Attention all adrenaline junkies! It’s time to head to the movie theater, grab your popcorn, sit back and enjoy the ride.

“10 Cloverfield Lane,” released on March 11, works as an indirect sequel to Bad Robot’s 2008 alien invasion thriller, “Cloverfield,” but is so much more than that.

The movie stars Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Michelle, a young woman who — after being involved in a terrible car accident — finds herself chained to a pipe in a bunker.

She later meets her captor Howard (John Goodman of “Roseanne”), a stern emotionless man with questionable sanity who insists that he saved her from a deadly chemical attack on the outside world. Michelle refuses to believe a word he says, however, until she discovers Emmett (John Gallagher, Jr.), a second man living in the bunker who backs up Howard’s story.

Unlike Michelle, Emmett entered the bunker voluntarily after witnessing the attack first hand. In fact, he fought his way in. But is it true the three of them are the only survivors, or is there a larger conspiracy at play?

(Photograph Courtesy of 10cloverfieldlane.com)

(Photograph Courtesy of 10cloverfieldlane.com)

Produced by J.J. Abrams and directed by Dan Trachtenberg, “10 Cloverfield Lane” is an intelligent thriller filled with rising tension and jump-out-of-your-seat moments.

An unpredictable movie in this day and age is rare, but that is exactly what this film brings to the table. The tension is also paired nicely with strategically placed bits of comic relief from supporting character Emmett as he continually tries to lift the spirits of himself and the other shut-ins.

With an exception of the opening and closing scenes, “10 Cloverfield Lane” is filmed with only four actors almost completely within the confined bunker, really proving the old adage “less is more.” Unlike its inferior predecessor, “Cloverfield,” this movie does not use special and visual effects as a crutch. Instead, it focuses on character development and nail-biting suspense.

Upon the film’s release, J.J. Abrams revealed to the public his hopeful intention to add more films to the franchise and expand the Cloverfield universe.

“There’s a larger conceit that we’re playing with,” Abrams tells Entertainment Weekly, “This is just this movie, and it’s only two films that we’re talking about right now, but there is something else that we’d like to do, and hopefully we’ll get a shot.”

If more sequels are to come, we can only hope they follow the example set by “10 Cloverfield Lane.”