With The Cloverfield Paradox, fans learned that the movies may not be connected in the way think. A common theory states that each movie actually takes place across different universes.
The first Cloverfield film follows the aftermath of a monster attack in New York City. The second film, 10 Cloverfield Lane, sees a New Orleans woman trapped in a bunker by an ominous man claiming a nuclear attack, only for it to later be revealed to be another monster attack. The final film, The Cloverfield Paradox, follows a group of astronauts in the near future sent to space in order to deal with the earth's energy crisis.
Those astronauts use a particular accelerator in the hope to solve the dire situation by providing Earth with infinite energy. Critics back home fear it will cause the "Cloverfield Paradox" to occur, opening the portal to parallel universes. When the film ends with the monster from the original Cloverfield emerging from the sea, it seems as if they are correct.
Cloverfield's Parallel Universes Theory Explained
The ending of The Cloverfield Paradox is at the center of this theory. The film's ending clearly is meant to show that the astronauts unknowingly released the monster from the original film upon New York, but the astronauts are shown spiraling in and out of different dimensions. The clearest example of which is before they trigger the paradox, Ava (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) tragically lost her children in a house fire. But after the accelerator is set off, she learns of a parallel Earth in which her children survived.
So while it's clear that alternate dimensions exist within the confines of The Cloverfield Paradox, the reveal at the end of the film is meant to hint that the monster was revealed in another universe as well. When the idea of the paradox is revealed at the beginning of the film, it's clearly stated that it will open up alternate dimensions, unleashing their horrors across the multiverse. They were also warned that the accelerator could cause a ripple effect across time. So it's heavily implied that the monster in the end of the film belongs in another universe. So by that logic, it wreaked havoc on New York City in an alternate universe as well. The monster in 10 Cloverfield Lane looks different than the one in the original monster, further perpetuating the idea that it is also a monster from a different universe.
Breaking Down The Cloverfield Theory
The final moments of The Cloverfield Paradox all but confirm this theory. The film puts great effort in stating the possible dangerous side effects of the paradox, proving it happened and showing concrete examples of the rip in time that the astronauts accidentally created. After years of unsuccessful attempts at powering the accelerator, the crew finally pulls it off, causing a power surge within their station. Almost immediately after that, an unknown woman named Mina (Elizabeth Debicki) appears fused into the walls of the ship. She claims to be from a parallel reality and provides evidence backing up her claim.
It's clear that the power surge created a tear across time and space. Looking back at the previous two films in the Cloverfield series, there is subtle evidence of the impact of the particle accelerator. The power surge caused by the particle accelerator takes place 18 minutes into The Cloverfield Paradox. 18 minutes into the original Cloverfield, a massive earthquake occurs and unleashes the monster. In 10 Cloverfield Lane, Emmett speaks of seeing a red flash of light amidst the chaos. Those occurrences are no coincidence. Those events are proof that an incident occurring in the future impacted the previous films. This could only happen through a tear in time and space.
There's one key element working against this theory though. Both 10 Cloverfield Lane and The Cloverfield Paradox were retroactively worked into the larger Cloverfield universe. 10 Cloverfield Lane managed to do this in a skillful and subtle way. The Cloverfield Paradox did not pull off its connection to the previous films with the same level of finesse — in fact,The Cloverfield Paradox left more questions than answers and it's hard to understand which theory is accurate.
Why The Cloverfield Theory Works
While they went about it in a messy way, The Cloverfield Paradox laid down new rules to the universe that introduced the complicated nature of time and space into the Cloverfield universe. The movie clearly states that triggering the Cloverfield Paradox could unleash horrors from different dimensions onto both the past and present. The movie was able to retroactively use the earthquake in the first film and the red flash in the second as proof that the paradox happened. With that, the fan theory that the Cloverfield films take place in alternate universes became canon.
While it was a pretty surprising move, given the tone of the first two films, creating a multiverse blows the door wide open for the continuation of the Cloverfield franchise. The state of Cloverfield 4 and 5 has been in flux for quite some time now. But should they ever see the light of day, this gives future movies in the series free reign to essentially do whatever they'd like to do. Cloverfield and 10 Cloverfield Lane were grounded and contained horror movies with whispers of sci-fi woven into their fabric. For better or for worse, The Cloverfield Paradox has made the series a larger-than-life sci-fi franchise. Since the rules are already in place, fans can only hope that a potential Cloverfield 4 can go about implementing the idea of multiple dimensions more elegantly than the most recent film in the series did. But if a future installment in the franchise fails to do this, the Cloverfield series may be doomed.
