A Quiet Place: Day One explained

What is A Quiet Place: Day One about?

A Quiet Place: Day One is about coming to terms with dying. The alien invasion becomes symbolic for the cancer that will, in short order, kill Sam. But she serves as an inspiring figure for Eric, someone who is having to confront his own mortality, even as a healthy person. Fear of death leaves him emotionally and physically debilitated. But seeing Sam’s strength allows him to find a new strength of his own. 

Cast

• Sam – Lupita Nyong’o
• Eric – Joseph Quinn
• Reuben – Alex Wolff
• Henri – Djimon Hounsou
• Frodo – Schnitzel the Cat | Nico
• Written by – Michael Sarnoski
• Directed by – Michael Sarnoski

Coming to terms with our own mortality

Samira’s character arc embodies the main theme of A Quiet Place: Day One. We first see her in a group meeting at hospice. She has the worst attitude of anyone there and shares a poem she wrote about how everything is shit. She criticizes the hospice care, her peers, and calls out her cancer. The main takeaway here is that she’s mad and bitter about her situation. 

At the end, Sam has made it to the jazz club where she used to watch her father play, a place that was, for her, full of joy, wonder, love, and potential. It becomes a sanctuary for her and Eric, somewhere they can forget about the world outside and simply drink, eat, and goof off. 

If it wasn’t obvious already, the jazz club is the point where the film really connects the Death Angels to Sam’s cancer. They’re the external representation of the internal thing she’s struggling against. And the jazz club is a respite from both the creatures and the cancer. 

Fear of Death

Even though Eric was perfectly healthy (as far as we know), he was overwhelmed by what was happening. It’s hard to blame him. When we first see him, he pops up from a flooded subway entrance, and can barely catch his breath he’s so terrified. But the cat is right there and focuses him, calms him down. He then follows it to Sam then won’t leave Sam’s side because he’s so scared and essentially infantilized by his fear. 

So we’re introduced to his anxiety and fear of death right away. And an inability to be independent. We have a few more moments that show fear almost shut Eric down. Except Sam is there to help him. 

Two big things happen that change Eric for the better. The first is reading Sam’s poem. Not the one about hospice but the serious one, where she actually reflected on her sickness. 

Bad Math

He said one to two years

and it has been two. 

He said four to six months

and it has been six.

And Mrs. Freehunter taught me subtraction,

and the corner store taught me addition,

and I used only simple maths

all my life. And I never needed more

the more [?], the less [?], to four

to three, to smaller 

and smaller, until months, to days, to hours,

to seconds. 

But not now. 

We see the emotional impact the poem has on Eric. He’s moved. To the point of admiration. As bad as the whole alien invasion is, Eric at least has his health. He can survive. But Sam can’t. No matter what, her time has come. And look how she deals with it. Determined. Strong. Taking care of him! 

The second is at the church. Sam’s strength has left her. She needs medicine. Eric is the only one who can get it for her. That mission, that sense of having someone depend on you, gives him courage he had previously lacked. And so he goes out alone. And then rescues the cat from an alien nest. He’s strong because Sam needs him to be strong. 

Sam having come to terms with her own mortality serves as a model for Eric to overcome his own fear of death. That’s the subtext of his final run to the water. Death Angels swarm and chase after him. He’s horrified. But he doesn’t stop. Not how he had before. Because Sam has taught him to be brave in the face of such nonsense. 

That’s the point of Sam giving Eric her sweater and the cat. The physical things he acquires from her symbolize the existential, emotional stuff he’s gained.

Being strong for others

Being strong for others is one of the main themes of the entire A Quiet Place franchise. In the first movie, it’s the parents being strong for their kids. In Part Two, the kids are strong for their widowed mother. 

In Day One, the parent-child dynamic changes to pets and strangers in need. But it’s the same idea. Sam is stronger than she wants to be because she has to take care of the cat. Then Eric has the courage to reach the ship because he has the cat. That’s also why we have the teeny-tiny mini subplot with Djimon Hounsou and his son. It calls back to the dynamic of the first two films and serves as an echo point (a term I just made up) for Sam and Eric.

Why does Sam kill herself? What was she sick with? 

Sam was sick with cancer. And the cancer was going to get her any day. Maybe within hours. So she goes out on her own terms. 

What happens to the cat?

The cat goes through a lot. They waterboard the thing when they keep it in a sack then swim through the subway tunnel. Then Eric jumps with it into the river. But it makes it onto the ship with Eric. The expectation is the ship will leave the city, leave the coast, and that people will regroup at sea where the aliens can’t reach them. The cat gets to be part of that. 

You’d imagine Eric will keep Frodo. But we do see it hanging out with Djimon’s character’s son. You could argue he thinks the cat would be better off with the kid, or the kid needs Frodo more than Eric does. But I’d be surprised, after everything he and Sam went through, if Eric didn’t keep the cat. 

What were the aliens eating?

When Frodo inexplicably wanders into the alien nest, Eric follows and we see a little bit of alien culture. The director, Michael Sarnoski, told Slash Film that “what I was getting at with that was you can see all these sort of pools of this pink, glassy liquid, and if you look closely, you can see that there’s bodies in those pools. And the idea is that in the other movies, you kind of get that the creatures take people, and they never really say what they’re doing with them. And I think everyon’es just like, ‘Oh, they’re eating the people or something.’ But I like the idea that the creatures are kind of leafcutter ants that are sort of farming, using organic material of people to grow what is their food source, which is these kind of weird melon-y, egg, mushroom things that they sort of feed the little ones with. So it just kind of is hinting at, at the end of the day, these are farmers and they have a little bit of a family dynamic to them. I liked that idea, especially coming off the first Quiet Place that’s about a rural farming family.” 

Is Patsy’s pizza a real place?

What year is the alien invasion in A Quiet Place?

There’s a calendar in the first film that shows the date as October 3rd, 2021. And it had been 473 days since the invasion. That puts the invasion around June 17th, 2020. 

Sam really has an iPod?

I know. It’s a bit anachronistic. But she seemed like an old soul. So I can imagine she wasn’t a fan of iPhones and the like and opted to keep it simple with the iPod that had all of her favorite music already on it. The speaker in the jazz club makes sense because the jazz club was old and it was probably something they had back in the day and just never moved. 

What’s weird is that people have noticed that she has an iPod classic at the start and a Nano at the end. I doubt that’s story-related. Seems like a continuity error. Not a big deal but a strange one. 

Why didn’t the aliens hear breathing and footsteps?

The aliens have insane hearing, so shouldn’t they pick up on subtle things like breathing and heartbeats and footsteps? There isn’t a great explanation in the movie. But the answer is probably that because they hear so much they actually can’t pick out subtle sounds that don’t rise above the ambient level. 

Think about being in a small room with 50 people and everyone is talking and laughing. You probably wouldn’t be able to hear any individual conversation, even at close range, because the totality of the conversations creates what’s essentially a white noise. But as soon as someone raised their voice, you’d hear that. 

Why did everyone move as a group? Why didn’t Sam get away from them?

This is probably the dumbest thing in the movie, but after it’s announced for everyone to go to the rescue ships, a swarm of people walk down a single street. And Sam’s in the midst of it, and realizing the noise-level. At that point, it’s already well-established that noise attracts the Death Angels. Very strange that everyone would cluster like that and that Sam wouldn’t go like a block over or something.

How was the cat so smart?

Plot. The ADA doesn’t certify cats as service animals because, generally speaking, most don’t have the temperament to be in public and remain calm, much less at an owner’s side. So, in some ways, Frodo is more magical in Day One than the arrival of aliens. 

Especially since we see Frodo, like, knowingly appear to help Eric. Then track down Sam after they were separated. Then it also recognizes the aliens react to sound so stays quiet. And also doesn’t react to water. Frodo’s pretty much the most well-behaved and intelligent cat to ever exist. Which is charming but also can be hard for some people to suspend their disbelief.

How did the puppeteer fill the balloon?

At the marionette show, the performer has their puppet blow up a balloon. It definitely gets a pop from the audience. We don’t get a strong explanatory shot but you can see that there’s a tube from the back of the puppet that leads up to the master’s mouth. 

Sam’s poem about hospice

This Place is Shit

This place is shit.

This place smells like shit.

Bessie’s voice sounds like shit.

Cancer’s shit.

Oscar does that stupid walk

when he wants to hide

he shit his pants. 

And Milton,

has shit taste in music.