The Cube is Jim Henson’s quintessential little-known Black Mirror masterpiece

I’m sure we’re all familiar with it Dark crystalso we know Jim Henson can be quirky and take on a slightly more mature subject matter. But there is little in his work that is quite like it Mind boggling Like puppets The cube. This 1969 TV production was made for an NBC anthology series called Experience in televisionwhich included, appropriately, numerous experimental films, plays and documentaries. One episode even featured Marshall McLuhan explaining his oft-cited theory that “The medium is the message“.

And even among all these oddities, Jim Henson The cube Stand out. It’s a 53-minute bottle film, set almost entirely in one room. A man wakes up in a white cube, unsure of where he is or how he got there. There are no windows and no door. Just white board walls.

It won’t take long for someone to open part of the wall and bring a chair for our unknown man in the cube. But when the “door” closes behind him, the protagonist cannot open it again. And so begins the procession of people, dozens of them, taking turns entering and exiting through various invisible doors in the titular cube.

The reactions begin strangely enough – why is there strawberry jam on the stool? Who is this woman who claims to be the wife of the protagonist, even though he does not recognize her? But it escalates quickly, calling into question the nature of reality, the sanity of the protagonist, and raising questions about what exactly the cube is. Even Jim Henson himself makes it Unapproved hijab Like the gorilla voice in Toto.

As people came and went, delivering supplies to the man, teasing him, or even trying to seduce him, the room around him changed inexplicably. Beds, sofas, fully equipped liquor cabinets and other furniture appear vaguely. A full band enters and sings a song containing the line “You’re Never Out Till You’re Dead” before it is revealed to be a recording as the record repeatedly skips the word “dead”.

The cube It offers many questions but no answers. Do humans live in a simulation? Is he on TV? Are the people around him actors? Are any of them real at all? Does the material exist?

Even in postThe twilight zone world, The cube It feels uniquely weird, more akin to a modern dystopian anthology series Black mirror Than anything else. Although these are not true lost media, they remain relatively obscure. It has only been streamed twice, has a sold-out DVD listing on Amazon, and only occasionally appears on streaming services in any official capacity.

Your best bets right now are two YouTube uploads, both of which are embedded above. One is a high-quality transfer of a black-and-white cinematic film with remastered audio. Unfortunately, most of the song has also been deleted due to copyright. The other upload is in full color and retains the song, but is an overall lower quality version with a more distorted picture and sound. No matter which ride you choose, it’s a wild and thoroughly enjoyable ride that shows just how twisted Jim Henson’s mind was.