A Quiet Place is a horror film by John Krasinski about the survival of a family in the face of an attack by alien monsters that react to loud noises. The film was a breakthrough for the horror genre, won the hearts of fans and deserved a sequel, which will soon be released in theaters.
Meaning of “A Quiet Place”
The action takes place in a post-apocalyptic world in 2018. Humanity is almost exterminated by blind monsters who navigate with the help of heightened hearing and attack those who are not lucky enough to make a loud noise. They are fast, strong and very bloodthirsty.
The opening scene presents us with a family of five, two adults and three children, walking barefoot on a sandy path. The family heads to the city for food and medicine for their youngest son.
In town, a father finds hearing aid batteries for Regan’s hearing-impaired older daughter and forbids younger son Bo from taking a toy spaceship that can make loud noises. Taking pity on his brother, Regan secretly hands him a toy without batteries.
An interesting fact: the actress who played Regan – Millie Simmonds – is really deaf from infancy due to medications misused by doctors.
Bo steals batteries and puts them in the spaceship on his way home. He turns on the toy, and the loud sounds it makes attract the monster. The father tries to save his son, but the monster suddenly and very quickly drags the child away and kills him.
A year passes. Spouses Lee and Evelyn communicate with their children using only sign language. They try to lead as quiet an existence as possible, go barefoot. The quiet life of the family is complicated by the behavior of the children and Evelyn’s pregnancy. She is in her last month and is about to give birth.
The eldest daughter is a typical troubled teenager, commits impulsive acts and several times during the film puts the whole family in danger of death. The middle son Marcus did not go far from his sister, he is absolutely not adapted to life. Father’s overprotection cannot have a positive effect, as Marcus grows dependent, and Regan believes that since her father constantly controls her, he does not love her and blames Bo for the death.
Lee does soundproofing and furnishing the basement so that Evelyn can give birth there and the baby is not endangered by constant crying. In addition, he is upgrading his daughter’s cochlear implant so that she can hear, but to no avail.
One day a father and son go fishing. Because of the noise of the river, they can talk calmly without fear of attack. Marcus tells Lee about the experiences of Regan, who does not feel the love of her father and considers herself responsible for the death of their little brother.
At this time, the daughter is about to run away from home and goes to the grave of Bo. She leaves her pregnant mother alone, whose waters break and contractions begin, putting her life in danger. Evelyn hurries down to the basement, but pierces her foot with a nail sticking out of the stairs. This nail is a fairly obvious plot crutch, because in principle there can be no nail hammered with the tip up in the stairs of a residential building.
Evelyn, in terrible pain, forces herself to be silent, but inadvertently throws off a frame with a photograph on the floor, which breaks with a loud noise, attracting the monster’s attention.
On their way home, Lee and Marcus meet an old man who has lost his wife to a monster attack. The old man commits suicide by screaming loudly. He is immediately dragged into the forest. This delays father and son. On the way to the house, they see red lights lit around the entire perimeter of the site, signaling an alarm.
The father sends his son to set off fireworks to distract the monsters. Lee hurries to the house, where he finds his wife, who has just given birth, with a baby.
Regan, seeing the fireworks, hurries back home, meeting his brother in the cornfield. They are surrounded by monsters and try to hide on the grain storage tower. Marcus breaks loose and falls inside, nearly drowning in grain. Regan jumps to his aid, but a monster sneaks into the tower. As the monster approaches, Regan begins to hear an increasing sound from his hearing aid. She can barely stand it and suddenly the monster escapes.
The meaning of the film’s ending
The father is in a hurry to save the children. Evelyn wakes up in the bathroom. She sees how the water floods the basement, and one of the monsters is right there. Evelyn only manages to survive because the monster is attracted by the noise in the grain tower.
The children manage to get out of the grain, they rush to the house and meet their father. Suddenly a monster attacks, Marcus and Regan hide in the car. The father, realizing that all of them cannot survive, sacrifices himself, starting to scream, calling on the monster. Before he dies, he tells the children how much he loves them both. The self-sacrifice of the father and his love for his children is one of the main ideas of the film.
Regan and Marcus run home, find their mother and hide in their father’s workshop. Attracted by the baby’s cry, the monster follows them. The daughter realizes that the monster has escaped because of the ultrasound emitted by her hearing implant. Right there in the workshop, she sees dozens of the same devices that her father developed especially for her, which once again proves his love.
Regan brings the implant to the microphone, amplifying its sound with the radio, which significantly weakens the monster. The protective plates on his head open, revealing delicate auditory membranes. Knowing that the skin of monsters is bulletproof, Evelyn realizes that she has found a weak spot. She shoots at an unprotected area and blows the monster’s head off.
Surveillance cameras show other monsters approaching the house, attracted by the sound of the gunshot. However, the mother smiles, ready to kill them too. The meaning of this scene lies in the hope for survival, earned by self-sacrifice and courage.
The main theme of the film is the struggle for survival and adaptation in new terrifying conditions. That is why the events begin after the advent of the monsters, and the capture of the planet itself is not shown. A child born in such conditions is a symbol of hope and the continuation of life, and Evelyn with children at the end of the film shows what this picture was about. About future.
