JJ Abrams is at it again: he’s released a few minutes of the Cloverfield movie. There’s not much more info at first glance than has been seen previously, but it’s still cool.
Some things I learned from watching this:
1) Only young attractive people live in NYC.
2) Sound travels at the speed of light. The big explosion is heard at the same time it’s seen, and the same thing happens again a bit later in the clip.
One interesting note: Abrams is definitely playing off of the collapse of the World Trade Center towers. It’s hard not to with something like this. But the most chilling footage I saw from NYC that day was from a group of people hiding out in a store, and in the video you see the debris cloud go by, from left to right. Sound familiar?
December 14th, 2007 at 4:54 pm
Yeah, I’m not a big fan of exploiting the very specific imagery of 9-11 in order to sell movie tickets. Maybe this movie has something interesting to say about our fears of that day being repeated, but I doubt it.
I know that the 9-11 imagery has already been hijacked by the right, but let’s not forget it was a truly horrifying event that left many people scarred. I’d feel uneasy about showing this trailer in NY theaters.
December 14th, 2007 at 5:09 pm
How about a campaign to pressure Abrams into re-doing the sound editing to more accurately reflect, um, physics? I think it would be wonderful of Hollywood started paying more attention to that sort of thing anyway.
December 14th, 2007 at 5:24 pm
Did anyone else notice the multiple examples of “mumble mumble terrorist attack! mumble mumble”?
December 14th, 2007 at 5:33 pm
Has there ever been a Hollywood movie where the sound from something like an explosion actually took time to reach the ‘audience’? I can’t think of anything, though it’s not exactly the kind of thing that would stick out in my mind.
I have a suspicion that (too many) people would be totally confused by the concept of the sound actually taking time to travel. I know I’ve seen a Youtube video of one of those atomic cannons where the sound from the nuclear explosion reached the microphone long after you see the explosion and people were claiming the footage/sound was edited.
December 14th, 2007 at 5:45 pm
I never thought of 9/11 seeing this trailer last weekend. I was thinking it was a nifty idea to do a mockumentary of a giant monster attacking the city. “It’s Blair Witch meets Godzilla!” Now if it’s not a giant monster and some sort of terror cell I will feel stupid, but I have done no research on this movie.
December 14th, 2007 at 5:55 pm
Mecha Godzilla!!!!!!
December 14th, 2007 at 5:55 pm
There was one scene in this, after the explosion, where it looked like a Godzilla like monster attacking a building. Anyone else notice that? Also, wasn’t there some clip making rounds in theaters this past summer, showing NYC being obliterated? There was no title to the movie clip, no hint of what the movie was called. Is this the one? It was kind of reminiscent of Independence Day, as well as 9/11. Looks cool though.
December 14th, 2007 at 6:12 pm
Obviously what everyone is overlooking is that the light is being slowed down by some as of yet unknown scientific explanation. Since this gap exists, we can infer it was by an intelligent designer, therefore, Cloverfield is about god, and we should all start protesting.
December 14th, 2007 at 6:15 pm
— Has there ever been a Hollywood movie where the sound from something like an explosion actually took time to reach the ‘audience’?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genesis_II
Near the end, there’s an atomic explosion. Big silent flash foloowed by the sound and shockwave a few minutes later.
December 14th, 2007 at 6:59 pm
Is the whole thing going to be filmed like a big budget Blair Witch Project? I admired that film for at least trying something out of the ordinary, but Quake-O-Vision can be hard to watch for extended periods.
And if it’s anything less than the Old Ones come to reclaim their dark dominion over the Earth, I’ll be disappointed. Abrams and company will earn my eternal devotion if they get Cxaxukluth, Hziulquoigmnzhah and Zvilpogghua walking the streets of Manhatten.
http://wondermark.com/tcsd/recontext2.gif
December 14th, 2007 at 8:00 pm
Do you have a similar objection to movies like Tora Tora Tora and The Final Countdown exploiting the very specific imagery of Pearl Harbor?
December 14th, 2007 at 8:27 pm
And all because they admitted a mistake in towing my legally parked car in lower Manhattan but laughed when I wanted a reimbursement. I’ve got to watch that temper sometimes.
December 14th, 2007 at 8:35 pm
> And if it’s anything less than the Old Ones come to reclaim their dark dominion over the Earth, I’ll be disappointed.
Agreed.
> Yeah, I’m not a big fan of exploiting the very specific imagery of 9-11 in order to sell movie tickets.
Neither am I, but now that we know what extremely huge skyscrapers falling down look like…
December 14th, 2007 at 9:01 pm
There is hope for the human race!
December 14th, 2007 at 10:01 pm
Tora Tora Tora was a joint Japanese-American dramatization of an historical event that actually remained true to the events — unlike, say, Braveheart.
And even though it was relatively accurate historically, even “Apollo 13″ had my Dad throwing his hands in the air and saying, “that didn’t happen that way” several times — he was at the Cape as a ground support manager and saw all of the pre-launch/launch events surrounding the mission. As I recall, the bird was rolled out to the pad in December and launched in April, not only a few days beforehand and the film intimates. I remember going with him to his office near the VAB at Christmas and seeing it on the pad then, so I have no doubt of his version of the story. And oh, the film doesn’t even come close to recreating the sound of a Saturn V. Every single one broke a window somewhere in our house, which was I guess 8-10 nautical miles from the pad. They were LOUD.
December 14th, 2007 at 10:15 pm
To Charles:
Yes, but even Battlestar Galactica bends the truth just a little bit!
December 15th, 2007 at 12:13 am
I still think Apollo 13 was a great movie.
And if you compare it to most Hollywood movies, it feels like a documentary. Almost. =)
Back to the initial subject, I hope it’ll be aliens in gigantic robotic suits bringing destruction upon the hum… New York City.
Or 100 meters tall anime girls. With guns.
What else could make sense!?
December 15th, 2007 at 12:28 am
it was eerily reminiscent of 9/11
the difference between movies featuring pearl harbor and movies that remind us of 9/11 is time… I was only 12 then, and it was a very awful day, my math class watched the second tower hit, and after second period were forbidden to even turn on tvs; the images though were burned into our brains
even just the trailer creeped me out
as for scientific accuracy, i laugh that you would even suggest that hollywood even knows what science is, except maybe in reference to that class they barely passed in high school/college
December 15th, 2007 at 12:40 am
I remember Red Dawn also had a delayed sound from a far away explosion. It sticks out in my mind because it was the first (and to my recollection, last) time I had seen it done.
December 15th, 2007 at 1:32 am
Actually Battlestar has some delayed scenes too. The attack on Caprica, where # 5 is holding Baltar in his house and tells him to get down as the blast wave hits from a nuke explosion in the distance. (That was filmed just up the highway from where I live!)
December 15th, 2007 at 5:56 am
What you all don’t understand is that this proves my theory of explosions, which is a revolutionary theory that contradicts the so-called “scientific consensus.” You see, the force of an explosion can actually cause sounds to travel faster, because the shock wave behind the sounds accelerates them to the speed of light. Only I have unraveled the true secret of the universe. If you don’t immediately buy my self-published book, THE STARS ARE PAINTED ON THE SKY, you will be persecuting me as the establishment persecuted Galileo.
P.S. Come on, buy the book. It’s Christmas!
December 15th, 2007 at 6:50 am
I still don’t understand why Hollywood is being ignorant about explosion science.
Especially in the case of Cloverfield, it would have offered more actiony dramatism. I mean, an explosion cloud lights up in the horizont, the young people see it and start freaking out, then the sonic boom is heard and it results in panic. Instead it goes instant boom and everyone runs.
December 15th, 2007 at 8:00 am
I’m surprised no has yet looked into Wikipedia! Cloverfield’s article has the official plot synopsis, with source.
http://www.shocktillyoudrop.com/news/topnews.php?id=3739
December 15th, 2007 at 8:49 am
I have a feeling that I’ll have to record this movie off of HBO, then watch it in 15 minute segments, because the WobbleVision will make me sick to my stomach. I got pretty nauseous watching the Blair Witch Project, and had to close my eyes and listen to it for the second half. I thought they exaggerated the shaking, but then again, I have worked in videography, and shaky camera handling is foreign to me…
December 15th, 2007 at 11:21 am
Navneeth, I did that too. And it looks like it is a monster movie. Also some interesting web sites as well. Interesting tie in seems to be the fictional drink, Slusho! NYC attacked by a giant Slurpee-like drink? Brain Freeze anyone?
December 15th, 2007 at 4:29 pm
I assume that was supposed to be the head of Lady Liberty rolling down the street? It seemed a little too small though, the scale might be off some.
December 15th, 2007 at 7:03 pm
In the production notes for the radio play Daybreak, Norman Corwin, the author, apologizes for the short interval between “bombs away” and the sound of explosions. He was well aware that it would take the bombs at least ten seconds to drop, but ten seconds of silent radio air time, he noted, sounds like an hour. Remember, this is all about story telling conventions, not physics.
BTW, if you knew how to use Google, you could have found out that Cxaxukluth lives in the Dakota on Central Park West, Hziulquoigmnzhah has an apartment in the Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue, and Zvilpogghua has a loft in Tribeca off Chambers Street.
December 15th, 2007 at 8:18 pm
Mark H. wrote : « I assume that was supposed to be the head of Lady Liberty rolling down the street? It seemed a little too small though, the scale might be off some. »
The head is 4,40 m high (and 3 m wide), so the one we see rolling in the street seems a little too small indeed.
December 15th, 2007 at 9:41 pm
I thought it might be fun to react only to the video shown, and apply a semi-scientific analasys to determine what’s going on…
While it seems that indeed a giant monster of some kind is attacking NYC, we don’t acctually have any evidence of this. There is a large jolt, referrred to as an earthquake, and the news mentions that an oil tanker has capsized near the Statue of Liberty. A bit later, a massive explosion occurs, launching debris into the city.
One could argue that the tanker, for whatever reason, exploded, and took out Liberty with it. Now granted, one could argue that a real blast wouldn’t be able to lob part of the real statue that far inland, but we are talking about a fictional movie here, one which has sound travelling at the speed of light.
(By the way, is the sound issue just to get the point across in the trailer? The movie itself may actually have the sound occur more realistically, and thus the crowds may react to it in the manner Tom Servo suggested a few posts ago. One can hope so, anyway…)
Anyhoo, there seem to be multiple explosions, and damage seems spread out. Oh, and Liberty’s head doesn’t fly into view til after the initial big blast; it occurs after the panicked crowd has had time to run down a few flights of stairs to the street, and looks like it’s been lobbed by something which has clawed it off of its body. (Another by the way: Libby’s head seems as wide as the streetlight it knocks over is tall… is that light about three meters tall, or even taller? A disembodied head not sitting upright will look oddly sized in such an out-of-context setting. But I digress. Again.)
Where was I? Oh, yeah…
Based only upon the evidence in the video, we don’t see secondary blasts, but we do see lots of roiling smoke coming from the direction of the intial blast zone, and hear lots of noises suggesting secondary explosions. The smoke even appears to look like a solid object (monster?) moving across the street several blocks away, just before a skyscraper collapses. “Did you see that?” shouts one of the onlookers, implying that he, at least thought he saw a soild thing moving toawrd the building; easy enough to assume that that ‘thing’ then tore the building down moments later.
In the panic that follows, everyone seeks shelter by trying to run away or dash inside the nearest building. Rob & company take shelter in what looks like a convenience store, and hunker down to wait out the debris cloud from the collapsed skyscraper. Loud, rhythmic noises pound away, sounding like giant footsteps, and one of the men tells Rob that he saw ‘it,’ and that it was ‘alive’ just before the windows shatter in and the video ends.
But what do we really know? Smoke that appeared solid, and obscured a view already dimmmed by nighttime. Explosions, or loud bangs, in sequence that sound like footsteps. Buildings collapsing, but from what? Bombs? Libby’s head looking like it had claw marks on it, but remember, it struck a building on the way inland.
Perhaps the whole thing is about a disaster (natural or man-made, and I’m leaning toward man-made) that has people justifiably panicked, and then follows how each person fills in their own blanks about what’s happening around them. A taut psychological thriller about the working of the mind in stressful situations, and how people react as individuals and in groups. Could be really cool, or really boring, if that sort of thing’s not your bag.
Or it is indeed a giant monster flick. Good thing I like kaiju eiga, if that’s the case.
Either way, I’ll be watching this film. (But like others, perhpas only in installments, as ’shaky-cam’ gets to me after a while. too.)
Yes, I’m a bit of a geek to analyze this trailer in such detail, but that’s the way I am sometimes, and this is, after all, a science site.
December 15th, 2007 at 10:07 pm
Oh, by the way, it does look to me like some large living thing attacks that tower, and the tag line “Something has found us” implies a living thing (or things) attacking. Plus, the poster showing the headless statue with what appears to be a wake leading to shore (where several buildings have claw marks) also leads to that conclusion.
But still, we don’t [i]know[/i], based only upon the video footage.
December 15th, 2007 at 10:31 pm
And yes, I saw the official plot synopsis linked to earlier, so I know what we’re SUPPOSED to think it’s about.
December 16th, 2007 at 1:45 pm
I lived a few blocks from the World Trade on 9/11. This is not the first time nor the last time NYC has and will be attacked, bombed, or tidal waved or even invaded by monsters/aliens. As a New Yorker that has survived 2 World Trade bombings images like the clip above only strengthens my resolve to live here, it is my passive aggressive way to show the the world that we are tough just like our roaches of which we are grotesquely proud of. One note, the pulchritude factor in this clip is highly exaggerated, NY-kers may not all be pretty but we are definitely INTERESTING! A shout out to any fellow NY-kers!!!
December 17th, 2007 at 4:04 am
I still believe that the shaky camera is overrated
It won’t convince me the movie is more real than it looks but it will eventually give me some headache. Same goes for the “realistic” sound. It might attain some artistic effects I’m unaware of but I still prefer a clear old-style image and sound.
December 17th, 2007 at 7:40 am
1. Star Wars EpII, in the chase scene between Ewan Macgregor and the Fetts – they had some kind of “sonic” weapon that you saw the explosion before hearing the sound. So they got that part right, only to run face-first into the fact that space doesn’t have a medium through which sound can travel…
2. This movie is CLEARLY going to be about giant Bender and giant Zoidberg duking it out!
December 17th, 2007 at 8:02 am
> A taut psychological thriller about the working of the mind in stressful situations, and how people react as individuals and in groups.
I like this concept, thus making it about as likely as this being a Lovecraftian horror from beyond Hell come to consume sanity.
Which is to say, very low.