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[goemon12677]

My theory is that MGP is an ancient creature that has been lying dormant in one of the deep trenches near the mid atlantic ridge. I believe he was disrupted somehow by Tag and now he's pissed, hungry, or looking for his friends, i mean how many other motives can a giant monster have?

[Enantiomorphic]

Cloverfield Acoustics

[nofx1978]

Ok I have a theory. I don't think Tag is bad. I think Tidowave is the bullshit. Tido always talks of mother earth, blah blah. I think they caused this, and some thing has to clean it up.

[Ajking3]

Re: Cloverfield Acoustics

[Slusho Addict]

Re: Cloverfield Acoustics

[Caerwiden]

DSI is 'Ambrosia', the mythological food/drink of the immortals. More specifically I believe that it is 'Amrita', which is a cognate of Ambrosia. Amrita in Hinduism is the drink of the gods. After finding that they were losing their immortality due to a curse they churned the sea in order to find the nectar of immortality. They did this with the help of the Asuras (demons), one of which is called Varuna. Varuna rode a sea monster called Makara

I believe that either Varuna or the Makara is the basis for our monster.

If we have 'mini monsters' I believe they will be Varuna's attendants, the Nāga

I won't ever find out if I'm right because none of this will come out in the film, it sounds elegant to me though.

Edit: I thought of this a few weeks back and got some names mixed up, so I added a little extra to clarify.

[Hurley]

I know we're not really supposed to comment on others thoughts in this one, but I really like Caerwidens line of thinking. Always a hope that this may be mythologically based, and have a backstory all it's own. Sort of along the lines of a Titan, in Greek and Roman Mythos. Something ancient, bound to the sea-floor for countless eons, and just recently discovered. Cloverfield could be a reference to the Ellysian fields, and as Caer said, the DSI being a modern version of nectar, which had the same effect on any mortal who tasted it, a small glimpse into the realm of godhood, and bliss.

[cogitosam]

1) There will be a sequel which tells the event from an objective point of view, and gives answers that will be missing from this film. People will walk out of the theater without explanations or reasons this time, though ARG fans will know much more of course until the sequel is out in 2009 or 10. Many critics will be angry about the lack of answers, but many people will be fine with just enjoying the experience and speculating.

2) The monster is thin and fast moving on four legs, but not unlike the way a chimp moves with longer forearms. Bizarre, totally unexpected head and face. It's not anything stupid (whale, crab, crawfish, godzilla, monkey, muppet, etc. inclusive of all stupid ideas).

3) It's highly intelligent and on a direct mission of revenge (person or likely persons), the city that's destroyed is just in the wrong place at the wrong time, and once it kills who it wants to kill it disappears into the sea.

4) The military can't do a thing to it.

[MissKatey]

I'm new to all this, but I wish I had gotten involved sooner. My training is in theatre, documentaries, and directing, so here is the one theory I'll venture.

Matt Reeves has been in love with film forever, and went to USC to study (lucky bastard). Assuming that he's studied classical literary conflict (most artsy folks do at some point), he knows that there are a few major categories:

[Camera]man vs. nature
[Camera]man vs. self
[Camera]man vs. god

From what I've seen about Cloverfield, he includes all three, but focuses on man vs. nature. But I think we'll see God/Nature/Man all ganging up on our poor little Cameraman.

Reeve's has promised "intimate contact" with the monster, and I think that with such a build up he will be aiming to please - he doesn't get a second shot at this. If fans are disappointed, there will be no sequel. So, my little pet theory is this: not only do we get to see the monster, but it gets to see us. I think that the main characters will interact with it on a psychological level and it will be aware of their presence. I can't think of a more satisfying or frightening climactic moment.

Sorry if this is too much meta-gaming. I wanted to get it out there so perhaps someday I too can say "I told you so."

[m_talon]

Aw, why not. Let me jump in the cesspool of speculation.

MGP is a giant sea creature that has been in a state of suspended animation for several million years. Time and environmental causes have made him grow very large. Recently something disturbed his slumber. Might be the satellite piece, might be drilling, might be an earthquake. In any case, he wakes up and proceeds to start trashing the nearest source of disturbance; the Chuai station.

Afterwards he follows the next source of disruption, the tanker, to NYC and proceeds to inflict his bad morning mood on the city. Our intrepid heroes are as clueless as to the whys and hows as we are (probably more so). Abrams has already proven he's more interested in how people react to abnormal circumstances than he is in explaing the abnormality. So, our movie won't go into a great amount of detail about the origin of MGP aside from speculation by our characters. It will mostly be about them attempting to survive and rescue their friend.

The government doesn't have much of a clue either. All they know is MGP is trashing NYC, and anyone who gets close to him gets attacked by little buggers and dies. They evacuate those who are clean and quarantine those who have been bitten. Not that they have to quarantine them long, since they die a horrible death soon enough.

The "mini" creatures are not the spawn of MGP or Slusho, but something else entirely. When MGP attacks NYC, he brings with him parasites that have been living on him and feeding off of him for many years. They too have been disrupted, as their world as they know it just got up and walked into town. During the action, some of these smaller organisms fall off of MGP and proceed to hunt for another food source. Their bite is toxic, naturally.

So what does DSN and Slusho have to do with this all? My guess is it's all coincidence. DSN is not directly related to the monster in any way. It's not excrement or baby monsters or a food source. It doesn't make people blow up or mutate. They just feel really good for a while. Tagruato found one good source in the Pacific and made a fortune on it. Then they happened to find another source of the stuff in the Atlantic and set up a new station to get it. Unfortunately, that station was too close to MGP when he woke up. He didn't trash it because of DSN, just like he isn't trashing NYC because of Slusho. They were simply there.

Now, why would I discount months of online viral marketing and backstory as just coincidence? Think back to the inspiration for Cloverfield. Godzilla was and is a force of nature that randomly strikes Japan for no real good reason. Sometimes it's due to another monster, but often times it's just because he woke up and it was there. That's what makes the big G so frightening...he doesn't need a justification to trash Tokyo. He just does it, and there's very little we little humans can do about it.

Also if all the backstory we've got online is essential to explaining why MGP hits New York City, you'll have so many people out there wondering why that information wasn't in the movie to begin with. While it's cool for us to be in the know, it will hurt the movie in the long run. Does that mean we've wasted our time with this? Nah...it was a fun story and it gave us some more insight into the Cloverfield world. Much like the Beast and AI...you didn't have to play the Beast to see AI, but it did fill in a few timeline gaps and told a good story in the meantime.

[john locke]

O.k my theory,
Tagruato sent the tardigrades (water bears, extremophiles) into space in a satellite (see my post in extremophiles thread) to conduct further research into their ability to withstand extremes of solar radiation, etc.. with a view to use them for mining purposes on other planets, much as they were using them on earth to mine,breed, the dsi, and either a mutating one caused the satellites crash, or after the crash it started mutating! as chuai was the nearest tag base to the crash site they sent a team from chuai to retrieve it, once onboard whilst studying the retrieved tardigrades, the mutating/mutated one is released in the tidowave incursion accidently or not and its own reaction to the sea life, dsi, etc.. is what gives rise to MGP! the fleeing scientists have the rest of the tardigrades from the satellite in the brief case on the helicopter which lands on a tag tanker.
After destroying the chuai station, Mgp follows the tanker into new york intent on getting his brothers and sisters back! and kicking /stomping the snot out of NYC!

could happen!!!

[manygrumpypants]

Just for fun, some speculation

the DSN is actually MGP's blood, and that is what Tag has been drilling for specifically at chaui station. Tag serendipitously found it at one of their first stations when attempting to drill for oil. Unbeknownst to them (Tag), it isn't just a deposit of DSN, but they have in fact drilled into ancient giant creatures in some kind of dormant state.

So there are 14 (is that the number of TAG stations?) MGPs, and this is the first one that has awaken.

The latest technological breakthroughs at Chaui station disturbed that particular the most, and caused it to rise. The others are just waking up now (due to earthquakes etc).

[soupy sales]

OK, I joined just to throw this theory out there. Long time reader, first time poster.

My theory is that the U.S. government has a major clue that something is seriously wrong with the Chuai disaster, and is prepared for deployment of troops, if only to evacuate residents of the Eastern seaboard. Here's my support:

We've got surveillance spy equipment obviously capable of getting high quality shots of the Chuai incident from space, and who knows what else.

There were reported Coast Guard vessels in the area (American news video), equipped with sonar and other equipment. It's a certainty that the US gov't was aware of the incident as it was happening or shortly thereafter because of the CGs presence. It's also possible that the CG vessels observed something unnatural in the water which would be reported to the gov't. It is also highly likely that the U.S. gov't would keep an eye on a mysterious and controversial drilling station "dangerously close to Connecticut." (Again from American news report.) I think this is especially true because the mysterious distress call of the tanker that disappeared on its way from Norway to NYC, which also indicates something ain't right in the North Atlantic.

German news video: Engineer interviewed says it is "impossible" that the station's structural or security systems failed. The gov't would be obviously be aware of this report and the others.

If a Norwalk, CT news reporter is aware of the possible "oil spill" headed toward the Eastern seaboard, then you can be damn sure the gov't is too, however, given the potential satellite surveillance of the incident, the CG presence and possible observations, and who knows what other black ops info it has, then it may be aware that there's more than an "oil spill" to potentially threaten the U.S.

Also, once the news footage came out, I think that scientists of all kinds would be asking "WTF caused that to happen?!?" I think it's fairly obvious there was no explosion causing the debris to fly out. The water wasn't disturbed in any way, that shit just flew straight up out of the ocean at a crazy rate of speed. That, I think, would also catch the government's attention, especially if it had other info.

The filmmakers have made reference to this movie tapping into the fears of the post-9/11 world like Godzilla tapped into the fears of his time. One of the scariest parts of 9/11 was that our gov't knew that there was chatter about attacking the U.S., had memos suggesting that terrorists might use airplanes to do it, and knew there were men with possible terrorist ties training at flight schools. Maybe the way this movie taps into our time is by having the gov't know there's something really wrong (I'm not saying the gov't knows for sure it's a monster), but not warning the American public or taking action, much like many people feel it failed to warn the public and take action on the information it had prior to 9/11.

Bottom line: I ain't saying the US gov't knows that it's MGP out there, I'm just saying I think the gov't knows SOMETHING is really wrong and puts troops on high alert. Matt Reeves keeps going on about realism, and it ain't realistic to have shitloads of military response ready to go on the ground within the 7 or so hours the movie appears to cover without the readiness being built up before MGP hits land.

That's it. Flame soupy the n00b if you must, but I don't think I'm a trout, at least.

[soupy sales]

All that typing and I totally forgot about the seismologic activity recorded! Uncle Sam totally knows something is seriously wrong, beyond just a freaking "oil rig" being destroyed.

[keseki]

14 stations...14 stations of the cross?