In the grand tradition of cinematic monsters, America has given us some absolute legends: King Kong, the T-Rex from Jurassic Park, and whatever that thing was from The Mist that made everyone give up on life. But in 2008, J.J. Abrams, Matt Reeves, and Drew Goddard decided to throw their own beast into the ring with Cloverfield, a found-footage monster movie that came out of nowhere, scared the hell out of us, and left us with more questions than answers. But how did this shaky behemoth come to be? And why, after all these years, does it still stand tall (unlike most of the buildings in the film)? Grab your handheld camera, whisper cryptic things into the lens, and let’s take a deep dive into the glorious madness that is Cloverfield. And perhaps answer the biggest question of all… why is it even called Cloverfield?

The origin story of Cloverfield...