History Main / OminousCube

[[folder:Web Original]]
* Most of the "mysterious cube" artifacts have been purged from the ''Wiki/SCPFoundation'' archives; cubes were once of the most cliché forms for an SCP to take, though the tendency has waned.
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[[folder:Web Comics]]

[[folder:Film — Live-Action]]

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

** The Tesseract, one of the six Infinity Stones, generates essentially limitless amounts of energy and has been used to open portals to other worlds. It is also extremely volatile, the first of the aforementioned portals was completely accidental, which (seemingly) killed the BigBad of the [[Film/CaptainAmericaTheFirstAvenger first Captain America film]].

** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E4ThePowerOfThree "The Power of Three"]] opens with millions of small cubes suddenly appearing on Earth one day. They remain dormant for a year, then they suddenly activate and cause one-third of humanity to go into cardiac arrest.

[[folder:Mythology]]

[[folder:Webcomics]]

[-''[[VideoGame/MetalGearSolid "Huh... just a box..."]]''-]

** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E4ThePowerOfThree "The Power of Three"]] opens with millions of small cubes suddenly appearing on Earth one day. They remain dormant for a year, when they suddenly activate and cause one-third of humanity to go into cardiac arrest.

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[[folder:Film -- Live-Action]]

[[folder:Live-Action Television]]

** Series 5 featured the Pandorica, a giant, cube-shaped, "perfect prison" [[TailorMadePrison built specifically to contain the Doctor]].
** In the Series 7 episode, "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E4ThePowerOfThree The Power of Three]]", millions of small cubes suddenly fell to Earth one day, and remained dormant for a year, when they suddenly activated and caused one-third of humanity to go into cardiac arrest.

[[folder:Literature]]
* ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'': The Escafil Device is an Andalite invention that looks like a blue cube, and whoever touches it gains the power to morph into other lifeforms.
* In ''Literature/{{Neuromancer}}'', [[AIIsACrapshoot Wintermute]] is represented by a glowing white cube in cyberspace, and being surrounded by black [=ICE=] means that nobody can hack into him [[YourMindMakesItReal without having their brain fried]].
* In ''Literature/TheGoblinReservation'', the Time Museum has the "Artifact", a large, vaguely cubical thing whose origins nobody has ever been able to discern. [[spoiler:It later turns out to be a container for the last known dragon in the universe.]]
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* ''VideoGame/{{Spellbreaker}}'': Featureless white cubes serve as the game's "treasures" and, with the aid of a spell, make up its transportation system. The cubes are actually [[spoiler:symbolic representations of the basic building blocks of reality, which the shadowy figure is tricking you into collecting.]]

* Most of the "mysterious cube" artifacts have been purged from the ''WebOriginal/SCPFoundation'' archives; cubes were once of the most cliché forms for an SCP to take, though the tendency has waned.

In addition to the atmosphere, making plot devices cube-shaped can also bring to mind imagery of PandorasBox, the original Ominous Cube. Some writers go the extra mile and even name their artifacts after it, even if the work in question [[FauxSymbolism doesn't have a lot in common with the classical myth]].

* PandorasBox: The UrExample. A box that contained all the horrors of the world, which was given to a girl named Pandora, who opened the box and unleashed those horrors. Only one thing remained in the box: [[FlingALightIntoTheFuture hope.]]

** A giant, floating, ambiguously sentient, yellow cube that speaks in a StarfishLanguage grants the player character, Gomez, a fez which lets him perceive the third dimension. Something causes this cube to shatter into multiple, smaller cubes,[[note]]and some of ''those'' cubes shatter into ''even smaller'' cubes[[/note]] which causes reality to start falling apart. The game centers around reassembling it.

* ''VideoGame/UltimaVIITheBlackGate'': The three Generators take the form of a pyramid, sphere, and cube. The Prisms, the games' [[ArtifactOfDoom Artifacts of Doom]], are housed within. The most powerful of the three is the Cube, which [[spoiler: compels Fellowship members to be completely truthful when brandished at them]].
* ''VideoGame/EnchanterTrilogy'': In ''Spellbreaker'', featureless white cubes serve as the game's "treasures" and, with the aid of a spell, make up its transportation system. The cubes are actually [[spoiler:symbolic representations of the basic building blocks of reality, which the shadowy figure is tricking you into collecting.]]

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* The SinisterGeometry aspect is actually subverted in that salt, sodium chloride, actually forms cubic crystals, and is both extremely common and useful.

* In the final panels of ''ComicBook/{{Hellboy}}'', [[spoiler:while wandering Hell after Satan is killed, three glowing objects suddenly appear in front of Hellboy: a sphere, a pyramid, and a cube. [[AmbiguousEndin The comic ends immediately after they appear.]]]]

* ''Film/{{Hellraiser}}'': The Lament Configuration is a puzzle box that, when solved, opens a {{Hellgate}} that the Cenobites -- demonic entities that derive pleasure from suffering -- can pass through.
* ''{{Film/Justice League|2017}}'': [[DismantledMacGuffin When united]], the three Mother Boxes are capable of terraforming a planet into a DeathWorld like Steppenwolf's homeland.