The Cloverfield Paradox
The Cloverfield Paradox is a 2018 American science fiction horror film directed by Julius Onah and written by Oren Uziel, from a story by Uziel and Doug Jung, and produced by J. J. Abrams and Lindsey Weber. It is the third film in the Cloverfield franchise, following Cloverfield and 10 Cloverfield Lane. It stars Daniel Brühl, Elizabeth Debicki, Aksel Hennie, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Chris O'Dowd, John Ortiz, David Oyelowo, and Zhang Ziyi. It follows an international group of astronauts aboard a space station who, after using a particle accelerator to try to solve Earth's energy crisis, must find a way home when the planet seemingly vanishes.
The film is based on God Particle, a spec script from Oren Uziel, which had the main plot of the space-station crew but was unconnected to Cloverfield. The script was acquired by Paramount Pictures and Bad Robot in 2012. It was planned as part of Paramount's low-budget Insurge Pictures distribution label but, following the folding of that label, its production was expanded as a Paramount-distributed film. Only during production did Abrams decide to link the film to Cloverfield, adapting Uziel's screenplay and adding scenes to establish the connection, after the same approach was used to alter 10 Cloverfield Lane from its original script, The Cellar. Abrams saw the particle accelerator accident as a cinematic means for future events to cause changes in the past, narratively linking the Cloverfield franchise together as separate timelines within the overall multiverse.
Once announced as a yet-to-be-named Cloverfield film in late 2016, the film's release was delayed several times. A surprise trailer aired during Super Bowl LII on February 4, 2018, advertising the film's final title and its release on Netflix, which had purchased rights for the film from Paramount. The release occurred immediately after the game. While the unique marketing tactics were praised, the film itself received generally negative reviews, with many considering it the weakest of the Cloverfield films.
Plot
In 2028, Earth is suffering from a global energy crisis. As a result, worldwide agencies prepare to test the Shepard particle accelerator aboard the Cloverfield space station, which would provide Earth with infinite energy. The crew consists of British engineer Ava Hamilton, German physicist Ernst Schmidt, Brazilian medical doctor Monk Acosta, American commander Kiel, Russian engineer Volkov, Irish engineer Mundy, and Chinese engineer Tam.Conspiracy theorists fear the accelerator will create the "Cloverfield Paradox", which may open portals to parallel universes, allowing whatever is there to threaten Earth. After two years of unsuccessful attempts to activate the Shepard, the crew achieves a seemingly stable beam. When it overloads and creates a power surge, they find that Earth has vanished, and the gyroscope that aids in the station's navigation is missing.
As the crew works on repairs, they discover and rescue a woman called Mina Jensen, who was fused with wires inside a wall. Volkov's eyeballs begin moving of their own accord and he starts talking with his own reflection; Volkov also uses a gun to threaten the crew, but suddenly convulses and dies as the station's worm colony bursts out of him. Jensen tells Hamilton to not trust Schmidt, who she claims to be a spy sent by the German government to keep the Shepard shut down.
Meanwhile, on Earth, Hamilton's husband Michael, whose relationship struggles since their children's death in a fire, witnesses the silhoutte of a giant monster as it ravages the city. He helps a young girl, Molly, and takes her to an underground shelter to tend to her wounds.
On the station, Mundy's arm is pulled into a wall and severed. The crew finds the arm roaming of its own volition and recognize it is trying to write something. The arm instructs them to "cut Volkov open". They do, and they find the missing gyroscope inside his corpse. The crew finally locate Earth and restore their communications, but the transmissions they receive indicate the station was destroyed and fell to Earth two days prior. They determine the accelerator has activated the "Cloverfield Paradox" and also transported the station to a parallel universe where Jensen has replaced Tam as the station's engineer.
The crew believe they can return to their own universe if they reactivate the Shepard. Tam gets trapped in a chamber that floods with water and then breaches, freezing her to death. Hamilton decides to return to the parallel universe with Jensen in order to prevent her children's death. As they prepare, a magnetic field destabilizes the Shepard and causes an explosion that kills Mundy. When the whole station begins to tear apart, Kiel sacrifices himself to reactivate the Shepard, leaving Hamilton in charge.
Hamilton prepares to leave with Jensen, but she knocks her out and wounds Schmidt with Volkov's gun. Jensen also kills Acosta and insists the station must stay in her universe to keep the accelerator there. Hamilton regains consciousness and uses the gun to shoot out a window that ejects Jensen into space. Hamilton records a message to her alternate self as she and Schmidt reverse the shift to finally make the Shepard work. After reporting in, both eject themselves in a reentry capsule towards their universe's Earth.
In light of the ongoing situation, Michael learns of the Cloverfield station's reappearance, but he lambasts Hamilton's return to Earth. As the capsule re-enters the atmosphere, a giant monster bursts through the clouds and lets out a huge roar.
Cast
- Gugu Mbatha-Raw as Ava Hamilton, the British communications officer aboard Cloverfield station and Michael's wife
- David Oyelowo as Kiel, the American commander of the station
- Daniel Brühl as Ernst Schmidt, a German physicist
- John Ortiz as Monk Acosta, a Brazilian medical doctor
- Chris O'Dowd as Mundy, an Irish engineer
- Aksel Hennie as Volkov, a Russian engineer
- Zhang Ziyi as Tam, a Chinese engineer
- Elizabeth Debicki as Mina Jensen, an Australian engineer from one of the alternate timelines
- Roger Davies as Michael Hamilton, Ava's husband
- Clover Nee as Molly Pontanius, a young girl rescued by Michael
Production
Pre-production
The film was announced in November 2012, under the title God Particle, based on a script by Oren Uziel and to be directed by Julius Onah. With J.J. Abrams' Bad Robot as the production studio, it was set to be released under Paramount's Insurge Pictures label, limiting the film's budget to $5–10 million. At this stage, the film was established to take place on a space station in Earth's orbit and a resulting incident that causes the crew to find Earth has gone missing. Uziel said that his script had been a spec script he wrote about one year after finishing up a similar spec script for Shimmer Lake. The pick-up of the film occurred around the same time that Paramount and Bad Robot bought the rights to the spec script The Cellar by Josh Campbell and Matt Stuecken, which ultimately was reworked during production to become 10 Cloverfield Lane, adding in elements to tie that script to Cloverfield ; however, when Uziel wrote his screenplay for God Particle it had not been attached to the Cloverfield franchise. When Bad Robot acquired the script, Abrams had already put some thought for how it could fit into Cloverfield but had not come up with a way prior to filming. Abrams liked that with the script, "how something in the future could be an origin for something in the past" to establish origin stories for the other Cloverfield works. Abrams said that the script had "the DNA" that made it a potential Cloverfield film, and was looking for it to be a spiritual sequel to the original.In March 2015, Paramount decided to close the InSurge label; The Cellar had been moved under the main Paramount label, but God Particles fate was unclear. By February 2016, Paramount confirmed it would release the film under its own label, with a planned February 2017 release date.