The first Cloverfield struck a nerve with a lot of moviegoers when it first came out, and not just the ones it made violently sick. Sure, the movie wasn’t perfect: It was indeed the first “clickbait monster movie,” and helped begin a revival of shaky, found-footage flicks trying to recapture the magic of Blair Witch Project. But much like J.J. Abrams’ Lost, one of the beauties Cloverfield brought to theaters was its mystery. It’s the same element that made works like Twin Peaks and Carnivale into cult hits: You do your own research, you speculate, and you feel more attached to the project. The feeling when I first watched that teaser was unlike anything I felt before watching a trailer, and I was hungry to know as much as possible about the film and its mythos.
But some fans took that a little too far. They follow strings that J.J. Abrams never intended to incite and end up with some pretty insane ideas about the film. And now that its “sequel,” 10 Cloverfield Lane, has premiered, let’s take a look at some of the craziest theories about the franchise. A true Cloverfield fan is most likely aware of some plausible theories behind the films. One such premise is that the monster terrorizing New York City is actual two monsters, a mother and a child, based on the differences in appearance and size in different scenes.
Going beyond that, though, are these theories. The first one surmises that the monster is a creation of the Dharma Initiative, the secret organization from Lost. This is based on the Dharma logo appearing as an easter egg at the end of the film, as shown in this clip:
The next few come from Reddit, the best breeding ground for hair-brained ideas. Theories put forward say that the monster isn’t an alien but actually from another dimension, that aliens designed the monsters as bioweapons, and that what happened in the film was a planned attack by Tagruato and the Japanese government. Redditors developed more speculation based on 10 Cloverfield Lane, including John Goodman’s character actually running his bunker as a computer simulation and that years of drinking Slusho products has turned people into cannibalistic zombies.
Elsewhere on the internet, you can also find ideas about Cloverfield being a documentary and that everyone had their memories erased with UO126, and how the film was an inside job to access oil reserves under Manhattan. And George W. Bush knew about it the whole time! There’s obviously crystal clear evidence supporting this…somewhere.
Yes, these thoughts are a little out there, but that’s the fun of a franchise intentionally shrouded in mystique. Either you enjoy the ride or you don’t. And now that 10 Cloverfield Lane is excelling at the box office, I for one can’t wait to continue following threads that may or may not exist.
