What Does The Ending Of 10 Cloverfield Lane Really Mean?

What's Happened Outside?

Nuclear? Biological? Chemical? Nope - the threat outside is very much alien. That's right; 10 Cloverfield Lane is secretly an alien invasion movie. We see three different types of beings in the film with various different attacks: a dog-sized, quadruped scout with a series of circular mouths of small, sharp teeth; a cyborg spaceship with a mostly mechanical outside, but a visible trachea, that can easily pick up objects from the ground and also releases a toxic looking smoke; and a bigger version of that ship at the end. Something about them is quite clearly toxic to humans; the woman who bangs on the door shows visible rashes. She repeatedly states "it" didn't touch her, suggesting these beasts don't just kill, but also infect, although this may be a misunderstanding of the threat on he r part; the real danger looks to be the green biological weapon from the ship. Unlike Howard's fears of fallout, however, this appears to be a very targeted attack - birds are still able to survive and Michelle is fine breathing the air before the gassing.

What Are The Aliens After?

Information on the nature of the aliens' invasion is very vague, with the movie very focused on the in-the-moment thrills for Michelle rather than detailing exposition, but given the default stance of attack and looming ships, alongside the talk of a resistance "reclaiming" the coast it's quite clearly some form of invasion. It appears that some of the movie's supposition is intended in part to be taken as some form of explanation; similar to how Hud in the original Cloverfield explains the monster's origins with his theory about it emerging from an ocean crevice. Howard at one point talks about the military logic of invasions and his summation of the methodical decimation of a population - large, targeted attacks first before taking out the stragglers - does appear to have been the case, with Michelle emerging from the bunker in the midst of the second stage. He also at one point mentions how it could be invading Martians, and while there is a possibility these really are saucermen from the red planet, take the origin as rampant speculation at best; it's most likely flavourful shorthand for a broader extraterrestrial threat (which we know from the viral marketing he's tuned into).