Line #89 Headscratchers/AQuietPlace


1	!Per wiki policy, Administrivia/SpoilersOff applies here and all spoilers are unmarked. Administrivia/YouHaveBeenWarned.
2
3	!!'''The consistency of the creatures' powerful hearing'''
4	It's pretty easy to tell that the creatures have such ludicrously powerful hearing that they can detect someone speaking at indoor voice volume from far away and even react to the noise of a mere raccoon strolling through a cornfield. So why is it that in some scenes, the creatures can't hear the characters breathing or making other involuntary noises when they're only a few feet away from them, especially in situations where there's no other noise to draw away their attention?
5	* Lee mentioned that the sounds have to be of a certain threshold to attract them or, rather, set them off. Unless they're breathing louder than usual and raspily, the breathing might not attract them. In terms of the raccoon, it did make some hissing and squeaking noises before the monsters got it, thus why the monster got it.
6	** Yet in the film's climax Lee is hit by a creature despite not doing anything extraordinary: just standing barefoot, breathing and quietly grabbing an axe. Makes you think the monsters get triggered only when it's convenient to the plot.
7	* The creature that got the raccoon seemed to be rather close to it, hiding within the nearby corn. As for what threshold of sound might attract them, best to be safe and stay as quiet as possible.
8	* The general inconsistency throughout the film is one of the most annoying things about it in my humble opinion. The creatures appear whenever they should — according to screenwriters, not the in-universe logic. A broken glass lamp is a minor example from the first part of the movie, but in its climax the monsters get more nit-picky. [[https://i.imgur.com/wHMJBZm.png According to Lee's believable research]], there are 3 of them ''in Area'', but only 1 shows up when everything's going down. They don't get dragged in by fireworks (!), a moving vehicle (certainly a rarity in such circumstances) or even a very loud breaking through a silo wall by their comrade. They do, however, catch the bait after the magnified audio feedback virtually kills him. All in all, by the way it's portrayed on screen, the remaining 2 creatures for some reason ignore at least 3 [[BerserkButton triggers]], but once they hear something that will eventually turn out to be their doom, they go on the run. I fail to see any logic in this.
9	** Sheet metal is a LOT weaker than the materials used to make a car. I've seen people accidentally punch a hole through it with hand tools.
10	** If there are three, then each monster has a specific loud noise that sets them off. All we know is that noises of certain threshold is gonna set 'em off.
11	*** Well, if [=IIRC=], in the scene with Lee, the alien was already enraged and so it struck (that and he make some noise, along with dropping). In terms of the fireworks, well, the purpose of said fireworks was to distract them so Evelyn could give birth safely (where she could scream), as any sound loud enough to muffle screaming wouldn't be caught by the aliens (he explains this to Marcus at the river). In terms of the end, well, don't gunshots echo? In which case, that's why the other two came out. As it was explained before, the sounds have to be a certain threshold to attract them and a gun would be above that threshold.
12	** The way I saw it was that they had no way of being sure the aliens were in the area, so they were covering all their bases. The closer you are to something, the more the noise is going to register with you. An extremely loud noise tells the alien some prey is nearby, so they'll be listening out for smaller sounds that could give their prey away. And maybe more mundanely, the aliens have varying degrees of hearing like people in real life. Some have better hearing than others, so maybe the family just got lucky that the aliens with worse hearing were the ones nearby when smaller sounds were made.
13	** And if you want to interpret it as the same creature that's in the third act, it got hurt by Regan's hearing aid in the field - so perhaps that messed with its hearing for a little while.
14	** Hearing is one thing but actually ''identifying'' the sounds is a different matter altogether. So how do the creatures know what sounds does their supposed prey make?
15	*** They prolly don't. All we know is that, whatever they ate, the prey made noise and we know that they can go a long-ass time without food, so them attacking anything that made a sound is because they're hungry and desperate (as already noted on here, somewhere). That being said, Regan's cochlear implant made a noise that was probably was probably like dog whistles to the monsters—''unpleasant''.
16
17	!!'''People joke, but what if you had to fart in this world?'''
18	Or cough? Or sneeze? Or poop? Or anything like that?
19	* If you hold in a fart long enough, it will leak out slowly and quietly. One can also reduce the sounds made by farting by spreading their cheeks first. One with a serious problem might wear a vent tube into their rectum so gasses can escape quietly.
20	* You do it quietly, like muffling your sneeze with a handkerchief. As pointed out, sounds below a certain volume threshold won't draw them out.
21	* The flatulent will certainly not inherit the Earth. Add in HoistByHisOwnPetard for the poor fool who says “Pull my finger.”
22	* I work in a lab under several layers of protective equipment that takes a full minute or two to get in and out of. Including a face shield. Believe me, you can train yourself to not sneeze.
23	* In terms of the flatulence, that could be controlled through diet (i.e, not eating things that would cause loud flatulence)
24
25	!!'''Weakness - was it really that hard to figure out?'''
26	So these creatures were able to nearly wipe out humanity, being impervious to all manner of weapons and can hunt via their hyper acute hearing... and we find out their weakness is high pitched frequencies. Their weakness is ''so stupidly obvious'' and you're telling this troper that NO ONE could figure this out? The planet's military and intelligence operations couldn't nail down its incredibly obvious and exploitable weakness? REALLY?
27	* The family only found it on accident, and Krasinski does appear to be taking a jab at how our militaries and governments are useless.
28	** Not just that, governments and militaries, when it comes to solutions, they tend to go with quick and short-term, thus they would go with just giving the monsters all they got vs trying to sort out what to really use and, with how the monsters work, they were probably didn't have the chance to actually test any proposed theory (without setting the monsters off). Likewise, there aren't too many things that make high-pitched sounds of that frequency that are actually, well, audible (dog whistles are high-frequency but they're practically quiet, except on a supersonic level). However, be this as noted, we only get this family and this country's view, so it's possible (though unlikely), somewhere else, some people or person may have figured it out, too, but they haven't a weapon to fight them off besides deterring them.
29	*** Sound cannons, using a variety of high frequency noises and often with the ability to switch through frequencies already exist and are part of many militaries and police forces. Plus, you really just have to wait until they are listening to something or screaming about something. It seems like no one ever thought to attack the soft fleshy bits.
30	** The creatures' presence interferes with electronics, which would have made a large amount of military technology useless. Furthermore, the world's militaries were likely the first to go, as shooting or bombing to kill one group of creatures would draw in all the others for miles. Kill one, and a hundred more would show up.
31	*** In addition to this, The creatures only seem to take real damage when their ear canals are fully exposed, which they only do when really having to listen for something. It's unlikely the creatures would be doing this around any military.
32	** Don't a small but significant number of modern machines, devices, and vehicles use high pitched noises as well? Did none of the hundred of thousands, maybe millions of soldiers involved in the conflict have hearing aids of their own that could have gone off during the chaos? Did none of the seven billion humans on earth accidentally set off a high frequency noise during the pan-global assault? And aren't there any number of wild animals that use high-pitched calls and communication in the natural world that would have affected any monster in the near vicinity? It just seems odd that there wouldn't be one or two flukes that would have keyed humanity in on the creature's primary weakness.
33	*** Actually, to answer the first point, it was more than just pitch it was frequency, along with volume (it had to be loud enough to disorient them to expose their weakpoints) and, on the second point, from my observation, it wasn't so much the fact that the Cochlear implant emitted that frequency, rather, it was damaged, hence, why it did what it did (to elaborate, I knew a girl who was ''functionally'' deaf and her hearing aid made that sort of noise when interfered with, however, it wasn't loud). On the note of the third point, well, we did see a raccoon get eaten (or crushed, either way, it became a splattered mess at the monster's claws?) and that made a high-pitched noise, thus it's more than the pitch, otherwise, we'd probably see more animals and the monsters ignoring them.
34	*** The way I understood it, the specific frequency that weakens the monster isn't supposed to be audible to regular humans. Notice that all the scenes where we hear the sound of the malfunctioning implant are from Regan's viewpoint. Cochlear implants work by converting sound waves in the air into electromagnetic signals, which in turn fire up a set of electrodes to stimulate the cochlear nerves. So it probably means that the electromagnets in the implant set off the creatures' nerves directly, and holding it up to a microphone transduces and amplifies the electromagnetic signal into its acoustic equivalent - which, again, is audible to the creatures but not regular humans.
35	** It is probably a combination of the frequency and the particular mechanics of the hearing aid that causes that reaction. Note in the climax that the monster was annoyed by the other radio equipment but NOT driven off by it. Considering how fast and deadly the monsters are, random chance doesn't necessarily translate into a viable countermeasure. It took the characters a long time to make that connection, mostly because Regan was the only one experiencing that feedback and the first time it happened she didn't even know the monster was behind her.
36	** Sounds fair but it wasn't the radio equipment that annoyed it initially, it was the [=TV=]s. The frequency is what drove it off and, when amplified, disoriented it enough.
37	* Even worse: the creatures are able to pierce through the metal silo when enraged by the piercing sound; otherwise, when ''attacking'', they can't even slash through an old truck's roof (and that one failed to notice the big opening ''it itself made'' when it ripped the door off). Which means any decently armored vehicle or installation should have been perfectly safe from them. Even if we're convinced that bombs and artillery are ineffective against their armor (which is another can of worms), if an attacking creature can't get into a pickup, a bunch of them aren't getting into an M1 Abrams or an APV either.
38	** I kind of figured that the silo and the pickup truck are made two different metals, along with one being thicker than the other (the metal used for silos are pretty much the same as the metal one uses for jar lids).
39	** I think the monster had the equivalent of an adrenaline rush and tapped into its stores of energy to escape the noise (like how people in danger can surpass their normal limits to survive).
40	** And there are probably many pockets of survivors holed up in armored structures around the globe - at one point, we do get to see a number of bonfires on the horizon. But they'd still need to go out and scrounge up supplies to survive, and how many do you think can manage that for a year without making a sound?
41	*** Not many, unless they live pretty far underground (where any sounds they make would be muffled, even to alien ears)...
42	* What wasn't mentioned yet is the general issue of communication and passing the knowledge further. Let's say someone, even in early days of invasion, did figure out the weak point. Now you need to inform others about it. While you've just fired your weapon (a lot of noise, ''even'' with a HollywoodSilencer) and probably have to yell or at least say to others what you just figured out (''if'' you connected all the dots). Abbots have a huge advantage later on, because they are already more than accustomed to the situation and are facing just a '''single monster''' at that particular time. In other words: they are in very favourable setup and having both time and initiative (sort of) to figure this out, rather than being deployed to just attack your enemy.
43	** And then of course we can have a very optimistic stance on the whole weakness revelation: someone might already figured it out before, long time ago, on their own, or maybe different people at different places, so there are different pockets of humans not just struggling to survive, but cleaning out their direct surroundings, making the whole affair with a bit of good will a case of (twisted) CosyCatastrophe. Even if Abbots are first to figure this out, they do know there are only three monsters in their vicinity, so imagine how helpful it would be for them to get rid of them in their area and how they now can at least try to reach those other people setting fires during night and pass the message further. Unrealistic optimism, I know, but this is what makes the ending so damn great. Not to mention it's in line with director's stance toward the whole story as a metaphor - those people finally have means to fight back and by being loud, rather than hiding and staying silent.
44	** It's possible by the time they figured out what was happening most of the world was already in a bad shape. What if the monsters have been killing non stop since their arrival?
45	* It brings ''Literature/TheWarOfTheWorlds'' into memory, with a random John, who also happens to be the [[PlotArmor main protagonist]], is the only one (amongst all the American military) to spot the aliens' weakness in a convenient moment. Apart from that, it's pretty unbelievable that in 2018/2019 literally no one would think about such a solution. Distribution of it shouldn't really be problematic, either — it'd be so crucial that it'd be worth sacrifice, although still: Morse code? aircraft with a big banner? Doable!
46
47	!!'''The monster's reaction'''
48	It seems rather odd how the monster, pained and disoriented by the high-frequency noises of Regan's hearing aid, would open up its head plates and leave itself vulnerable to a shotgun right to the head, killing it. Wouldn't it make more sense for it to close its head plates as tightly as it possibly could, in an attempt to block out the noise (similar to how you'd cover your ears with your hands when there's loud sounds)?
49	* The logical solution when in pain would be to get away from whatever causes it, but that doesn't take into account the fact the pain can be simply disabling. It's a phenomena so widespread there is really no point describing it further. So the head plates aren't opening, because the monster is trying to hear the sound causing the pain, but because it's in so much pain it ''can't close them''. In fact, the pain is so strong, it looked at first as if the sound alone was capable of killing it and it's still painful enough to completely disable it. Also, the monsters clearly don't get deaf when their head plates are closed. Otherwise they would be unable to catch any sounds unless actively searching for them, which obviously isn't the case.
50	* It looks the monster is having a seizure; like humans in that same situation they may not be able to control what their bodies do, even if it renders them even more vulnerable.
51	* It also could be their equivalent of a wicked cramp, followed by paralysis of some of the plate muscles.
52
53	!!'''Parental neglect'''
54	In the opening sequence, the parents took the rocket away from the child and then both left and just assumed he would listen to them. Because kids always listen.
55	* Actually, Lee took the batteries out of it Beau got them back as they left the store, so he didn't exactly take the rocket away, as it was more like, "I'll let you have this, without the batteries" or something like that, though he did hand it Regan. To be more specific, Lee took the batteries out, telling him, "No, it's too loud." and Regan gave the toy back ''without'' said batteries. In terms of Beau, well, he probably didn't really understand how the toy could be loud enough to attract the monsters, thus why he gets the batteries.
56	* I think Lee takes out the batteries and then places both the toy and the batteries separately on the counter, telling Beau "No, it's too loud." Regan then takes the toy (sans batteries) and hands it back to Beau after Lee leaves, clearly (mildly) disobeying her dad. Beau then takes the batteries on his own after both Regan and Lee have left. So, at each step it's believable (IMO) that the characters would behave like that: Lee says "no toy" and assumes his children (or at least Regan) will obey since they must do so pretty much all the time to have lasted this long. Regan decides there's no harm in Beau having a battery-less toy and slightly overrides her dad (out of love for her brother and probably some teenage rebellion). Beau then grabs the batteries, probably not entirely understanding what they are and just wanting his toy to not be broken.
57	* Both the parents and Regan may have just assumed Beau was too little to know what batteries ''are'', not realizing he'd observed how they're needed to make flashlights and other things work.
58
59	!!'''Marching order'''
60	The marching order in the first scene. Both parents in front? You don't want one in back to keep an eye on the kids, make sure they don't wander off or do anything stupid? Having someone "lead from behind" is hiking 101, which you'd think people who had survived so long would know.
61	* To their credit, the kids for the most part knew to be quiet aside from the shuttle incident, hence why they don't walk in that arrangement. However, there have been cases where parents walked behind and kids got too far ahead, so, mmm, yeah. Likewise, we wouldn't have that emphasis of conflict if they ''didn't'' walk in that arrangement.
62	** Couldn't they just have gone with a truly-ingenious idea to split the adults to the front and the back?
63	*** Sure, and Evelyn could have carried him, too, since her hands were free. Like she said. They're human and they made a mistake. That's the point.
64
65	!!'''All that maize'''
66	How is a family of four with no heavy machinery able to grow, tend, and harvest all the corn we see?
67	* They don't. They only harvest what they can by hand, and rely on the stored grain.
68	** So then where did it come from? It's all the same size, so it must have been planted at the same time. Four people (two of them children) can't plant that much corn, and it couldn't have been planted before the invasion, since it's been more than 400 days since then, and it would all be dead before then.
69	* Maybe they stored it, like they did the grain. As a matter of fact, the silo that corn in it, so it's possible they probably sold some corn and grain and kept/stored the rest.
70	* There are numerous hand-operated farming tools easily accessible in farming depots and even gardening shops allowing for row planting. The field of maize isn't really ''that'' big, so it's not hard to imagine a day or two spent by the entire family to plant it all, using hand-operated planters. And those are not making any sounds. Even if you ignore the use of such tools, the most traditional way of planting maize is about a family of four walking, each person performing different task: drilling holes, dropping seeds into them, stepping on it and watering (this can be even skipped). Nowhere near as efficient as even most primitive planter, but still sufficient for their field size. The ''real'' question is how you are going to fill the silo without making any noise, and before that you have to remove the seeds from cobs. It takes ages without using very noisy machines.
71	** Maybe it was in there long before the invasion.
72	*** I meant the maize they are growing right now. Clearly the grain inside the silo is an old stock, but adding new kernels is going to make a lot of noise one way or another.
73	** Isn't corn perennial? Likewise, I think some of that was wheat.
74
75	!!'''Muffling sounds'''
76	This might be a minor nitpick, but if the waterfall was able to mask sound to the point of where one could yell by it without attracting the creatures, then why not camp out and wait so the mother could give birth there? Yes, it's not the best place to give birth, but it seems like it'd give much more protection and they wouldn't have to struggle to be as quiet, or worry about the infant crying. Granted, the plan they did have worked fine so I can't really complain.
77	* Maybe they didn't do that because she was too far along and then there's the issue of the baby being born, along with moving a large amount of equipment (notice how they've been traveling light in any scenes we see them out?)
78	* Perhaps they DID plan that, and allow her to scream to her heart's content but the actual childbirth was, according to the meticulously-kept calendar, two to three weeks ahead of schedule. It was ''such'' a surprise, that the husband and the son were taking what seemed to be a multi-day trip when it happened.
79	* I was wondering why they didn't try to set up white noise around the house with some tvs, radios and some speakers. I'd be raiding the first electronic store I could find if I knew you could drown out sounds with a waterfall, and maybe a music shop for amplifiers, synthesizers etc. Like seriously, have a Mini-Moog going 24-7 and then have it make high-pitch noise when you discover that trick with the hearing aid.
80	** If the scene in the town is an indication, there probably wouldn't any of those things left (it already looked plenty looted), along with the white noise would probably piss them off (i.e, the climax in the basement with the [=TVs=]), that, and a misstep in setting up the equipment would probably produce a sound loud enough to attract them, along with their farm being a wide-enough property. Granted, continuous noise probably would have kept them away (i.e, we don't find any near a running body of water).
81	** Getting the electricity to power that would probably be a problem. Most of the family's light comes from candles and flame lanterns, with the only electric lights being the strings of lights used to signal the aliens' attack. That seems to imply that electricity in general is down, with the family maybe having a small generator to keep their alert system going.
82	*** They do possess bunch of solar panels. Those in turn are completely silent, as compared with pretty much all other ways of generating electricity.
83	** I assumed that the creatures can distinguish between natural and unnatural sounds. Waterfalls register as "natural", so they don't attack. (Otherwise they'd spend all day every day just hacking away at the waterfall.) But if you set up a white noise machine, that would register as "unnatural" and attract the creatures. (Though come to think of it, what would happen if you set up a speaker and played a recording of waterfall noises?)
84	** It would still be a hassle, however, for different reasons.
85
86	!!'''Having babies in such world?'''
87	Why would the parents decide to have another baby? The monsters are attracted to loud noise, and babies cry all the time. Not to mention they already have two children to look after.
88	* I kind of took it that her pregnancy might have been unintentional and termination in their circumstances would be a non-option (as there wouldn't be any doctors).
89	** Given that the family is shown raiding a drug store in the first scene, presumably they have plenty of access to things like birth control and condoms. Since those things aren't 100 percent effective, and the parents seem to have taken every precaution available in every other aspect of their lives, the baby being an accident feels like the most likely possibility.
90	** If desperate enough you can look up for the antibiotics cocktail that causes abortion or even the messed up coat hanger trick. A bit dangerous and painful for the mom but still better odds than raising a baby quietly. Although the parents could understandably have moral quandaries about this and prefer going with the soundproofing room plan.
91	*** The [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole "antibiotics"]] trick is not a guaranteed abortion and in fact can create a lot ''more'' problems, since it will still seriously mess up development during pregnancy, but won't kill the fetus and is dangerous for the mother. Likewise, the "coat hanger" is not a literal coat hanger and requires at least ''some'' anatomical knowledge, not to mention practice. And even then it's still very dangerous for the mother. Let's for a second ignore the fact Abbotts aren't some stone-cold killers and assume they really want to get rid of that child. The easiest way for them would be to go through the pregnancy and then simply smother the infant. Long story short - abortion isn't an easy nor risk-free task, especially without gynecologist at hand. And it's not like they can then go to a doctor or ER if something goes wrong and Evelyn needs medical help.
92	*** There are ways to safely induce an abortion by a combination of drugs, but we don't know if they had such knowledge and the formula has to be done perfectly. The "coat hanger" is just an UrbanLegend that doesn't work in real life and it's much more likely that you'll kill or seriously injured the mother if someone is stupid enough to try in the first place.
93	*** I’m confused by the statement that the coat-hanger abortion is an urban legend. Yes, it’s extremely dangerous, but it appears that real people have tried it. Or, at least, there’s no clear evidence that it’s just a myth. See, for example: https://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/53273/is-the-abortion-hanger-a-myth.
94	*** How would the average person know the safe way to induce and abortion? The internet doesn't seem to be a thing I doubt there's a book on the subject anywhere nearby.
95	** Perhaps, but the drug method probably would have made her violently ill to the point of death, so it's most likely that they opted to continue the pregnancy, as really, attempting to abort the pregnancy would be more detrimental in the long run.
96	* Presumably, just a will to give humanity the best chance of surviving by raising as much offspring as possible. Bear in mind that with the agricultural and a-bit-primitive life they seem to carry on you may draw analogies to the past or even present countryside patterns: more children means more manpower (so useful out in the field), safer retirement (as they can take care of their old parents, just as the latter were doing to the former the whole time) and legacy (making it less likely for the entire family to be wiped out and for their possessions to be destroyed). Still, though, it seems virtually impossible to develop a normal human being in such circumstances without it being killed somehow along the way (''vide'': Beau).
97	* Condensing the problems with all of the above: ensuring the survival of the human legacy seems a weak excuse to produce a child in the type of world run by murderous sound-driven monsters; children under a certain age are simply too young to understand the gravity and will invariably get themselves and others killed; the Abbots had no excuse to try and bring yet another child into the picture after having seen the proof with Beau. Infants, especially, are flat-out ''impossible'' to keep quiet at all times. The world has been deprived of medical professionals nearby who can ease the naturally loud and dangerous processes of birth, never mind abortion. Producing new children in this movie is the ultimate IdiotBall move, on top of how difficult it is to even conceptualize it happening--there's no "accidental" pregnancies in a world in which even sex could be suicidally dangerous--they both had to have been ''incredibly'' quiet during the act, on ''top'' of not wearing or taking protection.
98	** People have had and raised children in circumstances almost as dire as the film. Moses and UsefulNotes/{{Jesus}} are two prime examples, but if you aren't religious, you also have Jews in Nazi Germany, and Russians during the Mongol invasion. The Abbotts blame themselves for Beau; he helped them learn what not to do when raising a new baby. They obviously already put a lot of thought into it, considering how long they were working on that basement with all the soundproofing and the oxygen tank. LivingIsMoreThanSurviving. As for sex, I learned as a teenager how to get off as quietly as possible, so it's entirely possible they got enough soft mattresses and blankets to muffle any noise. Or better yet, they could've just used the waterfall.
99
100	!!'''Who were the old couple?'''
101	Were the Abbots supposed to be familiar with them or despite using this path past the house where they presumably lived for years only now encountered them?
102	* Probably just random characters who, up until that point, managed to evade the monsters before the wife made a sound and happened upon Lee and Marcus.
103	** We see a number of distant fires in an earlier scene, so it's perfectly possible that they've met before.
104	* The father is teaching his son skills that would help him take care of the house. Since they took a path that led them directly through the old couple's property, it's fairly likely that not only did the Abbots know them, but maybe even traded goods and food with them.
105
106	!!'''Get some damn rugs!'''
107	A big show is made of Reagan carefully sneaking around on the hardwood floors of the farmhouse, and other scenes feature the characters walking slowly and carefully on wooden stairs. Why can't they go and get some rugs to put down to muffle the noise? Lee has "sound proofing" written in big letters on his board but didn't bother to do anything with the floors? They can find bags and bags of fine sand and cart them back to the farm to make quiet paths in between the corn, but they can't roll up some carpets or rugs and throw them on the floor?
108	* Assuming the sound of creaking wooden floor is enough to attract the creatures, rugs would make it even ''worse''. At least now the family has carefully painted spots on the floor where to step to not cause any sort of sound. If you cover the floor with rug, you would have to still mark those spots (which would be considerably harder now), since the floor itself would still produce sounds, not muffled even a bit. ''And'' rugs as such are much more cleaning-intense, especially if you walk outside on sand and thus continously bring that sand back inside each and every time you get back. In other words - rugs would be impractical and mostly useless. The "solution" would be to cover entire floor with concrete or similar (no creaking, uniform surface), but doing so inside pre-existing wooden house is close to impossible, not to mention noisy.
109	** The scary part about the wooden floor is continuous deterioration of wood itself. Eventually even those safe spots are going to creak too.
110	*** If my memory serves, Lee said that the sounds have to be of a certain volume to attract them, so, slight creaks here and there probably won't attract them, likewise, when the nail got pulled up, it made a noise (it was a dull ''[=TWUNG=]'') but we didn't see/hear any monsters rushing towards the house.
111	* Untacked rugs can become a tripping hazard. Take a tumble on a loose rug, and you get noise. Try to tack them down, and you get a ''lot'' of noise. Glue might work, but you better lay the material flawlessly, or you'll get wrinkles and be stuck with ''more'' tripping hazards.
112	** Some rugs are "non-skid" , though, a lot of ones that are, attach via some form of suction.
113
114	!!'''The truck scene'''
115	Why didn’t Lee try to defend himself or even run away after distracting the monster?
116	* He probably didn't have enough time and he was on split-second, likewise, he didn't have a weapon, if memory serves.
117	* He was clearly injured when the monster leapt down. When he stands up, you can see a large wound in his torso. He is not going anywhere fast. But he was not going to allow his children to die, so he screamed to draw the attention of the monsters so that they could escape.
118	* It is established the monsters are extremely fast ''and'' armoured. And he is badly wounded, while his weapon is an axe. He stands no chance in combat whatsoever, while running creates a lot of noise. Since the monster is so close, Lee would be unable to muffle his movement nor simply distract it further.
119	* While Lee definitely wouldn't have been able to fight or escape the monster, there is the question of why he dropped the axe at his feet, instead of throwing it at the barn or the shelter he was next to. Possible reasons may be that the creature would hear him moving to throw the axe, and be on him before the noise could distract him, or that because the creature had just climbed off of the tool shed, it would ignore any sounds of metal on metal, but this seems unlikely.
120	* The entire scene seems to be very far-fetched to me. How come the creature attacked Lee in the first place when he was just standing there, doing rather nothing out of order? Second, assuming it heard him — why wasn't he killed right away, like pretty much anything else prior to that? For an unknown reason it seemed to take a more ''elegant'' approach, treating family's [[PapaWolf Papa Wolf]] like its nemesis. Third, alright, Lee survived — why did Marcus reveal himself then? Of course it was a very emotional moment, but we as the viewers are led to believe that without making any sound you can avoid the monsters, so even after the father was wounded — as long as everyone keeps ''relative'' quiet — this whole situation could have been prevented. Fourth, is the creature really able to hear the axe dropping to the ground while it's clearly loudly messing with the truck? Perhaps the sound might have been recorded as external, thus drawing the attention, but it still ''sounds'' unlikely. Finally, fifth, why would it leave the still-standing truck, allegedly a source of greater noise, for something as delicate as an axe drop? Doesn't make too much sense from a predatory point of view.
121	** Well, the monster was probably close enough to hear it or, rather, I think Lee made some kind of noise, and Marcus cried out in a panic. Likewise, the truck wasn't moving and, even if it was, it's terrain would have muffled the noise.
122
123	!!'''Why not draw them out?'''
124	It's established that Lee thinks there are three monsters out there. We see cars and whatnot around. Why not load up with shotguns, climb on top of the roof or other high structure, have one of the kids put a Pantera CD in the car and crank up the volume then hide underneath while the parents play target practice with the onrushing monsters? Or alternatively, put a boom box in the middle of a barn or house or something, trap the monsters inside, then light it on fire? I know these plans have their problems, but both seem more practical than "Live your entire life silently and hope they don't kill you."
125	* It is also established the monsters come with NighInvulnerability that made them laugh at military-grade weapons ([[https://i.imgur.com/UYCyNJB.jpg as mentioned on a tabloid paper]] ), so a hunting shotgun won't do anything at all to them without exposing their weakness (which was unknown until the very end of the story). But simply drawing them out is an option that Lee apparently never considered.
126	* Drawing them out with no idea what their weakness might be sounds like a very stupid plan in this situation unless you have absolutely no other options and believe the end is imminent.
127	* There are three monsters and two adults. The kids probably can't handle a gun (no silencers means no target practice), and the parents seem to be decent shots but there's nothing to suggest they're experts. Drawing the creatures out runs the risk of all three showing up at once and outnumbering the two parents.
128	* It's possible Lee was planning something like that once he figured out their weaknesses.
129	** Indeed, they would have likely done it after the end of the movie — the main issue was that apparently no one knew up until its climax (which isn't entirely believable, as the discussion above showcases). Furthermore, by 2018/2019 people must have already seen [[Film/WorldWarZ World War Z]]!
130	*** Well, it's possible that the armies and whatevers tried that, too, but their weakspots weren't exposed.
131	* I know this is pretty much the opposite of the point of these pages but this quote: "Live your entire life silently and hope they don't kill you" is sooooo close to getting at a thematic / allegorical understanding of the movie that I just have to comment. I don't mean to come off like an asshole here but I think all you Headscratchers out there in TV Tropes Land would get a lot more out of your cinematic viewing experiences if you tackled these movies using some less literal interpretations. Like, if your headscratcher at the end of ''Film/CitizenKane'' was "Why didn't he just go grab the sled? It was right there in his basement the whole time!" then I think you're missing out.
132
133	!!'''Why attack the monster?'''
134	Why didn't Lee follow the kids to the truck? He could have hid with them, and for that matter how did the monster know he was there? He didn't make much noise before it hit him.
135	** I think he was too far away to get to them quickly, so he had to be a distraction.
136
137	!!'''How many monsters?'''
138	It's been stated that the aliens arrived on an asteroid that struck somewhere in Mexico, but how many of them were there? Lee has been trying to contact other countries and it looks like he's made it as far as Japan, but no reply. How have the monsters managed to infest every part of the world so quickly? Earth appears to be a ghost town by Day 89! How large was this asteroid, and how many monsters were on it?
139	** If the asteroid was particularly large, it may go some way toward explaining how the military response seems to have been ineffective. The asteroid impact would have weakened civilization, softening us up for the monsters to kill.
140	** Regarding the ghost town alone, it's not really that hard to imagine a specific region to "fall" and simply being cut off from communication with anyone from the outside. So by day 89 it might as well mean it's just the surrounding area of Abbotts' farm that is devoid of humans, rather than entire world, but nobody is going to risk getting in that area and/or is busy doing their thing in different part of the world. The whole situation is very ambigious and as far as the paper clippings in the basement go, there might even be some sort of human preservation(s) [[Film/DrStrangelove in deep shaft mines]]. Not to mention simply desolated areas, like small archipelagos in the middle of nowhere or places like Iceland. Considering the monsters are just dumb animals driven by basic instincts, they either are {{Explosive Breeder}}s or there was more than single asteroid. After all, dumb animals won't cross oceans.
141	*** Also, the direct area around the farm is roamed by just three of those things. That's still enough to desert a small town and all the surroundings, meaning a single monster is enough to put effective end of a population of what? Few hundreds? Thousand? Even if it won't kill those people, it will simply displace them or force into hiding. There are over seven ''billion'' of humans worldwide and suddenly agriculture beyond very simplistic subsistence farming is rendered impossible, not to mention any sort of mechanization (not counting few exceptions, farming machines are really damn loud, especially things like threshers). [[CruelAndUnusualDeath So what those seven billions are going to eat]]?
142	*** Well, it is established that they were pretty effective at killing in [[https://i.imgur.com/OxoP0jS.jpg newspaper headlines]] , one of the newspapers detailing hundreds of thousands of casualties in Shanghai (also confirms that they are present in the Old World).
143	** One of the newspaper cuttings mentions '128 landings confirmed'. The Mexico meteorite wasn't the only one.
144	*** If there are 128 confirmed landings and we get 3 monsters in the area with the Abbots, then the number would be around 384 in the entire world, if we go with "3 monsters = 1 meteorite". In terms of the landings, it's possible that the one in Mexico was probably the ''latest'' and the that the monsters have waking up and killing nonstop before people got wind of it (by which point it was too late).
145
146	!!'''Of all the places the family could have located their home...'''
147	It's established there are plenty of homes up for grabs. The family settles on one in a dead-quiet area next to a crackly corn field, rather than one located near moving water. While the silo seems to suggest there’s a fair amount of food, the family can’t actually make use of the corn in it because doing so will make too much noise.
148	* Only that is it their home and their farm. They have at least three advantages there: they know the place, it's implied certain things were already there before (solar panels, the smokehouse) and it's a middle of nowhere. Chances of anyone else getting there are slim to none, thus they don't risk encounters with other people that could accidently (or purposefully) lead to making a lot of noise. They gain absolutely nothing from moving and they can't exactly construct things, due to occupational noise. Recall how they make the sound-proofed room - they cover already existing cellar with dozens upon dozens of layers of starch and newspapers, because every other method would require at least some amount of hammering and/or sawing.
149
150	!!'''How do the monsters navigate?'''
151	They are clearly not using sonar or echolocation (if they were, they'd find everyone without issue), and yet they are able to not just navigate through a forest, but the halls of a house without any problem.
152	* Well, they navigate by sound, however, it is possible they probably have some level of sensory hairs located on the outside of it's body to feel around.
153
154	!!'''Luring monsters'''
155	Why didn't the military just lure the monsters with a powerful siren and then drop a MOAB or something like that onto the whole lot?
156	* [[https://i.imgur.com/UYCyNJB.jpg They must have tried...]] I guess you can compare the creatures' armour with Darwin's ability from [[Film/XMenFirstClass X-Men: First Class]] in that it really cannot be bothered how much firepower you throw against them — they're not gonna be broken. Unless it's internal damage, but then you need someone capable enough to cause it...
157	** Likewise, the aliens only expose their weakpoints (their ear canals, mostly) during certain points, so luring them out to kill them wouldn't work unless their weakpoints were exposed enough
158	** For all we know the military did try this and it did work, they just weren’t able to kill all the creatures that way before at least local civilisation collapsed.
159
160	!!'''Aren't the creatures extremely easy to fool?'''
161	By the way it's depicted in the movie, the creatures get attracted to '''any''' sound above a certain threshold — even a single axe drop makes their will to destroy a source of greater noise disappear (in this case: an inside (!) of a pickup), at least temporarily. It must have not been rocket science even as early as the military was still involved, but we somehow got to the point of a largely-deserted globe and the Abbotts surviving in their farm estate. After brief reflection, the nature of the monsters raises a fundamental question: did anybody ever need to die? Taking the aforementioned children-stuck-inside-the-truck scene as an example: according to the in-universe logic, a single axe ''throw'' instead of the axe ''drop'' would be more than enough to save the father and his offspring. Hell, we saw the family's preparation for potential intruders with fireworks — which worked, by the way. Would it be so hard, therefore, to set up numerous ''traps'' of such a kind? They could potentially be launched from the electronic center in the basement, to which, during the main events, Evelyn had access to. General advice to everyone would be to always have a handful of rocks in one's pocket — just in case! — to throw them away, making some noise elsewhere. [[TooDumbToLive Too easy, right?]]
162	* The rocks idea wouldn't work because the aliens would hear them rattling around in their pockets. On the note of the fireworks, that was supposed to work for one time when the baby was born. Likewise, setting up multiple traps of that kind would divert resources from more important things, that, and it would have been pointless since the aliens can only seem to only take damage when their ear canals are fully exposed, in which case that would have just exacerbated things, as it wouldn't kill them.
163	** You could, however, easily split the rocks, have them separated by a soft material, or just have one big rock. Or two, for two pockets. I know what the fireworks ended up being used for, nonetheless: why not use them as a disturbance? The point is not to kill them, as that was deemed impossible until the film's last scene, but to get them away from you. Accidentally broke a glass lamp? No problem, just launch fireworks 2 kilometres away not to put your entire household in peril.
164	*** Well, they could have done that but that still would take away from other resources. That and I think the monsters would pick up on it eventually (think the scene with the egg timer).
165	** As someone else already noted, ''hearing'' is one thing but '''recognizing''' is another. The aliens can't see and all they know is to go after noise.
166
167	!!'''Why not have a remote control to activate a distraction alarm?'''
168	Very minor point, but why didn't they set up a system where as well as being able to flick a switch to change the color of the lights, there was another one that could be used to activate a loud alarm some way away from the house and barn? Lee has obviously got the electrical and general knowledge to do it, and it would mean nobody had to go run off to set off the fireworks.
169	** Probably because 1), that might divert much needed power from other sources and 2), that idea might backfire hard, along with 3), something could go wrong while setting it up. It's possible that they had other ideas such, as this one, but the system they have was the most feasible one.
170
171	!!Go back to outer space, aliens!
172	Why do the aliens insist on staying on Earth in the first place if it's such a loud planet? There is no sound in space. GO BACK TO SPACE!!
173	** It’s not that they don’t like noise; rather, they use their incredibly acute hearing to hunt their prey. There’s no food in space (or, at least, nothing that hasn’t evolved to keep its mouth shut,) so Earth suits them nicely.
174	** Also, have you ever considered the possibility that they ''can’t'' go back to space? They came to Earth via a meteorite, which was an accident and unintentional on their part. There’s no indication they even could go back to space even if they wanted to; they have no means of leaving the planet.
175
176	!!The aliens [[https://i.imgur.com/OxoP0jS.jpg ravaged Shanghai!!]] Wait a minute...
177	How did the monsters get to the rest of the world beyond the Americas in the first place if there is only one confirmed meteorite landing in Mexico? Being the apex predator means nothing if you can't fly or swim across the ocean without getting eaten by orcas or sharks. Was it shown in the movie that they can do so? Or was there a second and third meteor landing in the other land masses (especially coastal areas like Great Britain, Australia, Japan and other islands) that we don't know about?
178	** Well, we do know that they can swim as, towards the end, during the scene with Evelyn and the baby in their safehouse, one did go underwater and there's the fact that they can survive a long time without needing to breath, so them getting there wouldn't be too much a of problem (though some probably did get picked off by much bigger creatures)but it's possible that the asteroid had actually broken apart and one part landed elsewhere.
179	** One newspaper clipping mentions '128 confirmed landings'. There wasn't just one meteorite.
180
181	!!The flooded basement scene
182	The scene in the flooded basement is very confusing. How did the basement get flooded so quickly, even if it was a major pipe that was severed? And who opened the casket with the infant? Who removed his oxygen mask and why? How did the creature even come in, and why didn't it attack immediately? For most of that scene, this troper thought it was really just a nightmare sequence of Evelyn's.
183	** If I recall that scene correctly, um, it got flooded from a broken pipe and, since the baby was quiet, Evelyn probably opened the casket with the baby in it, removing the oxygen mask (as he could breath just fine after crying), along with that the creature found a way in through some opening by following the sound of the water (and any soundwaves traveling through the water). In terms of why the monster didn't attack the baby, well, it was listening for the threshold (sounds have to be at a certain threshold to set them off).
184
185	!!Going to search for the kids while unarmed?
186	Why didn't Lee bring a gun with him when he went to go look for his kids?
187
188	* And what benefit would that be? In Lee's research area he has articles detailing that nothing at that point in time with available information would do anything other than piss them off, combine that with unnecessary weight of the shotgun and the potential of dropping it and making noise. It makes no logical sense for him to consider taking a shotgun.
189	** More, firing a gun is an extremely noisy affair. Not only he would have to deal with unharmed, pissed creature in front of him, but also lure everything from few miles around toward himself and his family. Definitely ''not'' helping things.
190
191	!!'''Just take the batteries with you!'''
192	Lee tinkers with electronics in his spare time and that would almost certainly require some batteries. Just as well, the family probably has appliances and such around the home that would need some spare batteries eventually. And finally, taking them with him would guarantee nobody could put them back in the shuttle toy. So why not just take them with him? They were ''on'' a supply run after all, those are a obvious resource.
193	** Besides Beau's shuttle, they don't seem to use a lot of things that need them and, if the "shuttle incident" is to go by, anything that needs batteries would be too noisy, so batteries would be hassle to deal with. Likewise, a lot of what they do a lot of things without electricity, so batteries wouldn't be that valuable a resource.
194	*** They use battery-powered flashlights.
195
196	!!'''How is a moving vehicle less distracting than a man yelling?'''
197	Sand or no sand, truck tires rolling on dirt ''will'' make noise, and for an extended period of time given that it was dark when it first started moving, but dawn when they arrived. How would the creatures not be hot on their tail before they even made it back to the house?
198	** Well, throughout the the entire film, it's noted that it's not so much the sounds themselves but how ''loud'' said sounds are. Lee yelling was louder than the truck being driven (or pushed)
199
200
201	!!'''How is sand supposed to help?'''
202	* A. Sand crunches underfeet. How is it supposed to be quiter than walking over soil or even pavement barefoot? B. How is it possible that sand isn't blown away by wind or washed away by rain? Do they have to constantly renew the trails? How can they do it without making noise? C. They have to walk across a wooden bridge. Covered with sand or not, the planks would creak anyway.
203	** Sand doesn't... crunch when you walk on it. Walking on pavement in barefeet in the summer hurts. They literally show a scene in which Lee is re-sanding on of the trails. He put sand in a bag and poured it out. Silently, because it's sand.
204
205
206	!!'''What is up with the nail?'''
207	* Why would there be a nail driven into the middle of a stair step, ''facing upwards''? Who would even put it there, how (from beneath the stairs) and why?
208	** It wasn't just sticking upwards the whole time. It was bent over the surface of the board until Evelyn accidentally straightened it out when she tugged on it with her stuck bag. As for it's original purpose - perhaps that particular board was reused from another project and the carpenter forgot to remove the nail from the board until they had finished the staircase, and decided to pound the nail down into the board rather than start over. After the aliens took over, the Abbots really didn't have a good way of fixing the problem and so it was just an accident waiting to happen.
209
210	!!'''How were the fireworks supposed to work?'''
211	* Labors can last for ''hours''. What kind of fireworks last that long? And I'm sorry if it might sound callous, but wasn't the obvious solution to gag Evelyn?
212	** Evelyn was supposed to give birth in the soundproof room in the basement, not in the bathtub she was hiding in because one of the creatures was stalking nearby. The fireworks were an emergency contingency that was supposed to lure them away for a short amount of time, not the original plan. Also, labor can progress more quickly in subsequent pregnancies, so Evelyn (reaching the end of her fourth pregnancy) just progressed fast enough that she was able to give birth while the fireworks were going.
213
214	!!'''Where does their electricity come from?'''
215	* It couldn't be a generator since that's way too loud, but I didn't see any solar panels.
216	** Actually, they do use solar panels, as y'all can see [[https://i.stack.imgur.com/Nhjbn.jpg here]].
217
218
219	!!'''Extremely sensitive hearing, but only specific frequencies hurt them?'''
220	* The aliens have hearing so powerful that they can pick up people having a quiet conversation miles away, yet somehow they don't find stuff like gunshots or explosions, that can be so loud they 'rip apart the eardrums' in humans, painfully loud? And yes, they are supposed to have essentially biological ear protection, but if they're able to block out stuff above the threshold of pain in humans, which even .22 LR pistols can break easily, they should be practically deaf when their heads are closed, sensitive hearing or not, since they would essentially have to turn their ear canals into a vacuum.

Context Headscratchers / AQuietPlace