Cloverfield (2008) - 14 questions

Question: When Hud and the group is running toward the monster (to save Beth) and a Russian guy runs up to Hud and starts speaking in Russian, does anyone know what he's saying?

Answer: He's actually speaking Slavic, and is asking for help from Hud to locate his family.

Question: Did any of the actors know what the monster looked like while they were filming the movie?

Answer: The actors and crew were kept in the dark as much as possible, unless the information was needed for their performance. They didn't know what the parasites looked like until they began filming the subway scene. Actual-size, realistic puppets had been made for filming but were decided to look too artificial and slow on camera, but it gave the actors a chance to see what they would be running from, how their jaws and legs worked, etc. As for the main monster ("Clover"), actors would only know what was in the script and what the director told them.

Question: In the Easter Egg when you get the scene 17, there are military files you can watch. One of them that works is videos a girl made for her boyfriend. In one of the videos, she was given a something that she was told not to eat and a recording of her boyfriend saying they found something (probably the alien) and she thought it was hoax and her boyfriend was seeing someone else. My question is, by how crazy she was acting in the other videos, she most likely ate the thing she wasn't supposed to eat. Anyone know what that could've been?

Answer: It might have been the "seafloor nectar" that Slusho was using in it's drinks. The "nectar" might be related to the monster. The "nectar" is also the poison in the parasites that makes people explode.

Question: I've heard that there are frames of some old films in the movie. Can anybody give me the exact times that they show up, as I can't find them. Thanks in advance.

Answer: The three hidden frames are showcased on http:www.youtube.com/watch?v=8F-7izRuv8k.

Question: I've been wondering this for a while. Was T.J. Miller operating the camera for the whole movie?

Answer: No. The DVD features show he isn't most of the time. Pro camera men did his camera work, and they would have Hud's clothes on to show his feet and pants when the camera pointed down. Miller is an actor, not trained in how to get the most from the camera, so pros did that. Ironically, he couldn't be trusted to make the camera work look amateurish enough!

Question: I was wondering, and I've seen the movie, do Rob and Beth live? And will there be a number 2?

Answer: We will not know unless they make a sequel. Right now they are still deciding if they want to make a sequel or not.

Question: We all know that Marlena is bitten by one of the smaller monsters in the subway. When the group finds the military hospital, Marlena is escorted behind a curtain because of the bite. We see blood suddenly spray onto the curtain, meaning there was a small explosion to kill her. Was the explosion caused by the monster bite, or did the military have to do it to her?

Answer: It's very unlikely that the military would have to resort to exploding her, given they not only had guns, but access to all of the hospital's drugs and sharp instruments. While we can't say for sure, it's most likely an extreme reaction to the monster bite.

Question: I was just wondering, when the satellite hits the water at the last scene, in the background in the ferris wheel, wouldn't it have cooled way before it hit sea floor? I mean, someone would have obviously found some sort of large egg nest unless it wasn't at the bottom of the ocean. And if so, the satellite would have cooled way before it hit bottom. So how would it have heard or awakened the creatures if they were so far down? And if they were not all the way at the bottom of the ocean, how is it possible that no one has discovered these large eggs close to the bays of New York?

Answer: I'm afraid this is an unfair question, as the creature's origin is never confirmed. Your theory is just that. A theory. Unless this is confirmed in a future movie, there will never be a definitive answer.

Question: On the DVD, the directors say that the monster was awakened by a satellite falling from its orbit (you can see the satellite in the top right corner when Rob holds the camera out to the ocean at the end of the movie). The date when that event occurs is April 27th. When the monster attacks, it is late May. How did it take a month for the monster to become awakened and attack New York City?

Answer: As we don't have a real good definition of what 'awakened' means in relation to this creature, it's not possible to say precisely why nearly a month passes between the splashdown and the "attack" by the monster. But the makers also mention on the DVD that the monster is actually not "attacking", but it is actually a newborn "baby", that has no idea where it is and it's in a panic as it is being attacked by the humans. It simply wants to escape, but has no clue where to go or why we are attacking it. Using that info, I can imagine a scenario were it was actually in an egg-type state underwater, and the heat of the statellite resting near it caused the egg to finish developing, and Clover then 'hatched' weeks later. But the egg idea is merely a guess. Much has been left secret to make the future sequels better.

Question: What are the appendages dangling off the monster's underside? Are they arms or tentacles?

Answer: The extra tentacles placed on the monster where originally to make the more dangerous towards the people below. In the Japanese comic regarding cloverfield, he uses these tentacles to eat people. For the movie, this premise was the same. Rumors of CGI effects that were created to be in the movie of the monster eating people with these "feeding tubes" where made, however, no actual footage has been made public via DVD or internet sources as of yet. In essence, since the monster was SO large, the creators wanted a way the monster could eat people without having to bend over like the scene at the end depicted. Even the final scene was a disappointment to the editors, as scaling issues made the monster "look" smaller than it really was.

Question: What caused the main explosion?

Answer: News reports indicate an oil tanker has overturned in the harbor. We can presume this is just beyond the Statue of Liberty, possibly in the area of upper Bayonne, NJ. Considering there are lights and other electrical devices aboard, as well as static electricity, almost anything could have sparked an explosion aboard, the concussion of which tore the head off the statue and hurled it and other debris onto Manhattan island.

Question: SPOILER: Is it me, or is the monster trying to kill our heroes? It attacked the bridge with them on it, killing Jason, it went straight after Hud at the end, and the spider-monsters were following them in the tunnel. What's the deal?

Answer: The main monster is terrorizing the entire city. It only seems that the movie's main characters run into him a lot is because while most people are running away from the monster, they're running toward it to save the girl. And the spider-crab parasites are shown falling off of the monster by the hundreds, so they're probably all over the city by now. Since the backstory for the creatures and monster is that they come from the deep sea, the parasites might enjoy the subway tunnels because the environment is sort of like "home" for them.

Question: When the main characters are using the subway to move through the city, shouldn't they be electrocuted by the tracks? I thought subway tracks were electrified.

Answer: If the power is out, the 3rd rail would not be working either.

Question: What happens to the people when they get bit? Do they explode or what?

Answer: We never know. Based on what happened to the girl behind the white screen, it looks like it. But we are just left to assume so. It is never clarified.