If A Quiet Place was, in part, an ode to farm-to-table masculinity, A Quiet Place Part II doubles down on that ethos. The movie is mostly about its homegrown characters learning to “man up.”
Never mind that the man of the first movie is no longer around. John Krasinski does appear in Part II’s extended, pre-title sequence—a terrifying flashback to the first day that giant, bug-like creatures who hunt by sound appeared in Lee Abbott’s quiet, all-American town. After the mayhem, however, Krasinski steps aside as Lee to serve as writer and director, and the movie picks up where the previous one left off. In the wake of Lee’s death and the destruction of his family’s farm at the claws of the monsters, his wife Evelyn (Emily Blunt), daughter Regan (Millicent Simmonds), and son Marcus (Noah Jupe)—along with Evelyn’s newborn baby—quietly tiptoe away in search of shelter elsewhere. They’re on their own, yet Lee’s spirit hovers over their every move.
The first person they meet is Emmett (Cillian Murphy), a former neighbor who is now holed up, all alone, in the bowels of an abandoned factory. Reluctantly admitting Evelyn and the kids into his safe house, he’s quick to state that there aren’t enough supplies for them all and they can’t stay long. (“Show me your face,” Evelyn insists when he won’t remove his bandana, hoping to stay anonymous.) Hollow and hopeless, Emmett has even chosen to ignore a radio signal that suggests a community of survivors might be somewhere out there. Both Evelyn and Regan berate him for his lack of courage—explicitly pointing out that Lee would have taken action—and Regan eventually sneaks away on her own to pursue the signal’s source.
It’s here where A Quiet Place Part II gets most interesting. Regan, like Simmonds in real life, has a hearing impairment, and while the feedback from her hearing aid does act as a protective deterrent against the creatures, she is also especially vulnerable while out on her own because she cannot hear the creatures or the noises she herself makes. This especially brings added tension to a sequence in which Regan comes across an abandoned train. Krasinski (who also directed and co-wrote the first film) employs clever framing and camerawork, alongside a patient pace, while Simmonds projects a galvanizing combination of vulnerability and resolve. She’s everything you’d want in a relatable action star.
Such a scene also nicely mixes up the gender expectations, with Regan, the daughter, taking over for her father as a figure of decisive action (the first film ended on a similar note). But A Quiet Place Part II isn’t satisfied until the men step up too. And so Emmett, after being further shamed by Evelyn, ventures out to help Regan, earning his man card back. Even more telling is the handling of Marcus, Lee and Evelyn’s son. The first film depicted him as a sickly and fearful presence; A Quiet Place Part II reminds us of this in the opening flashback by showing Marcus at bat in a Little League game, afraid of being hit by a pitch. Later, after being injured when he steps into a bear trap, Marcus’ screams of pain attract a horde of creatures. To absolve him of such “weakness,” the movie gives him a climatic moment I won’t describe (even though it’s essentially a repeat of the first film’s final seconds). Suffice it to say, Marcus becomes a man.
All of this is more observation than critique. On the surface, A Quiet Place Part II is another expertly crafted and well-acted monster movie, much like its predecessor. (There’s an especially giddy shot in the opening of a creature emerging from an out-of-control bus that’s bearing down on Evelyn in her station wagon.) It’s also refreshing to be in an imagined universe all its own (unless I missed a post-credits stinger promoting the next MCU film). I only wish A Quiet Place Part II was more interested in interrogating its take on masculinity. One easy way it could have done that? Just make Simmonds the unequivocal star.
