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Posted February 10, 2018 by Angelo Delos Trinos in Movies/TV
 
 

How The Cloverfield Paradox Connects to the Previous Cloverfield Films

To everyone’s surprise, the third Cloverfield movie – The Cloverfield Paradox – was both announced and released mere hours after the conclusion of this year’s Super Bowl. Distributed by the streaming giant Netflix, The Cloverfield Paradox promised to connect both Cloverfield and 10 Cloverfield Lane. In a way, it did while also opening the door for even more Cloverfield movies in the future. Here’s how the movie previously titled The God Particle ties all of the Cloverfield movies together.

Warning: This article contains major spoilers for ‘The Cloverfield Paradox’

PARADOXICAL OPENINGS

The biggest surprise that The Cloverfield Paradox revealed was that all three – and future – Cloverfield movies are set in the same universe, but not in the way audiences would expect. As it turns out, it’s possible that the catastrophes in the previous movies were caused by the events in the third Cloverfield movie.

Cloverfield Paradox connects to the first two Cloverfield films ingeniously.

Cloverfield Paradox connects to the first two Cloverfield films ingeniously.

In The Cloverfield Paradox, the central characters are perfecting the Shepard particle accelerator mounted on the Cloverfield Station in the hopes of discovering a renewable source of energy to save the Earth from its ongoing energy crisis. But upon activating the accelerator, the Cloverfield Station’s crew find themselves stuck in a similar but alternate timeline. This was foreshadowed earlier by author Mark Stambler (Donal Logue) when he warned a news anchor of the “Cloverfield Paradox” – wherein the accelerator could open portals and unleash indescribable horrors from different dimensions onto Earth.

Mark Stambler: That accelerator is 1000 times more powerful than any ever built. Every time they test it, they risk ripping open the membrane of space-time, smashing together multiple dimensions, shattering reality, and not just on that station – everywhere. This experiment could unleash chaos, the likes of which we have never seen. Monsters, demons, beasts from the sea… And not just here and now… In the past. In the future. In other dimensions.

In doing so, the Cloverfield Station crew not only wound up in one of many alternate dimensions where a different Earth was engulfed by war following their own energy crisis, but they return to their Earth only to find an even more gigantic version of the monster from the original Cloverfield causing havoc.

Yes. This monster is back.

Yes. This monster is back.

The Cloverfield Cinematic Universe

Because of this, it can be assumed that the Cloverfield Station’s actions ripped the space time continuum in more ways than one, opening portals and affecting many different Earths. Across the Cloverfield multiverse, different realities are colliding with events and beings that don’t belong in their respective planes of existence, resulting in chaos as these timelines try to make sense of things.

Where Cloverfield and The Cloverfield Paradox have different sized monsters of the same species destroying cities, 10 Cloverfield Lane had an alien invasion, complete with Unidentified Flying Objects (UFO) and an airborne mothership. All of these take place in settings where aliens shouldn’t exist, making the paradox all the more plausible. Though not yet confirmed, it’s been speculated that the next Cloverfield movie – tentatively titled Overlord – will be set in the Second World War, but with something otherworldly involved. Check out the potential summary below:

Jeff Sneider previews the possible fourth Cloverfield film.

Jeff Sneider previews the possible fourth Cloverfield film.

Previously, the most blatant connections between the Cloverfield movies were small references to one another. From the ever-present Slusho! soft drink brand, to crashing satellites, to both 10 Cloverfield Lane and The Cloverfield Paradox having a character named Stambler –  Howard Stambler (John Goodman) in 10 Cloverfield Lane – the Cloverfield movies were hinted to be loosely connected to one another but it’s only now that an explanation as to how was given.

In doing so, the Cloverfield franchise can experiment in different kinds of horror without needing to stick to a single timeline or a constrictive formula. Back when 10 Cloverfield Lane had yet to be released, Cloverfield producer J.J. Abrams clarified that the movie was not a sequel to Cloverfield and was, in his words, its “blood relative.”

J.J. Abrams: The idea came up a long time ago during production. We wanted to make it a blood relative of Cloverfield. The idea was developed over time. We wanted to hold back the title for as long as possible.

Now that The Cloverfield Paradox has revealed the backbone of the franchise without giving away all of the answers, audiences will get to see what other terrors Abrams and his collaborators have in store for the growing Cloverfield universe.


Angelo Delos Trinos

 
Part-time artist and writer, full-time critic/overthinker. He believes that Samuel L.Jackson is the greatest actor on earth and he misses video stores.