It’s 1976 and it could have been just another day in suburban Richmond, Virginia for Arthur and Norma Lewis and their nine-year-old son. Arthur could have gone off to work at NASA building the camera for the Viking Mars Mission and Norma, after sending their son off to school, could have followed her son to begin her science lesson. In short, life could have run its ordinary course. But that morning, Norma and Arthur 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. But pressing this button will simultaneously cause the death of another human being somewhere in the world; someone they don’t know. With the box in their possession for just 24 hours, Norma and Arthur find themselves in the cross-hairs of a startling moral dilemma and must face the true nature of their humanity.

Movie Quotes

Norma Lewis: You sure do ask a lot of questions.
Walter Lewis: And now you’re avoiding them.

Production Notes

Cameron Diaz, who stars as Norma Lewis, takes a analytic approach on the movie, saying “It’s a question we all kept asking ourselves. I feel that no one really knows what they would do until they’re faced with that kind of decision. On the surface, it’s easy to say, ‘I know exactly what I’d do.’ But circumstances could be different at any given time, forany person. It’s not as simple as it seems.”

Diaz continues. “It’s one of those rare scripts, like Being John Malkovich and Vanilla Sky. I had never read anything like it before. It’s not just ‘Should I push a button?’ There are so many layers and something very personal to Richard.”

“What I love about Richard’s work is that he asks the questions you don’t ask yourself because you’re afraid of the answers,” notes Diaz. “He knows a lot about human nature and the lies we all tell ourselves.”

Speaking from Norma’s perspective, Cameron Diaz explains, “Pushing the button is not a decision she takes lightly but, at the moment it happens, after so much intense thought, it’s like something just comes over her. I think we’ve all been in situations where we know the consequences of an action but hope desperately that somehow it’s not going to happen—that we can ignore it or take it back if we have to, that we can say, ‘No, nevermind, I was just kidding.’ It doesn’t necessarily have to be a life-or-death situation.There are so many examples in our daily lives when we take the easy way out if we think we can get away with it. It comes down to the difference between living consciously ornot, and that, to me, is even more relevant than the big question about whether or not you would push the button. Look at all the little buttons you are offered every day. “What I like about this story is that the consequences are immediate and in-your-face, as if to say, ‘You did this and now you must deal with the responsibility,’”

Diaz continues. The bottom line, she cautions, is “Nothing is free.” Says producer McKittrick, “Cameron brought a tremendous amount of thought to the evolution of Norma’s storyline. We had some great discussions about redemption and self-sacrifice. The more she analyzed the story as it moved off the page, the more she brought to the shoot.”

“James Marsden brought a lot of charm and goodwill to his character and his chemistry with Cameron was fantastic,” says Kelly. “He also understood the depth of Arthur’s disappointment at not getting into the astronaut training program. He really got how that state of mind would affect the quandary they were faced with at home.”

“God bless Cameron Diaz. The second she signed on, our lives changed in a great way.” Kelly continues raving about Diaz’s performance, saying “I think she’s a different actress than she was before we started this film. Her character goes through a really intense emotional experience, and she put everything she had into it. I don’t know if she’s ever worked as hard as she did on this movie.”

Marsden only has fond memories of working with Cameron. “There were scenes where we were meant to be very disturbed or pontificating, and I’d look over at Cameron, and she’d just be cracking up. It was like in second grade when you’d get the church giggles – you start laughing because it’s the exact time and place when you’re not supposed to, and then you can’t stop. There were a couple of hours of shooting lost to this kind of thing.”