10 Cloverfield Lane | |
---|---|
Directed by | Dan Trachtenberg |
Screenplay by |
|
Story by |
|
Produced by |
|
Starring | |
Cinematography | Jeff Cutter |
Edited by | Stefan Grube |
Music by | Bear McCreary |
Production company | |
Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 104 minutes [1] |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $13–15 million [2] [3] [4] |
Box office | $110.2 million [5] |
10 Cloverfield Lane is a 2016 American science fiction horror thriller [6] film directed by Dan Trachtenberg in his directorial debut, produced by J. J. Abrams and Lindsey Weber and written by Josh Campbell, Matthew Stuecken, and Damien Chazelle. The second film in the Cloverfield franchise, it stars Mary Elizabeth Winstead, John Goodman, and John Gallagher Jr. The story follows a young woman who, after a car crash, wakes up in an underground bunker with two men who insist that an event has left the surface of Earth uninhabitable.
The film was developed from a script titled The Cellar; but under production by Bad Robot, it was turned into a spiritual successor to the 2008 film Cloverfield . It is presented in a third-person narrative, in contrast to its predecessor's found-footage style. Principal photography took place under the title Valencia in New Orleans, Louisiana, from October 20 to December 15, 2014.
10 Cloverfield Lane premiered in New York City on March 8, 2016, and was released in select countries on March 10. It was released in the United States on March 11, 2016, in both conventional and IMAX formats. The film received positive reviews and grossed over $110 million worldwide. A successor, The Cloverfield Paradox , was released on February 4, 2018.
In March 2016, after an argument with her fiancé Ben, Michelle hurriedly packs a suitcase, leaves behind a diamond ring, and departs New Orleans, Louisiana. While she is driving through rural Louisiana at night, Ben telephones, begging her to return. The news reports of blackouts in several major cities. Suddenly, her car is struck, flipping off the road and rendering her unconscious.
Michelle awakens with a leg injury while chained to a wall in a concrete room. A man named Howard enters and unchains her. She later unsuccessfully ambushes him, and he explains that there has been a massive attack, perhaps by Russians or Martians, and he had found her wreck and saved her life by bringing her to his underground bunker. He tells her that they cannot leave for one or two years because the air outside is poisoned and everyone outside is dead.
Howard gives Michelle a tour of his well-stocked bunker, which also houses his construction assistant, Emmett. Through a viewport, Howard shows her his two decayed pigs outside as evidence of the fallout, but she also sees Howard's truck and regains her memory of it striking her car. She privately relays this to Emmett, who dismisses it, saying he came to the bunker voluntarily after seeing the attack happen.
During dinner, Howard shows flashes of jealousy and rage and little tolerance for Emmett. Michelle steals Howard's keys and injures him while trying to leave the bunker, but before she opens the outermost door, a woman covered with lesions appears outside, screaming to be let in before committing suicide. Horrified, Michelle retreats. Howard confesses that he accidentally struck Michelle's car while in a panic to reach the bunker. Now convinced, she stitches a cut she caused to Howard, who opens up about his late daughter.
The trio begins to adapt to life underground, but the air ventilation system fails after something loud passes overhead. Howard sends Michelle through a small duct to reactivate it. In the control room, she finds a padlocked skylight with "HELP" scratched on the inside and an earring she had seen in a picture Howard showed her of his daughter. She shares this with Emmett, who recognizes the girl in the picture as a local girl who had gone missing two years earlier. They decide to seek help, so Michelle begins to fashion a makeshift hazmat suit to venture outside.
Howard finds some of the tools Michelle and Emmett were using for their plan and threatens to immerse them both in perchloric acid. Emmett takes responsibility, claiming he was building a weapon to use to get Howard's gun. Howard says he accepts Emmett's apology before shooting him in the face, telling a shocked Michelle that now they can finally be a family of two. Michelle finishes the suit while Howard cleans up. He discovers the suit, but she flees and is able to upend the barrel of acid onto him, which disfigures him and starts a fire. She dons the suit, traps Howard, and escapes. When she sees birds outside, she removes her gas mask. Michelle then observes a biomechanical alien craft in the distance, which flies towards her when the bunker explodes from the fire. The craft discharges a green gas, which she overcomes with her mask. She is also attacked by a quadrupedal creature and shelters from it in Howard's truck. The craft's tentacles lift the truck midair to reach Michelle, but she destroys it with a Molotov cocktail, causing the truck to fall back to the ground.
Michelle drives off in the woman's car. A radio broadcast says humans are successfully fighting against the invaders and instructs survivors to seek safety in Baton Rouge, while requesting the help of anyone with medical or combat training in Houston. Michelle heads for Houston while a larger alien craft is revealed, silhouetted by lightning.
10 Cloverfield Lane originated from an "ultra low budget" spec script penned by Josh Campbell and Matt Stuecken, titled The Cellar. [10] [11] The Tracking Board included the script in "The Hit List" of 2012 [11] – an annually published list of spec scripts written within the year that have impressed its voting members. [12] In 2012, Paramount Pictures bought the script and commenced further development under Bad Robot for Insurge Pictures, Paramount's specialty label for films with a micro-budget. When Bad Robot became involved, the film was assigned the codename Valencia to keep exact details of the production a secret. [13]
Damien Chazelle was brought in to rewrite Campbell and Stuecken's draft and direct the film. Chazelle dropped out from directing when his Whiplash project received funding. [7] On April 3, 2014, it was reported production for Valencia was greenlit to begin in the fall of 2014, under the direction of Dan Trachtenberg with the latest draft being written by an uncredited Daniel Casey. [14] A budget of about $5 million was reported to be expected, in keeping with the mandate of Paramount's Insurge division of producing micro-budgeted films. [15]
On July 8, 2014, Variety reported John Goodman was in negotiations to star in the film. [16] On August 25, 2014, they reported Mary Elizabeth Winstead had entered negotiations, [17] and on September 22, 2014, John Gallagher Jr. reportedly joined the cast. [18]
During production, the filmmakers noticed core similarities to Cloverfield, [19] and decided to make the picture what Abrams calls "a blood relative" or "spiritual successor" of that film. [20] [21] "The spirit of it, the genre of it, the heart of it, the fear factor, the comedy factor, the weirdness factor, there were so many elements that felt like the DNA of this story were of the same place that Cloverfield was born out of", said Abrams. In other interviews he explained: "Those characters and that monster [from Cloverfield] are not in this movie, but there are other characters and other monsters", [21] and "This movie is very purposefully not called Cloverfield 2, because it's not Cloverfield 2, [...] So if you're approaching it as a literal sequel, you'll be surprised to see what this movie is. But while it's not what you might expect from a movie that has the name Cloverfield in it, I think you'll find that you'll understand the connection when you see the whole thing." [22] [23] [24] Winstead and Gallagher mentioned that during production they were aware that the film had thematic similarities to Cloverfield, but did not learn that there would be an official connection until they were informed of the chosen title, only a few days before the release of the trailer. [25] Abrams came up with the title after finishing Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015). [26] [27]
In a March 2015 interview, a few months after production wrapped, Winstead was asked about her experience during Valencia and described it as a "really contained film", reiterating the premise of The Cellar about a woman being trapped with her mysterious savior in a supposed post-nuclear fallout world. [28] Later in the month, Insurge Pictures was reported to have been dismantled and its staff absorbed by its parent company. Insurge's only film that had yet to be released was reported to be Valencia. [29] Speaking of rewrites that took place during production, Winstead called them "nothing that was major". [30]
During an interview with Abrams to promote 10 Cloverfield Lane, he said the creative team behind the original had some ideas on developing Cloverfield 2, but the release of films such as Godzilla (2014) and Pacific Rim (2013) led them to abandon them as they found the concept of kaiju films played out. [22]
Principal photography on the film began on October 20, 2014, in New Orleans, Louisiana. [31] Filming took place in chronological order on only one set. [32] Scenes involving explosions, fire, and smoke were shot in early December 2014 in Hahnville, Louisiana. [33] Filming ended on December 15, 2014. [34]
Bear McCreary composed the music for the film. [32] The soundtrack was digitally released on March 11, 2016. [35]
The film's title was revealed on January 15, 2016, in a trailer attached to 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi . [20] As with Cloverfield, a viral marketing campaign was used that included elements of an alternate reality game. Bad Robot kick-started the campaign in early February 2016 by updating the Tagruato.jp website used for the original film. [8] The campaign revealed backstory information about the character Howard Stambler and his daughter. [36]
The film was released in select countries on March 10, 2016, in regular and IMAX theaters, before its official release in North America on March 11, also in conventional and IMAX theaters. [37] Those who attended screenings of the film at AMC IMAX theaters were eligible to receive collectible movie posters, which illustrated the three main characters separately. [38] The film was rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association of America for "thematic material including frightening sequences of threat with some violence, and brief language". [39]
10 Cloverfield Lane grossed $72.2 million in the United States and $38.1 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $110.2 million. [5]
In the United States and Canada, the film made $1.8 million from its Thursday night previews at 2,500 theaters, [40] [41] [42] and $8 million on its first day (including Thursday previews). [43] In its opening weekend, it earned $24.7 million, finishing in second place at the box office behind Zootopia ($51.3 million), which was in its second weekend. [44]
Outside North America, 10 Cloverfield Lane received a staggered release, [45] across 54 countries. [46] It earned $1.5 million in its opening weekend from six international markets with a bulk of it coming from Australia ($1 million). [45] Overall, the top openings were in the United Kingdom and Ireland ($2.2 million), South Korea ($1.7 million), and France ($1.4 million). [47] [48]
On Rotten Tomatoes, 90% of 319 critic reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.5/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Smart, solidly crafted, and palpably tense, 10 Cloverfield Lane makes the most of its confined setting and outstanding cast—and suggests a new frontier for franchise filmmaking." [49] According to Metacritic, which calculated a weighted average score of 76 out of 100 based on 43 critics, the film received "generally favorable reviews". [50] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B−" on an A+ to F scale. [51]
Bill Zwecker of the Chicago Sun-Times gave 10 Cloverfield Lane four stars out of four, commending the film as "continually gripping and extremely engrossing ... [Dan Trachtenberg] helmed this film with artistry, imagination and skillful precision." [52] Jeannette Catsoulis of The New York Times praised the cast's performance and Jeff Cutter's cinematography, while writing: "Sneakily tweaking our fears of terrorism, '10 Cloverfield Lane,' though no more than a kissing cousin to its namesake, is smartly chilling and finally spectacular. A sequel is virtually a given." [53] Alan Scherstuhl of the Village Voice also praised the acting and technical aspects, but wrote that the film "is less compelling in terms of character and meaning." [54]
In a mixed review for Slant , Chuck Bowen found a lack of character development between the three leads, and labeled the film's ending as anticlimactic. Bowen also writes: "The film hits its expositional narrative marks and nothing else ... 10 Cloverfield Lane will almost immediately evaporate from the mind, before J.J. Abrams commences in selling you the same thing all over again." [55] Soren Andersen of the Seattle Times , who gave 10 Cloverfield Lane one and half stars out of four, similarly criticized the film's ending, labeling it as "full-bore" and "Too little. Too late." [56] James Verniere of the Boston Herald disapproved of the characters and pacing, and he ultimately described the film as "a crummy, low-rent, intellectually bereft thriller." [57]
Having originally planned the film as a direct sequel to Cloverfield, Abrams suggested that he had thought of something which, if they were lucky enough to get it made, "could be really cool [insofar as it] connects some stories" in a third film, even teasing a larger Cloverfield universe. [22] [69] Interviews with Trachtenberg and Winstead confirm that the movie is, and always was intended to be, an expansion of the first film, with Trachtenberg calling it the "Cloververse". [70] Winstead has voiced her interest in returning for another installment. [71]
In October 2016, it was revealed that the Abrams-produced God Particle would be the third installment in the Cloverfield franchise. [72] After several postponements of the film's release date, it was released as a Netflix Original on February 4, 2018, under the new title The Cloverfield Paradox .
In The Cloverfield Paradox, Donal Logue cameos as Mark Stambler, a conspiracy theorist discussing the "Cloverfield Paradox"; reviewers observed that the character shares the same surname as Howard Stambler in 10 Cloverfield Lane. [73] Suzanne Cryer, who appeared as Leslie in 10 Cloverfield Lane, also appears in a brief cameo role as a newscaster who interviews Stambler. [73]
Michelle Christine Trachtenberg is an American actress. Trachtenberg began her career at age three, appearing in a number of commercials, films, and television series as a child. Her starring role on the Nickelodeon television series The Adventures of Pete & Pete (1994–1996) as Nona Mecklenberg was her first credited role. She starred in the Nickelodeon Movies comedy film Harriet the Spy (1996) as the film's eponymous character and in the CBS sitcom Meego (1997) as Maggie, for both of which she won Young Artist Awards.
Jeffrey Jacob Abrams is an American filmmaker and composer. He is best known for his works in the genres of action, drama, and science fiction. Abrams wrote and produced such films as Regarding Henry (1991), Forever Young (1992), Armageddon (1998), Cloverfield (2008), Star Trek (2009), Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015), and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019).
Bad Robot is an American film and television production company founded on May 27, 1999 and led by Katie McGrath and J.J. Abrams as Co-CEO. Under its Bad Robot Productions division, the company is responsible for the television series Alias, Lost, Fringe, Person of Interest, Revolution, and Westworld alongside the feature-length films Cloverfield, Star Trek, Super 8, Star Trek Into Darkness, Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, Star Wars Episodes VII and IX, 10 Cloverfield Lane, Star Trek Beyond, The Cloverfield Paradox, Mission: Impossible – Fallout, and Overlord.
Ice Princess is a 2005 American teen sports comedy-drama film directed by Tim Fywell, written by Hadley Davis from a story by Princess Diaries creator Meg Cabot and Davis. It stars Joan Cusack, Michelle Trachtenberg, Kim Cattrall and Hayden Panettiere. The film focuses on Casey Carlyle, a normal teenager who gives up a promising future academic life in order to pursue her new-found dream of being a professional figure skater. The film was released on March 18, 2005. It flopped at the box office, grossing $25.7 million during its theatrical run against a production budget of $25 million.
Mary Elizabeth Winstead is an American actress. Her first major role was that of Jessica Bennett on the NBC soap opera Passions (1999–2000). She came to wider attention for her roles in the horror series Wolf Lake (2001–2002), the horror films Final Destination 3 (2006) and Death Proof (2007), and the slasher film Black Christmas (2006).
Super 8 is a 2011 American science fiction thriller film written and directed by J. J. Abrams and co-produced by Steven Spielberg. The film stars Joel Courtney, Elle Fanning, and Kyle Chandler and tells the story of a group of young teenagers in 1979 who are filming their own Super 8 movie when a train derails, releasing a dangerous presence into their town. The film was shot in Weirton, West Virginia, and surrounding areas, portraying the fictional town of Lillian, Ohio.
Andrew Brion Hogan Goddard is an American screenwriter, director, and producer. He began his career writing episodes for the television shows Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Alias, and Lost. After moving into screenwriting in film, he wrote Cloverfield (2008), World War Z (2013), and The Martian (2015), the latter earning him a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. In 2011, he made his directorial debut with The Cabin in the Woods.
Black X-Mas is a 2006 Christmas slasher film written and directed by Glen Morgan and starring Katie Cassidy, Michelle Trachtenberg, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Oliver Hudson, Lacey Chabert, Kristen Cloke, Crystal Lowe and Andrea Martin. The film takes place several days before Christmas and tells the story of a group of sorority sisters who are stalked and murdered in their house during a winter storm. It is a loose remake and reimagining of the 1974 film of the same name. A co-production of Canada and the United States, the film was produced by Morgan and James Wong through their production company Hard Eight Pictures, along with 2929 Productions, Adelstein-Parouse Productions and Hoban Segal Productions. It is the second film in the Black Christmas series.
Bryan Burk is an American film and television producer.
Cloverfield is a 2008 American found footage monster film directed by Matt Reeves, produced by J. J. Abrams, and written by Drew Goddard. It stars Lizzy Caplan, Jessica Lucas, T.J. Miller, Michael Stahl-David, Mike Vogel, and Odette Yustman. The plot follows six young New York City residents fleeing from a massive monster and various other smaller creatures that attack the city during a farewell party.
Dan Trachtenberg is an American filmmaker and podcast host. He is best known for directing the films 10 Cloverfield Lane (2016) and Prey (2022), the former earning him a Directors Guild of America Award nomination for Outstanding Directing – First-Time Feature Film. In 2019, he directed the pilot episode of the Amazon Prime Video series The Boys, and in 2021 directed the pilot episode of the Peacock series The Lost Symbol, on which he also served as an executive producer.
Clover is the production name given to the giant monster in the 2008 film Cloverfield. The creature was originally conceived by producer J. J. Abrams and was designed by artist Neville Page. In the film, the monster's name is never mentioned; the name "Cloverfield" is only given to the US Department of Defense case file of the incidents depicted in the film. The Department of Defense names the creature "LSA" for Large-Scale Aggressor in the film's Blu-ray special feature called "Cloverfield Special Investigation Mode".
Zootopia is a 2016 American animated buddy cop action comedy film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures. It was directed by Byron Howard and Rich Moore, co-directed by Jared Bush, and produced by Clark Spencer, from a screenplay written by Bush and Phil Johnston, and a story by Howard, Moore, Bush, Johnston, Jim Reardon, Josie Trinidad, and Jennifer Lee. The film stars the voices of Ginnifer Goodwin, Jason Bateman, Idris Elba, Jenny Slate, Nate Torrence, Bonnie Hunt, Don Lake, Tommy Chong, J. K. Simmons, Octavia Spencer, Alan Tudyk, and Shakira. Taking place in the titular city where anthropomorphic mammals coexist, it tells a story of an unlikely partnership between a rabbit police officer and a red fox con artist as they uncover a criminal conspiracy involving the disappearance of predators.
Grimsby is a 2016 spy action comedy film directed by Louis Leterrier and written by Sacha Baron Cohen, Phil Johnston, and Peter Baynham. The film stars Baron Cohen, Mark Strong, Rebel Wilson, Isla Fisher, Annabelle Wallis, Gabourey Sidibe, Penélope Cruz, and Ian McShane.
The Perfect Match is a 2016 American romantic comedy film directed by Bille Woodruff. The film was written by Dana Verde, Brandon Broussard and Gary Hardwick and stars Terrence J, Cassie Ventura, Lauren London and Paula Patton. It was released on March 11, 2016.
Cloverfield is an American science fiction anthology film series and media franchise created and produced by J. J. Abrams consisting of three films, viral marketing websites linking the films together, and a tie-in manga to the first film titled Cloverfield/Kishin (2008), all set in a shared fictional universe referred to as the "Cloververse". The franchise as a whole deals with creatures from other dimensions attacking Earth throughout various decades, all as a repercussion of an experiment by an astronaut team aboard the outer-space Cloverfield Station in the near-future. Each film depicts the reality-altering effects of their study, which was meant to find a new energy source replacing the planet's depleted resources, only to open portals for assault from various beasts from deep space. All three installments are standalone in nature, though they connect through the Cloverfield story thread. A direct sequel to the first film was announced to be in development in early 2021.
The Cloverfield Paradox is a 2018 American science fiction horror film directed by Julius Onah and written by Oren Uziel, from a story by Uziel and Doug Jung, and produced by J. J. Abrams and Lindsey Weber. It is the third film in the Cloverfield franchise, following Cloverfield (2008) and 10 Cloverfield Lane (2016). It stars Daniel Brühl, Elizabeth Debicki, Aksel Hennie, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Chris O'Dowd, John Ortiz, David Oyelowo, and Zhang Ziyi. It follows an international group of astronauts aboard a space station who, after using a particle accelerator to try to solve Earth's energy crisis, must find a way home when the planet seemingly vanishes.
Portal: No Escape is a short fan film based on the Portal video game series directed by Dan Trachtenberg. The film was released on August 23, 2011. As of July 2022, the video has received over 27 million views.
Overlord is a 2018 American alternate history action horror film directed by Julius Avery and written by Billy Ray and Mark L. Smith. It stars Jovan Adepo, Wyatt Russell, Mathilde Ollivier, John Magaro, Gianny Taufer, Pilou Asbæk, Bokeem Woodbine and Iain De Caestecker. The film was produced by J. J. Abrams, through his Bad Robot banner, and Lindsey Weber. The plot follows several American soldiers who are dropped behind enemy lines the day before D-Day and discover terrifying Nazi experiments.
The following is a list of unproduced J. J. Abrams projects in roughly chronological order. During a career that has spanned over 30 years, J. J. Abrams has worked on projects which never progressed beyond the pre-production stage under his direction.