The 2009 film The Box was adapted from which Richard Matheson short story?

The 2009 film The Box was adapted from Richard Matheson’s short story “Button, Button.”

Written and directed by Richard Kelly, The Box stars Cameron Diaz and James Marsden as a married couple offered a disturbing choice: pressing a button brings them money, but someone they do not know dies. The film expands Matheson’s brief premise into a much larger science-fiction mystery involving morality, fate, and unexplained forces.

Matheson first published “Button, Button” in Playboy in 1970. The story is considerably shorter and more ambiguous than the film. Its central dilemma is an example of a moral thought experiment: a seemingly private benefit is directly linked to harm inflicted on another person.

The movie is sometimes associated with the Pandora’s-box idea because its central device turns curiosity and temptation into irreversible consequences. However, The Box is not a direct retelling of the ancient Greek myth; its source is Matheson’s modern short fiction.