Who put them there? Why were they selected? What happened to Kazan at the end? This is the type of movie that makes me hate humans as a whole.
this is your life and it is ending one minute at a time
Don't get me wrong, I'm as non-religious as it comes and I don't believe in some sort of grand purpose either, but to claim there isn't at least a small one here is absurd. I think everyone clings to Worth's interpretation of the cube because it's a deep and alternative option to the other ones presented. Plus he's only giving this interpretation of the cube based on his own nihilistic beliefs. When asked who asked who told him to designed the outer shell of the cube he didn't know, so we have to assume the rest of his "the cube is pointless" is conjecture and pure assumption like all the other options presented.
The only way, in my opinion, that it would be truly pointless is if it contained no traps, no numbers, and no one with any discernible skill, nothing to help or challenge those inside, just an endless number of cubes moving randomly around with truly random strangers inside.
But we got the opposite of that. It seems those who placed everyone in that cube meant for it to be a test of some sort to see if they all had what it takes to cooperate using their inert talents and ultimately escape. Traps meant to deter you from getting out easily, numbers used to decide which room is safe, everyone waking up around the same location with names imprinted on their clothing, each of them with some sort of skill and the fact the exit was literally in the next room screams that someone or something put them in there for a reason.
The way I see it is the numbers were there for the engineers.
As for the other points, the traps do not serve a literal purpose in my opinion. If it was meant as an execution device, there are much easier ways to do this. If it was meant as a prison, well...why the traps?
However, when taken as a metaphor, the traps serve to make literal the way we construct systems that are poorly understood and actively harmful to each other.
Take our transportation networks, our supply chains, our power grids, our legal system especially.
All of these are so convoluted and immensely complicated that no single person understands them in their entirety. People fall through the cracks. People die all day every day because of the things we build, where most of us are just focused on getting through our job for the day.
The Cube reorganizes itself to provide a difficulty in navigation and understanding. The traps are there to provide harm to those who fail to understand and navigate.
The assembly of characters makes many key points about cooperation, valuing of differences, dehumanization when confronted with fear, etc.
It's a simple, very distilled metaphor, but it's accurate, IMO.
a lot of people seem to read too heavily on what the one character theorized in the film who helped build/design the outter wall of the cube
bear in mind that IF someone had a purpose for the cube and/or selected its inhabitants for a reason- its extremely unlikely they would ever let the designer of the outside nor would anyone he speak to tell him its specifics
he was just GUESSING
its cute for metaphor purposes and philisophically speaking to say 'oh, its just a big mess of interconnected government or military plans and the purpose was lost a while ago and no one knows whats going on' but it doesn't work.
As others have pointed out SOMEONE is picked to go inside of the Cube. And others are manually collecting those people and putting them into the cube.
I think we could possibly accept (maybeeee) that the Cube itself could be a project that has entirely lost its purpose and direction and just IS at this point.
but the involvement of putting people into it means that there has to be some point or reason.
even if the reason at this point is something as simple and vague and misguided as some sort of military testing or human experiment. There obviously is a REASON for it
but the film deliberately leaves it up in the air to make you wonder. Again though, I think it would be absurd to take the one opinion in the film seriously when its from a designer who never was involved with anyone of the people in 'power'. He's speculating based on what he knows and he doesn't know much
she fell through a hole, and was never seen again