u/Proof_Light1548

Actually, the film Pearl (2022) might not just be about a girl living on a farm and having a hard life — it could also be about social expectations and how they affect a person. Pearl's family expects her to fit into this image they've created of the perfect wife and daughter, and she can't (for natural reasons) — and it slowly drives her crazy. She decides to show that she's not just a function, but a person with interests, talents, and ambitions (you know, self-expression — the kind most teenagers and adults are busy with in real life).

But she gets rejected and mocked for the very thing that brought her joy (which happens to a lot of people in real life, but Pearl finds a different outlet). That rejection is the last straw — it triggers her breakdown. She starts her rebellion by killing Mitzi, her husband's sister. In real life, people who shut down after a failed attempt at self-expression and mockery, they usually explode first (not killing, but still) and then retreat into themselves (like hikikomori, if we're talking about Asian culture). But in the ending, Pearl tries to show that she has adapted (or is trying to appear that way) to society's demands. Behind her smile, she hides a clear rejection of social standards, but outwardly she adjusts to be a normal person.

Everything comes to us with a delay, action, light. Time and religion are just things created so that we don't go crazy and can subjugate others through faith.

"We never see the present — everything reaches us a fraction of a second later than it actually is. The concept of time is subjective for everyone and was made so that people wouldn't go insane. It's the same with religion — people need to know what lies behind everything (from suffering to blessings and miracles), just to keep chaos at bay. Beyond that, religion is an excellent tool for controlling large groups of people and for justifying one's own atrocities — because 'God wrote that this is acceptable, so I can do it! And so can you.' This method has been used since ancient times. For example, the Crusaders justified their campaigns and territorial conquests by claiming they 'wanted to submit it all to God,' and used that to justify the suffering of others. In Islam, too, marriage to underage girls is justified because 'it's the right thing to do,' as is violence against women — even though, as far as I understand, their first prophet was essentially a typical guy who married an older, wealthy woman and was completely under her thumb — but that gets forgotten. And almost always, it's women and children who suffer — for instance, rape and physical violence, which in some religions are even justified. In Islam, it's said that 'all men will go to paradise, where they will meet 72 (or however many) full-bosomed houris who will obey them. But most women will go to hell, for they are the creators of sin.'

After all, most of the bad deeds and corruption (even in the Middle Ages, and especially in the Middle Ages) were committed by the Church itself or by those under its influence. The same goes for witch burnings — they were essentially tied to religion (yes, I know the book Malleus Maleficarum was published and that's what set things off, not the Church itself). In practice, corrupt people — if they brought in and killed a 'witch,' they were given all of her property — would deliver supposed witches to judges, who would then torture them (the Church either turned a blind eye or approved). In reality, there were no real witches, and ordinary women — healers, unfriendly types, or simply intelligent but unmarried women — died in agony while others profited from them.

And most of them (80% of the 40,000–60,000 innocent women) were elderly herbalists or healers, widows, or simply women who were too smart to fit into the system."

What if none of that cult actually happened? After the death of Dani's family (or whatever the main character's name is), she and everyone else actually stay home and don't go anywhere. The cult was made up by her own mind so she wouldn't go completely insane.

In reality, when they arrive at the cult and take the mushrooms from the people — in reality, Dani and the rest (so they wouldn't abandon the poor girl) just turn to alcohol. At first they like it. And when Dani starts running through the field and saying she feels bad, she realizes that alcohol is affecting her badly — but without it she can't get through the grief, so she stays (especially since she now has 3 new friends who also came to the community).

In the scene where the two elders jump off the cliff, she's actually seeing the consequences of addiction in other people. She's horrified (like everyone else) and wants to leave, but the other people (in the movie it's her friend, in reality it's some bad company) convince her to stay.

When her friends disappear in the movie — in reality they abandon her (a lot of people do that when they get tired of helping loved ones). Throughout the whole movie she feels good — maybe she's in a state of being high (from alcohol or something worse). And Inga is a classic girl from a bad crowd who drags her deeper and deeper.

When her boyfriend falls for another girl from the community (in reality — bad company) she ignores it, because she's already addicted. In the end he cheats on her (both in the movie and in reality).

When he runs into the barn and sees his friend dismembered and hanging over the chickens — in reality this means she found out the truth (that her boyfriend cheated on her). She literally "opened up" his personality and shamed him (in the movie he's hung over the chickens, in reality she ruined his reputation in that bad company and humiliated him).

In the end (when the boyfriend is in the bear costume — or more like inside the bear — and he's burned, and she's screaming and crying) — this symbolizes her letting him go, but with bad consequences for him (like the shame from cheating). And then she realizes everything: that she's addicted, what she did to her boyfriend, and that her friends left her because of her — but she stays, because she can't see life without the addiction (the community).

I apologize in advance, I do not know English and I write through an AI translator, sorry for the mistakes.

What if Kazan also became part of the Cube? Or what if he is the Cube? Like, from the outside, it seems to have no system — it looks like pure incomprehensible chaos. But if you look closely (at both the Cube and Kazan), they actually do have something like a system and numbers. Maybe people enter the Cube to become part of it. And their deaths are natural selection, because the Cube needs strong parts of itself. Essentially, it's a mechanism that might be breaking down due to its own size (unable to sustain itself) — or, on the contrary, it's trying to expand, and naturally, it needs strong parts that won't collapse and that share a similar mindset. All three protagonists (Kazan, Renn, and Holloway) actually have similar ways of thinking — they're parts that complement each other!!!

Besides that, those little cells where the heroes are and through which they move are, in my opinion, like the blood of the Cube's organism. After all, blood circulates through our bodies too. So that means the Cube is a super-organism!! And all the other characters were good as "parts" too. Helen (or the doctor) as a part could have made the traps more complex to figure out — for example, by adding chemistry to them. That cop guy who killed the doctor could have made the traps more physical, requiring more strength from people, making the selection process better. That old man with the shoe (who died precisely because of a chemical trap) could have made the traps more original, requiring ingenuity and cleverness.

Although, I probably sound like a crazy person.

But I think Kazan became one of those rooms — most likely he merged with the Cube and became part of it, adding something of his own character to its traps. In Cube 2, the puzzles are weirder — or rather, they're not even puzzles, but more like the feel of different rooms, maybe reflecting how he felt. Not about gravity, but about time — there was that scene where one character is super fast and another is super slow. However, the sequel contradicts my theory, because in Cube 3, people are controlling the Cube. Though you could argue that they captured the Cube and are controlling it, having subjugated it. But that's just a theory. It is possible that the people of their third part are the same former victims of the Cube, who began to manage and maintain it.

Theory based on the movie "cube" 1997