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 is 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 its "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.

Tagruato

Tagruato is a company that was founded right after World War II. Kantaro Tagruato started with a mining facility but soon became a major company later on. They named the corporation Tagruato. They soon started producing other product such as plastics and polystyrene. They also helped with the building of satellites. In the late 1980s, Tagruato was involved in some problems concerning child labor and the dumping of toxic waste. Shortly after they declared bankruptcy, the owner committed suicide.

A man by the name of Ganu Yoshida then bought the company with a few investors and fired all the employees Tagruato once had. In the early 90s Tagruato started building drilling stations. From the year 1991 to 2005, they opened 13 drilling stations all over the world, and introduced the popular drink "Slusho!". This drink was very popular in Japan, and the company was attempting to sell it in the West as well. The main ingredient of the drink is the mysterious "seabed's nectar".

In 2007, one of Tagruato’s employees claimed to have found an "amazing discovery". The employee died a few days later along with his wife, daughter, and granddaughter. The police stated it was due to a gas explosion that occurred on the camping site they were visiting. The strange thing about the event was that the computer and all the files of that employee were at his home at that time, and those went missing too.

A new drilling station opened in 2007, the Chaui Station, and is located close to the city of New York. Tagruato also sent their first satellite into space, called the "Hatsui". It has an extremely advanced camera on board to take pictures of deep-sea crevices. Tagruato used the crashed government satellite "Chimpanzee" as a scapegoat. They told the world they were using the Hatsui satellite to track the Chimpanzee for aid for the government. Obviously, Tagruato was on to something in the place the Chaui station is located at.

T.I.D.O. Wave

At this time, there appeared an environmental group called "TIDO Wave". They were a move against Tagruato’s drilling stations to protest against them. TIDO hacked the website of Tagruato twice to show the people who are visiting the website that Tagruato did terrible things to the 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 at the time. She obviously thought he was just going out of the country for work. One of the comments on the TIDO website asks '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 a secret language so nobody could find out what they were up to. This event was intended to find out if there was a Chaui station, to get on it, and find out what they were doing there. At the time it wasn’t confirmed that there would be station on that location because the station hadn't officially opened yet.

Teddy was one of the members in this assignment, and he sent 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 saying: 'Don’t eat this, possible evidence, freeze as soon as possible.', and a tape recorder with a message on it. On the tape-recorded message, Teddy 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. Teddy also mentioned that Jamie was going to get called by a person named Randy; the person who ran the 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. She refuesed to give her address, and hung up shortly after. The thing that was wrapped in tin foil contained a sample of the seabed's 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 Whistleblower

"The Whistleblower" is a nickname for the spy that works in the Tagruato headquarters. He was able to send 3 messages out in which he informed that there was no oil on Chaui Station and that they were keeping a dark secret there. Also included was a sonar picture of the monster and the seabed's 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. The fact that the destruction of Chaui was a few days before that was confirmed by a letter from Tagruato, 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 Chaui station was 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. They also mentioned in that 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, predictably; saying a terrorist group called TIDO Wave set explosives on the station. Tagruato knew what destroyed their station, and it was most definitely not going to inform the public about it.

TIDO never heard anything again from Teddy and his group. The owner of Tagruato, Ganu Yoshida, wrote an 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 the people who wanted to introduce "Slusho!" to the United States. The day he was going to leave New York was supposed to be on January 18, 2008 (01-18-08). He extended his stay because he was 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 has not yet been confirmed what they meant by this.

Jamie posted a few more videos in which she only tells that she hates Teddy. The mentionable thing about the hate-videos is that in one of them she ate the "evidence" Teddy sent to her. She said it tasted very good and got unusually hyper after it. Her last video was from the night of the attack on New York, right before Rob's goodbye party.

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 thought that Tagruato and/or TIDO had something to do with him missing. Alyse posted several updates on her website and she got in contact with a CIA member named John Garrettie. He told her he couldn'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 (possibly John Garrettie) who promised Alyse to send her a website that would answer all of her questions about her brother. When she finally got on to the website, she found 3 pieces of valuable information. One was a photo of the monster attacking Chaui Station, another was a photo of Parasites walking on the bottom of the ocean, and the last was transcript of two Chaui employees talking while the station was under attack. Alyse's last post on her website indicates that she didn't trust the photos and that she believes they were photoshopped. The night she posted that she was supposed to get a new lead on her missing brother. She hasn't posted something new in weeks.