In defining suspense and how it differs from surprise, Alfred Hitchcock once famously offered two slightly different scenarios. In the first, two people are conversing with each other at a café when, suddenly, a bomb goes off. That’s surprise. In the second, the audience is aware there’s a bomb under the table and, as the oblivious patrons eat and gab, viewers clinch their seats in anticipation of the inevitable explosion. That’s suspense.
In the case of 10 Cloverfield Lane, it’s John Goodman who serves as the proverbial bomb. Imposing and gruff, the actor’s inherently magnetic, charismatic persona is a thin veneer to the character’s rumbling sea of Walter Sobchak-ian fury and rage. You never quite know when and where he’s going to explode. Whatever you take away from the final product, know that this is a role Goodman was born to play. After years spent quietly establishing himself as one of film and TV’s go-to character actors, it’s fantastic to see the actor receive a big-screen role that truly capitalizes on his outsized talents.
The story opens with Michelle (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), deciding to exit a relationship gone south and head for the hills. This entire opening sequence plays out like a beautiful, near wordless, mini-symphony with Bear McCreary’s fantastic score soundtracking Michelle’s internal anxiety and indecision—up until the point where her car is run off the road. She later awakens in an underground bunker, her broken leg chained to a pipe. It’s here we meet Goodman’s Howard, who—throughout the course of the film—alternates between captor and caretaker.
Howard informs Michelle that the planet is currently under attack by some unknown force and that the atmosphere outside the bunker has been contaminated. Due to his background in satellites, he saw the writing on the wall and constructed the bunker as a safe measure. Upon seeing Michelle’s crashed car, he decided to be a Good Samaritan and take her to safety. Michelle is not convinced, but statements from Howard’s bunker mate, Emmet (John Gallagher Jr.)—a goofball burnout who helped him build his fortress—as well as a few choice images of the outside area lead her to believe there might be a nugget of truth to what the man is saying. And thus the film weaves its central mystery—is Howard a well-meaning, if ill-tempered, survivalist or something much more sinister?
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