If my future self from January 2017 were to time travel back to my current form and tell me that the climax of 10 Cloverfield Lane was one of the most divisive sequences of all of this years cinema, I'd go "Yeah, sounds about right." After the rest of the movie has been a very down-to-Earth thriller, the finale reveals the reasoning for the whole "end of the world" thing, and it's very much not adhering to the concept of realism. It's aliens folks, specifically aliens who ride around in cylinder ships and that have the skin texture of a jellyfish. They're also very ferocious and Michelle (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) fights one off and then proceeds to destroy another big alien beastie before deciding to join a human resistance group.
I've gone back and forth in my mind on this sequence in terms of if it works or not, but I think I've fully come around to it as a satisfying conclusion to this enterprise. It's not a perfect obviously, and I still feel like the sudden introduction of aliens into the plot could have been better handled (though I do love that slow build up to the presence of the creatures, with their spaceship in the distance looking at first like a helicopter before it gets closer and reveals its more sinister nature). But I do love how it gives Michelle a definitive way to wrap up her character arc, which deals with her always running from dangerous situations, while promising the viewer that her journey has only just begun. Plus, the ominous closing shot of the alien ship (hidden amonsgt the storm clouds) hovering over a city is a beautiful image.
Also; Michelle tossing the barrel of acid onto Howard is endlessly bad-ass.
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