As best as I can figure, these are the general events that take place in the Cloverfield universe before the movie that everyone was all hyped up about. I may be wrong about it, and the story can get much more detailed, but I haven't found anywhere on the internet that has all the details, so I'm making one. JJ Abrams (the producer of the film) created several fictitious companies and characters, each with a website (the characters had myspaces, I believe) and "real" news and happenings about them that led up to the movie and were not in the actual film.

The story starts several million years ago, in the days of Pangaea (the landmass that existed before the continents split). There are two specific species in the ocean that share a parasitic relationship. First, there are tiny microscopic autotrophs (meaning they produce their own energy and don't have to eat) that give off excessive amounts of vitamins and minerals as waste. Then there is a species of parasites, which love to eat the autotrophs because they release all the substances needed for survival. At the end of the dinosaur era, according to many respected scientists, a meteor hit Earth, causing a tectonic shift, which separated Pangaea into our present-day continents. The splitting of the continents caused the two species two separate from each other. The autotrophs ended up in the Pacific Ocean (in a crevasse near Japan, maybe) and the parasites got stranded in a trench in the Atlantic, somewhere near New York. Both species continued to exist in their new environments, but the parasites never forgot their hunger for the autotrophs.

Fast forward to modern times. There is a new drink called Slusho. I'll let you read the history here click on the middle bubble, I think, or whatever one says history when highlighted. Can you guess what the secret ingredient is? The autotroph from our previous paragraph. The drink is an instant hit in Japan, as it not only tastes good, but is also immensely good for people and makes them feel insanely happy. Plans are soon made to export this drink to other countries, and after a short while it takes America by storm, with three flavors only available here. Look at the myspaces I guess…also, somewhere I read that Yoshida was considering using public waterways to transport the "secret ingredient."

The parent company of the Slusho drink company is Tagruato, which is owned by Ganu Yoshida (the Slusho creator) and is also an oil company. Tagruato and some environmentalists called TidoWAVE have been butting heads for years. I'll let you read about both of them, if you want… The latest thing that they have been fighting about is Tagruato's deep-sea drilling, specifically one drilling station, the Chuai station off the coast of New York, which has the ability to dig several miles into the sea for oil. Anyway, after watching the general public pay no attention to their warnings about Tagruato, TidoWAVE attacks Ganu Yoshida (again, leader of Tagruato) and decides to attack the Chuai station. They fail to kill or dissuade Yoshida, and then this happens.

TidoWAVE is blamed for the attack. If you read the blogs that TidoWAVE posted, they apparently didn't do it. There's something about a problem with the attack, about how nothing is there but ocean when they arrive.

Someone asked me "If all of this is true, how come Slusho, Tagruato, and TidoWAVE aren't in the movie?" well…they are! Rob is going to Japan because he is the new VP of marketing for Slusho, and a few people are wearing their Slusho shirts. Jamie (who is only in the movie for the party scene) knows a guy who disappeared at Chuai before the "attack," and also a guy who works for TidoWAVE.

Anyways, my final theory: Tagruato awoke the Cloverfield monster (one of the "parasites") by digging it out of its dormancy. Either by the public waterways or the sewers, depending on if we shit the autotrophs out, or if Yoshida uses public waterways like he was considering (both of which drain into the ocean), the autotrophs reached the parasites (the big one and the little ones). Then the parasites followed the trail to New York. Somehow, the parasites realized that people might have the autotrophs in them, because we've all been drinking Slusho, so they start laying waste to us in order to get their food out of us. That brings us a little ways into the movie, and if you haven't seen it, you should…

Interesting facts:
•This movie is short at 84 minutes long. That's the approximate length of a DV film tape.
•There is currently a manga in Japan that is a prequel to this movie. It is about a worker for Tagruato.
•It is rumored that if you look at the poster with the headless Statue of Liberty, you can see the monster's face in the clouds.
•After the credits of the movie, you hear an audio recording. It's saying "it's still alive." But it says it backwards.
•Spongebob plays on a screen in the electronics shop.
•Wolfmother's song "The Joker and the Thief" is playing when the destruction begins. The first boom is heard just after the line "as they're standing in the field of clover…"


Interesting places:
Myspaces of:
•Robert Hawkins
•Jason Hawkins
•Beth McIntyre
•"Hud" Platt
•Marlena Diamond
•Lily Ford
•Jamie Lascano(hard to read)

cloverfieldclues.com
1-18-08.com
cloverfieldmovie.com
Slusho
tagruato
tidoWAVE blog