Film / A Quiet Place Part II

Evelyn: There are people out there worth saving.
Emmett: You don't know, do you? I do. The people that are left, they're not the kind of people worth saving.

A Quiet Place: Part II is a 2020 post-apocalyptic horror film written and directed by John Krasinski. It is the sequel to the 2018 horror film A Quiet Place, and stars Emily Blunt, Noah Jupe, and Millicent Simmonds, all reprising their roles from the first movie. Newcomers include Cillian Murphy and Djimon Hounsou.

Shortly after the events of the first film, the surviving members of the Abbott family — Evelyn, Marcus, Regan, and the baby — leave their farm in search of survivors, only to discover that the sound-hunting monsters aren't the only dangers in their path...

The film had its world premiere on March 8, 2020, in New York City, shortly before the COVID-19 Pandemic forced the global shutdowns of movie theaters worldwide. After a series of delays, it was finally released on May 28, 2021. The film was made available on Paramount+ 45 days after its theatrical release (July 12, 2021). A sequel has been announced for an unspecified date in 2025.

Previews: Trailer, Super Bowl TV spot.

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A Quiet Place Part II contains examples of:

• Absurdly Ineffective Barricade: When Emmett lures the aliens to attack bandits that have ambushed him and Regan at the docks, one of the aliens smashes through a chain-link fence.
• Actionized Sequel: The movie as a whole shows just how fast and deadly the aliens are, with a sequence set during the first few hours of the invasion, which consists of the aliens demolishing things left and right and even appearing to drive an out-of-control speeding bus to catch up to their targets. Furthermore, because the aliens now have a known, exploitable weakness, there are more sequences of humans fighting back against the aliens rather than being forced to run and hide as in the previous film.
• After the End: The film's present is set on the heels of the events of A Quiet Place, meaning that this trope is still in effect.
• Agony of the Feet: Manages to outdo the first one in this department, as apart from the numerous shots of the Abbott family's bloody feet as they travel across miles of rough terrain barefoot, Evelyn still has her nail wound, and Marcus steps in a Bear Trap early on.
• Almost Out of Oxygen: Marcus accidentally locks himself and the baby in the furnace and has to be saved from suffocation by Evelyn.
• Ankle Drag: Happens to the man on the island when the alien drags him away under the half-opened front gate of the radio station.
• Apocalyptic Log: Played with. There's a radio frequency that plays "Beyond the Sea" on a loop, which Emmett thinks is this. However, Regan figures out that it's actually a symbolic message from a nearby island, signaling to those listening that there is a safe haven "beyond the sea".
• Armour-Piercing Question: When Emmett insists on returning Regan home, she asks him: What home? He doesn't have an answer.
• Artistic License – Physics: The amount of oxygen in the soundproof furnace should not deplete (and the amount of carbon dioxide not increase) as quickly as it does in the movie.
• Asshole Victim: The thugs at the dock who ambush Emmett and Regan, only to be slaughtered by the aliens, definitely qualify as this. The ringleader, in particular, gets treated to a very drawn-out mauling at the hands of one of the aliens.
• Badass and Child Duo: Emmett and Regan become this in the second half of the film.
• Big Damn Heroes: In the prologue, a cop saves Lee and Regan by blasting at an alien with a shotgun, sacrificing his life so they can escape.
• Black Box: An example somewhere between this trope and It Only Works Once. Regan's cochlear implant is able to annoy and disorient the aliens, but was macgyvered by Lee in the first film. The characters understand the basics of what it does, but have no idea why and cannot make another one. Emmett asks Evelyn how it works and she just shrugs, saying all they know is it does.
• Black Dude Dies First: Officer Ronnie and the man Emmett meets on the island, both black, are the only notable characters with significant dialogue to die in the film.
• Call-Back:
  • In the first movie, Evelyn hid from a creature behind a waterfall caused by water gushing from the level above. In this movie a creature uses the same trick to lure her out of hiding in the furnace.
  • Like in the previous film, the movie ends abruptly right after a major change in the situation. The previous film ends with Regan discovering a frequency that renders the aliens helpless and vulnerable; this film ends with Regan setting things up such that anyone with a radio has access to that frequency.
• Call-Forward: As Lee shops at the supermarket in the prologue, the camera holds on the toy rocket that eventually causes Beau's death.
• Chekhov's Boat: At the docks, one of the aliens scratches the paint on the side of one of the boats as it falls into the ocean, and another alien jumps on top of it. That same boat, with the claw scratch, appears washed up on the island with the radio station, indicating one of the aliens is now loose on the island.
• Chekhov's Skill: In the prologue, Regan teaches Emmett the ASL sign for "dive" which comes in later when he uses it to warn her before he sicks the aliens on the bandits.
• Come Out, Come Out, Wherever You Are: Anytime humans hide from the aliens. Most prominently during the climax when the alien searches the radio station for Regan and Emmett.
• Comet of Doom: A large falling rock crosses the sky on Day 1, heralding the end of the world as we know it.
• Compromising Call: In the prologue, a girl's cell phone starts ringing when a bunch of people are hiding in a bar from one of the aliens, causing the alien to attack.
• Convenient Cranny: Evelyn and Marcus flee from the alien into the narrow furnace where the alien can't follow but it still manages to slash Evelyn's thigh.
• Conveniently Timed Attack from Behind: Regan gets cornered on a train and, though she's able to disorient the alien and even take a bit of its face off with a shotgun blast, she misses and the alien gets too close for her to reload in time. Thankfully, Emmett arrives just in time to blow the alien's head out from behind.
• Cool Car: The red sportscar, which Emmett and Regan use to get to the radio station.
• Cool, Clear Water: The water from the sprinkler system should be black and rancid after being stagnant for years (then again that's a mistake all movies make).
• Crowd Panic:
  • In the prologue, Day 1 of the invasion shows the whole town falling into complete chaos as they're attacked by the aliens.
  • When Emmett draws the attention of the aliens to escape the feral bandits at the docks that are attempting to take his equipment and abduct Regan, the bandits collectively start running and screaming in terror as the aliens show up to attack them.
  • Toward the end of the film, an alien manages to find its way to the island the characters are hiding on. Emmett realises it's there and tries to warn everyone, but is too late as the creature attacks and sends everybody into a blind panic.
• Dead Star Walking: Djimon Hounsou is one of the biggest names in the cast, but isn't introduced until the third act and dies soon thereafter. He isn't even given a name.
• Dramatic Irony: No one knows what the aliens are or that they hunt by sound on Day 1, but the viewers already do. Lee's introduction shows him driving up in a pickup and loudly slamming the car door without a care in the world.
• Draw Aggro: As in the first movie, characters use noise to try and lure the aliens away from their loved ones. Evelyn does this with a gunshot at the Abandoned Warehouse. The man on the island uses his car to steer the alien away from the camp.
• Evil-Detecting Dog: A dog is shown sitting quietly in the car. At the ball game another dog starts barking on seeing the Flaming Meteor. When they go past the first dog again it's started barking, heralding the arrival of the aliens in the town.
• Fake Shemp: During Beau's appearance in the opening flashback, he is not given dialogue and the camera angles obscure his face due to the original actor, Cade Woodward, being too old to return.
• Flaming Meteor: A meteor ominously burns across the sky on Day 1, heralding the impending chaos of the alien invasion.
• Foreshadowing:
  • In the prologue, an alien is able to crudely steer a bus to follow the protagonists which foreshadows an alien using a boat to follow the protagonists to the island.
  • Also in the prologue, the aliens arrived on a Flaming Meteor. It turns out they're Immune to Fire.
• Gory Discretion Shot:
  • Officer Ronnie getting killed by an alien is obscured as the camera moves down behind a police car.
  • The bandit ringleader being torn apart by an alien is kept mostly out of frame outside of a few brief, out-of-focus shots and his blood floating around in the water along with the torn net he and Emmett were tied to.
• Heal It with Booze: Evelyn pours alcohol on Marcus' foot to sterilize the wound. He winces in pain.
• Heroic BSoD: When Regan wakes up to find that Emmett, her hearing aid, and speaker are gone, she believes Emmett has left her to die and utterly breaks down in tears. It turns out that Emmett hadn't abandoned her; in fact, he had been scouting ahead for a boat, and had found one.
• Heroic Sacrifice:
  • In the prologue, Officer Ronnie wards off an alien so that the Abbotts can escape.
  • An unintentional example; the unnamed man on the island uses his car to distract an alien so that the other citizens can get to safety, but the alien ultimately kills him just after he gives Regan the key to the radio station.
• Humans Are Bastards:
  • Discussed. Emmett is a firm believer in this, as indicated by the page quote. He's ultimately proven half-right. While there are bad people out there, such as the sun-burnt bandits that accost Emmett and Regan on the docks, the people of the island community are perfectly friendly and well-adjusted.
  • The character played by Djimon Hounsou tells a story with this theme, mentioning how once the government realized that the aliens couldn't swim, they set up twelve boats to ferry survivors to an island. The survivors started to fight each other over who could get on the boats, making so much noise that it drew the attention of the aliens. Of the twelve boats, two made it to the island.
• I Have You Now, My Pretty: The leader of the bandits appears to have lustful intention for Regan, making his death especially satisfying.
• Ignored Vital News Reports: Averted; the store owner just waves Lee through as he's absorbed in a news report about a massive casualty incident in Shanghai (presumed to be a bomb, but more likely another meteor impact).
• Immediate Sequel: After an Action Prologue depicting Day 1, the main story picks up immediately after the events of the first.
• It's a Small World, After All:
  • The first person the family runs into is someone who they knew, who was even sitting with them at the softball game during the day the aliens arrived.
  • The boat with the monster on it just HAS to bump up against the island.
• Jump Scare:
  • When the police car in the prologue gets smashed by an incoming alien.
  • The disturbed, Creepy Crows Regan encounters on the ghost train.
• Just Before the End: The start of the movie shows Day 1 of the invasion, where the Abbotts are going through a normal day until the aliens land and start attacking everyone.
• Left Hanging: While the immediate threat of the aliens are dealt with, Regan and Emmett are still several days' journey away from Evelyn, Marcus and the baby. Both Evelyn and Emmett are injured. Emmett specifically was rather severely wounded and seemed to be bleeding out.
• MacGuffin Escort Mission: Bringing Regan's hearing device to the island is the central quest of the movie.
• Meaningful Echo: Emmett says those who've survived aren't worth saving. When pleading with him to go after her daughter, Evelyn says she is one of the people worth saving.
• Nerves of Steel: The best way to deal with an alien in front of you is still to cause some sort of distraction and then stay perfectly still while it redirects its attention. Evelyn shows this off well with an oxygen tank firebomb and sprinkler system, walking very carefully around it while it doesn't know what to do.
• No Name Given:
  • Baby Abbott remains unnamed.
  • The character played by Djimon Hounsou goes unnamed, simply being credited as "Man on Island."
• Not-So-Abandoned Building: The Abbott family finds their friend Emmett hiding in an abandoned factory, having converted the basement into a makeshift bunker.
• Nuclear Candle: When Emmett lights his candle in the furnace, it illuminates the entire space.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: The first movie ended with two more aliens approaching the house, and Regan and Evelyn preparing to fight them by exploiting their newfound weakness. In the beginning of this one, we cut to the Abbotts preparing to leave their home, with the other two aliens' corpses already on the ground.
• Oh, Crap!: A few.
  • Evelyn makes her way through a gap in a fence, taking care not to make any sound, completely missing the trip wire on the ground until she snags it and activates a very loud sound trap. She doesn't even bother with sign-language; she just tells her kids to run.
  • Soon after that, Marcus falls victim to a Bear Trap. There's a brief pause as the adrenaline subsides and he realises what's happened, after which he doesn't even attempt to keep his voice down and proceeds to scream in complete agony, his mother cupping his mouth and begging him to try to be quiet.
  • Regan when she notices an alien sneaking up on her in a train car.
  • Emmett has one when he discovers that the boat with an alien trapped onboard has drifted to the island they're on, meaning the creature is now there with them.
• Only a Flesh Wound: During the climax, an alien claws out a chunk of flesh from Evelyn's thigh. While she initially screams in pain, the injury is quickly forgotten.
• Out of the Inferno: When Evelyn blows up the oxygen tank, the alien emerges unharmed from the flames thanks to it being Immune to Fire.
• Parallel Conflict Sequence: Done twice.
  • The first time we have the conflict between Emmett, Regan and the bandits at the marina which is playing out at the same time as Evelyn fighting off the alien while Marcus is suffocating in the furnace.
  • During the movie's climax, the confrontation between Regan and the monster at the radio station is intercut with Evelyn and Marcus taking on the alien again at the hideout.
• Peek-a-Boo Corpse: Regan encounters one on the train's toilet. Her screaming attracts an alien.
• Post-Apocalyptic Traffic Jam: Regan and Emmett encounter a long line of deserted cars on a bridge.
• "Ray of Hope" Ending: The global situation is much the same at the end as it was at the start... with one major difference: there is now a radio station broadcasting the frequency the aliens are weak to on a constant, 24/7 basis. Anyone with access to the signal can now destroy the aliens, possibly opening a foothold to reclaiming the planet.
• Redemption in the Rain: Evelyn when the sprinkler suddenly kicks in and rains on her while also filling the hall with noise.
• Red Herring: Emmett is portrayed as having become broken from losing his family and living alone for so long, with a number of moments implying he might turn against them. But after a fake-out where Regan finds her implant taken and him missing, he returns and commits to helping her find a boat and get to an island. From then on it becomes more about him regaining hope and a surrogate family after what he lost.
• Room Full of Crazy: Emmett has one of these, depending on how you look at it. When exploring the foundry, Marcus finds an area where Emmett had been living with worker jumpsuits hanging from the ceiling, drawings of his family all over one room, and his wife's rotting corpse on a bed behind a curtain.
• Runaway Train: The prologue shows a driverless bus hijacked by a monster pushing its way through the street on Day 1.
• Safe Zone Hope Spot: Downplayed; the island is a safe zone, with a friendly population who live without fear. However, one of the monsters washes up on it.
• Sneaky Departure:
  • Regan leaves secretly during the night as she knew her mother would not approve of her journey to the island.
  • Emmett pulls a similar feat on Regan later, leaving her devastated.
• So Much for Stealth: During the climax at the radio station, a creaky door alerts the alien to the location of Regan. Her problem is compounded by the fact that she doesn't notice the danger coming at her. Cue Emmett's Heroic Sacrifice to warn her.
• Summon Bigger Fish: When Regan and Emmett are cornered by bandits, who make their intentions clear, Emmett in his struggles is able to make just enough noise to draw the aliens to them, who make short work of the bandits.
• Super Drowning Skills: After diving off the jetty, Emmett makes a splashing noise that causes an alien to jump in after him...only to claw desperately at the side of the boat in a futile effort to climb out before its weight pulls it under.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Regan might have her cochlear implant that disorients the aliens, but optimally it is a two-person job with one to use the implant and amp with another to line up a shotgun to the face. Her attempt to do both by herself is a miserable failure because she has to juggle three things at once and has limited experience with the weapon. She just grazes the side of the alien's head and panics trying to chamber another round and maintain the feedback distortion, only surviving thanks to Emmett.
• Take a Third Option: The bandits at the docks ambush Emmett and Regan, and cover Emmett in noisemakers to prevent him from stopping them from taking Regan and their gear. Rather than letting them get away or trying to grab Regan back, Emmett tells Regan in sign language to dive into the water, and after she does, he intentionally makes noise, drawing the aliens over to the bandits as he dives into the water himself to escape. He nearly drowns in the process and loses the portable microphone / speaker, but he manages to hide the hearing aid in his mouth, and Regan manages to get into one of the boats.
• Three-Month-Old Newborn: Although the events pick up right after the previous film, Evelyn's baby looks like it's a couple of weeks old already.
• Trip Trap: Evelyn stumbles upon a trip wire set up to rattle glass bottles. Knowing the noise will attract the monsters, she has one word to the kids: "Run".
• Two Lines, No Waiting: The film divides into two storylines in the second half: Evelyn, Marcus and the baby surviving in the warehouse and Emmett and Regan making their way to the island.
• Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Downplayed. A community softball game is interrupted with the sight of a massive fireball meteor crossing the sky and about to impact not far away. While the game ends right there with no question and the people disperse, the tone feels oddly calm and relaxed compared to what they just saw. This, of course, greatly contrasts the chaos when the aliens arrive.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: During the prologue, a girl's cell phone rings while a group of people are hiding in a pub, allowing an alien to find and kill some of them.
• Whoosh in Front of the Camera: When Emmett tries to untie a boat at the marina, something wooshes by in the background. It turns out to be a little girl playing Decoy Damsel for a gang of hoodlums.

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Emmett: We won't survive.
Evelyn: We have to try.