I went to see Cloverfield yesterday afternoon, and last night I posted my review of it. It wasn't long afterward that an anonymous reader made the following intriguing comment...
In case you are wondering where the monster came from in the closing scene where it is one month previous and they are at the beach if you look out over the ocean in the distance an object (presumably the monster) falls from the sky and right as it hits the water the camera turns to beths face. This is the only hint that the director said he put in there as to where the monster/creature came from. If you are going to see it again this weekend look for that in the final scenes.I didn't remember seeing anything like that when I watched Cloverfield, and I like to think that I'm a pretty attentive guy to details like that. Unless it was something so incredibly obscure, and I don't believe that J.J. Abrams and the Bad Robot guys would obfuscate so major a detail that much.
Then I started reading the blogosphere, and it turns out that other people are saying the same thing too: that in the final shot of Cloverfield, in the footage from Coney Island a month before the attack, that something huge and often described as "dark" lands in the ocean, just before Beth tells Rob that she had a good day.
It bugged me enough to decide that I wanted to see Cloverfield again. And today.
So a bit before noon, Lisa and I got in my car and we went to the Brassfield Cinemark on the northwest edge of Greensboro. After hearing me talk about it, she decided that she wanted to check out what the hullabaloo is about too. We got our tickets and went in and watched the movie. It was just as good a second time around, if not better. As for what Lisa thought about it, ummmm... she might write a review for her own blog, so I won't spoil her thoughts on it :-)
The final scene was approaching. I literally pried my eyelids open with my fingers, doing my darndest not to blink at all. I kept my peepers focused on the much-discussed right-hand side of the screen, looking at the sky and the water off Coney Island.
Okay, I must say: there is something there all right. But the only thing I saw, at all, was a large patch of white foam in the water, like the wake of something massive. I did not see a "big and dark" object fall out of the sky and hit the water. But there is something out there kicking up the surf off Coney Island. What that is, I don't know. But right now I'm not convinced at all that it was something that came falling out of the sky. Out in the water, it doesn't take much to make a plenty big enough wake.
So I personally did not see the "thing" from the sky. And yet, there are lots of people who are swearing quite vehemently that they did see something. If it's a delusion, it's one that's being shared by quite a large number of movie goers this weekend.
At the same time I'm also hearing from other people who reported that they looked for this, but didn't see the falling object either.
Curiouser and curiouser...
A few problems I have with this, if it is indeed supposed to be the arrival of the Cloverfield monster. For one thing, Coney Island was a month before the night of Rob's party: what was the monster doing during all of that time? The more obvious question in my mind though is that if the monster was that enormous, then how in the world did its crashing into the water not get noticed by not only Rob and Beth, but by everyone else at Coney Island? I mean, if a skyscraper came hurtling out of the blue and into the ocean off-shore from a major amusement park, it seems like somebody would have taken note of it, right?
In light of how many people claim to have seen something fall out of the sky and into the water, and how many claim to have seen nothing at all, I have to wonder: is it at all possible that on some prints of Cloverfield there is a falling object, and it's deliberately missing on others copies? Cloverfield has already arrived at the box office after months of staggering hype fueled by massive speculation on the Internet. Would it really be past Abrams and Reeves and the rest of Bad Robot - the same gang that gave us Lost and Alias, mind ya - to do something this devious with the final film itself, so as to "pour gasoline" on the already out-of-control wildfire that is Cloverfield?
What if some prints of Cloverfield have the monster crashing into the water, and other prints of the movie don't show it at all? It would then become a game of wondering which theaters have which prints of the film.
Hey, Clue did something like this way back in 1986, with multiple endings (I think there were 3 or 4 different endings and which one you saw depended on which theater you went to). It was quite an innovative gimmick at the time. Maybe that's what's up with Cloverfield.
Okay so, now I'm hoping someone else will write in and tell me: what did you see at the end of Cloverfield? Where and when did you see it exactly, too: was it at the very beginning of the final bit of the Coney Island footage, or is it elsewhere in that scene?
I guess I'll have to see this again sometime soon (hey, another reason to play tricks with the ending, eh? :-)
15 comments:
I just finished watching the movie at a DLP Digital Screen at AMC Theaters in Jacksonville, Florida. True to what people have seen, I also saw someting fall out of the sky as the camera was panning left toward's Beth's face on Coney Island. The reason why it may be difficult to see is because your mind is already panning with the camera but it definitely does show something impacting the water on the right side of the camera.
Yea, my friend saw it, but i missed it, so we went to a the other movie that started 20 mins later, and we watched it again, and i saw it. it's def. there.
My friend Nikki says that she saw it as well (although I saw nothing). All of these people have seen it at different theaters (I saw it at the Palladium, you saw it at the Carousel, she saw it at Koger...maybe we all need to switch it up and watch it at other theaters, just in case there are different prints. Just a thought.
Never before has a movie had me so impatient to have it on DVD :-)
"Weird" Ed will be in town later this week and staying here. He hasn't seen Cloverfield yet. I'm gonna go see it with him and try a different theater and we'll see if we can spot it.
I work at an AMC theatre. The night we built the print for Cloverfield (thursday) a few of us screened it. I didn't notice the object, but I was high. After the movie, a friend of mine mentioned seeing it (before he ever heard anyone else say anything about it). Yesterday I was running shows and stayed to clean Cloverfield just so I could look for it. I didn't really know where to look but I didn't see anything. I'm sure it's really easy to miss. Either way it was definitively the same print.
Well, the way I understand it, the viral marketing for this movie includes a company called "taraguto" (or something close) and their website lists one of their satellites falling into the ocean on that date. They are also involved in deep sea drilling and they sell "slusho", the nectar of the sea or something. All indications are that this is a sea monster of some sort and not an alien. You may even be able to find an interview with JJ Abrams saying as much.
i saw it again tonight. (thought it was amazing, btw!) and i saw the thing falling into the ocean at the end. the first time i saw it, i didn't know what to look for, but i was prepared this time. you can definately see it, but it's pretty far out to sea....
It is a dark Cigar shaped object. When I first left I imagined it was a whale - then I thought no. Not at the angle at which it fell. I got home, told my wife what I thought I saw and she told me to check the internets and lo and behold there is gossip afoot! Perhaps a Voltron live action movie could be in the works....?
Just for the sake of placing this in reply to the original post. i have to add my two cents. and i will also attempt to answer a few questions while i do so. First - i saw this thing fall from the sky and impact the water as well. it was small and probably would not be noticed by most, but it's there. Now in order to understand my next few statements, you will have to believe in two things. 1. - is science, 2. - is theory. That being said, here we go.
Let's think for a second about "intergalactic warfare". If you were a spacefaring species and for some strange reason you wanted to come and take over a planet with droves of intelligent living organisms, how would you do it? I suppose a space faring species would have the technology to do it in other means, but i would think the simplest and most discreet would be "biological warfare" now we've all heard the term before, and most of us think "microbes, and viruses". well this is where we need to think outside the box. What would be a better attack on an enemy than unleashing a monster that they can't destroy? it will kill indesciminantley <-- bad spelling-- and will put that worlds armed forces in diseray right? <-- mind you this is just one of the many ideas that would work.
Rolling further forward with that idea, the author of this article stated that a huge monster would have made an enourmous splash and everyone would have noticed. Well you are right, it would have. again let's think outside the box for a minute, and splurge a little. the monster that crash landed was most likely an infant, or at least in it's larval stages. And must have grown exponentially in the next month. Now that may seem a little "far fetched" but think about this - we have insects on this planet that start as an egg no bigger than a grain of sand, and end up 100 - 1000 times larger in a matter of days.
Now back to the thing crashing into the ocean. there are going to be a lot of people who state they don't see this thing. Proof of that is the fact that i was with 2 other people, and when i asked them about it, they looked at me like i had two heads. I can definately say for sure though, i wasn't seeing things. :-)
any way, this is just food for thought.
Right before I went and saw the movie on Friday I came across an official Manga (Japanese Comic for those now in the know) comissioned by JJ Abrams detailing a storyline prior to the Cloverfield-Manhattan incident.
Here's the link:
http://blog.wired.com/underwire/2008/01/cloverfield-man.html
I went with 6 people, I was the only one who saw it. I asked them about it during the credits, and was met with mystified stares, so it's not a case of me thinking I saw something after reading about it elsewhere. I thought it looked kind of like if you were standing on a beach and saw a small jet plunge into the ocean about 3-5 miles out. It came in at about a 60 degree angle from the right. It was not brilliant and did not leave a vapor trail. The small splash suggests a relatively small object or a low entry speed. It didn't seem large or black to me. My first thought was that it was a comedic nod to that Oceanic airplane from Lost, but that of course is ludicrous. It happens fast - blink and you'll miss it. Based on how subtle it is, I am inclined to think it was not "the monster" but rather a smaller object like a meteorite that carried some material to the ocean floor that then created the monster. But now I'm starting to sound like a Cloverfield dork, so I'll stop already.
i have no idea where to look, is it on beth's side or rob's side. anyways i think its a satellite that fell from the sky wich landed in the water and WOKE UP the monster. i think that it was alrdy there and its from the ocean.
Hi,
I saw it the first time I watched the movie. Then I told my boyfriend about it but he didn't believe me so I thought that maybe I didn't see right. Then I found all of these videos on youtube about the falling object so I guess it's true :)
ok guys... there is a whole load of things about this if you are internet literate, "viral" marketing websites made to look legit for the benifit of giving the movie reality. like the japanese company rob is going to work for, Slusho!
some one at the party is wearing the t-shirt with that logo on (there is so much more to add but you gotta do the leg work yourselfs)
characters from the film have myspace pages that you can follow up to the disaster of cloverfield.
And finally, the thing falling out of the sky is a satilite, and does have a lot to do with the monster.
go to http://www.slusho.jp/
thats the first viral you should check out. then i sugest you look about.
or be lazy and go here
http://uk.movies.ign.com/articles/845/845649p1.html
but you can find more in-depth stuff looking on your own, trust me.
Clover ( the monster ) is probably an alien
But everyone is saying that the aliens want to take over the planet
But in the making-off they clearly say his behavior is based on that from a scared animal who is lost and is scared for the whole new envoirment ( like temperature and sound and stuff like that )
So he's not out for taking over earth but is scared and want's to get away.
For the object falling from the sky, i saw it too.
I think in a 50/50 rate
With that i mean:
1. Was it intended to put the falling object in the movie ?
2. Couldn't it be a satellite falling from the sky in real life ( like it was accidentially shot, but kept in the movie because it fitted nice or adds more mistery to it )
Let me know what you think ;)
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