The Box

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As you may have noticed, Secret Entourage does not do movie reviews. We simply feel that there are too many sites out there that are better movie critics than we are. This time however I would like to take a moment and discuss one of the newest movies at the box office, starring Cameron Diaz. The movie is called The Box and if you haven’t seen it, then don’t read on as I might spoil it for you. I wanted to discuss this movie, rather than review it as I think it directly relates with some of the articles that I’ve written in the past and does a great job at demonstrating your choice’s impacts on your life and the lives of those around you.

Should you not have seen the outcome, would YOU have pushed the button?

We’ve discussed the impact of your choices and the greater good in several articles but have we really thought about it or ever put ourselves in the main character’s shoes. We’ve always agreed that driving your life to your destination is much more powerful than sitting in the passenger seat and waiting for the world to go by. In the movie The Box, the character is presented with one choice and two outcomes.

The choice is simple, to push the button or to not push the button.

The outcomes on the other hand are not so simple. If you push the button, you are very rich and never have to worry about money however a stranger that you don’t know will die. In other words, you kill some random person that you don’t know or have ever met and perhaps you will never know that they died as a result of your choice.

The other outcome is simpler, you don’t press the button and nothing happens. The world goes on as proposed and someone else you will never know has to be confronted with the same decision.

So now you ve been told the outcomes of the actions and choose to think it over, but reality is that inside you are a good person, like our character here and understand what the greater good is. There is however one catch, your conscience will make you believe that this might not be real, or might make you think of a million ways you can acquire the money and not judge someone to their death. You now want this money and therefore have a “want” that is greater than a “need”. Bottom line is that the money seems like a better deal but is the wrong choice. Fear now drives our character to not want to make a decision and therefore relies on his significant other to make the decision with him. My question is now WHY?

If as an individual, you know the correct answer to a question, why do you check in with someone else?

Could it be that as an individual, you are simply afraid to make the wrong decision and give up the greed, so you are hoping that someone else will make that awful decision for you? Well, then aren’t you as equally guilty of that decision since you did not to stop the wrong decision from being made on your behalf despite knowing it was wrong and having the ability to entirely stop it? At this point in the movie, the character is simply at a loss and chooses to do nothing about making a decision and allows his wife to make his mistake for him. The decision is quickly regretted by the one who stood there and did nothing and is attempted to get reversed, which is impossible at this point. This decision then triggers several reactions which of course are all negative and end up costing more than the money awarded for the decision.

At the end of the day our wonderful character is held accountable and asked to make the same choice again but this time having to decide against the well being of his son, and the loss of money or the life of his wife, who made the decision to begin with. My final thoughts on this movie review of The Box are about how ironic the film is and its ability show the importance of owning your decisions but also the impact of not making the right decisions and allowing others to make them for you, due to your fear of being involved in the process. I highly recommend this movie to anyone who likes a good thriller but also to anyone who likes movies that leaves you with food for thoughts.