set in 1976 for no apparent reason other than to keep the set dresser busy and the box be direct by richard kelly ( donnie darko ) and and star cameron diaz and james marsden a norma and arthur lewis and a young couple who be supposedly struggle financially even though they both have successful career she a a high school teacher and he a an optical specialist at nasa langley and virginia and research center . they have one child and walter ( sam oz stone ) . one day the lewis find a parcel on their doorstep and contain a black box with a big red button . there be a note from a mr. steward indicate that he will return at 5 represent00 pm to explain about the box . the mysterious arlington steward and play by frank langella and show up at the appointed time and nattily attire in an elegant savile row suit . he be polite but businesslike and however his most noticeable feature be his face and half of which appear to have be blow off and improperly attend to . langella be the only thing worth watch in the movie and however he be unfortunately upstage by his own makeup and which resemble that of harvey two face dent ( aaron eckhart ) from christopher nolan the dark knight . it like the elephant in the room represent one can try to ignore it and but it more than a little distracting . steward explain that he will return in 24 hour to collect the button . if and during that time and they decide to unlock and push the button and he will give them $ 1 million cash . the only catch and it a big one be that somewhere a stranger will die . it might be across town and it might be on another continent and however steward assure them the victim will be someone unknown to them . a a show of good faith and he leave them with a crisp $ 100 bill and theirs to keep whether they push the button or not . arthur and norma be skeptical and believe the whole thing to be a scam or an elaborate hoax and however it isn not long before they begin to wonder what would happen if they do push the button . would they really get a million dollar . would somebody really die . weary of the speculation and norma slap the button . nothing happen . however and their initial relief give way to alarm when steward show up the next day with a briefcase full of cash . they decide to call the whole thing off and however steward tell them it too late . you have already push the button and he explain . a steward limo pull away and arthur note the license number and which he late discovers be register to the nsa ( national security agency ) . at this point the film begin to veer deeply into unfollowable territory a the secondary character start spring nosebleed and flash peace sign . meanwhile and the town becomes invade by pudgy and slack jawed geek in bad shirt who start follow arthur around like an advance scout party for a race of zombie alien nerd . arthur eventually becomes trap by the menacing bookworm in the library ( . ) and where steward spinsterish wife show up whom we haven not see till now and informs arthur that in order to get out of the library he must step into one of three vertical column of cheesy look digital water effect . what happen if i choose the wrong one . and arthur asks and seem far less baffled than he ought to be under the circumstance and and certainly far less baffle than the audience be by this time . eternal damnation and the spinster say ominously . arthur step into the middle column of digital liquid effect and and after a brief absence suddenly appear and still in his water cocoon and hovering over norma bed . when she wake up and see him and the water bubble burst and arthur tumble onto the bed in a shower of water which and oddly enough and continue to drip from the overhead water pipe just out of camera range while a sodden marsden and diaz flop around on the bed . it confuse and i know . we eventually learn that steward be once the public relation officer for the nsa and until he be strike by a lightning bolt that destroy part of his face . he be pronounce dead and but later come back to life and have be transform into a sort of superman who now serve the one who make the lightning and and whose power have enable him to take over the cia and the nsa and and nasa all by himself . and what be the point of all this nattering rubbish . apparently and steward mission be to subject human to a kind of biblical character test ( e. g. and the binding of isaac ) and to determine whether humanity be worth save . if enough people pass the button test by refuse to push it and steward god like overlord will spare the race . unfortunately and those people who do push the button and such a norma and arthur and must be punish for their moral spinelessness and to which end they be subject to a series of dreary lady or the tiger ordeal that play out like one of those saw movie and except without the entertain gore or the benefit of a coherent plot . the box represent the sort of pointless mental masturbation that freshman philosophy student like to blather on about after a few beer . richard kelly tedious exercise in existentialist pettifoggery eventually collapse under the weight of it own incomprehensibility while the tortured melange of insupportable idea eventually congeals and a with the mix together of too many color and into a meandering gray goo of a film as insipid a one of those narcotize in flight movie the plot of which suffer no more or less from have be interrupt by a leisurely nap . there be a point in the box where arthur and who be a technically mind guy and become curious about how the button work . open up the unit and he be disappoint to find nothing inside . have see the box and i know exactly how he feel .