10 Cloverfield Lane (2016)

[AimingforYoko]

What follows is my three word review: John Fucking Goodman.

OK, I found a few more words. The narrative tension of the movie is the question of, A) Is Howard right or B) Is he crazy? I'm sorry, the correct answer is C) He's both.

Not to shortchange our other stars: Mary Elizabeth Winstead as our resourceful heroine Michelle and John Gallagher, Jr. as the sweet, dimwitted handyman Emmett. They both did fine jobs, but this was Goodman's movie. Howard was more batshit than that ending.

As I've said before, it's always the weird loners who are prepared for the end of the world.

[Petunia13]

I think it's about choice in weighing out what is worse. I like that the situation changed her.

[bluvelvet]

I think the twist here wasn't that the attack was real, the twist was that he was really crazy. He intentionally ran her off the road and didn't anticipate a third so took the opportunity to off Emmett when he got the chance.

I'm also inclined to believe that he kidnapped that first girl to replace his daughter if he even had a daughter to begin with.

Edited March 13, 2016 by bluvelvet

[coppersin]

The narrative tension of the movie is the question of, A) Is Howard right or B) Is he crazy? I'm sorry, the correct answer is C) He's both.

 

As someone who hasn't seen the movie yet but might, I'm curious - is the movie actually about her figuring out that it's option C? The idea of "it's bad outside and bad in here too" is obvious in the trailer, so I thought her realizing it's option C would just be how they begin the movie.

[ZoqFotPik]

Without giving too much away, essentially yes, she figures out that it's C fairly early. It's really about her figuring out just how crazy he is.

ETA: Just want to say, Don't bother seeing it in IMAX. Totally not worth it.

Edited March 13, 2016 by ZoqFotPik

[AimingforYoko]

Oh, one other thing, my Rule 32 for this movie was that the neighbor who was trying to get in the bunker set the alarm on her car. Yes car theft is a big concern in the middle of nowhere during an alien invasion. (I know, I know, it was probably just a reflex action. But the alarm going off just tickled me.)

[Racj82]

As someone who hasn't seen the movie yet but might, I'm curious - is the movie actually about her figuring out that it's option C? The idea of "it's bad outside and bad in here too" is obvious in the trailer, so I thought her realizing it's option C would just be how they begin the movie.

I urge people to not ask of seek out these questions. This is one of the few movies out there that was able to keep itself under wraps and it's great. Just allow yourself to be mostly in dark and just watch the movie.

 

People are going to have issues with the resolution but this film was screwed since jump street in that regard. Tying itself to Cloverfield in any way created expectations that people were not going to able to let go of on both sides of the coin. For John Goodman alone, this is a must see. But, I truly did enjoy the movie even if part of the narrative isn't a good as other parts.

[CofCinci]

I like that he was both insane and correct.

[TheOtherOne]

For those who haven't read it, the original script has been online for a while. Here's one link

 

After being familiar with that version for a while, it's probably natural I like it better than the final product, for the moment anyway. But yeah, no aliens, the third character is more untrustworthy, and they sustained the "is Goodman's character lying or telling the truth" aspect longer, while also making him more tragic and sympathetic (vs the final product making him full-on crazy perv). I guess the biggest takeaway is that the finished movie understandably feels more like a Hollywood product, for better or worse.

[BookWoman56]

The acting in this carried me past a few narrative disconnects. John Goodman, in particular, was incredible. The movie did a great job in building tension toward the resolution of whether Howard is right, Howard is BSC, or all of the above.

 

That said, there were a few things that bothered me, starting with why Michelle and Emmett felt compelled to try to escape almost as soon as Michelle figured out that Howard had probably kidnapped and murdered the girl a couple of years previously. I get that it's scary that he's a kidnapper/murderer, but it's even scarier that there is some major attack that has occurred and the chemical or biological weapons are still apparently killing people. What's wrong with the idea of playing dumb, getting as much practical knowledge as you can out of Howard on how to survive in the bunker, and then just killing him in his sleep so that you have the safety of the bunker while you figure out what's going on in the rest of the world? (Or incapacitating him somehow and keeping him chained up if you don't want to actually kill him?) Why not suggest to Howard that it might be a good idea to build a makeshift hazmat suit in case something goes wrong with the ventilation system or whatever that can't be fixed on the inside and requires going outside, instead of doing it in secret in a room into which Howard routinely barges with minimal warning and where you have nowhere to hide it effectively? Finally, the movie violated one of my personal rules for surviving an alien invasion: When you have just seen one alien spaceship and managed to destroy it by the tried-and-true method of throwing a Molotov cocktail into it, do not stupidly assume that all the other spaceships are nowhere around and it's safe to drive with your freaking headlights on in the middle of the night. Because that won't turn you into an immediate and easy target, no, not at all.

 

Despite those issues with it, overall the movie was very compelling and one that I would see again without hesitation. I've liked John Goodman for years, and I think this may be the best performance he's ever done.

[methodwriter85]

I will say that Mary Elizabeth Winstead makes a damn good Final Girl, and I was glad I got to see her do it before she got too old to do it. (I know she was in Final Destination 3, but it seems like nobody is ever allowed to actually survive those movies barring the first one.)

Edited March 14, 2016 by methodwriter85

[Racj82]

I will say that Mary Elizabeth Winstead makes a damn good Final Girl, and I was glad I got to see her do it before she got too old to do it. (I know she was in Final Destination 3, but it seems like nobody is ever allowed to actually survive those movies barring the first one.)

No one is alive from the first either but your main point stands.

[methodwriter85]

Right, I forgot they were killed off post-movie. Do you ever notice how final girls, especially in recent ones, always seem to end up in a white tank top? (Or in P2's example, a white halter dress.) It was awesome to see Mary Elizabeth Winstead get to be one. She always seemed to be thinking and trying to get out of her situation.

 

As for killing John Goodman in his sleep, I got the impression that his door was pretty airtight locked when he went to bed.

Edited March 14, 2016 by methodwriter85

[MrsRafaelBarba]

Do you ever notice how final girls, especially in recent ones, always seem to end up in a white tank top? (Or in P2's example, a white halter dress.) It was awesome to see Mary Elizabeth Winstead get to be one. She always seemed to be thinking and trying to get out of her situation.

 

As for killing John Goodman in his sleep, I got the impression that his door was pretty airtight locked when he went to bed.

The white tank top.

I call it the "Ellen Ripley" syndrome.

Edited March 14, 2016 by MrsRafaelBarba

[NoWillToResist]

I knew virtually nothing about this going in and I found they did a good job with the tension/suspense. That said...

 

I'm a little fuzzy on how the girl got to the bunker. Goodman confesses that he ran her off the road because the world went to shit and he was driving erractically, but he's an unreliable narrator so, is that true? Or did he just tail her, run her off the road, take her back to his lair and then just lucked out when the world went to shit, giving him an excuse to keep her captive for her own safety?

 

For a while, I figured Emmet was in on it because I couldn't explain why he was there. Why would Goodman let some dude into his bunker either before or after the world fell apart? I know that Emmet said he helped build the bunker but it still doesn't explain to me why Goodman would let Emmet into his little fake family scenario.

 

I too wondered what the rush was to get out of there after they discovered that the air outside was toxic (I guess it had dissipated by the time she made a run for it?). Goodman can't just go out and grab another daughter substitute so the girl would have been safe with him for a while, IMO. I also had trouble believing that she had enough time alone to craft her outfit.

 

I can handwave the electricity (sure, he has a generator, but how long can that possibly run for?), the functioning toilet, the garbage chute, and the running water (what's the source? How is it safe?) but the thing that immediately pulled me out of the narrative and stuck in my craw for the rest of the movie and I cannot shake  was the padlock on the hatch of the air filtration/storage room. I cannot get past it; it makes no sense to me. When I voiced my problems with it, my husband tried to logic it away, but none of his theories made any sense.

 

So, Goodman spent years building this fall-out shelter.  He planned for years of below ground isolation. And yet he made it impossible for him to access the air filtration system in case something went wrong? Are. You. Kidding. Me? Can't access it from the outside because it's padlocked FROM THE INSIDE. Can't access it from inside the bunker because it can only be accessed by the air vents. Again I ask: are you fucking kidding me? Don't forget that he also STORED SUPPLIES in that room...which he can't access. What the actual fuck?

 

Why was there even a hatch in that room? What purpose does it serve in the bunker once it's in use? NONE. Just a convenient escape route for our intrepid heroine because there is no logical reason that I can come up with for it to exist in the first place.

 

Even if it wasn't meant to be used as a fall-out shelter, but rather an underground prison for captive girls, the padlock STILL doesn't make sense because it's on the INSIDE. If Goodman used it as a prison, it would make sense for him to have access to the air filtration system and maybe store extra supplies, but again, he wouldn't have been able to access it since it was locked FROM THE INSIDE.

 

Can anyone come up with an explanation for this? It is driving me mad trying to justify its existence...

[the eskimo]

I think there was a hatch to get up to the storage room/filtration system, but it got jammed somehow. They show John Goodman's character trying to push up the hatch, but it's stuck, so then they send her through the vents. I was surprised that he didn't have her move whatever was blocking it while she was up there, though. That does seem unrealistic.

 

I liked the movie, but I almost wish they had made John Goodman's character a little less creepy from the start (did he ever even try to explain why he chained her to the wall?).

[NoWillToResist]

I think there was a hatch to get up to the storage room/filtration system, but it got jammed somehow. They show John Goodman's character trying to push up the hatch, but it's stuck, so then they send her through the vents. I was surprised that he didn't have her move whatever was blocking it while she was up there, though. That does seem unrealistic.

 

I liked the movie, but I almost wish they had made John Goodman's character a little less creepy from the start (did he ever even try to explain why he chained her to the wall?).

 

Ah, I didn't think that was a hatch; I thought it was part of the system, which is why he was able to diagnose that there was a problem with the airflow. But, assuming you are correct, with all due respect to John Goodman...he's massive. Him creating a hatch to get UP into the filtration system is, IMO, stupid as all hell. If he could even FIT, would he realistically have the strength/endurance to hoist himself up to get there? And not bring the whole thing down with his weight?

 

I agree with his weird, early behaviour with her. I guess the simple answer is "he's crazy!" but I did wonder why she didn't ask "hey man, what's up with the chains and the prison cell? You expected to need this in a fallout shelter?" He had said she was in shock, but I think that was about the IV, not the restraints...?

[nobodyyoucare]

 

Him creating a hatch to get UP into the filtration system is, IMO, stupid as all hell. If he could even FIT, would he realistically have the strength/endurance to hoist himself up to get there?

 A hatch would be the easiest way to get up in there without taking up a lot of space. He may not have even designed it there are plenty of shelter blueprints and you can even buy the parts to make a shelter piece meal or have it shipped to you complete. 

 

 

I was surprised that he didn't have her move whatever was blocking it while she was up there, though.

People often overlook things at the time and only later it occurs to them that they should have done or said something. Not a story problem just a human problem. 

Edited March 15, 2016 by nobodyyoucare

[nobodyyoucare]

In regards to bomb shelters you would be surprised at how small or large they can be. There are also other things like a greenhouse to grow food that can be put in them. Some designs can provide power for years if they have a geothermal source for example. As for water issues, graywater and black water treatment facilities can be put in to lengthen the amount of times the water can be recycled and reduce the need for fresh water from storage. There are premade bomb shelters that cost four million dollars or more. 

Edited March 15, 2016 by nobodyyoucare

[icewolf]

I loved this movie!

Mary Elizabeth Winstead was the main reason I went to see this. She did some great stuff with the role of a freaked out girl that's trapped in a bunker, and is one of the few actresses that I find both talented and hot. Went in expecting horror got a great thriller instead. John Goodman stole the show. The "aliens" at the end turned out to be the least interesting part of the movie. The only thing that bugged me was that containment suit was BS, and would have never worked in the first place.

I never saw the first Colverfield, since I hate found footage movies! Should I bother with that?

Excellent, A, Awesome, for 10 Cloverfield Lane.

Edited March 16, 2016 by icewolf

[Bruinsfan]

I liked it, but if found footage movies aren't your cup of tea it's probably best to take a pass on it. Also, TJ Miller had me rooting for the monster to kill his character by the end so he would shut the hell up.

[nobodyyoucare]

This is just a spiritual successor to cloverfield. IE the film makers found a script that had nothing to do with cloverfield, attached the cloverfield name (without anything having to do with the cloverfield movie) to get backing to get it made. 

[icewolf]

I liked it, but if found footage movies aren't your cup of tea it's probably best to take a pass on it. Also, TJ Miller had me rooting for the monster to kill his character by the end so he would shut the hell up.

 

 

This is just a spiritual successor to cloverfield. IE the film makers found a script that had nothing to do with cloverfield, attached the cloverfield name (without anything having to do with the cloverfield movie) to get backing to get it made. 

Not seeing the first Cloverfield movie might have been a smart move for myself.

 

I went into this movie with very little expectations and was pleasantly surprised.

Edited March 16, 2016 by icewolf

[King of Birds]

I should admit, I hate horror movies and I'm not the audience for this type of movie but the whole "JJ secret movie" and lack of info made me wonder WTF so I took a look.

 

I liked the movie, but I almost wish they had made John Goodman's character a little less creepy from the start (did he ever even try to explain why he chained her to the wall?).

I ended up hating the movie, any time a character is introduced with that whole "you should be grateful that I saved you" BS. Sure, set off the creep mode immediately with a) waking up with IV and chained to the wall b) half-ass tell her the world is over / everyone she knows is dead c) the grateful line. I just knew he'd be dead by the end.

 

Maybe I didn't understand the car crash enough since it was shot for 'shock effect' and not normal human comprehension but- why is it her right leg that is hurt and chained to the wall? If his truck smashed the drivers side of the car, it'd be her left leg that'd be more injured. I kept thinking that. It didn't mesh with the set design?

 

I did get a kick out of the whole "they're getting along" montage sequence. Especially Howard playing LIFE on the "heirloom" kitchen table.  It really ties the room together, right?  And- missing puzzle pieces!   clang clang clang!

 

Lastly, the demise of the alien warship via molotov cocktail is right up there with the Independence Day computer virus.

[icewolf]

10 Cloverfield Lane: Original Ending Revealed

 

In the original script, Michelle escapes the shelter and is chased through the farmhouse by Howard, who still wants to “protect” her. She blinds him with bathroom cleaner, he tells her about his tragic life (dead wife, missing daughter, treacherous Nate, etc.), and then she shoots him in the kneecap and runs away. He ends the movie alive, entreating Michelle to “be careful.” Later, after traveling down empty roads and finding no one around to help her, she crests a hill and sees the Chicago skyline, smoldering and destroyed. No explanation is given. We don’t even know what she will do next, only that she now knows that Howard, for all his oddity, was correct. The final line in the script is, “She slowly pulls down the mask on the hazmat suit before taking a breath.

 

Interesting! I think I would have preferred the original ending. The ending we got in the current film felt so out of place, too much like a video game, and even kind of felt forced.

[galax-arena]

I'm so ashamed that I didn't realize that Michelle's actress was Mary Elizabeth Winstead even though I've watched and liked her in other movies/shows. (Sky High in particular is a total guilty pleasure. And I was one of probably three people who watched Wolf Lake.) I spent the first part of the movie trying to figure out why Michelle looked so familiar. 

 

Also... I feel sorta guilty because Emmett made such a heroic sacrifice later on, but good god his dimness and tone-deafness re: Howard started to get on my nerves. I wanted to reach through the screen and shake him when they were playing that one game and he was moments away from cracking and giving Howard a full confession: "It's Santa Claus, you idiot!" 

[jewel21]

I saw this movie last night with a friend and loved it!

 

I've always been a fan of John Goodman and he was fantastic in this movie! So creepy and yet I still found myself liking him to a degree, mostly because he was John Fucking Goodman!

 

I liked Mary Elizabeth Winstead and kept trying to figure out why she looked familiar the entire movie. Turns out she was in "The Returned."

 

All in all, it was a great movie that kept me guessing as to Howard's motives and I loved how scrappy Michelle was throughout.

 

I still feel bad about Emmett though.

 

And that space ship was creepy as all hell. I was so shocked to see it once she escaped. I loved her "You've got to be kidding me" reaction upon seeing it, heh.

[bluvelvet]

Yeah she escaped the crazy man, saw that the air was fine to breathe only to realize get attacked by a spaceship.

[Lantern7]

Accompanied my mother to see this. It was good. Granted, this is two days after seeing Batman Vs. Superman, and I would have seen a ninety-minute PuppyMonkeyBaby movie without much to gripe about.

 

How long was the "gang" in the bunker? I kept wondering if enough time had passed for Emmett's arm to be healed. I kept wondering if that was a plot point. Then Howard shot him in the head and dumped him in acid.

[Margherita Erdman]

I liked Mary Elizabeth Winstead and kept trying to figure out why she looked familiar the entire movie. Turns out she was in "The Returned."

OMG thank you! It has been bugging me where I had seen her before and that was it. She was the fragile single mom right?

I had my son look her up on IMDb while we were driving home from the movie but I guess he was only giving me her film work and she has only been in the kind of genre movies I don't generally see (Final Destination etc.). I guess my tastes run more to gloomy pointless remakes of French existentialist-supernatural psychodrama LOL.

 

All in all, it was a great movie that kept me guessing as to Howard's motives and I loved how scrappy Michelle was throughout.

 

I still feel bad about Emmett though.

 

And that space ship was creepy as all hell. I was so shocked to see it once she escaped. I loved her "You've got to be kidding me" reaction upon seeing it, heh.

I liked it a lot more than I thought I would — John Goodman was amazing and there was that little bit of humor at the end.

But I was kind of shocked they got away with a PG-13 rating. I got talked into taking my 12-almost-13-year-old to see it (instead of Zootopia) after looking it up on a parent media rating site that is usually pretty reliable, and once assured that it wasn't gory and that there wasn't sexual violence, I said OK — but I thought the constant level of menace toward a captive girl and the psychological violence/uncertainty/explosive anger from John Goodman was pretty scary, plus the shooting Emmett in the face? flesh-dissolving acid? I would have said NO WAY if I'd seen it beforehand.

Yes, I *have* turned into Tipper Gore (you young'uns will all totally miss that reference).

I have also, since my son has begun pushing the envelope on wanting to see PG-13 and even R movies, learned some of the ridiculous criteria for the ratings... the cutaway when Emmett was shot probably had more to do with avoiding an R than any artistic choice, and both my son & I noticed that the movie used exactly its allotted two "really bad" words that keep it under the R threshold — one "shit" and one "fuck." Never, ever, more than one "fuck" or it's an automatic R apparently.

Because 13 year olds are much more likely to be influenced and emulate such language if they hear it twice right? He hears worse than that from me driving on LA freeways.

I thought John Goodman's ongoing presence as underground bunker jailer, conspiracy theorist, angry dad figure, and all around creeper was much worse than any of the individual incidents of violence or whatever. You can't measure that kind of presence.

Thankfully it freaked me out more than it did my kid. I think.

[nobodyyoucare]

If you want to see a performance of a guy you wouldn't think would be able to pull it off due to a loveable fat guy persona watch the "Masters of Horror" episode "Family": Norm from cheers does a fantastic performance. 

 

Also for those thinking they could have dropped the alien invasion part especially showing it was real well that wasn't in the original script as noted. However the whole girl being put in bomb shelter by someone who claims a disaster has taking place and you wonder if the guy is crazy plot has been done before in sci fi.

 

One recent tv example was "Metal Hurlant Chronicles" episode "Shelter Me" but there are probably older ones as well. 

[jewel21]

OMG thank you! It has been bugging me where I had seen her before and that was it. She was the fragile single mom right?

I had my son look her up on IMDb while we were driving home from the movie but I guess he was only giving me her film work and she has only been in the kind of genre movies I don't generally see (Final Destination etc.). I guess my tastes run more to gloomy pointless remakes of French existentialist-supernatural psychodrama LOL.

 

 

Yes, she was the single mom in "The Returned."

 

Ironically enough, I've seen "Final Destination" and some of the other movies she was in, but never would have been able to place her in any of them. I guess it's just been too long.

[slf]

There's a part of me that feels kind of bad for the writer. On the one hand, Abrams did get the film made and it is acclaimed. On the other hand, the alien addition doesn't necessarily improve the film and Abrams basically read a great script for a thriller and decided to claim it as a successor to his own film (even though they have absolutely nothing to do with one another; 10CL is vastly superior to Cloverfield). Like, that's a little douchey. 

[JessePinkman]

Finally got around to watching this movie in… didn't like it at all.

To summarize: Two able-bodied young people can't overpower obese recluse John Goodman.

No one asked the right questions and no one acted like an actual human being. It was all very "movie" if that makes any sense.

[Chaos Theory]

As my grandmother liked to say: Even a broken clock is right twice a day.  I got the feeling Goodman's character was the crazy recluse who might be a serial killer that everyone in town knew about but no one took seriously until the world went sideways.   Hey what would you do?  You knew a possible serial killer had a bunker and the world was ending?  

I thought the movie was good for the most part and definetly Goodman's movie.  I loved the ending too.  Probably in the minority on that.  But I love those kind of endings.  Plus I like the idea that the experience changed the girl.

Edited July 11, 2016 by Chaos Theory

[snickers]

Not a fan of this at all.  I do think John Goodman did a good job though.  But, if there is a sequel, I would check it out....on DVD.

Edited August 2, 2016 by snickers

[azshadowwalker]

I hadn't heard about this movie, since I despise Abrams movies and don't follow him. Don't go to the theater much anymore, either. Caught it on cable last night, and loved it. Looks like Michelle Trachtenberg's brother has some talent.

I don't care about the science particulars of the containment suit or whether one Molotov would blow up an entire spaceship. I enjoyed it entirely because of the emotional aspect. I was initially glad that they didn't seem to be taking it in the direction of Goodman kidnapping her with the intention of raping her. It seemed more like a sick desire to create a family that "respected" him. Then , after he killed Emmett, he shows up showered, shaved and dressed up. I hated that, since it seemed to be going in exactly the direction I didn't want.

Never should have been tacked onto the Cloverfield universe. Abrams could have gotten the movie made without that. But Abrams ego is Abrams ego. Seizing on the creativity of others to further his own shit.

Overall, I loved it.