Cloverfield (2008)

A group of friends venture deep into the streets of New York on a rescue mission during a rampaging monster attack.

Director:

Matt Reeves

Writer:

Drew Goddard

Stars:

Mike Vogel, Jessica Lucas, Lizzy Caplan

5 wins & 30 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Lizzy Caplan	...	Marlena Diamond
Jessica Lucas	...	Lily Ford
T.J. Miller	...	Hudson 'Hud' Platt
Michael Stahl-David	...	Rob Hawkins
Mike Vogel	...	Jason Hawkins
Odette Annable	...	Beth McIntyre (as Odette Yustman)
Anjul Nigam	...	Bodega Cashier
Margot Farley	...	Jenn
Theo Rossi	...	Antonio
Brian Klugman	...	Charlie
Kelvin Yu	...	Clark
Liza Lapira	...	Heather
Lili Mirojnick	...	Lei
Ben Feldman	...	Travis
Elena Caruso	...	Party Goer

Storyline

To celebrate Rob's massive promotion, his lover, Beth, and friends, decide to throw a massive surprise farewell party, now that he is about to move to Japan. However, a deafening explosion and the arrival of an enormous scaly and gangly creature will abruptly interrupt the festivities, as all hell breaks loose in New York City, and the Statue of Liberty is decapitated. As the reptilian behemoth levels Manhattan, a daring dash to rescue Beth begins, while at the same time, everything is recorded through the lens of a hand-held camcorder, amid mayhem and destruction. In the end, where did this relentless invader come from, and above all, is there a chance of survival? As they go to investigate, an adventure deep into the streets of New York begins, as the friends are determined to rescue Rob's true love.

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Plot Keywords:

found footage | night vision | gigantic monster | alien | party | 

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Taglines:

Some Thing Has Found Us

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Genres:

Horror | Sci-Fi | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for violence, terror and disturbing images

Details

Official Sites:

Paramount [United States]

Country:

USA

Language:

English Russian

Release Date:

18 January 2008 (USA)

Also Known As:

Clover

Filming Locations:

Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$25,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$40,058,229, 20 January 2008

Gross USA:

$80,048,433

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$170,764,026

Company Credits

Production Co:

Paramount Pictures, Bad Robot, Cloverfield Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

85 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital DTS SDDS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

In the teaser trailer, the voice yelling "I saw it! It's alive! It's huge!" is that of director Matt Reeves.

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Goofs

Coming through the Narrows from Lower New York Bay (off Coney Island, where the monster was awoken) and onwards to Liberty Island (where the monster first makes its presence felt) there's no straight-line path that would subsequently put the monster in lower Manhattan. If it continued on a straight line from here it would wind up in Jersey City or Union city. However this assumes that the creature would continue in a straight line. Given that the monster is a disoriented, angry sea creature, and that it negotiated the Narrows to stay in the water until it came across Liberty Island, it's not unreasonable that it returned to the Upper New York Bay after attacking the statue instead of pushing onwards over land. If it continued inland up the Bay, it would inevitably run into Manhattan Island as we see in the movie.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Rob Hawkins: It's 6:42 AM. Beth's dad's place. He's out of town. And it's already a good day.

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Crazy Credits

There are no opening credits to this feature film.

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Connections

Referenced in Ready Player One (2018)

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Soundtracks

Pistol of Fire
Written by Caleb Followill, Nathan Followill & Angelo T. Petraglia
Performed by Kings of Leon
Courtesy of The RCA Records Label
By Arrangement with Sony BMG Music Entertainment

User Reviews

Much better than anticipated

I didn't have high hopes for this one, having read the reviews. Monster movie meets Blair Witch. But it's absolutely an OK flick.

Great effects and an extremely cool apocalyptic atmosphere. Definitely worth a watch.

Hand-held camera can be tiring, yes - but in this case, and combined with the great effects, it works.

The plot itself isn't exactly news, but as it's all seen from the antagonists point of view and with no further explanation, you really get that "what would I have done"-feeling.

Yes, we need explanations, but I really like that Abrams hasn't tried to tag on an ending explaining what happened.