Trapped in a mysterious room with no escape, four brilliant minds race against time to prevent a cosmic collapse of the universe. They must learn to work together and solve the puzzle before it’s too late.

If Inception is the benchmark for confusing movies then the 2017 quantum head trip, Tangent Room, might be a close second, if not more so confusing. It is obvious that writer/director Björn Engström did heavy research on physics, and possibly did some drugs, to put this “thriller” together, and it culminated in a complex and mind-bending narrative all while being completely set in one single room.

Four research scientists are summoned by their friend and colleague, a renowned astrophysicist by the name of Dr. Wahlstein, to a remote astronomical research facility without any explanation. They are herded into a decrepit classroom outfitted with only a table, a TV, and four sets of note taking materials. The geniuses can only speculate as to the magnitude of Dr. Wahlstein’s latest project or discovery, and their theories are soon put to rest when the only door suddenly locks, trapping them inside, and the TV flickers on revealing a video of Dr. Wahlstein. The mad and dying scientist lays out the task at hand for the team: solve his equation or die. With their powers combined in this pressure cooker of a brainstorming session, they may be able to find the solution and escape the classroom… if only they can confirm what the equation is actually solving. Kate, a capable and captivating scientist who seems to know more about their situation than the rest, warns that an impending Big Bang event is on the horizon, but after much conjecture and trippy instances of persons flickering in and out of the room, the team explores other cosmic occurrences, while the countdown slowly creeps towards 10:21 PM – the time Dr. Wahlstein has set for their death.

In the style of Cube, the ensemble of Tangent Room are locked inside a classroom to solve equations in order to escape with their lives. This movie felt like an acting class got together to make a sci-fi film – not that this is a bad thing, movies that are themselves an exercise in filmmaking, like this one, are to be watched for appreciation, and luckily this one is not a long workout as the movie is only an hour long. It is also very minimal in its setting, which allowed for the dialogue to shine, and the actors played their roles to a T. The film stars Vee Vimolmal, as Kate, a dynamic astrophysicist, Lisa Bearpark as Sandra, the mathematical genius, Håkan Julander as the electromagnetic interference expert, Jennifer Lila as Carol, an annoying American quantum physics professor, and Daniel Epstein as the not-so-bad villain Dr. Wahlstein, who assembles this league of extraordinary intellectuals.

My favorite sequence is towards the end, the dialogue goes into this neurotic montage of the professors thinking out loud which escalates into mania. This sequence has sort of a drug trip effect and it felt out of place with the rest of the movie’s deadpan style but was welcome to break up the deep dialogue delves into mathematic geekspeak. It’s the kind of movie I had to watch twice, not because it was good but because it was pretty hard to earnestly follow since I do not off-handedly know string theory, what treble means in mathematics, or that CCC is the abbreviation for conformal cyclic cosmology aka The Big Bang Theory. However, thanks to this movie I surely do know those things now, as I spent some time on Google afterward, and I owe my newfound knowledge to this movie!

If they are half as smart as he thinks they are, they will most likely not all die; you shall see for yourself if you venture to watch this movie that truly puts the sci in sci-fi. It’s like Saw, but for nerds (and no gore)! If that sounds like your jam then you may do well to watch Björn Engströmlike’s cerebral but not-so-thrilling thriller, Tangent Room, viewable via major VOD platforms March 5, 2019.