What does the title of the film mean? - Gleaming the Cube (1989) Discussion

[–] Brenton_sits_to_watch 19 years ago

The "cube" is a place where you go to skate out your aggression.

When Brian is really mad at one point his friend explains gleaming the cube to him and tells him he needs to do so.

Then we get a sweet scene of Mike Vallely, er um, Rodney Mullen- I mean "Brian" tearing it up.

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[–] Viltrumite 19 years ago

I'm glad you pointed out that was Mike V in that part. I've been trying to figure it out for years. Mike Vallely's name was in the credits, but I could see him anywhere in the movie.

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[–] kaitidid 19 years ago

No way, Dude. I am not sure which particular scene your talking about, and I have not seen the flick for quite some time, but its McGill in the vert scenes. Brian skates the infamous McGill deck. In addition, McGill looks like Brian and was a more predominant vert skater (remember his skatepark consisting of all of those flanking halves in Florida(?)). Furthermore, I always figured the opening skate scene was Mullen since Mikey V is all lanky and would have been younger than Mullen. Plus, everyone knows that Mullen is the man and those scences epitomized machismo. Send me a copy of the movie so I can further examine it and give an interpretation and inference on the whole thing.

And I think gleaming the cube just mean pushing it to the edge and shining while your doing it. I kind of concur though with your depiction, since I also felt that the cube probably could be a mental prison that you need to lose yourself to escape.

Hayden

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[–] adamrosales 19 years ago

Mullin is the man!Started skating 1 January, 1976. Won his first pro contest (and simultaneously turned pro) on 21 August, 1980. In eleven years of competitive skating, he lost only one contest.

Founder of the "Tensor" trucks company and is the designer for "Tensor" trucks.

Rodney Mullen is the soul creator of most of todays generation of skateboarding such as: The Kickflip, Heelflip, Impossible and many more.

When Rodney invented the Kickflip it was originally named the "Magic Flip".

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[–] Viltrumite 19 years ago

The vert/pool scenes were McGill, you could totally see his face. the freestyle part was Mullen, no question, but I'd say the non-freestyle stuff in the construction site was probably Mike V.

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[–] jamesbarnshaw 15 years ago

it means his skateboarding "prowess", it says so on the back of region 2 dvd. its not skating out ur anger LOL

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[–] dbljman 19 years ago

"Gleaming the Cube" did not exist as a skate term before they made the movie. They made it up for the movie.

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[–] damianali28 19 years ago

It means the place where you skate when you let go. Just skating by your self in total zen.

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[–] FiremanJersey 19 years ago

I think it means stepping up, rising above yourself and doing the impossible. The point is that you should not be able to skate a cube. Cubes have flat sides and 90 degree angles. So when you are totally in the zone, zen like, you can do the impossible and skate anything including a cube. Likewise, this "punk" kid shouldn't be able to step up and push toward his goal of finding out the truth about his brother. Everyone looked at him like he was a waste of time and life, but he rose above it all and, doing the impossible, he solved the case of his brothers murder.

-me

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[–] jamesbarnshaw 15 years ago

FOR CRYING OUT LOUD. IT JUST MEANS HIS ABILITY TO SAKTE AND SKATE WELL. LIKE I SAID BEFORE, HIS SKATEBOARDING PROWESS

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[–] Squarehead 19 years ago

The phrase used as the title of this movie did not exist in skateboard vocabulary.

I did, however, read about the origin of the title, in an article by the great skateboard magazine editor Dave Carnie.

Apparently the son of one of the movie's producers was an avid skateboarder. At some point, the son was joking around, making up ridiculous phrases to describe his skating to friends. At one point he said "Yeah, I was really gleaming the cube." It was a nonsense expression, meant as a joke.

However, the producer overheard the conversation and took the phrase to be a real skateboarding term. Somehow, the phase got worked into the project and made it all the way to release.

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[–] reichu 19 years ago

Wow I didn't even know about that and it is a pretty funny story too. I thought it was an actual skating term. LOL I wonder if the movie did anything to popularize it or turn it into one...?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.

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[–] Lance_Lives 18 years ago

No, Gleaming the Cube was in no way adopted by the skateboarding community. It, like this movie, was picked apart and mocked.

If you don't realize that that is Rodney during the freestyle montage, you've obviously never seen the man skate before.

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[–] zamise 18 years ago

Gleaming the cube, to me meant riding or grinding the rim of pool or copeing of a pipe. As I watch the movie now, its pretty good, back then it did suck as a skateing movie. I had that McGill board, of course before the movie came out. No idea who the skaters are anymore other than Tony Hawk. Kind of sad, but takes me back to a funner time seeing this movie now.

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[–] reichu 18 years ago

I know this is off topic, but you just replied to my post exactly one year from the date it was first posted. LOL

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.

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[–] Supremer68 10 years ago

No way, I totally just got done gleaming the cube, then I zipped the niceness and finished off by sharpening the horizon. It was super tubular.

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[–] ghostninjax 18 years ago

NO NO NO NO NO its rodney mullen doing the tech skating scenes in the movie, mike V is not a tech skater.

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[–] vlcupper1 17 years ago

I could listen to skaters talk shop all day. I love this stuff!

"The truth is never flattering, Dr. Adams."
"You fine, foxy lady."

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[–] 10 years ago

[deleted]

[–] ezekielspam-imdb 16 years ago

They should have stuck with the original title.

If I remember correctly, when they first started commercials for this flick, it was called, "Thrashin" or something like that. There is no mention of that title on IMDb but I'm gonna go with my memory on this one.

Tony Hawk's haircut kills me in this flick. Wasn't he driving the pizza delivery truck throughout?

e.z.

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[–] dopeyharp0 16 years ago

Isn't "THRASHIN'" a Robert Rustler movie? (He played Downey, Jr's best friend in "Weird Science.")
..or maybe it was a movie with 'Brand' (Josh Brolin).

And yes, Tony Hawk's character does drive a pizza delivery truck (pre-"Toy Story") throughout.

"What time is Recess?"

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[–] itsalltears 16 years ago

"thrashin" is a completely different skate movie from a few years before featuring the raddest skater gang to ever shred, the daggers.

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[–] PukeRat 16 years ago

It simply means a great skating moment. Nothing fancy are crazy. This movie kind of defined the term for everyone. And then it was adopted after the movie by skaters everywhere. Great movie. Seriously, everyone should watch it. The man can do some sick stuff on wheels.

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[–] toxicrocksyndrome 15 years ago

Wow, I can't believe how many people have this wrong.

The phrase is gibberish, made by a skater named Garry Davis in an interview in Thrasher.