# New Film, "The Box"; Haven't I Seen/Read This Story Somewhere? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 20, 2009, 6:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-film-the-box-havent-i-seen-read-this-story-somewhere/514454 "2009-10-20T06:39:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![DMark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@DMark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMark)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2009, 6:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-film-the-box-havent-i-seen-read-this-story-somewhere/514454/1 "2009-10-20T06:39:23Z")
They have started airing the trailer for [The Box](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0362478/). Briefly, the story is that if you press a button, “someone will die” but then you get a million dollars. I saw the trailer and thought, “I know that story, and I know how it ends!” Was this a Twilight Zone episode or something? I don’t read a lot of short stories, so doubt I read the original - but where did I see this plot? ---
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2009, 6:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-film-the-box-havent-i-seen-read-this-story-somewhere/514454/2 "2009-10-20T06:55:34Z")
[Button, Button](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Button,_Button_%28The_Twilight_Zone%29) was indeed a Twilight Zone episode, based off a short story that premiered in Playboy. I wonder whether they’ll go with the TZ ending Wikipedia describes or the “you can never **really** know anyone” ending the short story had. ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2009, 11:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-film-the-box-havent-i-seen-read-this-story-somewhere/514454/3 "2009-10-20T11:13:13Z")
I was going to say it sounds so familiar because it’s one of the most trite cliche hypthetical questions out there. Seriously, has anyone on the planet NOT been asked this question? Or some variant of? That said, I still want to see this movie. ---
**Author:** ![pbbth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f9ae1b/32.png) [@pbbth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pbbth)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2009, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-film-the-box-havent-i-seen-read-this-story-somewhere/514454/4 "2009-10-20T14:44:59Z")
[Homer Simpson]Yep, it came from that twilighty show about that zone.[/Homer Simpson] I am very much looking forward to The Box. This was one of my top 5 favorite episodes of The Twilight Zone! ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2009, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-film-the-box-havent-i-seen-read-this-story-somewhere/514454/5 "2009-10-20T15:54:12Z")
We discussed the old Twilight Zone show (and a short film that seemed similar) in this thread: [Black Button](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=426924) ---
**Author:** ![randwill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a3d4f5/32.png) [@randwill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/randwill)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2009, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-film-the-box-havent-i-seen-read-this-story-somewhere/514454/6 "2009-10-20T22:33:56Z")
Going strictly by the trailer, it looks like they have taken the basic premise and expanded it out to an action-suspense thriller. They’d almost have to because the basic story is only long enough to sustain the half-hour television format. This was one of my favorite ‘modern era’ “Twilight Zone” episodes too.