Top 10 Mysterious Facts about the Cloverfield Movies
#10: The Connection of the Films “Cloverfield” (2008), “10 Cloverfield Lane” (2016)
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At first glance, one would think the only similarities between “Cloverfield” and “10 Cloverfield Lane” are that they both have the word ‘Cloverfield’ in it. They have different filming styles, actors, and even belong to different genres… What you might not know, is that there are a few subtle hints and connections found in 10 Cloverfield Lane that link it back to the first movie. But there are still a lot of questions that need answering, and there’s no doubt that with future releases, the mystery to the puzzle will eventually be solved.
#9: The Creation of a New Monster Icon “Cloverfield” (2008)
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When the words ‘giant monster attacking a city’ are heard, most people think of Godzilla. Godzilla has cemented its place in history as a monster icon, along with King Kong and many others. According to Cloverfield director Matt Reeves in the first movie’s commentary, J.J. Abrams was inspired to produce the film based on his experience promoting Mission Impossible III in Japan, and seeing a Godzilla toy. Cloverfield was his attempt to create an American monster icon that would rival Godzilla in size and destruction, and with the cult success of the original film, there’s no doubt that it’s working, if it hasn’t already.
#8: Hidden Frames of Famous Monsters “Cloverfield” (2008)
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The regular viewer probably wouldn’t have noticed this on the first couple of watches of the first Cloverfield. Even if they did, they probably wrote it off as a glitch in the viewing, but if you look carefully—and by look carefully, we mean pause the film at just the right frame—you’ll see famous monsters from cinemas past. Hidden in the film are a giant ant from the movie ‘Them!’, ‘The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms’, and King Kong. The reason for their appearances could be a tribute and sources of inspiration from director Matt Reeves, as well as easter eggs employed by Abrams, as he’s prone to do in a lot of his productions.
#7: Movie within a Movie “Cloverfield” (2008) Although hand-held found footage style filming isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, there’s no doubt it adds to the immersion of the movie viewing experience, especially in movies such as “Cloverfield”. One of the benefits of having a character ‘film’ the movie, is that any other person in the movie could be doing the same; an idea director Matt Reeves toyed with. Reeves has stated that a potential sequel to the first film could come from a similar bystander filming their own account of the events. The film actually cleverly hides a potential character within the bridge scene. With “10 Cloverfield Lane” taking the franchise into an anthology direction however, this potential sequel concept seems dead in the water.
#6: It’s Still Alive “Cloverfield” (2008) If there’s a vagueness or obscurity surrounding something, some people will dedicate a lot of their time to working it out. With the general mystery surrounding the release of the films, fans were eager to get to the bottom of things, and even the credits threw one last surprise at viewers in the first film. At the end, a distorted voice that appears to say ‘help us’ finishes the credits, which is when someone decided it would be a good idea to reverse it, and the result is a clear ‘It’s Still Alive’. This got people excited for a sequel featuring a return of the monster… until Abrams himself confirmed that the monster was dead. Sorry guys.
#5: Actors Hadn’t Known What They Were Auditioning For “Cloverfield” (2008)
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We’re sure that in any other case, if an actor or actress was asked to audition for a film with no script and no story synopsis, they’d be slightly suspicious, to say the least. The fact that the 2008 film was a J.J. Abrams production, yet featured young, relatively unknown actors lead to even more mystery. During the casting process, the script for the movie hadn’t been finished yet, and no audition material was provided, so actors had to improvise, re-enacting scenes from previous Abrams productions such as “Alias”.
#4: No Aliens in the Original Script “10 Cloverfield Lane” (2016)
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“10 Cloverfield Lane” has extremely subtle connections to the first film, but can you imagine if it didn’t have aliens in it? Well, believe it or not, when the original script was bought in 2012, there was no mention of a supernatural or extraterrestrial element, but the simple premise of being locked in by someone who’s said they’ve saved you was the same. It started off as a speculative screenplay, titled ‘The Cellar’, and when it was bought, received the codename ‘Valencia’, to keep certain production details a secret, before finally receiving the title ’10 Cloverfield Lane’ with the debut of the trailer.
#3: ARG Tie-ins “Cloverfield” (2008), “10 Cloverfield Lane” (2016)
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We touched on this in the first entry, but the two Cloverfield movies are connected—albeit subtly—in a few ways. One significant part of the Cloverfield franchise is the addition of online Alternate Reality Games, or ARG’s, which gives backstory to the mysterious events of the films. “Cloverfield”’s game, lead players to fictional company Tagruato, which appears in the movie as the reason for Rob’s departure for Japan. When “10 Cloverfield Lane” was announced, fans scoured the internet to find that Howard, played by John Goodman in the film, worked on satellites for Bold Futura, which was a subsidiary of Tagruato. Of course, this is just the tip of the iceberg for online clues hidden in the films, but we’ll let you figure out the rest for yourselves.
#2: Mysterious Trailer Releases “Cloverfield” (2008)
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Audiences worldwide got the first glimpse of “Cloverfield” during early screenings of the first ‘Transformers’. Before the movie, a teaser of a city under attack by an unknown force was shown, along with a date and nothing else—not even a title. This had people intrigued and curious, and had generated a lot of hype. A second teaser was released alongside a showing of ‘Beowulf’, which had extra footage, the date, and this time the title; ‘Cloverfield’. The fact that the movie was kept a secret from people until the teaser was released only added to the allure.
#1: Viral Marketing “Cloverfield” (2008), “10 Cloverfield Lane” (2016)
Like ‘The Blair Witch Project’, “Cloverfield” and “10 Cloverfield Lane” had some intricate viral marketing campaigns. Websites were created, entire backstories connected to one tiny thing in the movie were manifested, brands were built, and there were even fake news reports in several different languages! Talk about effort. Well, it definitely paid off. Some of the videos featured background characters sending videos to their loved ones, while others featured fake news features of a Tagruato mining facility accident in the ocean. Let’s also not forget about the Japanese slush beverage known as Slusho! That looked real and delicious. Agree with our list? What’s your favorite Cloverfield fact? For more mysterious Top 10’s published daily, be sure to subscribe to WatchMojo.com.
