'10 Cloverfield Lane' Viral: What's In The Box?
I'm trying to stay in the dark when it comes to 10 Cloverfield Lane. The teaser showed us pretty much everything we needed to know, but apparently the trailer that premiered the other day on The Walking Dead revealed more information about Dan Trachtenberg's feature debut. With the film opening in theaters next month, we'll soon see more from 10 Cloverfield Lane.
For the past few weeks there's been plenty of viral marketing for the project, and now we have more of it to unpack, including different trailers and coordinates to a location — which someone actually went to and took a video of his discovery.
The viral marketing for 10 Cloverfield Lane kicked off earlier this month. Since then, we've learned about Goodman's character and gotten some worldbuilding. The latest batch of viral marketing focuses on a conversation between "RADIOMAN70" and "RADIOGIRL." RADIOMAN 70 is apparently the girl's father, and he's trying to convince her to come to his bunker.
Here's an excerpt from their correspondence found on FunAndPrettyThings:
RADIOMAN 70 //
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HOPING EVERY DAY TO HEAR FROM YOU, RADIOGIRL. THE BUNKER I'M BUILDING FOR YOU IS ALMOST READY. YOU CAN GO THERE, OR IF YOU REALLY WANT TO BE SAFE YOU CAN ALWAYS COME HOME. I'LL COME AND GET YOU IF YOU JUST GIVE ME THE WORD. I KNOW YOU LIKE TO BE INDEPEDENT AND NOT LET YOUR OLD DAD FIX THIGNS FOR YOU. AND I RESEPCT THAT. BUT IF YOU'RE GOING TO COME DOWN, AT LEAST LET ME TELL YOU A FEW THINGS.
WHEREVER YOU ARE, WHATEVER YOU'RE DOING, YOU SHOULD ALWAYS HAVE AN ESCAPE PLAN THAT YOU CAN PUT INTO ACTION AT A MOMENT'S NOTICE. DO YOU HAVE A BUG-OUT BAG? YOU REALLY NEED TO PUT ONE TOGETHER BEFORE YOU TAKE OFF. BAD THINGS CAN HAPPEN WHEREVER YOU ARE, AND YOU SHOULD BE PREPARED FOR ANYTHING. HERE'S A GOOD GUIDE FOR PUTTING A BUG-OUT BAG TOGETHER:
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WHEN YOU'RE READY TO GO, I'M SURE YOU CAN FIND A WAY TO GET A HOLD OF YOUR MOM'S CAR KEYS. BUT IF FOR SOME REASON YOU CAN'T, HERE'S SOME GOOD ADVICE ON HOW TO GET IT RUNNING WITHOUT THEM. BUT ONLY USE THIS IF YOU HAVE NO OTHER CHOICE.
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IF FOR SOME REASON YOU CAN'T GET YOUR MOM'S CAR, THEN YOU CAN ALWAYS TAKE THE TRAIN. AMTRAK'S GOT A ROUTE, THE CITY OF NEW ORLEANS, THAT GOES FROM CHICAGO TO LOUISIANA. THERE'S A TRAIN EVERY DAY AT 8PM THAT WILL GET YOU TO NEW ORLEANS THE NEXT AFTERNOON. TELL ME WHAT DAY AND I'LL BE WAITING TO PICK YOU UP.
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WHILE YOU'RE ON YOUR WAY, STAY AWARE OF YOUR SURROUNDINGS AT ALL TIMES. IT COULD COME FROM ANYWHERE. IF YOU SEE A BIG WHITE FLASH IN THE SKY, IT'S LIKELY A NUCLEAR ATTACK – GET OFF THE HIGHWAY AND GET TO A RURAL, UNPOULATED AREA AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.
IF IT'S A CHEMICAL OR BIOLOGICAL ATTACK, STAY IN YOUR CAR AND STAY AWAY FROM PEOPLE AS MUCH AS YOU CAN. THERE WILL BE NO SAFTEY IN NUMBERS. YOU CAN PICK UP A GAS MASK FROM ANY SURPLUS STORE, SO MAKE SURE YOU GET ONE FOR YOUR BUG-OUT BAG. HERE'S SOME MORE GOOD INFO FOR YOU TO REVIEW:
http://www.survivalkitsonline.com/terrorismpreparedness.html
You can read the rest of the one-sided convo at the site, but since the father addresses his daughter as Megan, it's reasonable to assume she's not Mary Elizabeth Winstead's character, who is named Michelle. But the person writing the letters is Howard, played by John Goodman. Here's another follow-up message via Cloverfield Clues:
MEGAN THIS IS WHY I SAY YOU SHOULD ALWAYS BE AWARE OF WHATS HAPPENING AROUND YOU. LOOK:
SO FORGET THE TRAIN. YOU'RE BETTER OFF DRIVING ANYWAY. THAT WAY YOU ALWAYS HAVE AN ESCAPE ROUTE AND CAN'T GET BACKED INTO A CORNER. IT'S ALWAYS BETTER TO BE IN CONTROL OF YOUR OWN MOVEMENTS.
BUT YOU'RE GOING TO NEED TO GET YOUR HANDS ON A CAR. YOUR MOM'S OR SOMEONE ELSE'S.
AND YOU'RE GOING TO NEED TO HURRY.
In another update, Howard reveals he once worked on spy satellites. Apparently him and his team discovered something big — big enough for the government to want to hide it:
DEAR MEGAN,
NO ANSWER YET, MEGAN? I UNDERSTAND. YOU'VE BEEN LISTENING TO YOUR MOTHER. SHE'S BEEN POISONING YOU AGAINST ME, RIGHT? THERE ARE A LOT OF THINGS YOU DON'T KNOW. SO LET ME TELL YOU SOME OF THEM AND MAYBE YOULL SEE I KNOW WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT.
A WIFE SHOULD BELIEVE HER HUSBAND, NOT UNDERCUT HIM. BUT NO MATTER HOW MUCH I TRIED TO SHARE THE TRUTH WITH HER, YOUR MOTHER NEVER TOOK ME SERIOUSLY. YOU'RE OLD ENOUGH NOW TO KNOW THE TRUTH. I WAS WORKING WITH VERY SECRET AND HIGHLY CLASSIFIED SPY SATELLITES. I HAD CLEARANCE. AND I SAW THINGS. THINGS YOU WOULDN'T BELIEVE. THINGS FEW PEOPLE WOULD BELIEVE.
THERE WAS THIS MISSION CALLED SEASAT. WE WERE SUPPOSED TO BE TRACKING SOVIET SPY SATELLITES BUT WHAT WE FOUND UP THERE WAS MUCH MUCH BIGGER. SO THEY CANCELLED THE PROJETC AND MADE UP A STORY TO EXPLAIN WHY. BUT ONE GUY I SERVED WITH, HE UNDERSTOOD THE IMPORTANCE OF WHAT WE WERE SEEING. HE WAS KIND OF A MENTOR FOR ME AND THE FEW OTHERS WHO DIDN'T WANT TO LET IT GO. SO WE BEGAN COMPILING ALL OF THIS EVIDENCE. AND ONCE WE STARTED LOOKING FOR IT, WE SAW THE SIGNS EVERYWHERE. WE ASSEMBLD SO MUCH EVIDENCE AND TRIED TO GET THE COMMANDERS TO LISTEN. BUT THEY DIDN'T WANT TO HEAR ANY OF IT. THEY SHUT US DOWN. AND THEY ACCUSED MY MENTOR OF SPYING FOR THE SOVIETS. THEY SENT HIM TO JAIL FOR 365 YEARS AND THEY MADE IT CLEAR THAT THEY WOULDNOT HESITATE TO DO THE SAME TO ME IF I DIDN'T STOP ASKIGN QUESTIONS THEY DIDN'T WANT TO ANSWER. I LEFT THE NAVY NOT TOO LONG AFTER THAT. BUT I NEVER STOPPED LOOKING.
Once again, you can read the rest of this post over at the site. The other day we wrote about the subliminal images found in the latest 10 Cloverfield Lane trailer. In a new blog post from just this morning, those images were revealed to have contained coordinates:
When you look at the images full size, you can see streaks of weird colors. Playing with the Hue and Saturation in Photoshop reveals two things: the numbers everyone have been talking about are circled, and there is a hidden word in each image as well:
Here are the adjusted images and the hidden messages:
Parachute Pants – 30.6 (Able)
Navy Football – 75 68 (Baker)
Sailor Monkey – 9, -9 (Charlie)
Flotation Vest – 0.12 (Dog)
On Deck – 5742 (Easy)
The leading theory on the numbers is that they form GPS coordinates. Now that we have all the numbers, we just need the order, which is where I think the hidden words come into play. Putting the number/word pairs in alphabetical order would give us:
30.675689, -90.125742
The coordinates lead to an empty corner lot in Covington, LA, which is 50 miles North of New Orleans. Whoever wrote that post — and we can presume it's Howard — isn't close to the location, but Reddit user MugensKeeper made his way out to the spot and found something.
Here's the video:
The case contained a letter from Howard:
Listen to these and you'll see what I'm talking about. It's almost right on top of us.
You'll need a whole lot more than this kit if you're gonna have a chance to make it to the other side.
Good luck to us all, friend.
- H
Also, if you search YouTube today with the keyword "Sailor Monkey," one of the descriptions for the hidden images, you'll find one of the five trailers Paramount released.
The other four trailers were eventually found. The other search words to use are: Parachute Pants, Navy Football, On Deck, and Flotation Vest.
This is a fun bit of viral marketing. It doesn't tell you too much about the film, keeping the air of mystery alive. Is Howard crazy? Can he be trusted? I'm excited to find out in the coming weeks.
10 Cloverfield Lane opens in theaters March 11th.