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LTTP: 10 Cloverfield Lane, really good except for [SPOILERS]

ClickyCal'

ClickyCal'

Member
Oct 25, 2017
59,687
where it straight up becomes war of the worlds
I didn't really know any of the specifics of the movie except about the ending, well just vaguely about it. Everything up until then is great. John Goodman killed it. That one moment legit shocked me
Elliot set up obviously to sacrifice himself, but not like that. I really liked his character so it sucks that he got killed, but it made that more impactful too.
The way everything was shot was really cool, and the tension was all great.

But the fucking ending.
It just straight up turns into a different movie completely just like that, just so it can be about aliens to still be a cloverfield movie. With a scene ripped right from war of the worlds. Could have been a The Thing tier ambiguous ending in some way if they did it right, instead of that. Oh well.

So yea, overall really liked it except the ending. Not much else to say.
 
DeckardWintermute

DeckardWintermute

Member
Aug 27, 2018
2,779
That's because it was totally a different movie and the ending was added in to make it a "Cloverfield" movie. I don't know where I read that...but I read it somewhere. I loved it though, basically anything with Mary Elizabeth Winstead in it I'm in for. OH and John Goodman? He's fucking great in that movie.
 
Steeped in a Sea of Games

Steeped in a Sea of Games

The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
6,948
I know a lot of people didn't like the ending part, but I kind of liked it. Felt refreshing to actually see things go ape-shit like that and it gives a little nuance to what's happening in the bunker on re-watches.
 
krazen

krazen

Member
Oct 27, 2017
13,159
Gentrified Brooklyn
I liked it.

Usually when movies like that give you the final twist they keep the same tone. Here they went balls to the wall insane and in a weird way from what I remember I felt it was almost a 'happy' ending since the world drastically opened up for the character, even if it involved a whole invasion.
 
Daitokuji

Daitokuji

Member
Oct 27, 2017
2,602
The original ending was way better.

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."
 
mozbar

mozbar

Member
Feb 20, 2018
856
I like the movie...batshit ending and all. Being one of two people in the cinema made it an interesing experience.

I read once that Michelle has her own arc. Basically, the woman at the beginning of the film would never be able to do all those things at the end if she hadn't gone through those experiences.

It's an assumption for sure, but we're working with what the movie gives us.
 
Ramala

Ramala

Member
Oct 28, 2017
6,049
Santa Monica, LA
So the ending was bonzo and... are we really still spoiler-proofing this, ok

Howard was right and boy did they ever commit to that. Her killing the big alien was ridiculous and from a totally different movie. Which I think is what they were going for? To complete her arc her experience has turned her into Sarah Connor or something? The last 10 minutes it pulled a total From Dusk Till Dawn. I didn't love it but I also didn't hate just for the pure absurdity of the unpredictable tone shift.
 
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ClickyCal'

ClickyCal'

Member
Oct 25, 2017
59,687
Daitokuji said:
The original ending was way better.

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."
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If that was the ending, it would be one of my favorite movies of the decade.
 
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ClickyCal'

ClickyCal'

Member
Oct 25, 2017
59,687
mozbar said:
I like the movie...batshit ending and all. Being one of two people in the cinema made it an interesing experience.

I read once that Michelle has her own arc. Basically, the woman at the beginning of the film would never be able to do all those things at the end if she hadn't gone through those experiences.

It's an assumption for sure, but we're working with what the movie gives us.
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It's too much of a leap in that short of time. If the movie took place over months...maybe.
 
Kyuur

Kyuur

Member
Oct 28, 2017
2,535
Canada
I liked the ending. Knowing that he was actually right was really cool and I think an ambiguous ending wouldn't have been as satisfying. Been a while since I watched but I don't really remember a tone shift either, was just as suspenseful as the earlier parts. I wonder if some people just automatically switch mindsets when supernatural elements get involved and suddenly it becomes 'different'?
 

Deleted member 1248

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
12,018
The ending is fine. The movie starts with the woman running away from her problems and it ends with her running towards her problems head on with a newfound resolve after emerging from a traumatic experience. It's a full character arc. It's the same as if she had just driven back home to confront her boyfriend.
 
Dusk Golem

Dusk Golem

Local Horror Enthusiast
Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,806
Kyuur said:
I liked the ending. Knowing that he was actually right was really cool and I think an ambiguous ending wouldn't have been as satisfying. Been a while since I watched but I don't really remember a tone shift either, was just as suspenseful as the earlier parts. I wonder if some people just automatically switch mindsets when supernatural elements get involved and suddenly it becomes 'different'?
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Let me first say I actually like the ending, I watched this movie with a friend blind and we both felt oppositely on the ending. However, the ending DEFINITELY shifted tones, and this was intentful. The movie up until this point is rather grounded, so to suddenly transition not only to aliens, but the main character blowing up an entire alien space ship flying above the farm in a blaze of glory was definitely not really in line with what was going on before.

I like it a lot and thematically it actually works with the movie, but they definitely decided to make the ending over-the-top to everything else which does shift the tone as it's a very bombastic ending. Though I do think thematically it works as an extreme shift in showing that through the movie she's grown as a person to running from her problems to facing them head on, given in a pretty ridiculous literal way as the jaws of some organic ship close in on her and she blows it up to smithereens by facing it head-on.

Thematically it's in-line with the rest of the film, but in tone it's definitely not.
 
ZackieChan

ZackieChan

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
8,056
Loved it all, including the ending. Trachtenberg came a long way from directing movie parodies on The Totally Rad Show (and that Portal short).
 
Salacious_Rhino

Salacious_Rhino

Member
Nov 9, 2017
290
As another user pointed out, the original script was better but I actually still enjoyed the bat shit alien ending. The Howard character in the original script was a deeply troubled man but a sympathetic one whereas in the film he was just a sinister loon who happen to be right about the world ending. Apparently Paramount has a bunch of these types of scripts just shelved which is a shame because I do believe this movie couldve stood on its own without the tacked on cloverfield/jj Abrams brand on it.
 
Zolbrod

Zolbrod

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,078
Osaka, Japan
It would've been better if they hadn't turned it into a Cloverfield movie.
But even as a Cloverfield movie, it would have been better if the name Cloverfield hadn't been in the title, because it makes the ending too predictable.
 
supermarioworldE

supermarioworldE

Member
Oct 26, 2017
735
New York
I remember watching 10 Cloverfield Lane in the theater with a large audience. Everything in the bunker was getting the right amount of gasps, laughs, and freakouts throughout.

But when that ending started to take off, you could feel the energy of the room dying out.

Going from a great insanity through isolation story, to an action scene topped off with the lead destroying a giant alien's ship with a molotov, was a complete tonal whiplash.

You could hear other audience members saying "what the hell?", with others scratching their heads or being completely silent.

I myself was completely deflated and felt ripped off. The other 99% of the film is still a great horror/suspense film, but the ending lost much of the tension and mystery.

Hell I would've preferred if they went with the original scripts ending of Michelle simply leaving the bunker, walking up to the top of a hill, and seeing the city completely destroyed. It would've been simple and still left certain questions unanswered.
 
adamsappel

adamsappel

Member
Oct 27, 2017
2,503
I loved it, including the ending. I thought it was well set up for her to destroy the alien. And I wonder if people would be having the same negative reactions if it was a Tom Cruise movie.
 
DeathyBoy

DeathyBoy

Member
Oct 29, 2017
3,430
Under my Hela Hela
The film is incomplete without the ending.

Her escaping her confinement doesn't solve anything for the character, the ending with the threat is her facing her PTSD head on and the bit where she can drive away and leave forever but chooses to go back and face the world head on trying to help other people in a similar situation is a perfect pay off to her fleeing everything before.

People just see aliens and ignore the thematic brilliance of the sequence. Because people are children, and don't think hard genre stuff can incite meaningful discourse on mental illness.
 

Deleted member 2254

user requested account closure
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Oct 25, 2017
21,467
I enjoyed the ending, but the fact they advertised that this is a Cloverfield movie it kinda already gave it away. Yes, it's Cloverfield, so monsters were going to be involved at one point, and since you haven't seen one for 80 minutes... it took a lot of the mystery away. Had we not known it was a Cloverfield movie but revealed at the end (like how Split connected to Unbreakable only in the final seconds), the audience could have been fooled into believing that these people are downright kidnapped and there's no danger outside, bar whatever happened to that girl earlier but that would still have been one isolated incident. Pushing the Cloverfield name ahead likely guaranteed better box office results and more hype, but it slightly hurt the movie's mystery. Still one of the most enjoyable movies of the past years imho.
 
skipgo

skipgo

Member
Dec 28, 2018
2,568
Agreed. The movie is really good and tense up until she leaves the vault.
The whole ending sequence adds nothing to what happened before it. It's like a completely different movie.
 
ProfessorLobo

ProfessorLobo

Banned
Oct 31, 2017
1,523
Daitokuji said:
The original ending was way better.

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."
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Wtf. Why do movies not end up the way they're supposed to?
 
Capra

Capra

Member
Oct 25, 2017
15,626
The ending makes perfect sense for her character thematically.

It isn't about the aliens or Goodman being right, it's about Michelle fighting back and making a conscious decision to use her newfound strength to help other people.

The alternate ending posted earlier retains none of that.
 
onlyTangerine

onlyTangerine

Member
Oct 27, 2017
381
Daitokuji said:
The original ending was way better.
...
The final line in the script is, "She slowly pulls down the mask on the hazmat suit before taking a breath."
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Honestly, that single line is the most bad-ass shit and caps off Michelle's character arc pretty nicely while still resonating thematically. I don't dislike the film's current ending, but the idea that it's carrying some thematic weight that the original screenplay's ending couldn't is a bad meme.
 
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hjort

hjort

Member
Nov 9, 2017
4,096
Daitokuji said:
The original ending was way better.

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."
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Damn that would have been good. Why couldn't they have stuck with that? I don't suppose they ever filmed any of this, did they?
 
Cipherr

Cipherr

Member
Oct 26, 2017
13,439
FairyEmpire said:
I enjoyed the ending, but the fact they advertised that this is a Cloverfield movie it kinda already gave it away. Yes, it's Cloverfield, so monsters were going to be involved at one point, and since you haven't seen one for 80 minutes... it took a lot of the mystery away. Had we not known it was a Cloverfield movie but revealed at the end (like how Split connected to Unbreakable only in the final seconds), the audience could have been fooled into believing that these people are downright kidnapped and there's no danger outside, bar whatever happened to that girl earlier but that would still have been one isolated incident. Pushing the Cloverfield name ahead likely guaranteed better box office results and more hype, but it slightly hurt the movie's mystery. Still one of the most enjoyable movies of the past years imho.
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Im genuinely confused at how people are describing their audience for the film being confused and literally going "What the hell?" when the aliens showed up in a freaking Cloverfield movie. I feel like the title alone should have set the expectation pretty clearly. If it werent named after a literal monster/alien movie then I would understand better.
 
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Deleted member 2254

user requested account closure
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
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Cipherr said:
Im genuinely confused at how people are describing their audience for the film being confused and literally going "What the hell?" then the aliens showed up in a freaking Cloverfield movie. I feel like the title alone should have set the expectation pretty clearly. If it werent named after a literal monster/alien movie then I would understand better.
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I guess not everybody knew the first movie. Still, an entire audience being clueless about why are there aliens in a Cloverfield movie? How.
 
aisback

aisback

Member
Oct 27, 2017
8,745
I absolutely loved the film except for
when she left the house and all the alien shit happened
 
Volimar

Volimar

volunteer forum janitor
Member
Oct 25, 2017
38,543
Daitokuji said:
The original ending was way better.

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."
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Did they film this?
 
Link the Hero

Link the Hero

Member
Jul 5, 2018
616
I just rewatched it. It's a great movie, I LOVE it so much. Everything is perfect, including the ending.

I disagree with those who say that the fact that this movie has the word Cloverfield in its name took away the surprise ending. Cloverfield was always referred to as an anthology film series. And back than when it came out it wasn't clear that every Cloverfield film has to contain aliens or monsters. When I first watched the movie I couldn't decide wether there are really aliens or not. I thought that maybe there are no aliens because having aliens in a Cloverfield movie would have been a bit too obvious. And it was very clear that Howard is crazy. So it was really hard to decide what's really going on.
The movie makes you ask yourself if Howard is a psychotic liar or if the threat outside is real. And the answer to that question is: Both. I love it.

But after The Cloverfield Paradox it's completely clear that the whole series is about monsters, aliens or demons...too bad, it's not possible anymore to have such an ambigious movie in the series.
 
Cipherr

Cipherr

Member
Oct 26, 2017
13,439
I just hope we get more in the universe. I really like the lore. Even the stuff from the The Cloverfield Paradox. It would be a shame if they don't do more.
 
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