Mrs. Cups and I just came back from seeing it. Neither of us are horror movie fans, but the premise was so intriguing that we couldn’t pass up seeing it in a theater.
We both liked the movie a lot. I think making the movie a more intimate, family affair instead of trying to explain every minute detail brings more to the movie than takes away from it. The one thing that kept bugging me about the movie was how often the characters (namely the parents) kept putting their finger to their lips to say “quiet”. I wanted to be like “OH REALLY? SHOULD I BE QUIET IN THIS SITUATION? THANKS FOR TELLING ME.”
Other than that minor nitpick it was a fantastic movie. One thing I loved about the movie was yeah there were jump scares, but they never felt cheap. Lastly, I also think the ending was “We know how to kill em, let’s end this”.
Well the family lived on a rural farm, so that cuts down (forgive the pun) on the population already.
But aside from that, the family were shown to have a makeshift bunker / safe room to hide the baby (even though the creatutre got into it). I assume every other reasonably functioning person in the area did the same. It’s just that, inevitably, those people made a noise that attracted the creatures, they retreated to their own makeshift bunkers, but the creatures got in and killed them anyway.
So, the countryside is likely littered with corpses in remote corners that people hoped would be safe hiding places (but weren’t).
Also, it seems that the monsters don’t just attack and kill/eat anyone or anything. The little kid, the possum, the old man were all dragged away to under the foliage. The creatures seemed to drag their prey away to devour in secret. Even the half-eaten old woman wasn’t out in plain view; they found her among the trees. Perhaps, as scavengers, they don’t share their dinners well with the other creatures.
I just watched it, and that’s not what the board looks like in the movie.
The right side is the same, but the left side says something like:
How many? 3 confirmed in area (it doesn’t say 5 like that screenshot)
Armored
One other line I’m forgetting, but it’s not “attack in packs” or “demands?”
There’s nothing about them eating their kills.
I’m assuming they changed it in post.
She didn’t have time to fix it.
And she does point out the danger to her family. When she and the three kids are headed to the basement for the final scene, she signs to them at the top of the stairs and points to where the nail is. There are no subtitles for it, but it’s clearly: “careful, don’t step there.”
I agree that the ending was the beginning of the turnaround, not a last stand.
As is her little brother’s death. I mean, come on, I know she was only trying to be nice, but she saw her father take the toy away from him, she knew exactly WHY he took it away, she gave it back to him anyway, and then she walked away leaving the batteries on the counter right in his reach. It didn’t occur to her even to make sure he left the batteries? (Or perhaps she or either of her parents could have just pocketed the batteries because who knows when they might comei in handy?)
The girl spends the rest of the movie sulking and pouting that she’s being treated like a kid and not being given any freedom, but the very first thing she does in the moive is a thoughtlessly irresponsible act that gets her little brother killed. Uh, yeah, if I were your dad, I’d be keeping you on a short leash as well.
We’re looking at a world where 99+% of people have been wiped out by creatures that we’re just not equipped to deal with. Our heros have been exceptionally careful, but also exceptionally lucky. Just moments before she gives him the rocket, we see her probably save his life by catching it as it falls from the shelf.
The whole family wouldn’t have lasted even the 80ish days we see at the beginning if not for her. The reason they made it as far as they did is they knew sign language.
Assigning blame to someone who fails to execute perfectly in an exceptionally unforgiving environment isn’t reasonable. The environment is at fault. If you hand the controls of a helicopter to someone who has no idea how to fly one at a few thousand feet, is it their fault when they crash? Of course not. Almost everyone would crash in that situation.
Almost everyone in the movie world had already crashed.
The death could also have been avoided by having one parent in the front of the single file line and one in the back. You know, like you do on casual non-apocalpytic cub scout hikes. 4-year-olds wander off. But that doesn’t make his death their fault either.
Agree. The younger boys death is everyone’s and no one’s fault all at once.
The mom even talks about it. WHY was the 3 year old walking at the rear of the group?
Regarding the electricity…I may have seen it wrong, and I’m not saying it make any sense…but didn’t we see a generator toward the end in the corn field–it’s where the brother runs and hides–it’s wrapped up in mattresses and blankets? I thought that was a generator with padding meant to muffle the sound.
I never blamed her for her brother’s death, because that one is really on the parents for not keeping an eye open and keeping the group closer together.
Well, the opening sequence is a literary device, of course, it establishes the seriousness of the situation, the important ground rules and sets up the father/daughter tension for later. Having said that, in universe I would say it’s absolutely the grown ups fault for not keeping better control of the situation; kids do that, sure it’s not something they’ve trained for, but they’re 3 months in, that lapse is on them.
Interesting point I saw in a review is that, although the deaf daughter gave them an edge with everyone knowing sign, it’s a two edged sword, in that she may not know when she’s making noise.
I think my argument applies to her father’s death, too.
They were tired. They were on edge. Their older boy was sick. They carried him however many miles to town and back.
It’s not your fault when superhuman magic armored nightmare monsters kill your loved ones. That might be the central theme of this film.
I thought that when John K. stopped her from going down into the basement in the house with the painted floorboards, this was why. Because her hearing aid thingy was no longer working, and there was so much stuff there that could be noisy, and she wouldn’t have the auditory feedback to freeze before a small noise turned into a big noise.
I have not seen this movie but been following its success. Yay John K after directing a couple of movies that stayed small.
I was listening to a podcast that reframed the plot of this movie - I will spoiler it because some folks just want this to be a good horror movie. If you do NOT want to hear a theory about how this movie relates to what is happening in our divided, caustic world today, don’t read it.
[spoiler]I listen to a few pop culture podcasts. One is Still Processing by a couple of NYTimes columnists who are Black, Wesley Morris and Jenna Wortham. I appreciate hearing how things are being processed through their lens (each are gay, too).
They have a new podcast on White culture and how it is being expressed right now. Of course Roseanne is discussed. But for The Quiet Place, they were both struck by how the movie is a Twilight Zone metaphor for Political Correctness: what happens when you can’t say anything without being hunted down and killed? What happens when you were used to being free and privileged and now your voice is completely taken away by ugly brown aliens with huge, overly sensitive ears? To be clear: they are NOT accusing John K of anything racist - they start off the discussion saying they respect him and wish him nothing but success - they just see how the central theme of the story can have a real traction in today’s world. Kinda the complement to Get Out: a Black man worried about what Whites might want from him when they get him alone vs. a White family worried that they’ll be killed for the slightest infraction or expression of voice.
I am sure, as an old white guy, I would never think to see the link if I was watching it. But the way they described it, it seemed obvious as a sci-fi metaphor approach - for someone who hasn’t seen the movie.
The problem with reads like the spoiler-boxed one above is that…
…it reads like film studies students really trying to come up with an essay topic.
It works as a joke on Twitter (which there is a good one that I saw) but is just worth an :rolleyes: when tried to be made a serious discussion.
I know that the movie’s big hook is how little dialogue there is, but I wouldn’t have minded, say, a short scene flashing back to when life was normal and you could talk and watch TV and do whatever without being eaten by big, scary monsters. I think such a scene would be really jarring, but in a good way, you know? It would have made for good contrast.
Thanks for clarifying. And confirming I am not crazy!
Agreed.
Most alien invasion films are resolved when the humans figure out the monsters’ weakness. Same thing in this one. [They didn’t show us the cleanup operation, but I liked that choice.] The movie ends on a hopeful note.