10 Most Disappointing Endings In Movie History

10 Cloverfield Lane is a masterclass in tension. Led by fantastic performances from John Goodman and Mary Elizabeth Winstead, you will find yourself gripped from beginning to end, and each new narrative beat is as thrilling as the last. That is, until the final act.

After spending almost every second of the film underground in a small apocalypse-prepper’s bunker, Michelle finally escapes the abusive and controlling Howard and gets out onto the surface again. It’s a triumphant moment, but not without stress, because soon after she gets out, night falls and an alien ship arrives. Michelle eventually takes it down, but it’s incredibly jarring.

After spending the last 90 minutes watching a close-quarters character drama, when it suddenly becomes a sci-fi action film, it can really take you off guard. The ending is so off-tone that it feels like two different films, and makes it harder to enjoy the film as a whole.

Looking a little closer, the ending does resolve Michelle’s character arc and reinforce the theme of the film - that of running and hiding instead of confronting problems head-on. Michelle has changed for the better, but the aliens just feel tacked on; could there not have been another way to resolve this arc, or was it just a ploy by JJ Abrams to boost his ‘Cloverfield Universe’? Unfortunately, it reeks of the latter.