Here’s Why Some People Think A Quiet Place is a Secret Cloverfield Movie
Josh Millican
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Warning: While everything discussed below is pure speculation, there are spoilers for The Cloverfield Paradox (not to mention Cloverfield and 10 Cloverfield Lane). If this theory proves true, though, it’s a huge spoiler for A Quiet Place. Keep this in mind and proceed as you see fit.
We’re barely ankle-deep into 2018 and Cloverfield has already made a huge impression. I’m not just talking about The Cloverfield Paradox, which made a surprise debut on Netflix immediately following the Super Bowl. While fans are still unpacking Easter gggs and deciphering Paradox’s riddles, we’re being told to expect Cloverfield 4 (aka Overlord), directed by Julius Avery, on October 26th. That’s right: two Cloverfield movies in one year!
But there’s more: A 5th Cloverfield movie has also wrapped! Currently going under the title Kolma, the film from J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot Productions is directed by Marielle Heller and stars Star Wars‘ Daisy Ridley as the titular Tamara Kolma. Details are slim, but IMDb provides a short synopsis:
“A young couple gets in a car accident that fatally injures the man. Decades later, the woman, now on her deathbed, must choose whether to reunite with her long-lost love in the afterlife or to regain her youth by returning to the day of the accident.”
While there’s no release date for Kolma, the surprise arrival of The Cloverfield Paradox proves it could show up anytime, without warning.
As if two new Cloverfield movies on the horizon isn’t exciting enough, there’s a fan theory gaining momentum in various horror forums, one that suggests there’s yet another impending installment hiding in plain sight. Some people believe A Quiet Place, slated to hit theaters on April 6, is a secret chapter of the Cloverfield franchise.
Before we jump down this rabbit hole, give the trailer and synopsis for A Quiet Place a look-see:
Official Synopsis: A family lives an isolated existence in utter silence, for fear of an unknown threat that follows and attacks at any sound.
The theory took off after YouTuber TheCookFilms uploaded a video titled Could A Quiet Place be the Next Cloverfield Movie? on January 8. The video has since been deleted for unknown reasons, but I was able to take some notes before it disappeared.
I’m not hip to the personal lives of actors and filmmakers, but it’s been reported that Cloverfield mastermind and chief architect J.J. Abrams and John Krasinski (star, director, and co-writer of A Quiet Place) are friends. While this alone means nothing, Internet sleuths point out that Krasinski was originally cast in The Cloverfield Paradox (back when we were all still calling it God Particle) but left the project early on for reasons unknown.
This got people thinking that Krasinski quit Paradox after he and Abrams decided to turn A Quiet Place into a secret Cloverfield movie. Naysayers point out that A Quiet Place isn’t a Bad Robot film, making the Cloverfield connection unlikely. But proponents argue it’s all part of the ruse; that since any film produced by Bad Robot is automatically assumed to be a Cloverfield movie, it’s become necessary to hide the studio’s involvement.
My Dread Central colleague Mike Sprague recently published an article demonstrating the diversity of the Cloverfield franchise: Films That Could Exist Within the Cloverfield Universe. It points out how movies like The Mist, Super 8, and Colossal could all (with minor tweaks) fit beneath the Cloverfield umbrella. Though Mike’s article ran before the release of The Cloverfield Paradox, that film’s introduction of multiple dimensions across various time periods only bolsters his original thesis.
A Quiet Place’s premise of a family living in the aftermath of a global catastrophe, hunted by a creature (or creatures) absolutely fits into the Cloverfield formula, but is there a way to prove a canonical connection? The most intriguing clues point to potentially concrete connections with 10 Cloverfield Lane.
Go back to the trailer for A Quiet Place; at 0:29, we see some huge claw-marks on the wall going up the staircase. This damage looks like the work of the biomechanical, tentacled spaceship that tried to eat Michelle at the end of 10 Cloverfield Lane.
Now skip ahead to 0:50: When a child accidentally sets off an electronic toy, Krasinski’s character draws attention away from his family by running. He’s chased by something almost undetectable in the forest; a black creature that and runs on all fours. It definitely resembles the “Jaguar” alien from 10 Cloverfield Lane. Finally, at 1:46 we see a hand or an organic tendril that also could have come from the 10 Cloverfield Lane spaceship.
Another potential connection to the franchise could be the character Molly from The Cloverfield Paradox. Her inclusion in the film means she must be important, and the fact that the young actress’s name is Clover Nee has people speculating she’s a major Easter ggg. Perhaps the family in A Quiet Place is Molly’s and they were separated when The Shepard launched on the Cloverfield Station. How amazing would it be to see Michael and Molly from Paradox show up at the end of A Quiet Place?
If this admittedly wild theory is true, then it also stands to reason A Quiet Place is actually a fake name, a tactic employed in 2016 when Adam Wingard directed Blair Witch under the phony title The Woods. If Krasinski’s film does take place in the same universe as the second Cloverfield movie, it’s possible that the house in A Quiet Place is just a hop and a skip down the way from Howard Stambler’s bunker. 11 Cloverfield Lane has a nice ring to it, don’t you think?
Even though A Quiet Place doesn’t hit theaters until April 6, the film will kick off the SXSW film festival in Austin on March 9, so we’ll know for sure soon enough (unless those lucky enough to see it are forced to sign NDAs). To be honest, I presented this theory because it’s fun to think about, not because I’m thoroughly convinced. After all, what are the chances we’d get three Cloverfield movies in a single year?
Of course, if A Quiet Place is revealed to be a secret Cloverfield movie, then I never doubted it!
What are your thoughts?
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