The Time Has Come to Push the Button

Remember in The Dark Knight where they have two ships rigged with explosives, one full of criminals, the other full of non-felony Gothamites, and provide each of them with buttons that will explode the other ship, sparing themselves? If neither ship presses the button, they both get Blow'd Up after 30 minutes.

I thought that that was the weakest ethical dilemma involving death and buttons that cinema could produce. Until The Box. In The Box, there is a Big Red Button (on top of a box), where if you press it, you get a million dollars. But there's a catch: someone somewhere in the world dies that you don't know. I don't think it's supposed to be a big ethical teaser (so Andrew, please do not disparage me for my weak thesis, ungrounded assumptions, or errors in logic; I am against random murder, Raskolnikov), but it does show a disturbing and growing fascination in America with death and buttons. Or maybe it's just me. The movie is based on a book titled Button, Button. It's from the same guy who wrote I Am Legend. Say it with me: "Well, you know someone else was involved in that movie who in some ways is as famous as Leonardo Di Caprio. And his name is William Shakespeare. And some great movies have been made based on his plays: Hamlet, West Side Story, The Talented Mr. Ripley, Waterworld, Gladiator, Chocolat... "

Anyway, the best out-of-context sentence from the review for The Box:

He poses a lot more questions than he answers, and among the hypotheses you're left with are that Steward was bought back to life by aliens after NASA programs unwittingly alerted them to the humanity's[sic] presence and The Box is their way of testing our mettle before invading us.

I always enjoyed the sci-fi trope that aliens would use advanced technology to test us. I remember a Star Trek: Deep Space Nine book where Jake played a video game that demonstrated wisdom, compassion, and logic to prove to another alien race that humans were ok. Except it wasn't a game- it was real! It was Ender's Game meets Button, Button meets War Games (the only way to win was not to play). Man, if I could have told this story just 60 years ago, I'd be the most famous writer on the planet. And then it would be made into a movie!

Imagine this pithy one-liner from the alien: "Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found..." [quick-cut to face] [quick-cut to alien] [quck-cut to face] [quck-cut back to alien] "...wanting." BLAMMMMMMOOOOOOOO.

UPDATE
A poll on facebook asks, "Would you push The Box's red button?". The split is currently 56-44 in favor of not murdering a person for a million dollars.