As with any J.J. Abrams production, there are a ton of unresolved mysteries in the Cloverfield movies, both in their own storylines and in their connections to one another. The Cloverfield franchise is essentially an anthology series for the big screen. It kicked off with Cloverfield in 2008 and continued with the psychological thriller 10 Cloverfield Lane in 2016 and the gonzo sci-fi horror movie The Cloverfield Paradox in 2018. The movies never cover the same characters, or even the same otherworldly threat, but they’re all set in the same monster-infested universe – and the mythology of that universe is bafflingly inconsistent.
The original Cloverfield movie tells a classic kaiju story about a monster rampaging across New York in the “found footage” format. 10 Cloverfield Lane sees a young woman held against her will in an underground bunker where a dangerous survivalist claims he saved her life from alien invaders who may or may not really exist. The Cloverfield Paradox sees a space crew unwittingly transporting themselves into an alternate dimension where strange things start to happen. These movies have left plenty of questions unanswered, like where the aliens came from, whether the original monster is really dead, and how they all connect to each other.
10 How Is Cloverfield's Original Monster Connected To Sequel Monsters?
The original Cloverfield film was a classic kaiju story with a giant monster attacking a big city. But the sequels have introduced entirely different monsters. The characters of 10 Cloverfield Lane are tormented by alien invaders and the characters of The Cloverfield Paradox are tormented by what could be a demonic entity. How do the sequel monsters connect back to Clover in this universe? The franchise could be building up to a showdown between Clover and the aliens and the demons, but it has yet to establish what links them all together.
9 Where Did The Cloverfield Monster Actually Come From?
There have been a few different answers to the question of where Clover came from. The marketing campaign for the first movie suggested that Clover was an ancient sea creature awakened by a corporation drilling for the secret ingredient in their Slusho product. The final scene of the movie, showing footage from a month before the monster attacked, includes a glimpse of something crashing into the sea, suggesting the creature came from above. Director Matt Reeves has confirmed the alien theory, but there’s still no solid in-universe explanation for the monster’s arrival.
8 The Cloverfield Movie Timeline Is A Total Mess
The timeline of the Cloverfield movies is all over the place. Clover emerged from the ocean and attacked New York in 2007 and the footage was uncovered in 2008. Aliens invaded and Michelle got trapped in Howard’s bunker in 2016. The events between 2008 and 2016 are completely unclear, as is the gap between 10 Cloverfield Lane and the events of The Cloverfield Paradox (which is set in 2028). The Cloverfield Paradox created a tear in the space-time continuum that acts as a convenient excuse for any plot holes or continuity errors in the franchise, but the Cloverfield universe’s timeline needs to be a lot clearer.
7 Are Rob & Beth Still Alive After Cloverfield?
The end of the original Cloverfield movie leaves the fate of its protagonists, Rob and Beth, curiously ambiguous. The military executes its “Hammer Down Protocol” to destroy the monster by destroying the whole of Manhattan. Rob and Beth are in the blast radius and confess their love for each other before the bomb hits. But the camera freezes and cuts out before revealing whether or not they were killed in the explosion. It’s highly unlikely that they survived, but since neither of the Cloverfield sequels were direct sequels, the characters’ fate has remained ambiguous.
6 Are All Three Cloverfield Movies Actually Connected Or Not?
All three Cloverfield movies have the word 'Cloverfield' in the title, but they have no real connections to one another through recurring characters and plot points. The franchise has yet to provide any solid connections between its movies. Since The Cloverfield Paradox introduced the notion of alternate dimensions, it’s possible that each Cloverfield movie takes place in its own universe within the same multiverse. The interdimensional experiments in The Cloverfield Paradox universe might have transported the Clover monster into the original Cloverfield universe.
5 Does The Original Cloverfield Have 2 Monsters In New York?
There’s a popular fan theory – dubbed the “duo theory” – that New York was attacked by two different monsters in the original Cloverfield movie. The theory goes that the first monster seen is just a baby, and the second monster is a parent or guardian who arrives to rescue the baby. The main evidence for this theory is that monsters are seen with two different sets of teeth, implying they’re different monsters, and the bridge is destroyed by a much larger tail than the original Clover creature had. But there’s been no official confirmation of this theory.
4 What Happened To The Rest Of Jensen's Crew In The Cloverfield Paradox?
When the Cloverfield Stations from two separate dimensions collide in The Cloverfield Paradox, an engineer from the alternate-universe Cloverfield Station named Mina Jensen is fused with the wires in the wall of the original station. This brings the crew to the haunting realization that they’re stranded in the wrong universe. But very little of Jensen’s backstory is explored. Elizabeth Debicki gives such an absorbing performance that it’s easy to miss the most glaring unanswered question about her character: what happened to the rest of her crew?
3 Where Did 10 Cloverfield Lane's Aliens Come From?
The sequels to Cloverfield are only tenuously connected to the original movie, expanding the worldbuilding without elaborating on how any of the new elements fit in with the established mythology. At the end of 10 Cloverfield Lane, when Michelle finally escapes from Howard’s bunker, she finds that he was telling the truth and there are otherworldly threats out there. Michelle contends with an alien biomechanical craft and hears reports over the radio about the fight against the invaders. Where did these alien invaders come from, and how do they connect to Clover?
2 Why Is The Monster So Big At The End Of The Cloverfield Paradox?
Clover was always a giant beast, inspired by classic kaiju characters, but its size changed drastically between movies. In the original film, Clover was roughly the same size as the average New York skyscraper, but at the end of The Cloverfield Paradox, its head is poking out of the Earth’s atmosphere. This teaser refused to provide any solid answers. Is this a different monster than the one seen in the original Cloverfield movie, or did that monster grow to 100 times its original size between the first and third films in the series?
1 Did The Monster Die At The End Of Cloverfield? (& What Happened To New York Afterwards?)
The original Cloverfield movie ended with the military resorting to the desperate measure of wiping out Manhattan with a bomb strike. But it doesn’t answer whether or not Clover was actually destroyed in the blast; The Cloverfield Paradox suggests that the bomb might have actually strengthened the beast. It’s also unclear what happens to New York after the bombing of Manhattan. Did the city recover? Are people able to still live in New York? Were the other boroughs affected by the blast? Only a true direct sequel to Cloverfield will be able to provide those answers.