he is 18. Arthur contemplates killing Arlington himself, with the latter stating that Arthur will be charged with his murder, his son's condition will remain, and the family will be left with nothing. Arlington departs the home, with Arthur coming to the realization that their choice to push the button has placed the family into purgatory. Norma decides to take Arlington up on his offer, wanting her son to live his life without disability, and asks Arthur to kill her. After a long goodbye, Arthur kills Norma. The scene cuts back and forth between Arthur, Norma, and another couple offered the same box. They also decide to press the button, resulting in Norma's death. It is implied that this will go on and on among other couples in the future.