Can Architecture Imprison Your Mind? (Sci-Fi Breakdown)

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A NOLLISTUDIO/NOLLIMEDIA Production

00:00 INTRO
00:40 CUBE
08:25 THE PLATFORM
16:38 MINORITY REPORT
20:21 ANDOR
23:44 THX 1138

#reaction #architecture #andor #scifi #starwars #movies #cube #theplatform #inception #georgelucas

Synopsys

This analysis explores architectural control in sci-fi cinema, focusing on films where design manipulates minds. "The Cube" uses a maze-like prison, "Platform" emphasizes vertical hierarchy, "Minority Report" integrates technology for societal control, and "THX 1138" uses minimalist spaces to enforce conformity. Each film illustrates how architecture can shape human behavior and thought, reflecting societal constraints.

[zepwafels]

I think the Maze Runner is a very interesting type of prison. Where you are incentivized to keep yourself a prisoner, just because the very much planned escape option is a scary unknown. It taunts, mocks the prisoner by regularly opening the path to escape.

[bornach]

Black Mirror episode "Fifteen Million Merits" was basically a prison where the cell walls were TV screens the inmates were forced to watch or had to pay to skip, and the only way out was to win a talent show.

Black Mirror explored other prison concepts. See episodes "White Bear" and "White Christmas"

[islembenzegouta]

Excellent topic! I would add Dark City to your list, it's a movie that frightened me a lot when I was young, the architecture of the city, the moving buildings, Dark City uses it in a brilliant way, but also horrifying. I've also seen Cube and THX 1138 when I was young with my brother, Cube is one of my favorite films, a beautiful plot, I loved the connection between math and architecture. Plus it has some unforgettable deaths in a movie, a bit violent

[bummers]

The inmates in Andor were building the parts for the massive reflector dish of the Death Star, as alluded to in the final episode.

[elanthys]

The jail cells of the Eyrie in A Song of Ice and Fire are terrifying. The castle is built high up a very tall mountain and the cells all lack a fourth wall. You’re always free to “leave” by jumping off the cliff if the solitude becomes too much and neither you or the guards are allowed to utter a single word to each other. It’s literally built to induce madness and what we call in French _“l’appel du vide”_

[musicalentities]

I think you would like the game Control, it takes place in a building called "The Oldest House", outside it looks like a normal brutalist building, on the inside, its infinite/shifting/mad leading to other dimensions where entities beyond comprehension live. It was discovered in NYC in 1964 hiding in plain sight.

[fleepflorp]

3:57 A perfect example of a structure designed to be navigated in three dimensions (which also uses a system of handles like a jungle gym) would be the International Space Station.

[bornach]

Doctor Who episode, "Heaven Sent" in which the 12th Doctor was imprisoned in his Confession Dial - a closed timeloop cut off from the universe. Perhaps the greatest episode of the 9th series. The way the Doctor eventually escapes is mindbendingly unfathomable.

[deftnerd]

Infinity Chamber (2016) - Fun movie with an interesting prison concept. Prisoners are kept in a single room with an AI to handle their care, both physical and mental. The prisoner has to befriend the AI and convince it to let him out when something goes wrong on the outside and supplies stop being delivered.

[sighberspook]

IIRC

In the manga/anime "deadman wonderland" Tokyo was destroyed by an earthquake, so Deadman Wonderland was created, a prison designed to function like a themepark on its surface, the inmates maintain the park and compete in games for the entertainment of paying customers, some of the proceeds go to funding the reconstruction of Tokyo while the rest goes to running the prison and funding military experiments which the prisoners are subjected to

[HimitsuHunter]

The cube, Cube 2, and The platform are some of my favorite movies of all time. Their use of spaces as the basis of the plot were brilliant.

[ArsonTheShroom]

28:24 these are often called liminal spaces - spaces that are not created to be permanently used and become empty inherently, but you rarely see them empty because they are transitional. This can make them really creepy to be in, both when occupied but specifically when alone, because you feel as you are changing the purpose by occupying a space that was not made to be stayed at.

[TheLargeHardonCollider]

Love the Cube, but I loved the Platform even more. Something about the simplicity of it made it so much more evil. And the whole mind-trip that technically there's enough food for every prisoner (so it's not actually evil), but people will be greedy when given the opportunity, so they end up making it evil on their own. Except there's way more floors than they thought, so really there's not enough food, so it really is evil.... man, I gotta watch that again. Thank you for reminding me of what it's called!

[Purrngr]

Does anyone remember the name of a youtube series from around 2008-2012 about a group of kids who were trapped in rooms with puzzles they needed to solve as part of a gameshow. Each rooms puzzle was personalized for the kid in the room, and held a clue for how they get out of their rooms and win the game. The main character of the series is in his own room with buttons that allows him to talk to each of the kids in their rooms, i believe he was given the name The Operator. There was a deaf girl in one of the rooms, making communication difficult. There was one kid that was given a stationary bike in his room, and later finds out that it powers the lights for all the rooms.

This video sparked my memory of this series. At the time(and maybe because I was younger), this series was phenomenal. Every episode better than the last. Releasing on a weekly schedule, it had me as excited to watch as I was for a new episode of something on tv.

[totalwreck]

Can you please narrate everything from now on? Books movies podcasts idc just narrate

[MrQuantumInc]

Movies that illustrate their theme through architecture is a great topic for this channel.
"The Platform" in particular is a pretty clear metaphor for class. Even in universe it is using inequality to turn prisoners against each other, and it seems pretty obvious they wanted to make a point about how real life inequality turns real life people against each other.
"The Cube" is pretty clearly more about torture than imprisonment. I bet the people who made "Saw" are fans.

[monckey]

I really enjoy the way she says words. would love an audiobook read by Dami

[kahleeb]

Theres actually a mansion i think in Cali that is a circle and actually fully rotates. They had to run plumbing through this crazy system to jeep the gray, waste and clean water seperate while also allowing the house to fully rotate freely. I forget exactly but the guy literally designed his own plumbing system that is able to freely spin while leaving all plumbing connected the whole time. Its really freakin cool.

[TomLoveman]

Great video! The pathetic guy in Cube is played by Canadian actor David Hewlett who went on to play Dr. Rodney McKay on Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis as well as over a 100 other movies and shows.

[krisstopher]

This is probably the most interesting architecture channel on youtube right now. Not a single boring second really. Fortress (1992) was also a cool futuristic supermax prison. And by the way you should do an entire episode about the magnetic car network in minority report (+similar concepts)