THE BOX

Matheson, Richard. “Button, Button.” Playboy June 1970. The Box: Uncanny Stories. Richard Matheson. New York City: Tor, 2008. 3–15. See Internet Speculative Fiction Database for translations and reprints.[1]

“Button, Button.” Twilight Zone. Peter Medak, director. Logan Swanson, script. Mare Winningham, Basil Hoffman, and Brad Davis, featured players. 7 Mar. 1986. Atlantis Films et al.; see IMDb for details.[2]

THE BOX. Kvon Chen, director and script. Gordon Tsai and Fantanely Wong, featured players. USA: 2006. IMDbPro doesn't list companies for this production. Short, listed by IMDb as Horror, 20 minutes. IMDb logline: "A hobo who desperately wants to get out of his miserable life finds a strange box. It promises him a life he craves for a small price."[3]

THE BOX. Dir. Richard Kelly, director and script. Cameron Diaz, James Marsden, Frank Langella, and Basil Hoffman, featured players. USA: Warner Bros. (presents) Darko Entertainment (production) / Warner Bros. (US distribution), 2009; see IMDb for details of production and distribution. Feature film, 115 minutes.[4]

Warner Bros. Pictures's Synopsis: Norma and Arthur Lewis, a suburban couple with a young child, receive a simple wooden box as a gift, which bears fatal and irrevocable consequences. A mysterious stranger delivers the message that the box promises to bestow upon its owner $1 million with the press of a button. However, pressing this button will simultaneously cause the death of another human being somewhere in the world, someone they don't know. With just 24 hours to have the box in their possession, Norma and Arthur find themselves in the cross-hairs of a startling moral dilemma and must face the true nature of their humanity.[5]

Very usefully reviewed in all four of these iterations by Ritch Calvin, "Pushing the Wrong Buttons [film]" ("film" in brackets in original), in SFRA Review #292 (Winter 2010): pp. 25-26.[6] The original story follows the WB synopsis, but with the stranger named "Mr. Steward and a payoff of $50K rather than a million (we may assume inflation) — but with this upshot, quoting Calvin:

Arthur categorically states that murder equals murder. Norma reconsiders and calls Mr. Steward, and she eventually, and rather casually, presses the button. Almost immediately, she receives a phone call that her husband has been killed, and she recalls the insurance policy, which will amount to $50,000. When Norma calls to protest that the death was supposed to be someone she didn’t know, Mr. Steward responds, “Did you really think you knew your husband?” (Calvin, p. 25)

The Twilight Zone episode

As in the story, Norma equivocates and Arthur categorically refuses. Norma eventually pushes the button, and Mr. Steward delivers a briefcase full of money. As he leaves, he informs them that the “button unit” will be reprogrammed, and “I assure you it will be offered to someone you don’t know.” The episode ends, and Steward clearly implies that they might well be the victim of someone whom they don’t know pushing the button. (Calvin, p. 25)

In the Kvon Chen short, we see much of the hobos's "miserable life" (for a short film), but eventually he

finds a walkman-like recorder, but once he locates a pewter container, a voice on the recorder (Wong) asks if he would like to open the box. The voice assures him that, if he opens the box, he will become “rich” and that “someone you don’t know will die.” In this version, however, the protago- nist suffers none of the anguish about the fate of this unknown individual. He quickly responds, “Sure, why not?” As he enjoys his new life of fancy cars, booze, and women, he witnesses another hobo in a dumpster. Here, the Hobo shows the first sign of contemplation, as he looks to the sky. As he turns to walk away, offering no help to the hungry man, he hears the familiar voice making this second hobo the same offer. As in the Twilight Zone episode, the implication that he might be next is clear. (Calvin, p. 26)

In the feature film, the setup is the same, but (sticking with Calvin),

In place of the simple moral quandary, viewers are confronted with a bloated thriller. [...] In this version, Steward was once an employee of the NSA, who had worked on the Mars mission, and who had been hit by lighting and “killed.” But he rose from the dead, severely disfigured and no longer human, exactly. He now works for “someone,” with the intimation that he’s working for an alien being, probably Martian. According to Steward, the boxes that he distributes are a test of humanity. If humanity cannot pass the test, that is, stop pushing the damned buttons, humanity will not be allowed to survive. (Calvin, p. 26)

See for what Calvin indicates, although the formulation is ours, the woman/machine interface (in all but the short film it is Norma who pushes the button), and for that button as a mechanism that can be highly simple — simply informing Mr. Steward and/or associates that the button has been pressed — or very high-tech or almost magically killing the victim.

RDE, finishing, 30Mar21