Things You Only Notice In A Quiet Place After Watching It Again
While many scary movies feature howling beasts out for blood, "A Quiet Place" explores the unique horror of silence. This film's monsters efficiently rip through anyone who dares to play with the noisy toy some joker bought their kid for their birthday. Avoiding typical horror movie tropes that use loud noises to instill fear into the audience, "A Quiet Place" instead relies on butt-clenching silence and the occasional death rattle of squeaky floorboards. What results is terrifying.
John Krasinski's 2018 flick stars "The Office" veteran alongside his real-life wife, Emily Blunt. With their children in tow, this parental pair navigates a post-apocalyptic world overrun by monsters seeking to eradicate everything that dares make a peep. Running for your life is much more difficult when the predator in pursuit is enraged by heavy breathing — which is to say nothing of their impenetrable skin, mind-boggling speed, and incredible strength. Needless to say, the Abbott family has their work cut out for them if they want to survive.
"A Quiet Place" is such a nerve-wracking experience, it requires a heavy metal session afterwards to shake the tension loose. So intense is the movie, in fact, that you probably missed many of its most interesting flourishes (and ridiculous oversights) while you were holding your breath. Looking to spot those missed details on your next watch? We've got you covered. These are the things you only notice in "A Quiet Place" after watching it more than once.
The Abbott family doesn't eat crunchy food or use silverware
The kitchen is the heart of the household. Life in "A Quiet Place" requires a slightly different approach to the family dining experience, however. You may not have realized it in your first viewing, but the Abbott family eats their meals with their hands. They avoid anything that would make any type of sound, which includes silverware. While stuffing food into your mouth with your bare hands sounds like a fun time, consider this: The Abbotts also avoid all crunchy food. A world without chips and popcorn sounds like a complete nightmare.
Some of the survival requirements in "A Quiet Place" manage to leak into the real world: The film relies so heavily on silence that you might just find yourself avoiding the snacks you gathered for your cinema adventure. If you wait for the next action sequence to wolf down a handful of kettle corn, however, you're going to have plenty of leftovers. You might decide to throw ambiance to the wind, but that's easier said than done: Opening up a bag of peanut M&Ms while the Abbotts attempt to elude the ultra-sensitive hearing of ornery aliens just doesn't feel right. Alternatively, this horror movie experience is a wonderful way to teach your kids how to chew with their mouths closed. Sure, they might develop a subconscious fear of killer aliens hearing them eat, but that's a small price to pay for proper table manners.
Four-year-old children don't listen very well, Lee
Our protagonists walk through a barren hellscape in search of sustenance in the opening scenes of "A Quiet Place." The deafening silence they operate within makes it easy for a major parenting faux pas to slip by unnoticed. Four-year-olds are adorable creatures, but they come pre-packaged with zero common sense. When Lee Abbott (John Krasinski) sees a possible catastrophe in the form of a noisy toy spaceship, he quickly grabs it from his son, removes the batteries, and silently shakes his head at the playful toddler.
Rather than pocketing the batteries for later use and placing the toy on top of the fridge, as would make sense, the Abbott patriarch sets the spaceship down on a table at his son's eye level, placing the batteries right next to it. The eldest child, Regan (Millicent Simmonds), attempts a kind gesture by handing the toy back to her younger brother, sans batteries. Then the entire family walks away, leaving a four-year-old child as the caboose of their family train. Reminder: AA batteries look mighty tasty to the younger set. Any parent knows that no matter how many times you tell your child that a stove is hot, they won't learn their lesson until they feel the burn. Unfortunately, the hot stove in "A Quiet Place" comes in the form of a savage monster hell-bent on kiddie murder. Nobody's perfect, but come on, Lee. You had to put the toy there?
Evelyn maintains her dye job during the apocalypse
When you look good, you feel good, and when you feel good, you do good things. Fortunately for the denizens of the apocalypse, disheveled chic is all the rage. A little smudge of dirt here, a shirt tear there, and you're ready to tiptoe down the runway. Evelyn Abbott (Emily Blunt) takes things one step further: Her immaculately highlighted hair is maintained through the entire movie. It's a feat that impresses us ... and also has us scratching our heads in total confusion.
89 days into Earth's demise, your hair color might still be on the up-and-up. Sure, roots will have grown in at that point, but not necessarily to a devastating degree. But after the monsters feast on toddler flesh and the film fast-forwards to well over a year into the ordeal, Evelyn still looks like she's maintained a healthy relationship with her hair stylist. While keeping hold of a sense of self in the midst of annihilation is perfectly reasonable, we find it a bit of a stretch that a grieving, pregnant mother in an apocalyptic landscape is apparently able to make time to silently dye her hair in the basement. Seriously, Evelyn's hair looks good — we're talking hours-in-a-chair good. She's got highlights. She's got lowlights. She's eliminated the brassiness that comes from a bad bleach job. Either she's got superpowers, or there's a secret salon hidden in the woods.
Lee's death is unnecessary and badly timed
There is no denying the nobility of sacrificing yourself for a loved one. Conceptually, we have zero arguments against this stance: It's a classically heroic move, and an act of unimpeachable love. We do, however, have beef with Lee hollering out a war cry to draw the monsters to him instead of his children. Is it a brave decision that powerfully symbolizes his fatherly devotion? Absolutely. But it's also completely unnecessary, to the point of bordering on dumb. Lee doesn't have to draw the monsters to himself — he could hurl his axe at a tool shed, or even simply jangle his keys, then toss them into the cornfield. Basically every other way of making noise is a better option than the one Lee fatally takes.
Lee Abbott's death, while tear-jerking, feels avoidable and unrealistic — especially once you realize how much more sense it would make for him to die at the beginning of he movie. Picture this: Lee shouts at his four-year-old to throw the space shuttle toy out of range, or perhaps makes more noise than the tchotchke to attract the monster his way. That's a lot more believable than his actual demise. Parents may tell us they don't have a favorite child, but this is clearly a lie when it comes to Lee (hint: it's not his youngest).
Regan is at a unique disadvantage
In a world where sound can kill you, being deaf might seem like a gift. You can't miss what you never had, right? Maintaining one's sanity in the midst of total silence seems like it'd be easier if silence was all you'd ever known. Regan, the eldest child of the Abbott family, is one such "lucky" person. Lee actually spends much of his time attempting to repair her broken hearing aid. In the end, the device winds up being a potent weapon against the monsters: The screech it emits peels back their impervious shell, exposing the brain. Shotgun-wielding Evelyn Abbott exploits this weakness to spectacular effect.
The second time you watch "A Quiet Place," however, Regan's deafness comes across as less of a strength and more of a thematic device. We experience the world as she does, and gain a whole new perspective on communication, fear, and family. Beyond that, upon rewatching the film, you'll soon realize how much of a hindrance being deaf would actually be in this world. These monsters kill anything that makes sound, and it's a lot harder to know you're making a sound when you're deaf. Regan might crunch through fall leaves, walk on squeaky shoes, or breathe loudly without realizing she's making any noise at all. That means she might not know when she's vulnerable ... until it's too late.
The Abbotts have the quietest baby ever born
Entering this world comes at the cost of the sanctuary of our mothers' wombs. The majority of us are none too pleased about that fact. The only way we can communicate our intense displeasure at this state of affairs is to scream our tiny little lungs out. In "A Quiet Place," creating any sort of noise results in immediate obliteration. Luckily for the Abbott family, they're blessed with the most mellow baby ever born.
Evelyn is forced to endure childbirth alone while monsters patrol nearby, alert to any sound. This all occurs while Lee is outside, scrambling to get back to the house. When the two are reunited, a miracle has apparently occurred: Evelyn is holding their surprisingly silent newborn baby. They've developed an ingenious way to house their new human, involving a cute little coffin and oxygen mask. Unfortunately, making their way to the contraption, which is down in the basement, is a deadly ordeal. Or at least it should be — the calmest baby in the universe is courteous enough to wait until it's convenient to voice his complaints. Sure, some babies are more chill than others. But this level of silence is, frankly, absurd. He's a baby! He's experiencing cold and hunger for the first time! He might not yell all the livelong day, but really, we're meant to believe he exited the birth canal and promptly buttoned his yap?
Lee Abbott can make silent campfires
The crackle of a campfire can transport you to serenity. Or, you know, it can cause an angry alien to race to your location and gut you if you're a character in this movie. You'd assume the noise inherent to a fire would make them forbidden in the world of "A Quiet Place," but you would be wrong. Apparently, Lee Abbott has harnessed the power of the sun and bent it to his will. Through sheer determination, he can climb to a nearby mountaintop, click open his Zippo lighter, and bring a large, cozy fire to life, with no more noise made than a mild whoosh of wind.
It could be argued that the noise level of a fire depends entirely on what is burning. Lee could be igniting soft material that smolders quietly, perhaps. But judging from the tall flames he conjures, there's something more substantial burning in his campfire. Moreover, he's perched on top of a sizable hill, basically creating a signal fire for aliens with a hatred for noise. Surprise: "A Quiet Place" is a superhero movie, and Lee's signature ability is making silent campfires.
Regan discovers what entire militaries and top scientists fail to notice
Throughout "A Quiet Place," a picture is painted of invincible aliens with impervious skin and incredibly sensitive hearing. Newspapers in the background inform us that the military has been overwhelmed, and scientists are at a loss as to how to defeat the invaders. But the Abbott family stumbles across the monsters' weakness ... and it's actually pretty obvious.
Regan Abbott's hearing aid is on the fritz throughout the film. The high-pitched frequency emitted by the faulty equipment turns out to be a blessing: It exposes the aliens' vulnerable brains. It makes total sense that a creature with ultra-sensitive hearing might have trouble handling certain frequencies, yet the world's top minds apparently fail to think of this. Think of how easy it would be to set traps involving screeching electronics to lure the aliens to their death. Our ancestors could decimate the entire wooly mammoth population with cliffs and spears, but apparently we can't defeat aliens who have trouble with loud noises.
The Abbott family's miraculous silent truck
A fun game to play while watching "A Quiet Place" is to sip your drink every time someone calls for silence by holding a single finger to their lips. You'll definitely need a refill, as the signal is a staple of the Abbott family dynamic. Unfortunately for the denizens of Earth, physics exists. Unless you're floating in the vacuum of space, noise is inevitable ... or so you'd think. The second time you watch "A Quiet Place," you'll spot a few moments when noise is somehow conveniently a non-issue.
One of those moments occurs immediately after Papa Abbott's demise. To recap, Regan and Marcus (Noah Jupe) are trapped in an old truck when an alien descends on them. In order to save his children, Lee belts out a majestic war cry, drawing the monster away. The Abbott kids flip the truck into neutral as they watch their father fall prey to the enemy. Then they coast across their farm, down a gravel road, in their old clunky truck, while crying ... and arrive at their homestead with nary a monster in sight. How considerate of those aliens to allow them time to grieve!
Newspaper clippings and signs in the background show the timeline of Earth's invasion
We are introduced to the Abbott family 89 days after the initial invasion of Earth. A majority of the movie takes place on day 473. The big picture regarding the planet's demise is vague, and mostly seen through the Abbotts' eyes. But subtle worldbuilding can be glimpsed throughout the film, filling out the details of this particular apocalypse For instance, in the opening scene, a newspaper bearing the headline "IT'S SOUND!" can be seen. While that particular example is an obvious one, the second time you watch "A Quiet Place," you'll catch many more. Together, they paint a broader image of aliens' devastation.
Judging by how the monsters operate, our first impression is that Earth was conquered quickly and efficiently. But the bits of information offered in the background tell us the invasion happened over an extended period of time. Consider the missing persons posters scattered around town: They imply people had the time to post them after the aliens killed their loved ones. It's information that absolutely requires a pause button to catch, so keep your remote handy.
The creatures don't eat their kills
The sound-sensitive monsters of "A Quiet Place" are extremely savage. They can race across terrain with amazing speed, zero in on even the tiniest noise, and gut humans with ease. "A Quiet Place" does not venture into gorehound territory, so most of the deaths that take place aren't shown in all their bloody glory. However, you might notice something strange upon rewatching the movie: The aliens don't kill for nourishment. They simply send anything emanating sound to the afterlife, then go about their merry way.
The fact that the aliens don't eat their kills hints at their weakness. They're racing around the globe, eradicating anything that can defeat them — though humanity remains totally ignorant of this. While their supersonic hearing may seem like their greatest strength in conquering the world, it's also their greatest weakness: Certain pitches and sounds are debilitating to them, as they expose their squishy little brains. They aren't feeding on the human race, they're eliminating a threat to their existence. It makes perfect sense that the invaders would make killing the creatures who invented sirens a top priority — too bad humanity doesn't realize it sooner.