Warning: massive spoilers ahead for A Quiet Place! Read ahead at your own risk!
Audiences have spoken, and it looks like John Krasinski's A Quiet Place has become a big winner over the course of its opening weekend. The film has already earned a massive sum of money relative to its lean budget, and critics (including us here at CinemaBlend) have showered it with near-universal acclaim. With all of that positive energy backing the film's run, it has led many to raise the question of a potential sequel.
With that said, I'm here today to tell you that a sequel to A Quiet Place is a bad idea. Even in the face of the film's incredible box office performance, there are plenty of valid story reasons to keep A Quiet Place self-contained. On that note, let's dive in and discuss why we don't need to see anything more from these characters.
Every Character Arc In A Quiet Place Pays Off
One of the most fundamental elements of a sequel is the fact that it allows the filmmakers to go back and address plot threads left hanging from the original. It's a benefit to plenty of movies (particularly movies in the horror genre), but A Quiet Place's characters don't need any more fleshing out. Each arc planted at the beginning of the film has particular relevance to the overarching story, and it all pays off by the time the credits roll. Whether it's the daughter realizing how much her father truly loved her (even if he never said it), or the son learning to be brave in the face of an alien attack, everyone has a moment to show their growth over the course of A Quiet Place's lean runtime. A sequel could move on to new entirely new characters, but there's no need to return to this family and check in on them.
A Quiet Place Earns Its Ending
Building off of that first idea, it's also worth acknowledging the fact that A Quiet Place earns its gut punch ending -- which sees the father (John Krasinski) sacrifice himself to save his children from an attack by one of the creatures. Over the course of A Quiet Place's lean 90-minute runtime, we watch as our heroes are put through the physical and emotional wringer, and the death of the father is the profound emotional catharsis that rounds out the entire journey. If A Quiet Place didn't build to such a perfect and downright satisfying (albeit sad) climax, then there would be a valid argument to be made that the film warrants other adventures in this universe. However, as it currently stands, A Quiet Place tells a near-perfect three-act story with a beginning, middle, and end. It's rare to find a movie nail that balance so well, and a sequel could only throw off the pacing of the story.
We Know Enough About How The Invasion Began
One possibility suggested by some fans of A Quiet Place is the idea of taking things back in time to show us the intricacies of the initial invasion. A prequel would open things up and show us the immediate aftermath of the aliens' arrival on Earth, but the fact of the matter is that A Quiet Place already does a phenomenal job of getting us up to speed on the finer points of the invasion and the devastation that these creatures caused when they first showed up. Through a few simple newspaper clippings and some important context clues shown towards the beginning of the film (there's no traditional exposition sequence), A Quiet Place has already told us everything that we need to know. Sure, it might seem cool to watch the aliens go up against the United States military, but it's difficult to imagine how that will enhance the themes established in the first film.
The Unknown Is Scarier Than The Known
As it currently stands, A Quiet Place provides just the right amount of context regarding the creatures, how they got to Earth, and the impact that their arrival has had on the world as a whole. That said, even if a sequel moves away from the central family established in the first film, it will likely also have to do even more legwork to flesh out these creatures -- which very much goes against what makes them work so well in the first place. The more time that we spend in the world of A Quiet Place, the more that we will learn about these creatures, which will inherently make them less creepy. That's even something that the producers touched on in an interview with CinemaBlend, in which they admitted that they learned to avoid over-explaining horror concepts while working on 2009's Friday the 13th. Let the world of A Quiet Place rest, and never tell us more about these monsters.
A Quiet Place's Final Shot Is Perfect
After an entire movie of running, hiding, and staying quiet, A Quiet Place ends with our surviving heroes learning how to get the upper hand against the alien creatures: the daughter's modified hearing aid. In one triumphant move, the mother cocks her shotgun and prepares to take on the remaining two beasts in the area as they rush towards their farmhouse. It's one of the most adrenaline-pumping conclusions to a film that we have seen in quite a while, and it's an ending that promises even more badass adventures for these characters. There is very little ambiguity about the fact that this family is now in a position to start fighting back against the alien menace, and the powerful framing of Emily Blunt in A Quiet Place's final moments tells us everything that we need to know. It's perfect punctuation for a fantastic story, and a great place to leave it.
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