Cloverfield

Trivia: When the credits have finished rolling there is a garbled radio transmission of what sounds like Rob saying "Help us." But when played in reverse you can clearly hear him saying "It's still alive."

Trivia: The viral marketing story is incorporated into several parts of the movie. The first is the Slusho! shirt worn by Jason, given to him by Rob. Rob is leaving to work for Slusho! in Japan per his myspace account. Slusho! is owned by Tagruato Corporation, a company whose primary operations is off-shore drilling rigs. The company's logo is visible on the Tanker that is on fire during the Brooklyn Bridge scene. The Easter eggs show the destruction by the monster of Tagruato's Chaui drilling facility located about 2,000 off-shore of NY. The online viral character Jamie is seen passed out on the couch at the party. Her boyfriend, Teddy, who works for Tidowave, is seen on the bridge. Tidowave is an anti-Tagruato operation. At the end, while the camera looks over the Atlantic ocean, you'll see a falling object. The producer, JJ Abrams, has stated that this can be interpreted one of two ways: It's the monster falling out of the sky, or, a satellite which Tagruato reported on their website that they were actively assisting the Japanese government to locate.

Trivia: In the Audio Commentary the Director shares that when Steven Spielberg watched the film before it was complete, he came up with the idea of the helicopter radio explaining "If you can hear the sirens, you're in the blast zone" and the sirens ringing at the end.

Trivia: After the people flying in the helicopter get swatted down by the monster, during the period of time when they hit the ground and the camera seems to "skip," pay close attention to the static. You will get a few frames of the two characters on a ferris wheel and for almost exactly one frame of the movie you will get a shot of King Kong in the old King Kong movie. Obviously a tribute to other monster movies from the past.

Trivia: JJ Abrams got the idea for cloverfield by looking at an aisle of toys which had a lot of Godzilla toys. He thought that Godzilla is the national monster of Japan, so he should make his own monster. This is confirmed on the DVD commentary by Matt Reeves.

Trivia: When Hud is talking to Marlena at the party, the song in the background has the lyrics: "Nobody notices til' someone explodes". Hm. Now what could this be foreshadowing?

Brad

Trivia: The poison in the parasites that makes Marlena explode, is the secret additive "seabed nectar" in the Slusho! soda that Rob was going to Japan to work out a promotion campaign for. It is explained in the viral and the DVD bonus material.

Trivia: The last shot of the film on Coney Island was the first day of film shooting, the first shot at Beth's apartment, was the last day of film shooting. (DVD extra's, "Making of Cloverfield".)

Trivia: In an interview, the director says he left a clue as to where the monster came from at the end of the movie, where the camera is overlooking the ocean. A missle shaped object can be seen in the right corner of the screen, hitting the water. He said that in the sequel he would clarify more on what that means.

Trivia: Jason is wearing a Slusho T-Shirt. Slusho is the drink that J.J. Abrams has used in Lost and Alias.

Brad

Trivia: Before the opening scene of the apartment, there are some screens showing info about the video. Very briefly, there is a Dharma logo seen at the bottom of the screen, obviously a reference to Lost.

nbafanscw

Trivia: In the final flashback scene where Beth and Rob are sitting on the ferris wheel, when the camera points out to the ocean, look in the top right corner of the screen. This might be a possible clue of where the monster came from.

Trivia: The idea of the Statue of Liberty's head ending up on the street signaling the approach of the monster was inspired by J. J. Abrams recalling the poster for the film Escape from New York (1981).

Erik M.

Trivia: During the studio logos at the start, if you listen very carefully, you can hear the monster's footsteps coming closer and closer.

Brad

Trivia: The monster has a total of only two minutes and 37 seconds screen time in the entire film.

Audio problem: When the Statue of Liberty's head strikes the top of a distant building before landing in the street, sight and sound are simultaneous. There should have been an audible lag in the sound due to the speed of sound being only about 1000 feet per second. The absence of this lag would be acceptable in most movies but is inconsistent with the amateur home movie theme of Cloverfield.

More mistakes in Cloverfield

[Seeing Beth's building badly damaged, leaning against another tower.]
Hud: Please tell me she lives on the ground floor.
Rob Hawkins: 37th.
Hud: Shit.

More quotes from Cloverfield

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

Brad

Chosen 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.

More questions & answers from Cloverfield

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