10 Years Ago, Mary Elizabeth Winstead Starred In A Sci-Fi Movie That Still Needs A Sequel

Dan Trachtenberg's 2016 sci-fi thriller "10 Cloverfield Lane" is and isn't a sequel to Matt Reeves' 2008 found-footage thriller "Cloverfield." Reeves' film was a kaiju picture about a giant monster attacking New York, seen from the perspective of camera-phone-wielding twentysomethings on the ground. The mystery of where the monster came from is never fully explained. 

"10 Cloverfield Lane" takes place far away, in rural Louisiana, and is set mostly inside an underground bomb shelter. The owner of the bunker, a gun-toting survivalist named Howard (John Goodman), tells his reluctant fellow survivors Michelle (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) and Emmett (John Gallagher, Jr.) that something horrendous has happened to the Earth's surface, and that they cannot leave. The title will immediately lead audiences to believe that the crisis on Earth's surface is a monster invasion. The actual connection between the first two movies wouldn't be explained until Julius Onah's 2018 film "The Cloverfield Paradox," which saw a team of astronauts in the near future accidentally ripping open portals in the space-time continuum. This allowed monsters and aliens to invade Earth and linked all three "Cloverfield" movies. 

"Paradox" was very poorly received, however, and it more or less killed the film series dead. This is a pity, as "10 Cloverfield Lane" is blameless in its connection to a larger franchise. Indeed, Trachtenberg's movie began its life as a spec script called "The Cellar" and was only repurposed as a spiritual successor to "Cloverfield" after the fact. One can accept the film as a taut, stand-alone thriller about claustrophobia and paranoia without knowing anything about the previous or following movies. Maybe a sequel could still be made that follows the events of only Trachtenberg's film, and that ignores the events of "Paradox." 

"10 Cloverfield Lane" is told from Mary Elizabeth Winstead's character's perspective. She is knocked out in a car accident early in the movie and awakens injured in Howard's underground bunker. He explains that, while she was being knocked unconscious, there was some kind of widespread gas attack in the area, which left the air poisonous. Michelle doesn't trust Howard, as her only view of the attack was a pair of dead pigs she could see through the bunker's front portal.

Long portions of this movie are devoted to Michelle looking at Howard with suspicion. He claims that his wife and daughter left him, making him sympathetic, but there are some clues that he might also have kidnapped and/or murdered a young woman years earlier. Michelle and Emmet conspire to find out the truth. No one trusts anyone, and tensions remain high. Trachtenberg works well within the film's limited spaces, giving the film enough visual variety to give it some blockbuster-twinged flair. "10 Cloverfield Lane" only cost $15 million to make, but it has the slickness and tone of something many times its budget. 

Sadly, the film's late-stage twists are kind of spoiled by the title. I won't reveal what Michelle later discovers or what else she sees in the outside world, but one can safely assume that "10 Cloverfield Lane" will feature some kind of monster. Well, other than Howard. Up until that moment, Goodman, Winstead, and Gallagher all give excellent performances, having to put on brave faces while remaining clearly paranoid. Will humans survive a worldwide attack? And what will be left of us if we do? Goodman and Winstead once spoke to /Film about the movie. 

"10 Cloverfield Lane" was a huge hit, making over $110 million on its $15 million budget. It's curious as to why a sequel took so long, and why it was released the way it was: the makers of "The Cloverfield Paradox" sent out its very first trailer during the 2018 Super Bowl, informing audiences that it was going to play on Netflix ... right now. "Paradox" then launched as soon as the game was over, startling everyone. No long advertising cycle. The movie just dropped, kind of unexpectedly. Like "10 Cloverfield Lane," "The Cloverfield Paradox" also began its life as a different screenplay — a movie called "The God Particle" — which was repurposed into the "Cloverfield" series after the fact. The film, as mentioned, was pilloried widely, and the series came to an end instantly. 

As reported by IndieWire, there was almost a fourth "Cloverfield" movie, but the intended project was eventually developed as a stand-alone project. That movie became "A Quiet Place." As recently as 2023, the director of the original "Cloverfield," Matt Reeves, said that a direct sequel to his movie was still in the works. The only hint that Reeves was able to give about what another sequel might entail was: 

"I did something in the movie when Hud [the character played by T.J. Miller] is on the bridge before the [monster's] tail comes and smashes the Brooklyn Bridge in half. There's a moment where you actually see someone filming him and you realize, 'Oh, there's another perspective on this evening.' So that was one of my thoughts for what could be the beginning of another story. The different perspective would be a different story." 

No film has manifested.