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- As it turns out, she's fleeing from an ill-fated proposal and ignoring calls from her boyfriend (a vocal cameo from Bradley Cooper). Leaving behind an engagement ring and taking a bottle of whiskey, she hits the highway out of New Orleans.
www.looper.com/150163/10-cloverfield-lanes-ending-finally-explained/
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Apr 12, 2019 · The most important reason for 10 Cloverfield Lane's surprise final sequence, though, is to bring Michelle's character arc to a significant final moment. She commandeers the car left...
- The Cloverfield Paradox
The company name is also listed on a letter sent to Howard...
- The Cloverfield Paradox
- As the film hits its five-year anniversary, we take a look back at the twist ending -- and why it's necessary.
- Trapped in a Box
- Sprint to the Finish
- Houston Has a Problem
By Carlos Morales
Posted: Mar 7, 2021 4:05 pm
10 Cloverfield Lane, the second installment in producer J.J. Abrams’ Cloverfield series, first hit theaters five years ago this week, so we’re taking a look back at the film and its controversial twist ending.
All she has to do is get outside.
Lights flicker on and off. An electrical fire consumes the living room. Howard’s pained screams echo through the vents as his flesh burns from exposure to perchloric acid. Any way of life Michelle could have had in that bunker is long dead, the clock already ticking down to its inevitable destruction. Howard’s doomsday bunker, a monument to his monstrous need for control, is vaporized by an explosion mere minutes after she escapes from it. Sealed inside a hazmat suit she made out of shower curtains and duct tape, she takes her first steps back into a world she was told was no longer habitable.
She takes off her mask and breathes. The air is clean. For a second, she’s safe. For a second, she’s free. Then, she sees an alien ship in the distance. “Oh, come on,” she says. Given the controversial response to 10 Cloverfield Lane’s ending when the film was released five years ago, it’s a sentiment likely shared by many members of the audience.
The biggest objections to the ending generally appear to come from a feeling that the genre swap from contained thriller to the realm of science fiction was a step too far, that it came out of nowhere and undoes the logical and realistic style the movie possessed up to that point. How any individual person feels about the smoothness of the transition is, of course, subjective and not exactly something that can be argued with. What can be argued is what type of movie we’re dealing with up to the point that the ending occurs, both because genres are malleable, nebulous distinctions that often blend into each other, but also the timing and placement of doling out information does not actually change what type of movie we are watching.
As far back as Michelle’s (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) original flight from her fiancé in the opening scenes of the film, 10 Cloverfield Lane makes it clear that whatever catastrophic event is occurring is wide-scale: The radio mentions a “power surge” that has caused blackouts to many cities on the southern seaboard. Emmett (John Gallagher Jr.) tells Michelle about giant red flashes unlike anything he’s ever seen. The woman who tries to break into the bunker has clearly been affected by some kind of chemical attack due to the intense burns on her skin. Strange vehicles are heard moving above the bunker multiple times, insinuating a military presence that is not our own, something that Howard (John Goodman)even theorizes could be related to “extraterrestrial signals.” While most of what we see is contained to three people inside a bunker, the larger story of an alien invasion is foreshadowed numerous times before the reveal. It was always a science-fiction film. Some people just didn’t notice it.
For most of the runtime, Michelle is presented as a crafty, resourceful, and determined woman who nevertheless is hampered by a perennial need to run away from her problems. We don’t know exactly what happened with her fiancé beyond a “fight,” but the first thing we see Michelle do is leave her entire life behind and flee. She elaborates on this aspect of herself when she tells Emmett a story about seeing a little girl in a hardware store who was being physically abused by her dad, and how it reminded her of her own relationship with her father. Michelle says she wanted to help the girl, to intervene the way her brother did when their father was abusive, but she couldn’t. “I did what I always do when things get hard,” she says. “I just panicked and ran.” It’s a self-accusation that hangs over the rest of the film.
What’s being communicated here is more complicated than simply guilt at avoiding difficult situations. Earlier, when Michelle first wakes up and tries to escape Howard on her own, he remarks that “you’ve got some fight in you.” Michelle isn’t helpless or passive. She’s not even completely lacking in courage. Her problem is being afraid to put herself at risk to help others. Living in Howard’s bunker is an abusive and dangerous situation, and running away from him is the correct course of action, but it’s also not a course of action that challenges her convictions about her own limitations. Simply revealing whether or not Howard was correct about what was going on outside doesn’t work as the ending of the film because it doesn’t resolve our protagonist’s internal conflict. Survival isn’t the only goal. For Michelle’s story to come to a close, she needs to change.
When Howard confronts Michelle and Emmett about using tools, he threatens them and demands to know what they’re up to. Both of them are complicit, but Emmett takes the blame, claiming he was making a weapon. Michelle knows he’s sacrificing himself for her, but she stays quiet. Mary Elizabeth Winstead plays the heartbreak perfectly, conveying with only her facial expressions the turmoil of knowing that like with her brother, she’s again allowing someone else to take abuse on her behalf, and she’s not courageous enough to stop it. Howard kills Emmett for this, which means that Michelle’s subsequent escape from him can by definition only be for her own benefit. If Howard was the only threat, then Michelle has only succeeded in keeping herself alive.
Yet after being attacked by aliens (and once again using her craftiness to save herself), Michelle is finally faced with a genuine choice. While driving away from Howard’s home, a radio broadcast tells survivors to either head to Baton Rouge to safety or to come to Houston to help fight off the invasion. Michelle is home-free. Nobody or nothing is forcing her hand. She is under no obligation to intervene. This is why a natural disaster or some other tragic situation that she wouldn’t really be able to assist with wouldn’t function for her character in the same way. A malicious force is hurting and killing other people, and Michelle can choose to run away or, for the first time in her life, put herself on the line to help others.
She turns the car towards Houston, and lightning strikes reveal more alien ships in the distance. What happens to her afterward is uncertain.
But she’s not afraid anymore.
Nov 19, 2023 · One of the most suspicious and significant elements of the 10 Cloverfield Lane ending is Howard's bunker, and the only explanation offered for why Michelle cannot leave it comes from Howard himself. As Howard explains, he brought Michelle there to treat her injuries from the crash.
- Colin Mccormick
Jul 13, 2022 · Did Michelle Escape From The Bunker? Soon, a quarrel breaks down between the three when Emmett and Michelle try to escape. Emmett takes the entire blame upon himself. Although, Howard shoots him in the head and says that if Michelle tries to escape, he will throw a barrel of acid at her.
10 Cloverfield Lane Ending Explained: The ending of “10 Cloverfield Lane” poses numerous questions and interpretations. After surviving a car accident, Michelle (played by Mary Elizabeth Winstead) wakes up in an underground bunker, supposedly protected from a catastrophic chemical attack.
Sep 19, 2023 · There may have been an attack or disaster of some kind, but it did not result in complete annihilation. This would explain the military presence and signs of destruction seen by Michelle. Ultimately, the ending of “10 Cloverfield Lane” leaves room for interpretation and speculation.
Mar 21, 2016 · If you've seen 10 Cloverfield Lane, it's probably for one reason and one reason only; that title. The debut feature from the acclaimed director of Portal: Still Alive starring the perpetually...
