Audiences and critics alike seem to love John Krasinski's A Quiet Place 2 manages some irable feats of storytelling, there are some moments where things seem to happen purely for the sake of forwarding the plot. In looking deeper into their mechanics, it's clear which of these fall into the category of plotholes and which are just quick and dirty screenwriting.
After becoming a household face on a nearly-quadrupled budget of $61M and with most of the core cast and crew intact, the filmmakers looked poised to double down on the hot commodity that was the original.
A Quiet Place Part II earned a record opening weekend for a film of the pandemic era, bolstered by vaccinated moviegoers eager to return to theaters. Like its predecessor, it demands an immersive sensory experience. Its prologue builds on inciting events only hinted at in the original, and the characters venture beyond their familiar home, introducing new settings and characters. Though the consensus was positive, explaining what the original didn't opened a can of worms, resulting in story beats that left something to be desired. In delivering on the elements that made Quiet Place great, lazy writing crept into the screenplay. This hardly disqualifies the success of Part II, but it's worth noting where the film loosened its grip on narrative slightly.
A Quiet Place Part II's Meteor & Monster Origin
While the first A Quiet Place film judiciously withheld clear visuals of the central monsters, that technique expired with the film's third-act confrontations. Part II is less concerned with this restrained approach, allowing the increased effects budget to render the creatures in horrific detail, but it does more to expand viewer understanding of the beasts than merely increasing their visual presence. For example, it's shown that they're aliens, arriving on Earth by way of a meteor.
Here are found the first nitpicks: the first film suggests the creatures first arrived in Mexico, yet the impact appears to be in New York. And speaking of that impact, if a meteor of the size seen in Quiet Place 2 hit land, the seismic consequences would be significant - as noteworthy, if not more so, than the creatures themselves. Size estimates of the meteor whose impact killed the dinosaurs bottomed out at around 11km, and given the apparent size of the object observed by the Abbott family, the impact should have had some sort of massive, albeit possibly not biome-razing effects.
A Quiet Place Part II's Aliens Can't Swim
This scenario being a plot hole is contingent on a land impact, which is assured by the film's later reveal that the alien creatures can't swim. Conceptually, this makes sense; their thin, lean, and dense design would hardly suggest buoyancy. The fact A Quiet Place Part II's monsters managed to avoid the Earth's majority ocean surface is at worst a contrivance, but given the Abbotts' familiarity with water in the original (they traverse a bridge and a waterfall), it's unlikely they wouldn't have discovered this fact a year into the after-times. This is especially true when considering how perceptive Lee appears to be in discovering they target and attack sound during the sequel's prologue.
Emmett's Introduction
In the prologue, Quiet Place Part II pulls off a remarkable feat by seamlessly integrating Emmett (Cillian Murphy). His inclusion in the baseball backstory and later discovery as a broken man, coupled with the Abbotts' isolation in the original makes for a believable scenario in which the two parties never crossed paths, even if the valley radio explanation feels convenient. His inability to sign introduces a new wrinkle to the second act (although the "dive" planting and payoff may appear contrived). Murphy's performance contributes to Krasinski's overall positive addition of Emmett to Part II.
Emmett's Boots vs. The Abbotts' Bare Feet
Still, there are a few lazy writing techniques at play related to Emmett's storyline. The film goes to great lengths to show how the Abbotts walk barefooted, even bleeding after long treks on unfriendly terrain, yet Emmett wears heavy duty footwear with no problem. Sure, it's about walking quietly, but the difference between flesh and rubber on loose gravel or dry leaves hardly seems significant especially when Emmett never arouses suspicion when walking in boots. If they didn't have them on hand when leaving home, wouldn't Regan (Millicent Simmonds) have thought to grab some foot protection when going back for the amplifier? And if the film supposes the Abbotts had no shoes whatsoever at their compound, this begins to feel like a plot hole given their ubiquitous preparedness in the first film.
Emmett and Reagan's Arc
Less of a nitpick and more integral to the emotional beats of the story, is Emmett's arc with Regan. Setting up characters in opposition is a tried screenplay technique that builds character development; if they are to end up in a place of friendship in Act 3, they must be the opposite during Act I. The sequel forces this issue in ways that feel inorganic. Even in pursuit of pushing them together, the story sidelines Evelyn (Emily Blunt) to force Emmett to be the one to accompany Regan, but Evelyn has proven capable of doing such missions on her own. She soon leaves the baby in the care of Marcus (Noah Jupe), proving it wasn't the child holding her back from rescuing her daughter. Perhaps most egregiously, Regan is instantly convinced Emmett is not going to replace her father - a notion far from the minds of everyone concerned with the immediate threat of aliens and bear trap wounds.
Marcus's Misadventures
Quiet Place 2 quickly places Marcus on the bench, as he steps in a bear trap on Emmett's railroad compound. While not a bad story beat outright, as it calls back to the original's nail scene, most of Marcus's potential plot holes stem from this event. As seriously as the sequel plays the injury, he's up and moving hours after sustaining it. Bear traps are known to shatter bone but the wound seems superficial compared with how he reacts to it. Maybe it was less effective with age, but given the aliens' invulnerability, it stands to question why Emmett installed it at all. These factors make its inclusion something of a plot hole.
The result is less an actual wound but a story device designed to hold Marcus back enough to miss the main action, but not so much he can't do some exploring of his own. For someone wizened by 400 days in the after-times, he behaves recklessly. The film clearly wanted to set up its cross-cut sequence between Evelyn, Emmett and Regan, and Noah (and the late Ms. Emmett). Although this moment is full of tension as dusk gives way to dark, delivering on the thrills of the first film, it comes at the cost of contrivance.
The Dock People in A Quiet Place Part II
During this cross-cut, Emmett and Regan fall into the clutches of a community of dock-dwelling savages. Emmett plants the possibility of this encounter earlier when he says the kind of people remaining aren't the kind worth saving, helping to establish his jaded character while also building out the world. Thinking more about the dock folk, however, raises some issues. How does a community with such advanced social disintegration maintain its sizable numbers? It's over 400 days into the apocalypse, and yet these people haven't resorted to cannibalizing their own (metaphorically and/or literally). Nor do they seem to think about sailing away to the island or living in boats moored just beyond the shore. They must know the creatures can't swim, having lived on the water all this time. They appear to routinely lay bait, but this hardly seems a productive model of survival (unless swaths of travelers come through the docks every day, which doesn't appear to be the case). All this is easily explained away with an "of course they don't make sense - they're crazy," but this franchise has set higher world-building standards than capitulating to plot holes like this.
The Island Folk in A Quiet Place Part II
Then there's the island community - a comparably idyllic and isolated group living safely away from the threats of A Quiet Place's aliens. Although their isolation would explain the difference in development between the mainland doomsday preppers and their own ignorantly 'normal' society, it doesn't seem likely they would fall into such complacency. They don't even appear to monitor their borders or venture exploratory trips elsewhere for food, information, or other resources. Djimon Hounsou's unnamed character is a worthy addition to the cast, and he and Emmett share a beautifully restrained scene to convey to the island folk their "giving help." Then, evidently because the plot demands that Emmett and Regan share the climax alone to complete their arc, Hounsou suddenly gets abnormally paranoid and is just as quickly removed from the path of the Regan/Emmett storyline.
In the end, the film does well not to overstay its welcome, cutting to the credits at a moment of great momentum just like the first A Quiet Place. And ultimately, despite some of the aforementioned plot holes and contrivances, it es the sequel test with flying colors; it's jam-packed with tense sequences elevated by the distinctive sound design choices elemental to the franchise, it braves new territory - both literally and emotionally, and it delivers a worthy return to the theatergoing experience for many audiences. Sure there are lingering questions: what happens when the cochlear device's batteries run out? What happens when the oxygen for the baby runs out? How will the Abbott family reunite? But these are less plot holes and more opportunities to return in further sequels to the ingenious world imagined by creators Bryan Woods and Scott Beck, economically shot by cinematographer Polly Morgan, and expertly navigated by Krasinski and cast. A Quiet Place Part II, while not as novel nor invulnerable to plot holes as its predecessor, represents the rare sequel that doesn't disappoint.
