MovieChat Forums > 10 Cloverfield Lane (2016) Discussion > The very ending scene shows the movie is...

The very ending scene shows the movie is actrually "ANTI-feminist"


In the scene, Michelle drives away in Leslie's car and hears a radio broadcast about "successful human resistance efforts.--Survivors are directed to "evacuate north of Baton Rouge, while those able to aid the fight are directed to Houston." Reaching a crossroads, Michelle heads for Houston; however, when a lightning hits there looms a craft much larger above Houston where she is headed. Obviously the radio broadcast was a ruse by the aliens to lure the survivors to either baton Rouge or Houston--the message was obviously a recording, unnatural-sounding deadpan female voice repeated over & over. The aliens were luring the survivors to either city, including Michelle! Michelle did not catch on it and despite all her feminist posturing was 'stupid enough to head to Houston nevertheless. The movie is actually ant-feminist....!

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It's not anti-feminist if she made a bad decision. How is that anti-feminist? She made a choice. She wasn't representing every woman that ever has or ever will live.

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It's anti-feminist because she didn't blame patriarchal Western society for everything.

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Her decision at the end was just the resolution of the through-line, which is scriptwriting 101. The movie starts with her running away from her relationship. In the bunker, she tells that guy (Emmet?) that she always runs away. At the end, she decides not to run away but, because her experience in the bunker has changed her, decides to actually run toward the trouble. Most narratives have this kind of thing.

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That IS my point--She had made all the bad moves and when she thought she was at last making the right move she was driving into trouble--all the same.

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Yes, but I don't agree with your interpratation of the ending. However, even if you're right, wouldn't that just be an example of dramatic irony?

Still, thematically it doesn't fit as nicely, because the core of the film was that she was placed in a situation where she couldn't run away--she had no choice but to stay and see things through to the end. After that, it's only when she has the choice to run or to fight that we can see the change that her character has experienced. Within the context of the narrative, I think that makes more sense. It's all a bit by-the-numbers, really, but we're not talking great literature here.

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[deleted]

Being placed in a situation that she could not run away from fits nicely with her character to run away from the reality and have the reality come and get her--Indeed as the movie progresses she even grows appreciative of the reality that she cannot run away from!

Thematically speaking of course it serves the dramatic irony very well.

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This is a terrible reach. Also your assertion that it is "anti-feminist" is nonsensical.

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Please just stop

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I don't think you know what that word means.

Mad Max: Fury Road > Every Other Action Film

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That's what emergency messages sound like; they are recorded and put on a loop--someone isn't going to sit there and keep repeating a general message! As for being "deadpan", it is just to make the message as clear as possible.

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That's funny, I had the feeling the radio messages were a trap too..

Guess that was intended, as I'm not the only one in this.

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I think you are completely misinterpreting the story. The actual theme of the film is fear. Danger is real and fear is something that you create in your mind. Fear is necessary because it helps you keep away from danger but you cant let fear control you otherwise it consumes you.

John Goodman's character represents fear and the story is about how Michelle and Emmett learn to face their own fears because they couldnt face them in their past. Emmett didnt take the bus to take part in the track competition and Michelle never had the courage to help the kid who was being abused by her father.

Whether she took the right decision at the end by listening to the radio message is anyone's guess but the point is she decided to face up to the dangers of the outside world which are still very real and face their consequences and she is much better off doing so rather than stay behind in the bunker and letting fear slowly consume her.

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I think you are completely misinterpreting the story yourself.

The movie is not just about fear, but about fear that turns out to have actually been real danger. Michelle and Emmett were not quite up to reality. They had the proof that the danger was real (the woman begging to let in). They still chose to get out of the shelter because Goodman was suspected of kidnap-murder. Well, they were more afraid of a (suspected) murderer than aliens from out of space!!!! (Were they going to report Goodman to the police? Ha) And they were ingrates enough to scheme behind his back. Why didn't they just tell him about their suspicion, say they want out rather than spend the rest of their life with him a suspected murderer? In the end it turns out Goodman was right and Michelle and Emmett were wrong! This movie is really about two adolescents whose judgment led them out from a lucky safety to their own doom

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if it is a ruse, it could even be better than we think --
Both places could be a trap!

[people just wandering around isn't too efficient]

but,
i lean towards it being a message from homo sapiens

now,
only the writers know for sure;
and even They may not know, because they may simply be trying to make a good ending

marc

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