When it comes to science fiction, J.J. Abramshas a knack for giving audiences gold. 2008’s Cloverfieldwas no exception. The producer hit pay dirt once again in 2016 with Dan Trachtenberg‘s 10 Cloverfield Lane. The franchise was made complete in 2018 with Netflix’s The Cloverfield Paradox. Each film in the series is vastly different, but ultimately they all take place in the same universe. From a found footage monster movie, to a psychological horror flick, to a sci-fi space travel film, the “Cloververse” has something for all audiences to enjoy.
Don’t get it twisted, these aren’t just your everyday B-horror movies. The original Cloverfield boasts a hefty cast including Lizzy Caplan, T.J. Miller, and Mike Vogel. The sequel features Mary Elizabeth Winstead and John Goodman, with a voice-over cameo from Bradley Cooper. And The Cloverfield Paradox pulled no punches in putting together its cast including David Oyelowo, Daniel Brühl, Elizabeth Debicki, and Chris O’Dowd. The list of superstars involved in the franchise doesn’t end there. Oscar-winning director and nominated writer Damien Chazelle collaborated on the screenplay for 10 Cloverfield Lane. Matt Reeves directed the original, Trachtenberg directed the sequel, and Julius Onah directed the third installment. The creators involved in making these films are some of the best at what they do.
The decapitated head of the Statue of Liberty, scraped and scorched, lies discarded in the middle of a New York City street in Cloverfield.Image via Paramount Pictures
When a going-away party in New York City is jolted by an interdimensional monster attack, chaos ensues. Party-goer Hudson (Miller), who had originally been filming goodbye testimonials, keeps the camera rolling as the night turns into a struggle for survival. Unlike its found footage predecessor, The Blair Witch Project, Cloverfield never feels like a formal documentary. In fact, the film pulls the rug fairly quickly. Matt Reeves does a great job of making audiences care about his characters in a short amount of time, and then he throws them to the wolves (so to speak.)
Cloverfield is filmed in such a way that the audience feels like they’ve been dropped into the action. For a sci-fi/horror movie, Reeves chooses his moments of suspense wisely. In that light, most of the fear stems from the frantic camerawork and constant motion throughout a crumbling and terrorized New York City. In a refreshing escape from horror archetypes, there really is no twist ending to this film and for good reason. The movie follows a formula that works wonderfully. There is a monster. The monster attacks humans. The humans destroy the monster by any means necessary. A viral marketing campaign prior to its release led to $172 million worldwide at the box office. Cloverfield would set the tone for what this franchise and universe could be.
Collider Exclusive · Sci-Fi Survival Quiz Which Sci-Fi World Would You Survive? The Matrix · Mad Max · Blade Runner · Dune · Star Wars
Five universes. Five completely different ways the future went wrong — or sideways, or up in flames. Only one of them is the world your instincts were built for. Ten questions will figure out which dystopia, galaxy, or desert wasteland you’d actually make it out of alive.
💊The Matrix 🔥Mad Max 🌧️Blade Runner 🏜️Dune 🚀Star Wars
01 You sense something is deeply wrong with the world around you. What do you do? The first instinct is often the truest one.
02 In a world of scarcity, what resource do you guard most fiercely? What we protect reveals what we believe survival actually requires.
03 What kind of threat keeps you up at night? Fear is useful data — if you’re honest about what you’re actually afraid of.
04 Which of these comes most naturally to you? Your strongest skill is your best survival asset — use it accordingly.
05 How do you deal with authority you don’t trust? Every dystopia has a power structure. Your approach to it determines everything.
06 Which environment could you actually endure long-term? Survival isn’t just tactical — it’s physical, psychological, and very much about where you are.
07 Who do you want in your corner when things fall apart? The company you keep is the clearest signal of who you actually are.
08 A comfortable lie or a devastating truth — which can you actually live with? Some worlds offer one. Some offer the other. Very few offer both.
09 Where do you draw the line — if you draw one at all? Every survivor eventually faces a moment that tests what they’re actually made of.
10 What would actually make survival worth it? Staying alive is one thing. Having a reason to is another.
Your Fate Has Been Calculated You’d Survive In…
Your answers point to the world your instincts were built for. Read all five — your result is the one that resonates most deeply.
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The Matrix
You took the red pill a long time ago — probably before anyone offered it to you. You’re a systems thinker who can’t help but notice the seams in things, the places where the official version doesn’t quite line up. In the Matrix, that instinct is the difference between life and permanent digital sedation. You’d find the Resistance, or it would find you. The machines built an airtight prison. You’d be the one probing the walls for the door.
🔥
Mad Max
The wasteland doesn’t reward the clever or the well-connected — it rewards those who are hard to kill and harder to break. That’s you. You don’t need comfort, community, or a cause larger than the next horizon. You need a vehicle, a clear threat, and enough fuel to outrun it. You are unsentimental enough to survive that world, and decent enough — just barely — to be something more than another raider.
🌧️
Blade Runner
You’d survive here because you know how to exist in moral grey areas without losing yourself completely. You read people accurately, keep your circle small, and ask the questions others prefer not to answer. In a city where humanity is a legal designation rather than a feeling, you hold onto something that keeps you functional. You’re not a hero. But you’re not lost, either. In Blade Runner’s world, that distinction is everything.
🏜️
Dune
Arrakis is the most hostile environment in the known universe — and you are precisely the kind of person it rewards. Patience, discipline, pattern recognition, political awareness, and an understanding that the long game matters more than any single victory. Others come to Dune and are consumed by it. You’d learn its logic, earn its respect, and perhaps, in time, reshape it entirely.
🚀
Star Wars
The galaxy far, far away is vast, loud, and in a constant state of violent political upheaval — and you wouldn’t have it any other way. You’re someone who finds meaning in being part of something larger than yourself. You’d gravitate toward the Rebellion, or the fringes, or whatever pocket of the galaxy still believes the Empire’s grip can be broken. Whatever you are, you fight. And in Star Wars, that willingness is what makes the difference.
‘10 Cloverfield Lane’ Proves That a Sequel Can Exist as a Stand-Alone Film
At its core, the second installment is nothing like the first. 10 Cloverfield Lane ditches the found footage cinematography, and instead relies heavily on the good, old-fashioned claustrophobia that comes with being stuck in a doomsday bunker. After Michelle (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) wrecks her car, she wakes up in a cement room with her injured leg chained to the wall. The audience soon finds out that Howard (John Goodman) owns the property and is responsible for retrieving Michelle from her accident.
John Gallagher Jr. rounds out the cast as Emmett, another occupant of the bunker. Although the threat of aliens and monsters is hinted at, the real terror is whether Howard is telling the truth about why the three characters have to stay hidden underground. Again, the beautiful thing about this movie is that it can be viewed within the Cloverfield universe or on its own. 10 Cloverfield Lane leans about as far as it can go toward horror without becoming an all-out slasher. Michelle does, however, take on the characteristics of a final girl. And even though she escapes one monster, she immediately falls into the clutches of another.
Dan Trachtenberg recently signed a first look deal with Paramount.
‘The Cloverfield Paradox’ Strays Even Further From the Original, and It Totally Works
The Cloverfield Paradox castImage via Netflix
The third installment of the series was released by Netflix in 2018. A bigger production company meant a bigger budget, and it showed. The film is set in the year 2028 aboard the Cloverfield Space Station. When testing a particle accelerator goes awry, the crew of astronauts find themselves dealing with a multiverse. The Cloverfield Paradox is not a horror movie by any stretch of the imagination. If anything, the all too familiar mission of getting back to Earth is a callback to dramas such as Armageddon. The film does an incredible job of masking its true antagonist until the final frame.
This series does what other trilogies can’t do. It allows audiences to start with any movie they want. It doesn’t need to be watched in order. And most importantly, the series doesn’t concern itself with genre labels. Sure, broad strokes, this is a sci-fi series. But each movie in the franchise offers something different for audiences to enjoy.
That makes what J.J. Abrams created even more impressive. He produced a cohesive franchise that included three stand-alone films, each leaning into different aspects of the sci-fi genre, including a monster movie, a psychological thriller, and a multiverse space travel epic. It’s safe to say that science fiction has no boundaries.
