A Quiet Place: Day Onerecently hit theaters, and the apocalyptic world full of deadly creatures who kill anything that makes the slightest of sounds already has audiences stifling their screams. The third installment in the franchise,Day One,aptly chronicles the first day aliens,known as Death Angels, crash-landed on Earth and subsequently destroyed civilization. It follows Sam’s (Lupita Nyong’o) story as she navigates New York City with her cat Frodo and an unlikely friend, Eric (Joseph Quinn), whom she meets after the vicious aliens take hold of the city. The first film,A Quiet Place, explores the lives of the Abbott family, who have survived nearly 16 months after the end of the world began, and the second film,A Quiet Place: Part 2, continues with the Abbott family as they attempt to combat the barbarous Death Angels.
From a dark, distant planet somewhere in another galaxy, the Death Angels made their way to Earth by hitching a ride on asteroids after their home planet was somehow destroyed. Equipped with armor-like skin and echolocation rather than sight, the aliens are nearly impenetrable. After arriving on Earth via a meteor shower, the Death Angels quickly killed anything that made the smallest of sounds. With the majority of people completely wiped out, those who remain must stay silent in order to survive. However, given thetype of apocalyptic worldcreated inA Quiet Place, audiences can’t help but wonder if the concept even makes sense to begin with. Upon deeper reflection on the franchise, there are a myriad of aspects that don’t hold up. Nonetheless, whether or not the concept makes sense, does it really even matter?
A Quiet Place
The Death Angels’ Hearing Abilities Don’t Make Sense
On its surface, the world ofA Quiet Placeappears to have a solid and terrifying premise. However, the concept of the horror franchise quickly falls apart when examined a bit further. Silence or death by monstrous creatures is an interesting notion because of the restraints it puts on the story’s characters. Unfortunately, the manner in which the films attempt to maintain such a world is inconsistent.
The aliens in the franchise are drawn to the slightest of sounds, but it’s unclear as to how they’re able to hear anything from such far-off distances. It doesn’t make sense that the Death Angels are able to hear sounds from the basement of a housethrough miles of forestsas shown in the first movie.Sound can only travel so far before the sound waves cease moving altogether. So, even for creatures with impeccably advanced hearing, whispers and other small noises would be safe at a certain distance.
Furthermore,given the creatures possess the ability to hear such incredibly small sounds, it would make sense that larger sounds might actually harm their hearing in some capacity. However, the large sounds merely drown out other small sounds throughout the films. It’s clear a certain high frequency, like the one emitted from Regan’s (Millicent Simmonds) hearing aid, physically pains them and makes them temporarily vulnerable, but it would seem other sounds should have a similar effect if loud enough.
What A Quiet Place: Day One Told Us About the Death Angels
With many more sightings of the creatures throughout the film, the Quiet Place prequel offers one important new aspect about the deadly aliens.
Also, if large sounds like a waterfall inA Quiet Placeor a thunderstorm inA Quiet Place: Day Onecreate a white noise effect that shields humans from detection, thenpeople should be carrying devices that emulate those sounds, or they should be living near places that constantly make such sounds. Given the Abbott family has survived for nearly 16 months and gathered a slew of information about the Death Angels, it doesn’t appear that such a notion has ever crossed their minds, which simply doesn’t make sense.
Other Plot Holes
With all that being said, these issues don’t even begin to explain how there are still birds and rodents roaming the forests or how involuntary bodily sounds, such as coughing, snoring, and sneezing, factor into the films. Nor does it explain how the Abbott family was able to power their farm without some sort of loud generator or how newspapers were able to print and distribute papers warning the population of the Death Angels, as evident in the first film.
Stephen King Shares his Short but Positive Review of New ‘Big Hollywood’ Horror Hit
Master of horror Stephen King has shared his thoughts for A Quiet Place: Day One, Paramount Pictures' latest horror release.
Do the Inconsistencies Even Matter?
Despite all the issues that arise from a deeper examination ofA Quiet Place’suniverse, they simply don’t matter when watching the films. Sure, there are plenty of inconsistencies regarding the Death Angel’s hearing abilities. However,the creatures are merely tools that set the stage for an apocalyptic world in which humansmust remain silent, or they will die. When such restrictions are placed upon a story’s characters, the tone immediately becomes terrifying and the ingredients for a horror movie emerge.It creates the necessary environment to explore what it looks like when the rules of society no longer exist, and people must survive on their own without the comforts of the modern world, with the extra element of silence in the mix.
Like many horror films,A Quiet Placeis meant to be an experience to enjoy with characters the audience is meant to root for. If viewers analyze anything too much, nothing will hold up to scrutiny. The Death Angels make just enough sense to present a frightening world that’s enjoyable to watch. It doesn’t need to be a perfect universe. As long as viewers take the films for what they are and go along for the ride, it’ll be a fun experience.A Quiet Place: Day Oneis currently in theaters, andA Quiet PlaceandA Quiet Place: Part 2are streaming on Paramount+.
