| “ | My name is Robert Hawkins. It is 6:42 AM, on Saturday May 23rd. Approximately seven hours ago, some thing attacked the city. I don't know what it is. Um, if you found this tape, I mean if you're watching this, then you probably know more about it than I do. Whatever it is, it killed my brother, uh, Jason Hawkins, it killed my best friend Hudson Platt and Marlena Diamond, and many many others. Um, we've taken shelter under this bridge. The military has begun bombing the creature, and we're caught in the middle. | „ |
| ~ Robert Hawkins |
Robert "Rob" Hawkins is the main protagonist of the monster film Cloverfield. At the beginning of the film, it is shown that a month earlier he had slept with his longtime platonic friend, Beth. A month later, during the farewell party that his brother Jason and his girlfriend, Lily, made in celebration of Rob's new job in Japan, he encounters her again. However, when Beth arrives, she introduces a new man to the group, Travis; an argument between Rob and Beth erupts over this, and Beth is seen angrily leaving the party. However, shortly after the monster attacks, Rob receives a call from Beth while he, his brother Jason, and his friends — Lily, Hud, and Marlena — are evacuating by way of the Brookyln Bridge. Distressed upon learning that Beth is helplessly trapped in her father's apartment, a guilty Rob, having just lost his brother Jason to the monster, decides to attempt to rescue her. En route to Beth's apartment in Midtown, Rob and company are intercepted by the monster as he is being attacked ineffectively by the U.S. armed forces, which forces the group to retreat to the subway. Here, Rob and Lily mourn Jason's demise, with Rob informing their mother. After discovering a route on the other subway lines, they trek through the tunnel, and it is here where the parasites from the monster attack. Rob manages to fight them off but in the process, Marlena is bitten. After Marlena's gruesome death in the field hospital from the bite, and assurances from one of the soldiers, the surviving trio then discover Beth's apartment, which is tilted badly against an adjacent building, thanks to the monster's earlier attack on the city. After a harrowing climb up the adjacent building, they successfully rescue Beth and they hurry to the last civilian helicopters. Lily is separated from the rest and is forced to board a separate helicopter, with Rob, Beth, and Hud boarding another. However, their airlift was cut short when the monster attacked their helicopter during an unsuccessful bomb run. Rob, Beth, and Hud survive the crash in Central Park, only to have the monster eat Hud. Rob and Beth grab the camera and hide under the bridge. Here, they dedicate their apparent demise to their love for each other, and the events that happened that night, naming their friends who demised and giving a brief statement about what happened that night. The final contents of the tape go back to Rob and Beth's Coney Island date from a month earlier, where they are seen musing about their good day together and blissfully unaware of a mysterious object falling into the ocean from the distance. It is unknown whether or not Rob survived the final attack depicted in the film.