If You Combined Split and 10 Cloverfield Lane, You’d Have the Perfect Movie
***Spoilers ahead for both Split and 10 Cloverfield Lane. Read at your own risk unless you like having movies ruined like an insane person…
Cloverfield was one of my favorite movies of 2008 which meant that when 10 Cloverfield Lane was announced, my expectations were sky high for the next installment in the franchise. I wanted something as exciting, scary and heart-pounding as Cloverfield, but when the trailer for 10 Cloverfield Lane dropped, it promised a much different movie than the shaky found footage camerawork of the original. I wasn’t thrilled about the prospect, but it did have John Goodman in it, so I thought I’d give it a shot.
I wasn’t disappointed, at least for nine-tenths of it.
Although it wasn’t pulse pounding like Cloverfield, 10 was a tight, concise, survivalist thriller. 10’s heroine was both vulnerable and strong and had a very effective story arc that drove the story to a satisfying conclusion.
Or at least it would have if it had ended ten minutes earlier than it actually did.
The twist ending that the world wasn’t attacked from colossal sized monsters, but rather aliens flying around in biological spaceships was just a randomly inserted butt-end that was tacked on and irrelevant. It was as if the filmmakers were screaming, “Hey, look at us, we threw in a twist ending!” But twist endings don’t work that way. A random ending doesn’t constitute a twist ending. Twist endings are only effective when the reveal feels so obvious that we all feel like fools for not having called it sooner. And that’s why I’ve never had any desire to watch 10 again. Why would I waste my time again with a story that insults my intelligence? What little intelligence there is, that is.
Which brings us to the here and now with a movie that has nothing to do with the Cloverfield universe, and yet feels like it has a lot to do with it. After leaving M. Night Shyamalan’s Split, I had the distinct impression that I had seen this movie before, and fairly recently. Both 10 Cloverfield Lane and Split have very similar themes involving abduction and abuse, and yet they both suffer from two very different problems. 10 Cloverfield Lane was the superior movie, but its defunct ending threw the entire thing off the rails, whereas Split was a flawed movie right up until the end scene.
I’m going to come right out and say something spoilerish, so if you haven’t seen Split yet, seriously just go watch it first. Still here?
Bruce Willis’ cameo as David Dunn from Unbreakable saves Split.
Once you realize that Split is in a shared universe with Unbreakable, the explanation for the film’s existence is wholly explained which barely saves the movie as a whole. After James McAvoy’s the Horde character effectively escapes at the end of the film, David Dunn is seen sitting in a cafe while a lady sitting next to him is chatting away about the criminal in the wheelchair who was locked away some years ago. With a knowing look, Bruce’s Dunn reminds the lady of the man in the wheelchair’s name, Mr. Glass, implying that his next target is the Horde. This effectively sets up that Unbreakable was a superhero origin story, obviously, while Split is a supervillain origin story. My inner geek, or maybe my outer geek, jumped in joy at the revelation.
M. Night Shyamalan originally built his reputation on twist endings in his films, and Split proves that he’s still completely capable of throwing his audience curve balls. While Split’s conclusion isn’t the type of twist ending you would expect from a Shyamalan flick, it was surprising enough to make me leave the theater with a smile on my face. It was unexpected but totally logical. If only the rest of the movie had held up half as well. While Split isn’t a terrible movie by any means, it’s merely ineffective. This is because it’s a story that doesn’t understand foreshadowing and character payoff.
Whereas 10 had compelling character progression and payoff, Split’s heroine played by Anya Taylor-Joy doesn’t quite have the punch that it should, especially given the heavy backstory that’s revealed for the character. It deals with themes of abuse, both physical and sexual, and while the film doesn’t treat these issues with lightness, it doesn’t treat them with respect either and feels that it has to hit you over the head with a sledgehammer instead of revealing the character’s backstory with deftness. Split suffers from the same problem that The Force Awakens did in that the main character didn’t seem to progress significantly at all, and instead just merely stayed the same. The ending shot of Anya Taylor-Joy leaves some ambiguity as to how she proceeds with her future, but not enough to make us as the audience feel like she’s going to make the right choice.
This leaves me with only one conclusion: If you could mash these two movies together, keeping the main bulk of 10 Cloverfield Lane and tack on the effective twist ending of Split, then you’d have something resembling a good movie. As it is, we’re left with two flawed films that both failed to live up to their potential. Here’s hoping that Split is successful and Shyamalan is able to make a film bridging Unbreakable and Split together. Nerds can dream.
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