After a long wait, A Quiet Place Part II is finally making its way into theaters this summer, and it could answer some major lingering questions and mysteries from the first movie. Directed once again by John Krasinski (who will also reprise his role as Lee Abbott in flashback scenes), A Quiet Place 2 picks up immediately after the events of A Quiet Place, with the surviving of the Abbott family left to defend their home from two approaching monsters.
As the trailers for A Quiet Place 2 have revealed, the Abbotts won't be remaining on their farm. Evelyn (Emily Blunt), Regan (Millicent Simmonds), Marcus (Noah Jupe) and Evelyn's newborn son will be venturing out into the world in search of a new safe place and other human survivors. The sequel promises to greatly expand the scope of A Quiet Place's world, since the first movie was set entirely on the Abbott farm and in the immediate surrounding area. A Quiet Place 2 will introduce new characters played by Cillian Murphy and Djimon Hounsou, who could shed more light on the current state of the world and the nature of the monsters that have overrun it.
Of course, there's a strong case to be made that too much exposition would do more harm than good in A Quiet Place 2. The first film worked so well because it was focused on the experience of a single family and how they adjusted to living in a silent world. Nonetheless, A Quiet Place 2 could easily find a balance between that character-driven story and answering a few major questions.
How Did The Angels of Death Arrive on Earth?
The Krasinski said that the creatures' own planet exploded and they were flung through space on meteorites, protected by their bulletproof skin, before crashing down to Earth. Based on the scenes in the trailer, it looks like we could see this explanation made canon in the sequel.
How Intelligent Are the Monsters?
Another detail that remains uncertain is just how intelligent the monsters are. In A Quiet Place they appeared to simply be lethal predators acting on a pure hunting instinct, rather than an organized species with higher motives. The Abbotts were also able to fool them fairly easily, for example by firing rockets to distract them. But while there's no indication so far that they hunt in packs, the odd chittering and clicking noises that the monsters make could actually be an alien language that's indicative of higher intelligence.
Why Was The Military Defeated So Easily?
The monsters' swift and total defeat of the United States' armed forces was one of the most puzzling aspects of A Quiet Place. Newspaper clippings collected by Lee Abbott described the military being overwhelmed and telling the people that they are now on their own, and this defeat is largely attributed to the monsters' impenetrable armor, as well as their terrifying strength and speed. The creatures also interfere with electrical signals, and managed to cause a financial disaster by wiping hard drives on Wall Street. Still, even with all these advantages it's hard to believe that the U.S. military was completely razed to the ground, so perhaps pockets of it still exist and could even be planning a war to take the planet back.
How Many Humans Are Still Alive in The United States?
It's common in post-apocalyptic stories for characters to never be entirely sure just how alone they are, due to the usual lines of communication collapsing. In A Quiet Place, Lee Abbott maintained with surrounding survivors by lighting a signal fire on top of the grain silo, but by the end of the movie the neighboring signal fires were no longer being lit. Lee also attempted to make with other survivors by sending Morse code through his radio, but received no response. This silence doesn't bode well for the Abbotts' chances of finding other pockets of civilization, but A Quiet Place 2 could offer a better perspective of just how many people are still left alive.
How Badly Was the Rest of the World Affected?
During Lee's efforts to find other survivors using transmissions of Morse code, he reached out not only within America but also to other countries - but got no response. Of course, this doesn't necessarily mean that the entire world has been devastated as badly as the United States. Because the monsters interfere with electrical signals, it's possible that their presence on Earth has made long-distance communication much more difficult (which would go some way towards explaining why humanity failed to stop them). As the Abbotts make with other survivors in A Quiet Place 2, they may learn more about the current state of the world. The trailers have also shown scenes of Regan making her way through a working radio station that has far more powerful equipment than Lee's basement home radio system, which could allow her to make with pockets of humanity much farther away.
Has Anyone Else Figured Out the Monsters' Weakness?
In A Quiet Place, Lee built a hearing aid for Regan that didn't work in the way it was supposed to, but did broadcast in the presence of the creatures that caused them excruciating pain. The also causes the armored scales to lift away from their heads, which gave Evelyn the opening she needed to kill one of the creatures with a shotgun. If the Abbott family have figured out the monsters' weakness, it's fair to say that other people probably have as well. And in addition to finding ways of killing the creatures, other survivors may have also figured out how to build walls of sound (like the waterfall that Lee and Marcus sit and talk under) which allow them to live more normal lives without fear of being eaten every time someone sneezes too loudly.
