MTV Is Dead: "Pacific Rim" and "Cloverfield" Might As Well Be Part of the Same Franchise

Monday, April 2, 2018

"Pacific Rim" and "Cloverfield" Might As Well Be Part of the Same Franchise

by Ran

Although the Cloverfield and Pacific Rim film series were originally conceived by two very different filmmakers (J.J. Abrams and Guillermo del Toro, respectively), they mesh so well that they may as well belong to the same overarching story. Technically, Pacific Rim and Cloverfield have nothing to do with each other but PR picks up where Cloverfield left off -- albeit from a different perspective. Check out how they synch up:

1. Cloverfield (2008)

Watch the events unfold by way of surviving footage from a hand-held video camera taken by 20-something party-goer Hud, who found himself in an all-night run for his life, along with a group of friends, during what turned out to be a colossal monster's rampage through Manhattan. You can't help but notice that the combined might of the Army National Guard's 42nd Infantry Division and a U.S. Air Force bomber is no match for the seemingly invincible creature.

Oh yeah-- after the group retreats to the relatively safe confines of the subway system, they find out the hard way that the monster is crawling with parasites that aggressively pursue life-forms small enough for them to eat (Like people).

2. Pacific Rim (2013)

While Cloverfield provided a civilian take on a seemingly unstoppable monster's rampage through New York City, Pacific Rim details the world's military response upon learning that a lone Kaiju (PR's term for these monsters) that blazed a path of destruction through San Francisco was only the tip of the spear.

It's revealed that the Kaiju originated in an alternate dimension and make their way into ours via an interdimensional doorway, called "the Breach", located on the floor of the Pacific Ocean. Besides San Francisco, the initial attacks are directed at Sydney, Hong Kong and Manila.

Realizing that campaigns against the creatures using conventional weaponry are too costly, an alliance of world governments institutes a program in which enormous robots are constructed to battle the Kaiju. Each robot, called Jaegers, is nuclear-powered and operated by at least two pilots who control its movements from the inside.

Scientists studying the Kaiju discover that the monsters' rampages are prompted by aliens from the dimension connected to ours via the Breach. The aliens, intent on invading the planet have been using the Kaiju as an early strike force.

The only real difference is that the alien appears to descend from the sky in Cloverfield while the Kaiju emerge from a fissure deep in the ocean. But since the PR invaders utilize an extra-dimensional portal, they could presumably just as easily have come from anywhere.

3. The Cloverfield Paradox (2018)

This prequel to Cloverfield explains that a particle accelerator intended to provide limitless energy to the planet has been transported to the Cloverfield Space Station for testing, as its unknown what the unintended ramifications of operating such a device could be. It's been theorized that the device has the ability to rip holes in the fabric of space, thereby allowing unimaginable abominations access to the Earth.

After the team of scientists aboard the station temporarily achieve stability after two years of unsuccessful attempts to operate the device, the particle accelator overloads, resulting in a power surge throughout the Cloverfield. The group, including communications officer Ava Hamilton, slowly begins to realize that they have inadvertently opened a doorway (in other words: a breach) between our world and an alternate dimension. One of the consequences is that Ava's husband, Michael, witnesses a gigantic monster roaming through the city in which he lives.

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