What is "A Quiet Place"?

A Quiet Place is an American science-fiction horror film series about a family struggling to survive after Earth is invaded by blind extraterrestrial creatures who hunt humans through sound. Directed by John Krasinski, the first film, A Quiet Place (2018), stars Krasinski and his real-life spouse, Emily Blunt, as Lee and Evelyn Abbott, respectively. They desperately protect their children, Regan and Marcus, after the death of their youngest child, Beau. To avoid being hunted, the Abbotts live in complete silence on a farm, using paths of sand to muffle their footsteps and communicating in American Sign Language (ASL). The film premiered at South by Southwest Film Festival in Austin, Texas, to positive reviews. A Quiet Place was commercially successful, grossing over $334 million worldwide, and was nominated for an Academy Award for sound editing.

Who directed "A Quiet Place" and when was it released?

A Quiet Place , a science-fiction horror film about a family struggling to survive after Earth is invaded by extraterrestrial creatures, was directed by John Krasinski . Krasinski also shares a writing credit with Bryan Woods and Scott Beck. The film premiered at the South by Southwest Film Festival and was released in 2018, receiving positive reviews.

What kind of creatures appear in the movie?

A Quiet Place features blind extraterrestrial creatures that hunt humans by sound. The film revolves around the Abbott family, Evelyn and Lee, and their children Regan and Marcus, as they navigate a post-apocalyptic world invaded by these deadly creatures. In the opening scene, the youngest child, Beau, is killed by one of the creatures after activating a noisy toy. The family lives in isolation on a farm, taking extreme measures to remain silent and avoid detection. Regan discovers that the feedback from her damaged cochlear implant is agonizing to the creatures because of their enhanced hearing. This discovery empowers the family, providing them with a weapon to defend themselves.

Why do the characters in the film have to stay silent?

In A Quiet Place , the characters must remain silent to evade extraterrestrial creatures that hunt by sound. The Abbott family, living in isolation on a farm after the alien invasion, has adapted to a nearly sound-free existence to survive. They use paths of sand to muffle their footsteps and strings of lights to signal emergencies. The family has eliminated anything that could make noise. The film uses very little dialogue, and the characters communicate through gestures, expressions, and American Sign Language. The tension of their silent existence emphasizes their fear of making any sound.

How does the family communicate with each other without speaking?

In A Quiet Place , the Abbott family communicates without speaking to evade the deadly alien creatures that hunt by sound. They use American Sign Language (ASL) , gestures, facial expressions, and body language to convey information. The family has also adapted their environment to aid communication and minimize noise. They use paths of sand to muffle their footsteps and strings of lights to signal emergencies. The film also conveys the experiences of Regan, who is deaf, through periods of utter silence, highlighting her perspective.

What makes the movie unique compared to other horror or thriller films?

A Quiet Place stands out in the horror/thriller genre for its innovative use of sound and silence to build suspense. The film creates a terrifying post-apocalyptic world where a family must live in complete silence to evade blind extraterrestrial creatures with extremely sensitive hearing. This premise is explored through minimal dialogue, with the characters communicating primarily through American Sign Language (ASL), gestures, and body language. The audience experiences the world from the perspective of Regan, a deaf character, with scenes of complete silence, further immersing viewers in the tension.

A Quiet Place

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Millicent Simmonds as Regan Abbott and John Krasinski as Lee Abbott argue using sign language in a grassy field beside a large tree in a scene from A Quiet Place.

Emily Blunt as Evelyn Abbott sits in a bathtub looking distressed, in a scene from the film A Quiet Place (2018), with dried roses visible on the nearby wall.

A Quiet Place

film by Krasinski [2018]

Written by

Karen Sottosanti

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Top Questions

What is "A Quiet Place"?
A Quiet Place is an American science-fiction horror film series about a family struggling to survive after Earth is invaded by blind extraterrestrial creatures who hunt humans through sound.

Directed by John Krasinski, the first film, A Quiet Place (2018), stars Krasinski and his real-life spouse, Emily Blunt, as Lee and Evelyn Abbott, respectively. They desperately protect their children, Regan and Marcus, after the death of their youngest child, Beau. To avoid being hunted, the Abbotts live in complete silence on a farm, using paths of sand to muffle their footsteps and communicating in American Sign Language (ASL).

The film premiered at South by Southwest Film Festival in Austin, Texas, to positive reviews. A Quiet Place was commercially successful, grossing over $334 million worldwide, and was nominated for an Academy Award for sound editing.
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1. A Quiet Place
2. A Quiet Place: Facts & Related Content
Created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.
Who directed "A Quiet Place" and when was it released?
A Quiet Place, a science-fiction horror film about a family struggling to survive after Earth is invaded by extraterrestrial creatures, was directed by John Krasinski. Krasinski also shares a writing credit with Bryan Woods and Scott Beck. The film premiered at the South by Southwest Film Festival and was released in 2018, receiving positive reviews.
3 Britannica Sources
Created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.
What kind of creatures appear in the movie?
A Quiet Place features blind extraterrestrial creatures that hunt humans by sound. The film revolves around the Abbott family, Evelyn and Lee, and their children Regan and Marcus, as they navigate a post-apocalyptic world invaded by these deadly creatures.

In the opening scene, the youngest child, Beau, is killed by one of the creatures after activating a noisy toy. The family lives in isolation on a farm, taking extreme measures to remain silent and avoid detection. Regan discovers that the feedback from her damaged cochlear implant is agonizing to the creatures because of their enhanced hearing. This discovery empowers the family, providing them with a weapon to defend themselves.
1 Britannica Source
1. A Quiet Place: Plot and characters
Created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.
Why do the characters in the film have to stay silent?
In A Quiet Place, the characters must remain silent to evade extraterrestrial creatures that hunt by sound. The Abbott family, living in isolation on a farm after the alien invasion, has adapted to a nearly sound-free existence to survive.

They use paths of sand to muffle their footsteps and strings of lights to signal emergencies. The family has eliminated anything that could make noise. The film uses very little dialogue, and the characters communicate through gestures, expressions, and American Sign Language. The tension of their silent existence emphasizes their fear of making any sound.
1 Britannica Source
1. A Quiet Place: Plot and characters
Created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.
How does the family communicate with each other without speaking?
In A Quiet Place, the Abbott family communicates without speaking to evade the deadly alien creatures that hunt by sound. They use American Sign Language (ASL), gestures, facial expressions, and body language to convey information. The family has also adapted their environment to aid communication and minimize noise. They use paths of sand to muffle their footsteps and strings of lights to signal emergencies. The film also conveys the experiences of Regan, who is deaf, through periods of utter silence, highlighting her perspective.
1 Britannica Source
1. A Quiet Place: Plot and characters
Created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.
What makes the movie unique compared to other horror or thriller films?
A Quiet Place stands out in the horror/thriller genre for its innovative use of sound and silence to build suspense. The film creates a terrifying post-apocalyptic world where a family must live in complete silence to evade blind extraterrestrial creatures with extremely sensitive hearing. This premise is explored through minimal dialogue, with the characters communicating primarily through American Sign Language (ASL), gestures, and body language. The audience experiences the world from the perspective of Regan, a deaf character, with scenes of complete silence, further immersing viewers in the tension.
1 Britannica Source
1. A Quiet Place
Created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.

A Quiet Place, American science-fiction–horror film series that uses sound and silence in innovative ways to tell the postapocalyptic story of a family trying to survive after Earth has been invaded by blind extraterrestrial creatures that hunt humans by sound. The films are noted for their extensive use of American Sign Language (ASL) and their focus on the experiences of a deaf character. The first two films in the series, A Quiet Place (2018) and A Quiet Place Part II (2020), were directed by John Krasinski, who played Lee Abbott in the films, and written by Krasinski, Bryan Woods, and Scott Beck. A Quiet Place, which premiered at the South by Southwest Film Festival in Austin, Texas, received enthusiastic reviews and was commercially successful, grossing more than $334 million worldwide. The film was nominated for an Academy Award for sound editing.

A Quiet Place Part II had its world premiere in March 2020, but public health measures related to the COVID-19 pandemic delayed its general release to 2021. The film received mainly positive reviews and grossed about $297 million worldwide. A prequel, A Quiet Place: Day One, is scheduled to be released in June 2024. A Quiet Place Part III and a video game are in development.

Plot and characters

A Quiet Place begins in a small town in upstate New York. The film stars the real-life spouses Emily Blunt and John Krasinski as Evelyn and Lee Abbott, who are desperately trying to protect their children Regan (played by Millicent Simmonds) and Marcus (Noah Jupe) from the deadly alien creatures that have invaded Earth. In a terrifying and heartbreaking opening sequence, the couple’s youngest child, Beau (Cade Woodward), is killed after turning on a noisy toy that allows one of the blind creatures, which have extremely sensitive hearing, to pinpoint his location. The film then jumps in time to more than a year later. As a teenager, Regan, who is deaf—as is Simmonds—blames herself for her brother’s death, because she gave the toy to Beau, believing it was safe. In his basement workshop, Lee tries to contact other survivors via radio communication and uses pieces of hearing aids to try to repair Regan’s broken cochlear implant. Regan thinks her father blames her for Beau’s death, and so their relationship is strained. Meanwhile, Evelyn is pregnant and near full term, and the family scrambles to prepare a way to safely raise an infant in a world where noise means certain death.

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In the terribly changed world of A Quiet Place, humans must be as silent as possible to avoid being hunted by the alien creatures. The Abbott family lives in isolation on a farm. They have laid paths of sand everywhere, including along their route to town, to muffle their footsteps. Strings of lights soundlessly alert the family to emergencies. They have eliminated everything that makes noise, including shoes, doors, and even board game pieces. The film is largely dialogue-free, with family members conveying most information through gestures, facial expressions, and body language. They converse in subtitled ASL. Throughout most of the film, all the audience hears are the small sounds of nature, but when Regan’s point of view is represented, the film is utterly silent, thus portraying her experience of the world. The unrelenting tension of the family’s efforts to remain silent—and, therefore, alive—is nerve-wracking, leading audiences to share in the characters’ fear of making a sound. In one especially harrowing scene, one of the alien creatures stalks through the farmhouse as Evelyn huddles in a bathtub, trying not to scream as she suffers through childbirth.

At the end of A Quiet Place, Lee sacrifices himself to save his children, and Regan discovers that feedback from her damaged cochlear implant is agonizing to the creatures, because of their enhanced hearing. As one creature writhes in pain, the shell armor of its head recedes far enough for Evelyn to shoot it dead. Empowered, Regan and Evelyn realize that they now have a weapon that they can use to defend themselves.

A Quiet Place Part II

This theme of empowerment is continued in A Quiet Place Part II, in which Simmonds plays a larger role. After an opening sequence showing how an asteroid-like object originally brought the extraterrestrial creatures to Earth, the film follows Evelyn, Regan, and Marcus as they leave their farm in search of other survivors. Carrying Evelyn’s newborn baby in a noise-muffling crate equipped with an oxygen tank, they soon find Emmett (Cillian Murphy), a neighbor and an old friend who is hiding from the creatures in an abandoned steel mill. A radio in his hideout starts playing the song “Beyond the Sea” by Bobby Darin on a loop. Regan theorizes that the song is a coded message; she thinks the people broadcasting it are on an island where the alien creatures are not present. While the others are sleeping, she leaves to investigate her idea. The next morning, Evelyn begs Emmett to follow Regan and bring her back. He finds Regan, but he cannot convince her to return—instead, she persuades him to join her quest. After a terrifying scene in a marina, where a group of surviving humans proves to be just as menacing as the alien creatures, Regan and Emmett take a boat to an island. There they find a group of survivors, including a man (Djimon Hounsou) who tells them that at the beginning of the alien invasion the U.S. National Guard helped people take ships to the island. At the end of the film, both Marcus and Regan act to save others, showing that the children are following in the determined footsteps of their parents.

The prequel, A Quiet Place: Day One, was directed by Michael Sarnoski and written by Sarnoski, Krasinski, and Woods. The film, which is set in New York City on the first day of the alien invasion, stars Lupita Nyong’o, Joseph Quinn, Alex Wolff, and Djimon Hounsou.

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