The wait is finally over. 10 Cloverfield Lane, the mysterious monster movie mysteriously linked to the equally mysterious 2008 hit monster movie Cloverfield — and did I mention it's mysterious? — is finally here. Following in the footsteps of its predecessor, 10 Cloverfield Lane was made under the utmost secrecy, and unleashed onto the public in an act of sneak attack marketing. Ever since the film was announced, fans have been dying to know how the two films are connected. They don't share any cast members, nor do they share screenwriters or a director. It only makes sense that they would share a monster, right? So, is the 10 Cloverfield Lane monster the same as Cloverfield 's?
To answer that question, one has to take a few things into consideration (spoilers ahead). Ever since the first trailer for 10 Cloverfield Lane was released, one of the biggest intrigues has been the nature of the monster promised in the film's tagline, "Monsters come in many forms." The line suggests that the monster in 10 Cloverfield Lane is not the same as the monster seen in Cloverfield. But, taglines can be misleading, and if any movie is going to lead you one way while going another, it's a Cloverfield movie.
After 10 Cloverfield Lane was announced, producer J.J. Abrams teased that the monster would not be the same one as in Cloverfield. But, in an interview with Entertainment Weekly , he also promised that there would be a monster "not of this natural Earth." Sadly, if you were hoping to get more insight into the crazy monster that tears apart New York City in Cloverfield, then you're out of luck. The massive, terrifying creature in Cloverfield, and the deadly parasites it brings with it, are completely missing from 10 Cloverfield Lane. But before you start thinking that the two movies don't really take place in the same universe, consider this: the two films don't actually take place in the same area. Cloverfield is based in New York City, while 10 Cloverfield Lane is set in Texas. It's possible for two different monsters to invade different locations at the same time. And, it adds to the apocalyptic feel of both films.
That said, monsters do come in many forms — including the human form. Yep, all those theories about John Goodman being the actual monster in 10 Cloverfield Lane are actually pretty accurate. For a majority of the film, Goodman's character, Howard, is the monster terrorizing Michelle (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), our main protagonist. He is the main antagonist throughout the film. In Cloverfield, the threat of an alien invasion was present throughout, but in 10 Cloverfield Lane, the only constant threat comes from Howard — any fear of an alien attack exists completely outside Michelle's reality. She's not worried about running away from a giant monster killing people in the streets, she's worried about escaping her very human captor.
But, what about the monster that Abrams promised? Don't worry, that alien monster also makes an appearance. In the final act of the film, Michelle (spoiler alert) finally makes her way out of Howard's bunker, only to find herself at the mercy of a weird, rhino-like alien and then a much bigger alien. Neither of these monsters look like the one in Cloverfield, though the bigger alien could, perhaps, be related to the monster in the first film. It's possible that the monster in Cloverfield was just one in a series of monsters that invaded Earth at the same time, and it is those other monsters seen in 10 Cloverfield Lane.
I guess we'll just have to wait and see what kind of monsters appear in whatever Cloverfield movie comes next.
Images: Paramount Pictures; Giphy (2)
