This is discussion archived from a time before the current discussion method was installed.
Doctor Worm: I dispute the Cloverfield example. The whole thing is shot with handhelds to give it an air of fake realism, but it is never asserted that any of this really happened. Not even to suggest that there was a coverup. Basically, this would be like saying that This Is Spinal Tap is an example. I'd like to see some consensus, so the entry is still there for now.
Mewtarthio: I second Doctor Worm. It'd be difficult to cover up the total destruction of New York City even if you didn't have thousands of evacuees running all over the country. Besides, the government in the film is clearly not the shadowy Government Conspiracy that shows up in action films. There's no reason to think they'd want to cover it up any more than they'd want to cover up a massive hurricane. The essential premise, I believe, is that the movie is archived at some unspecified point in the future.
Ununnilium: Agreed. Pulling it out:
- Cloverfield, while clearly not based on a true story (hey, remember that time a giant monster invaded New York?), is shot from camcorders and cell phones, in such a way as to suggest that maybe it did happen, and it's all just been one huge government cover-up since then.
Listing The Sentry under this trope just seems to strike me as wrong. First, there's the frankly hostile tone of the statement. Second, this trope seems to be more about works that go "See Exciting New Hollowood Film! It's based on a true story!", than a work which goes all mindscrewy - for instance, we shouldn't list every ARG on this page, even though they claim to be real (everybody realizes that they're not, but it's all part of the fun). Them's my two cents.
