Cloverfield
Cloverfield is a 2008 American found footage monster horror film directed by Matt Reeves and written by Drew Goddard. It stars Lizzy Caplan, Jessica Lucas, T.J. Miller, Michael Stahl-David, Mike Vogel, and Odette Yustman. In the film, six friends attempt to flee from a monster that attacks New York City.
Development began when producer J. J. Abrams started conceptualizing a monster film and enlisted Neville Page to design the eventual creature, called Clover. In February 2007, the project was secretly greenlit by Paramount Pictures and produced by Abrams's Bad Robot. Principal photography took place in Los Angeles and New York City in 2007. The project had several working titles, including Slusho, Cheese, and Greyshot. As part of a viral marketing campaign, a teaser trailer was released ahead of screenings of Transformers without a title. The final title was revealed in a second teaser trailer attached to screenings of Beowulf. With limited pre-release details, it garnered online speculation, including forums and websites dedicated to uncovering hidden information about the film. Several tie-ins, including a prequel manga series, were released as part of the marketing campaign.
Cloverfield was released on January 18, 2008, and received generally positive reviews from critics, who praised Reeves's direction and the cinéma vérité style narrative. It earned $172 million worldwide at the box office against a $25 million budget. It is the first installment of the Cloverfield franchise, followed by 10 Cloverfield Lane in 2016 and The Cloverfield Paradox in 2018. A direct sequel is in development.
Plot
The footage from a personal camcorder is recovered by the U.S. Department of Defense in the area "formerly known as Central Park", bearing a disclaimer about multiple sightings of a case designated "Cloverfield".On April 27, 2008, Rob Hawkins wakes up with Beth McIntyre in her father's apartment before embarking on a date across New York City and Coney Island.
On May 22, 2008, Rob's brother Jason and Jason's girlfriend, Lily Ford, throw a surprise farewell party for Rob at his Lower Manhattan apartment before he moves to Japan for his new job. Jason asks Rob's best friend, Hudson "Hud" Platt, to film testimonials for Rob during the party. Beth, upset by Rob's lack of communication after their one-night stand, brings another man to the party. Beth and Rob argue, and she leaves shortly before a massive earthquake occurs, causing a brief citywide power outage. The local news reports a capsized oil tanker near Liberty Island. From the roof, the partygoers witness an explosion in the distance and flee as flaming debris flies in their direction.
As the partygoers flee, the severed head of the Statue of Liberty falls into the street. In the chaos, Hud records an enormous creature several blocks away, collapsing the Woolworth Building. Rob, Jason, Lily, and Hud take cover in a nearby convenience store, sheltering from the smoke and debris that have resulted from the building's collapse. When they emerge, they find their friend Marlena Diamond covered in dust, in shock from seeing the creature "eating people." When the group attempts to evacuate Manhattan, Rob receives a message from Beth, who is trapped in her apartment at the Time Warner Center. However, the creature's tail destroys the Brooklyn Bridge, killing Jason. While the group retreats back to Lower Manhattan, news reports show the Army National Guard's 42nd Infantry Division attacking the monster and hostile parasites falling off its body.
Rob, Hud, Lily, and Marlena venture up to Midtown Manhattan to rescue Beth from her apartment. Finding themselves in a battle between the creature and the military, they hide in a nearby subway station and decide that staying underground will be safer. While walking through the subway tunnels toward Midtown, they are attacked by a group of parasites, one of which bites Marlena. The four escape the tunnels and enter Bloomingdale's, where they are found by soldiers and taken to a field hospital within. When Marlena begins to bleed from her eyes, she is forcibly taken away from the group by a biohazard team before her body swells and explodes in a matter of seconds.
Rob, still intending to save Beth, persuades a commander to release them. He is informed when the last evacuation helicopter will depart before the military executes its "Hammerdown Protocol", a saturation bombing operation which will kill the monster but also destroy Manhattan. The survivors travel to the Time Warner Center, find Beth impaled on exposed rebar, and rescue her. The group then travels to the Grand Central Terminal, where they reencounter the creature.
Lily is rushed into the first helicopter to escape. Rob, Beth, and Hud are taken away in a second helicopter, witnessing the creature being attacked with Mark 82 bombs by a B-2 Spirit. It briefly collapses, but rises from the smoke and strikes the helicopter, causing it to crash into Central Park. The group survives the crash and escapes the wreckage. After placing the camera down to help an injured Rob, Hud turns back to retrieve it when the creature suddenly appears and partially devours him. Rob and Beth grab the camera and take shelter under Greyshot Arch. As air raid sirens blare, Rob and Beth each provide their last testimony of the day's events.
The arch begins to crumble, and the camera is knocked out of Rob's hand and buried beneath the rubble. Rob and Beth proclaim their love for each other just as the bombing commences, possibly killing them both, while the camera freezes before the footage cuts. The film ends with the finale of Rob and Beth's trip to Coney Island a month earlier. Unseen by them, a barely discernible object falls from the sky and into the ocean.
After the credits, a voice can be heard saying, “Help us.” When played in reverse, it says “It’s still alive”.
Cast
- Michael Stahl-David as Rob Hawkins
- Odette Yustman as Beth McIntyre, Rob's girlfriend
- T.J. Miller as Hud Platt, the cameraman capturing the events and Rob's best friend
- Jessica Lucas as Lily Ford, Jason's fiancée
- Lizzy Caplan as Marlena Diamond, a fellow partygoer and Hud's crush
- Mike Vogel as Jason Hawkins, Rob's brother
- Ben Feldman as Travis Marello, Beth's friend
- Jamie Harlan as Jamie Lascano, who is part of Viral who makes a small appearance in the film
- Margot Farley as Jenn
- Theo Rossi as Antonio
- Kelvin Yu as Clark
- Brian Klugman as Charlie
- Billy Brown as Sergeant Pryce
Production
Development
conceived a monster film after he and his son visited a toy store in Japan while promoting Mission: Impossible III. He explained, "We saw all these Godzilla toys, and I thought, we need our own American monster, and not like King Kong. I love King Kong. King Kong is adorable. And Godzilla is a charming monster. We love Godzilla, but I wanted something that was just insane and intense."In February 2007, Paramount Pictures secretly greenlit Cloverfield, to be produced by Abrams, directed by Matt Reeves, and written by Drew Goddard. Both Abrams and Reeves have been friends since they were 13 years old and went on to co-create the college drama series Felicity for The WB, while Goddard was a writer for ABC's Lost at the time. The project was produced by Abrams's company, Bad Robot.
The severed head of the Statue of Liberty was inspired by the poster of the 1981 film Escape from New York, in which the head lies on a street in New York. Reeves explained, "It's an incredibly provocative image. And that was the source that inspired producer J. J. Abrams to say, 'Now this would be an interesting idea for a movie'."
Title
The film was initially titled Cloverfield, changed several times throughout production, and was reverted. Matt Reeves explained this was due to the hype caused by the teaser trailer. "That excitement spread to such a degree that we suddenly couldn't use the name anymore. So we started using all these names like Slusho and Cheese. And people always found out what we were doing!" He said that "Cloverfield" was the government's case designation for the events caused by the monster, comparing the titling to that of the real Manhattan Project, though the government did not originate this. Cloverfield Blvd is the highway exit Abrams takes to his Santa Monica office, and which used to lead to the Santa Monica Airport, which originally bore the name Clover Field.The final title Greyshot was proposed, taken from the archway that the two survivors take shelter under at the end of the movie, but Matt Reeves said this was rejected because the film was already so well known as Cloverfield.
The film received a subtitle in Japan, where it was released as Cloverfield/Hakaisha. The subtitle "Destroyer" was chosen by Abrams and was translated into Japanese as Hakaisha by Paramount Japan at his request. The subtitle Kishin was chosen for the manga spin-off, Cloverfield/Kishin, released exclusively in Japan.