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Cloverfield ARG (alternate reality game)

Cloverpedia, the Cloverfield encyclopedia.

Contents

Overview

The Cloverfield ARG is the multimedia created for the film through primary use of the internet, as well as other media. The ARG for Cloverfield includes, but is not limited to, 1-18-08.com, Slusho!, Tagruato, T.I.D.O. Wave, and anything else that appears outside of the film that's used to promote or add to the story of the film. ARG components are often used in film and video game promotions. Notable ARGs are the game Halo's 'I Love Bees' websites, and the film The Blair Witch Project and it's 'documentaries'. Like Cloverfield, ARGs are often cryptic in their meaning or secretive to their media.

Currently, there are many ARGs over the internet that appear to be for future films, games, and other media. Some ARGS on the internet are sometimes unrelated to any upcoming media, and in fact are nothing more than sites mistaken for ARGs.

The story so far...

Tagruato is a company that was founded right after World War 2. Kantaro Tagruato started with a mining facility but became a major company very quick. They called it Tagruato. They soon started producing other product such as: plastics and polystyrene. They also helped with building satellites. In the late 80’s, Tagruato was involved in some problems concerning child labor and dumping toxic waste. Shortly after this they were declared bankruptcy, and the owner committed suicide.

A man called Ganu Yoshida bought the company with a few investors and fired all the employees Tagruato once had. Early 90’s: Tagruato started building drilling stations. From the year 1991 to 2005 they opened 13 drilling stations all over the world. 2005 was also the year that the company introduces the drink “Slusho!”. The drink becomes very popular in Japan and the company wants to sell it in the West too. The main ingredient is the mysterious "seabed nectar".

In 2007, one of Tagruato’s employees claims to have find a “amazing discovery”. The employee died a few days later along with his wife, daughter and granddaughter. The police stated it was because of a gas explosion that occurred on the camping site they were visiting. The strange thing about this event was, the computer and all the files of that employee were at his home at that time, and those went missing too. Tagruato obviously didn't want the man to mess with their business.

A new drilling station was scheduled to open in 2007, its was called the Chaui Station and it's located close to New York. Tagruato did also send their first satellite to space, called “Hatsui”. It has a high-tech camera on board and makes pictures of deep-sea crevices. Tagruato used the crashed Government satellite "ChimpanzII" (as seen in the end of the movie) as a scapegoat. They told the world they were using the Hatsui satellite to track the ChimpanzII to help the government. The crashing ChimpanzII at the end of the movie is just a nod to the fans who followed the viral. Obviously Tagruato was on to something at the place the Chaui station is. They opened a new station there, and send a satellite in to space that could take pictures of what is at the bottom. This was obviously the monster and the seabed-nectar.

T.I.D.O. Wave

At this time, there appeared a environmental group called TIDO wave. They are a move against Tagruato’s drilling stations and protest against them. TIDO hacked the website of Tagruato twice to show the people who are visiting the website, that Tagruato does bad things to our oceans. Teddy, the boyfriend of Jamie, is a member of TIDO. He told Jamie he was leaving New York for a while and that they would send each other video messages to keep in touch. Jamie didn’t know about TIDO or that Teddy was involved with this group. She obviously thought he was just going out of the country for work. At one of the comments at the TIDO website, somebody says "Is Teddy Hanssen still missing?". Another confirmation that Teddy was a TIDO member.

The TIDO website posted a few things about a certain “event”. They used this secret language so that nobody would find out what things they’re up to. This event was supposed to be finding out if there is a Chaui station, get on it, and find out what they are doing there. At this time it wasn’t confirmed that there would be station on that location because the station wasn't officially opened.

Teddy was one of the members that was on this assignment and he send Jamie a package with three things in it while he was on the Chaui station. A hat with a “Slusho!” logo on it, something wrapped in tin foil with a note on it: “don’t eat this, possible evidence, freeze as soon as possible”, and finally a tape recorder with a message on it. On the tape recorded message Teddy’s tells Jamie that if he hadn’t called yet and she was listening to this tape, he would be captured by Tagruato. He also said he was on a station of theirs. This was the Chaui station. This is also the event they talk about on the TIDO website. Teddy also mentioned on this message that Jamie was going to get called by a person named “Randy”. This person also is mentioned allot on the TIDO website. He ran this operation.

After Jamie heard the recorded message, she called Tagruato. She asked if she could speak to Teddy Hanssen. The person she got on the phone with wanted to have her address immediately. Obviously they want to capture her too, to get rid of all the evidence or witnesses. She didn’t gave her address and again: She didn’t take this whole situation serious. The thing that was wrapped in tin foil contained a sample of the seabed nectar. Teddy wanted to use it as evidence against Tagruato when he was coming back from his mission. Unfortunately, Jamie didn’t take any of these things seriously, and said in a video message that she thought this was a cheap way to break up with her. A few other posts on TIDO told the members of the group that they tried to contact the people who are on the mission (including Teddy), but only heard static. Teddy was captured by Tagruato.

The Whistle Blower

“The Whistle Blower” is a spy that works in the Tagruato HQ. He was able to send three messages out in which he told that there was no oil on Chaui Station and that they are keeping a dark secret there. Also there was a sonar picture included of what obviously is the monster and/or the seabed nectar.

TIDO hadn’t heard from their people (Teddy and his group) for a long time. Because of this, they decided to go take a look themselves at the place the Chaui station is supposed to be. When they came back from taking a look there, they reported that they found no station at all. The famous news report of the destruction of Chaui was filmed a few days before this. This explains the reason TIDO didn’t find any station or their group members. The fact that the destruction of Chaui was a few days before that, is confirmed by a letter from Tagruato, that was shown in the English and Japanese version of the news report. Tagruato estimated that the destruction of Chaui occurred somewhere between the 26th and 27th of December. The TIDO members who were going to find that there was no station, made their trip on the 31st of December. The Chaui station got destroyed right before TIDO visited the site.

TIDO updated their website a few days after this, and told not to return to "the farm". The farm is the place where Tido ran their operations. It was supposed to be swarming with Tagruato agents by now. Also they mentioned in this post that they weren’t involved in the destruction of the station, they would never kill to accomplish their goals. Tagruato blamed TIDO for destroying the Chaui station, they told that a terrorist group called TIDO wave set of explosives on the station. Tagruato knew what destroyed their station and it was most definitely not TIDOwave.

TIDO never heard anything again from Teddy and his group. Either they were killed by the members of Tagruato, or they were killed by the destruction of Chaui. But they could be just "missing" of course. The monster destroyed Chaui, he did it after being woken up while he was sleeping underneath the station.

The owner of Tagruato, Ganu Yoshida wrote a open letter on the Tagruato website in which he states he’s very sorry for the victims and their family and that they will do anything to find the people who did this. Ganu Yoshida left for a 4 day business trip after he wrote the letter. He went to New York to talk with distributing people that want to introduce "Slusho!" to the United States. The day he was going to leave New York was supposed to be 01-18-08. He extended his stay because he got attacked by TIDO wave members on the street.

Also on 01-18-08, the website of TIDO was closed by the External Affairs Department. The website was closed because of terrorist acts within national boundaries. The blaming of TIDO by Tagruato worked out as planned. TIDO was able to post their last message the day before: “Horns down. If we go quiet, it won’t be permanent. May the great mother protect her servants in their greatest time of need. She guides our hands.” It is not confirmed what they meant with this.

Jamie posted a few more video’s in which she only tells that she hates Teddy. The mentionable thing about these hate-video’s is, that in one of them, she ate the “evidence” Teddy send to her. She said it tasted pretty good and she got all hyper after it.

Alyse Hanssen

The sister of Teddy Hanssen, Alyse Hanssen, made a website to find her missing brother. She didn't know much about the company Teddy worked for but she thinks that Tagruato and/or TIDO have something to do with his missing. Alyse posted several updates on her website and she got in contact with a CIA-agent named John Garrettie. This man told her he can't help her and that he is trying to do something for her.

A few weeks later, Alyse got in contact with a anonymous person (possible John Garrettie) promised Alyse to send her a website that would answer all her questions about her brother. She first needed to find the password/username to enter the website. When she finally got in to the website, she found three pictures. One photo of the monster attacking Chaui Station, one photo of Parasites walking on the bottom of the ocean, and a transcript of two Chaui-employees talking while the station is under attack. Alyse last post on her website indicates that she doesn't trust the photos and that she thinks they are photoshopped. The night she posted that, she was supposed to get a new lead on her missing brother. We haven't had a new post in weeks.

External Links

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