Support NeoGAF

[Dalek]

’10 Cloverfield Lane’ Viral Begins To Reveal Backstory Connections To ‘Cloverfield’

A viral campaign for 10 Cloverfield Lane has begun, and it seems to connect directly with the augmented reality game (ARG) for Matt Reeves‘ original Cloverfield. Earlier this month we explained how Tagruato (the Japanese drilling company that produced Slusho that was likely responsible for unleashing the Cloverfield monster on New York City) had new activity on the interwebs. Well, now the official company website has posted an update that directly connects the backstory for 10 Cloverfield Lane to the original Cloverfield. While I’m pretty sure that this backstory isn’t explicitly explored in the movie, I’ll let you choose if you want to learn more.

A new “Employee of the Month” page has popped up on the Tagruato website, updated for February 2016. The employee of the month for Bold Futura is Howard Stambler, i.e. John Goodman‘s character from 10 Cloverfield Lane. One of the subsidiary companies of the Tagruato Corporation introduced during the 2007 viral/ARG was a company named Bold Futura which was working on the “design, manufacture and integration of advanced technology products for the military, arms manufacturers and space exploration organizations.” Here is what the website profile tells us about Howard:

Bold Futura
Howard Stambler –
Telemetry Analyst
Howard will celebrate his seven-year anniversary with Bold Futura in the fall. This month, Howard’s drive, commitment and refusal to accept easy answers resulted in a significant breakthrough diagnosing transmission complications with two of our governmental clients’ orbiting satellites.

RadioMan70.com redirects to FunAndPrettyThings.com. CloverfieldClues has noticed the following about the website:

The photo with the letters is missing the following letters; M E G A N
If you try to “cheat” by viewing the source code for the page, there is a warning message: “You do not belong here. Megan would never come here. I know who you are and will be tracking you.”
One of the photos is the Eiffel Tower, and there were a lot of Eiffel towers in the 10 Cloverfield Lane trailer.
But the most interesting is the photo of a girl sitting in front of a computer. The image is from the John Hughes movie Pretty in Pink. If you click on the image, a pops-up asks for a passphrase. Reddit user BriarrRose discovered the solution was the line from Pretty in Pink, “Do you want to talk?”

Entering the line of dialogue from the movie sends you to a secret message board where Radioman70 has posted a message to his daughter Megan warning her about an impending danger.

DEAR MEGAN,

I HOPE THAT YOU CAN SEE THIS NOW. IVE BEEN TRYING TO EMAIL YOU AND CALL YOU, BUT YOU HAVEN’T ANSWERED. IT’S OK, I FIGURED OUT WHY – YOUR MOTHER IS BLOCKING MY EMAIL, AND SHE MADE YOU CHANGE YOUR NUMBER. I FORGIVE YOU, IT’S NOT YORU FAULT.

I’M SORRY ABOUT HAVING TO DECEIVE YOU WITH THIS SITE, BUT I NEEDED TO FIND A WAY AROUND YOUR MOTHER’S INTERFERENCE, AND WERE RUNNING OUT OF TIME. NOW WE CAN TALK IN CONFIDENCE WITHOUT HER FINDING OUT. IT’LL BE OUR LITTLE SECRET.

I NEVER WANTED YOU TO HAVE TO LEARN ABOUT SOME OF THE THINGS THAT I KNOW BUT IT’S A FATHER’S JOB TO PROTECT HIS DAUGHTER, AND I NEED TO PROTECT YOU NOW. YOUR MOTHER NEVER LISTENED TO ME. THERE WERE THINGS I SAW, IN THE NAVY, THINGS THE SOVIET’S WERE INVOLVED WITH. SHE DIDN’T BELIEVE ME. BUT SHE WILL. EVERYBODY WILL.

DO YOU REMEMBER HOW EVERYBODY THOUGHT THE WHOLE WORLD WAS GOING TO END WHEN IT TURNED 2000, AND I BUILT US THAT LITTLE BOMB SHELTER OUT BACK? I DON’T KNOW WHAT I WAS THINKING – THAT TINY PLACE WOULD HAVE LASTED US ABOUT A WEEK, ESPECIALLY WITH HOW MUCH YOUR MOTHER COMPLAINED ABOUT IT, NO MATTER HOW MANY TIMES I TRIED TO MAKE HER HAPPY.

SO THIS TIME, I DID IT RIGHT FROM THE START. IT’S HUGE, SO MUCH BIGGER THAN WHAT YOU PROBABLY REMEMBER! BUT COZY! AND I FILLED IT WITH EVERYTHING YOU LIKE! WE’LL BE SAFE DOWN THERE, HOPEFULLY FOR YEARS IF WE NEED TO. BUT I NEED YOU TO COME TO ME AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. THEY MAY ATTACK ANY DAY NOW, SO THERE’S NO TIME TO WASTE.

I UNDERSTAND IT MAY BE HARD FOR YOU TO GET TO ME, OR THAT THERE MIGHT NOT BE ENOUGH TIME. SO I HAD ANOTHER SAFE PLACE BUILT – JUST FOR YOU. IT’S NOT QUITE AS BIG OR NICE AS THE ONE HERE, BUT IT WILL KEEP YOU SAFE. IT’S BEEN EXPENSIVE TO BUILD, ESPECIALLY SINCE I CAN’T BE THERE WATCHING OVER THE PEOPLE I HIRED AND MAKE SURE THEY DO IT RIGHT. BUT I’M PAYING THEM ENOUGH THAT THEY BETTER. BUT NO PRICE IS TOO HIGH FOR YOU. AND IT’S NOT LIKE MONEY’S GONNA BE GOOD FOR MUCH LONGER. IT’S RIGHT NEAR YOU IN CHICAGO – DO YOU REMEMEBER YOUR GRANDMA’S OLD HOUSE NEAR THE HIGHWAY? IT’S IN THE EMPTY LOT RIGHT BEHIND THERE. IT’LL BE FINISHED ANY DAY NOW. AS SOON AS IT IS, I NEED YOU TO GET INTO IT AND LOCK THE DOORS BEHIND YOU.

EVEN IF YOUR MOTHER IS WATCHING CLOSELY AND YOU CAN’T REPLY, KEEP CHECKING THIS SITE AND I WILL HELP YOU PREPARE AS MUCH AS I CAN.

I LOVE YOU, RADIOGIRL. I JUST WANT YOU TO BE SAFE.

LOVE,

DAD

More about the ARG is at the link...

 

[FantasticMrFoxdie]

Pretty cool backstory. So Feels Goodman is Ramona Flower's Dad i'm assuming

 

[Dalek]

Pretty cool backstory. So Feels Goodman is Ramona Flower's Dad i'm assuming

No her character in the movie is "Michelle"-Goodman's daughters name is apparently Megan. This matches up to what was in the original screenplay, too.

 

[Bobby Roberts]

Pretty cool backstory. So Feels Goodman is Ramona Flower's Dad i'm assuming

Better guess is that he wants her to be his daughter. Whether she wants to be that or not might be one of her motivations to get the fuck out of there.

Probably something that'll get mentioned in passing in the movie proper: You won't need this backstory to understand that he's having some sort of psychological break, but if you do know, you'll get a little deeper understanding of the character.

 

[wenis]

Creepy backstory. Anticipation is climbing.

 

[Mariolee]

So the world went on like normal after 2008's Kaiju Attack? Seems that way if we're still having employee of the months as far as February 2016.

Consider me intrigued.

 

[SpaceWolf]

Howard will celebrate his seven-year anniversary with Bold Futura in the fall. This month, Howard’s drive, commitment and refusal to accept easy answers resulted in a significant breakthrough diagnosing transmission complications with two of our governmental clients’ orbiting satellites.

EDIT: By the way, do we even know if the protagonist is even John Goodman's daughter? His daughter could have died years ago, hence his desire to kidnap and protect this new girl at all costs as a sort of creepy daughter-surrogate.

 

[JdFoX187]

So the world went on like normal after 2008's Kaiju Attack? Seems that way if we're still having employee of the months as far as February 2016.

Consider me intrigued.

Wouldn't be surprised if Tagruato covered up their involvement in the incident and were never directly connected to it, so life moves on. I'm curious what New York City looks like in the wake of the attack, though.

 

[Cth]

No her character in the movie is "Michelle"-Goodman's daughters name is apparently Megan. This matches up to what was in the original screenplay, too.

Yeah, I noticed that too..

Glad to hear a lot of the screenplay is intact.

 

[jackal27]

Oh man. I still can't believe that this is actually happening. I am so ready for this freaking movie! New Fire Emblem, Pokemon 3DS, Project X Zone 2, Pokken, and a new Cloverfield in the next few weeks! Yesssss!

 

[BobTheFork]

Fuck this. The last backstory was amazing and basically had NOTHING to do with Colverfield. I think the girl from the ARG was in the beginning for about 10 seconds.

Not only that but the movie Cloverfield itself did stuff that would contradict the ARG if you didn't know better.

Spoiler

Like the final shots where you see something fall from the sky that any normal person would assume was the monster crashing to Earth when it was actually a satellite and it didn't even matter in the Story

The last ARG was so amazing it actually made me hate the movie because it didn't have any of the story in it. It really feels like this movie was not written or created in any way that connects it but they decided it would make more money if they whipped up some kind of connection.

 

[adj_noun]

Fuck this. The last backstory was amazing and basically had NOTHING to do with Colverfield.

According to Drew Goddard,

...the viral marketing was created without his input, and possibly without the guidance of the director or J.J. Abrams.

So it makes sense that it basically had nothing to do with the film. The viral guys were virtually doing their own thing.

 

[Capra]

Honestly, I like to think of Cloverfield 1 as just another (bigger) piece of the overall puzzle of the ARG. Even if 10 Cloverfield Lane really is mostly unrelated with some bits and pieces hinting towards a connection and maybe a monster sighting in the end, as long as this one's ARG can compare to the last I'll be satisfied.

I really, really hope it's the same viral team as the first film.

 

[BobTheFork]

According to Drew Goddard,


So it makes sense that it basically had nothing to do with the film. The viral guys were virtually doing their own thing.

That's interesting but a shame. I honestly thought JJ was guiding that. It felt like when he made the new Star Trek and everything that would have connected it to Next Generation was left out and put into a comic book no one read.

I mean, props for making one of the most interesting ARG's I've seen. It was really cool but I guess I wonder what's the point when it didn't tie into the movie in a meaningful way. It was clever hype but that's all. I imagine so few people ever saw it so it really doesn't matter.

Making Goodman's character an employee of a side company is probably the only real connection. It's not going to be in the movie and it's not going to mean anything so I kind of wish they didn't do this again. This is going to be a movie about 3 characters trapped in a bunker as they loose it when the outside is non inhabitable. That's it. There isn't going to be anything clever. It could still be a really cool, intense movie but they don't need to do this again at all.

 

[RedStep]

Fuck this. The last backstory was amazing and basically had NOTHING to do with Colverfield. I think the girl from the ARG was in the beginning for about 10 seconds.

Not only that but the movie Cloverfield itself did stuff that would contradict the ARG if you didn't know better.

Spoiler

Like the final shots where you see something fall from the sky that any normal person would assume was the monster crashing to Earth when it was actually a satellite and it didn't even matter in the Story

The last ARG was so amazing it actually made me hate the movie because it didn't have any of the story in it. It really feels like this movie was not written or created in any way that connects it but they decided it would make more money if they whipped up some kind of connection.

So the last ARG was great... but didn't connect to the movie so you hated the movie.

Also fuck this movie because it does connect with the ARG?

Is there a solution that will please you at this point? We have no idea what will be in the movie or how it will connect.

 

[shingi70]

I like to think that After we killed Clovie another one, came, and then another, so we learned that to fight monsters we have to make Monsters of our own.

Cloverfiles is actual a prequel to Pacific Rim.

 

[Sweeney Tom]

Love this. Long live Cloverfield

 

[Jackpot]

I like to think that After we killed Clovie another one, came, and then another, so we learned that to fight monsters we have to make Monsters of our own.

Cloverfiles is actual a prequel to Pacific Rim.

Seems like the film will be alien abduction themed instead of monster.

 

[SlickShoesRUCrazy]

" "They" may attack Any day now."

Yep, alien from super8 is bringing his buddies to the party!!!

 

[Arkeband]

He's been drinkin' the Slusho, mark my words!

So the last ARG was great... but didn't connect to the movie so you hated the movie.

IIRC the Cloverfield ARG did lead to photos of the monster, but people just never got to them. They included them as easter eggs on the DVD.

I also remember some video of an oil rig on fire or something.

 

[near]

Fuck this. The last backstory was amazing and basically had NOTHING to do with Colverfield. I think the girl from the ARG was in the beginning for about 10 seconds.

Not only that but the movie Cloverfield itself did stuff that would contradict the ARG if you didn't know better.

Spoiler

Like the final shots where you see something fall from the sky that any normal person would assume was the monster crashing to Earth when it was actually a satellite and it didn't even matter in the Story

The last ARG was so amazing it actually made me hate the movie because it didn't have any of the story in it. It really feels like this movie was not written or created in any way that connects it but they decided it would make more money if they whipped up some kind of connection.

Either you are quite misinformed or you don't remember Cloverfield. The previous ARG added a backdrop to the story and connected dots that were not explicitly mentioned, but nonetheless implied one way or another. In regards to the part you've got spoiler tagged that was mentioned in the previous ARG and made sense in the film as well.

Spoiler

It was obvious that the monster appeared from the sea, it was mentioned during a scene where the camera is facing a TV broadcasting a live news feed. The previous ARG explained that Tagruato helped with the constructing of satellites. They also had launched a satellite that could take deep sea opening images.

There are other obvious links with the previous ARG one being that Rob moving to Japan to become the vice-president of Slusho. He's brother Jason was also wearing a Slusho t-shirt throughout the film. There a several more that CONNECTED the previous ARG with Cloverfield.

 

[BobTheFork]

Also fuck this movie because it does connect with the ARG?

No, fuck this ARG in general. I'm just assuming it won't matter in the movie at all.
I can't have anything against this movie, it's not release yet. I'm just not interested in the backstory or what the ARG this time because it meant so little.

I really though the trailers that made Cloverfield look like somewhat plain monster movie were a ruse because of the ARG. I really hoped we would end up with a really cool deep story about the monster and how it got unleased and what it was doing there. The ARG was better than the movie itself so I ended up really not having much interest in the movie.

 

[super-heated plasma]

Holy shit this is cool..

http://www.scified.com/news/hidden-messages-discovered-in-10-cloverfield-lane-trailers-lead-to-a-massive-discovery

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=moZMn3S1uiE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8g-mRDBWoU

 

[JdFoX187]

Cynic in me thinks the person that "found" that spot is a viral marketer themselves, or that this is all faked. But I want to believe.

 

[SlickShoesRUCrazy]

Holy shit this is cool..

http://www.scified.com/news/hidden-messages-discovered-in-10-cloverfield-lane-trailers-lead-to-a-massive-discovery

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=moZMn3S1uiE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8g-mRDBWoU

That's awesome

 

[Dalek]

Holy shit this is cool..

http://www.scified.com/news/hidden-messages-discovered-in-10-cloverfield-lane-trailers-lead-to-a-massive-discovery

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=moZMn3S1uiE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8g-mRDBWoU

holy cow

 

[Revolutionary]

The discovery led to a fun little text-based game unlocking on the funandprettythings website:
http://www.funandprettythings.com/survival_sim/latest/
New updates seem to be going here: http://www.funandprettythings.com/lifepreservinginformation/

Pretty interesting ARG so far.

 

[thecouncil]

Holy shit this is cool..

http://www.scified.com/news/hidden-messages-discovered-in-10-cloverfield-lane-trailers-lead-to-a-massive-discovery

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=moZMn3S1uiE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8g-mRDBWoU

wait a minute. do coordinates really point you to this specific of a location? look at the size of that hole. its as big as the box that came out of it.

i dont know. maybe there was a marker on the spot or it was very obviously replaced dirt or something.

 

[Revolutionary]

wait a minute. do coordinates really point you to this specific of a location? look at the size of that hole. its as big as the box that came out of it.

i dont know. maybe there was a marker on the spot or it was very obviously replaced dirt or something.

The spot was marked by an empty bottle of Swamp Pop, which is featured in the trailer and even has some references to the ARG on their website. Watch the first video, you can see exactly what it looks like before he starts digging.

 

[Dominator]

wait a minute. do coordinates really point you to this specific of a location? look at the size of that hole. its as big as the box that came out of it.

i dont know. maybe there was a marker on the spot or it was very obviously replaced dirt or something.

In the trailers, the characters are drinking a soda called Swamp Pop. There was a bottle of Swamp Pop where the dude started digging. He searched the vicinity and found the bottle.

EDIT: Beat

 

[Mdk7]

Cool stuff.
Too bad the movie will come out one month later in Italy, and i know i'll be facing spoilers everywhere.

 

[thecouncil]

In the trailers, the characters are drinking a soda called Swamp Pop. There was a bottle of Swamp Pop where the dude started digging. He searched the vicinity and found the bottle.

EDIT: Beat

The spot was marked by an empty bottle of Swamp Pop, which is featured in the trailer and even has some references to the ARG on their website. Watch the first video, you can see exactly what it looks like before he starts digging.

ohhhh, i see. i see. i missed that part of the vid. thats cool.

 

[Tpthrlldragster]

Saw a slightly different TV spot today. Pretty similar to the previous ones, except this one had a second card at the end. It lists both Drew Goddard and Matt Reeves as executive producers. This is new information, right?

 

[gamz]

Saw a slightly different TV spot today. Pretty similar to the previous ones, except this one had a second card at the end. It lists both Drew Goddard and Matt Reeves as executive producers. This is new information, right?

Yeah if that's what it said. The only ex prod I ever read about is Bryan Burk.

 

[Tpthrlldragster]

Yeah if that's what it said. The only ex prod I ever read about is Bryan Burk.

Yeah, paused the DVR on it. Can't seem to find the spot online. Pretty cool that they're both involved in some capacity.

EDIT- Found it on it's twitter page https://twitter.com/10CloverfieldLn/status/701106951015366656

 

[Zombine]

So, is there going to be any real swerve in this film other than Ramona Flowers thinking that Dan Conner is making shit up to get her to stay, she fucks it all up and burns the place down, then goes outside and realizes that he was telling the truth and she gets stomped on by fakezilla? I honestly feel like I've seen this movie without actually watching it.

 

[LycanXIII]

I don't think John Goodman is "Megan's" father/Radioman.

I UNDERSTAND IT MAY BE HARD FOR YOU TO GET TO ME, OR THAT THERE MIGHT NOT BE ENOUGH TIME. SO I HAD ANOTHER SAFE PLACE BUILT – JUST FOR YOU. IT’S NOT QUITE AS BIG OR NICE AS THE ONE HERE, BUT IT WILL KEEP YOU SAFE. IT’S BEEN EXPENSIVE TO BUILD, ESPECIALLY SINCE I CAN’T BE THERE WATCHING OVER THE PEOPLE I HIRED AND MAKE SURE THEY DO IT RIGHT. BUT I’M PAYING THEM ENOUGH THAT THEY BETTER. BUT NO PRICE IS TOO HIGH FOR YOU. AND IT’S NOT LIKE MONEY’S GONNA BE GOOD FOR MUCH LONGER. IT’S RIGHT NEAR YOU IN CHICAGO – DO YOU REMEMEBER YOUR GRANDMA’S OLD HOUSE NEAR THE HIGHWAY? IT’S IN THE EMPTY LOT RIGHT BEHIND THERE. IT’LL BE FINISHED ANY DAY NOW. AS SOON AS IT IS, I NEED YOU TO GET INTO IT AND LOCK THE DOORS BEHIND YOU.

We've seen the house in the trailers, this isn't the bunker that Radioman is at. Goodman was probably hired to build the place, and thinks that MEW is Megan/Radioman's daughter.