Cloverfield Paradox Dramatically Changes the Franchise

The Cloverfield Paradox promised fans insight into the monsters we've seen so far in the franchise, and it delivered that. Yet for every question that was answered, another was raised, in typical J.J. Abrams style.

While the surprised-released Netflix film expands the Abrams-produced Cloverfield universe via its space team and a particle acceleration program aboard the Shepard satellite, a deeper sense of mystery is created thanks to rifts now opened in the space-time continuum, inadvertently allowing alternate dimensions to cross over.

These breaches then allow the 2008 Cloverfield monster and the alien invasion in its 2016 sequel, 10 Cloverfield Lane, to run rampant. It's highly likely they'll also build the fourth chapter, Overlord, and its story of American paratroopers during World War II fighting off Nazis and their supernatural tools. Most importantly though, we learn that all these stories may not even be happening chronologically, but on alternate Earths thanks to these interdimensional transgressions, thus bringing to light the existence of a Cloverfield multiverse.

The Paradox Earths

Earth Prime acts as the origin point for this multiverse, and exists in Paradox where we see the Shepard's experiments being conducted to create a renewable source of energy for a world that's drained of natural resources and on the brink of war. When the team succeeds, it's transported to another dimension, let's call it Earth Two, where it displaces the Cloverfield space station that already exists there. With this alternate Shepard failing in its energy mission as a result, World War III erupts there on this second Earth where the only monsters are war-hungry humans.

The original Shepard team realizes they need to get back to their dimension, barely doing so but still leaving blueprints for Earth Two to try again in their space mission. The protagonists make it back home but by this time, Earth Prime has already been ravaged by a monster that looks exactly like the one from 2008's Cloverfield. However, this one isn't as tall as skyscrapers -- it's even taller, stretching out way into the clouds. This lends to the theory this Earth Prime isn't the one from the original movie after all and that this monster is, in fact, the parent.

The Original Cloverfield Earth

Apart from director Matt Reeves having a smaller monster in the 2008 original, what also hints this is an alternate Earth is that there's no mention of an energy crisis and a world on the cusp of war. It's worth noting that Paradox is set in the near-future but Cloverfield occurs in 2008, so this time discrepancy, plus the overall difference in the landscape and political climate hint that the two versions of New York we see being destroyed in these movies are different.

Abrams said in the past that this 2008 monster was an infant, searching for its mother. This now adds to the theory that Cloverfield's creature was displaced from its parent when the rifts began to open up in Paradox, with the parent becoming marooned on the aforementioned Earth Prime instead. Cloverfield did tease what appeared to be a space capsule falling into the ocean, so there's a chance that there may well be some bleeding over of the Shepard team that dropped back into Earth Prime after all.

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The Overlord Earth

This film deviates from the modern sci-fi stories in the franchise and instead acts as a period piece. From all indications, it could end up being a straight-up horror dealing with Nazis and the supernatural. It's apparent by now that when the rifts open up in Paradox, it's not just alien dimensions that gain access to Earth. There's a strong chance that mystical or hellish dimensions did as well.

As for the time jump, Paradox also taught us that with the tear in the space-time fabric, creatures from all over the multiverse can be deposited on various Earths at any time. Shattering reality does in fact allow bending of the time stream, which is what the Nazis could be exploiting when D-Day comes around against their American adversaries and what allows the franchise to go back in the past.

10 Cloverfield Lane's Earth

This film was set in 2016, but here, we don't hear a peep about the Cloverfield incident eight years prior, or Paradox's energy crisis. Dan Trachtenberg's movie does paint a picture of nuclear fallout but at the end, we realize it's actually an alien invasion, and not an attack from the likes of Russia or North Korea, which was touted by John Goodman's Howard Stambler.

Stambler ends up kidnapping Michelle (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) and holding her prisoner, but as she escapes, she has to fight off aliens. It's then and there that we see UFOs that drive Michelle to Houston ,where other refugees are hiding. This more or less paints yet another Earth in need of saving, but which doesn't seem to have any connection to Cloverfield's original destruction.

Kishin's Earth

The Kishin manga was a tie-in to the 2008 film, but narrative-wise, it might as well have stood on its own. The story revolved around a youngster, Kishin, and a cult that wanted to bind his soul to a leviathan that was different from the one attacking New York. They did so successfully, using the occult to carry this mission out, with Kishin and his monster then razing Tokyo.

Yet Kishin was drawn away from the carnage and to his true love, Aiko, leaving the creature behind to die. Such sea creatures were mentioned in Paradox by another conspiracy theorist called Stambler (this time, it's Donal Logue's Mark, a writer). He warned they could invade just as easily as demons and aliens, with his words reiterating that multiple Earths would come under attack. Apart from his words, the only thing this manga has in common with the other Cloverfield stories is the presence of the Japanese drilling company Tagruato and the Slusho! soft drink it produces that appears in every Cloverfield story, teasing an importance we're yet to discover.

Now streaming on Netflix, directed by Julius Onah, written by Oren Uziel and Doug Jung, and produced by J. J. Abram, The Cloverfield Paradox stars Daniel Brühl, Elizabeth Debicki, Aksel Hennie, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Chris O’Dowd, John Ortiz, David Oyelowo and Zhang Ziyi.

Overlord, directed by Julius Avery, is slated for release on Oct. 26. Written by Billy Ray and Mark L. Smith, it stars Wyatt Russell, Jacob Anderson, Iain De Caestecker, Jovan Adepo, Bokeem Woodbine and Pilou Asbæk. J. J. Abrams is serving as a producer through his Bad Robot Productions banner with Lindsey Weber.