You know that bus scene at the start of A Quiet Place: Part II's official trailer? Emily Blunt's Evelyn Abbott stops her car in the middle of the street and quickly drives in reverse as this giant bus careens toward her family? Yeah. That was a real stunt, there was really a bus coming at them at 40 mph, that scene was done in one shot, and what's in the movie is from the first take. Director John Krasinski shared the incredible story of that bus stunt on CinemaBlend's ReelBlend podcast, quipping that it put his marriage with star Emily Blunt on the line.
The trailer to re-watch the shot is below, but let John Krasinski set the scene first. As he should, he starts with praise for A Quiet Place: Part II's main star, Emily Blunt, who also happens to be his wife:
Emily's [stunt] is so real. I think I put my marriage on the line when I put her in the car. That's true. Like when I was explaining to her on set all the things that were going to happen and I said, ‘You're going to hit this stunt man, that car is going to come three feet from you and then this bus is actually going to clock at 40 miles an hour,' her face fell and she went, ‘But not really.’ And I went, ‘No, no, the bus is coming at you at 40 miles.’ That's a real bus, and that bus hits that car and all that is totally real.
Clearly, they pulled it off, but I can only imagine Emily Blunt's feelings in that moment. But actors are trained to perform under pressure. Not only is Evelyn Abbott someone you want by your side when the world ends, Emily Blunt is the one you want in the car to sell the fear of that situation on screen.
And A Quiet Place: Part II's crew is the exact crew you want to make it all happen. John Krasinski couldn't say enough about the crew that staged that stunt, bringing his vision to life no matter what he asked of them.
I got to say that it really was a weird moment because as I was explaining it, you know, as I'm writing it, I'm a giddy nerd and then I'm about to shoot it, and my crew… You know, the one thing I will say about that moment is it’s probably the most proud I've ever been to be a part of a crew. Because you know, everybody always says when they accept an award, ‘This is for my crew.’ And I don't doubt that that's all true. I've never seen a more deserving crew than my crew on this movie. There was zero ‘No’s.’ I mean, every time I came up with an idea and I said, ‘We're going to shoot this shot,’ everything, to be honest from the studio and producers was, ‘It can't happen.’ And my crew was like, ‘It can happen.’ … It was really moving to see, at the end of that shot, the entire crew ran in the middle of the street, high fives, it got emotional and [there] was hugging because we pulled off something nearly impossible. That's all one shot.
That's all one shot and, thankfully, no one got hurt. John Krasinski knew he was asking a lot of his actors, from Emily Blunt to young Noah Jupe as Marcus Abbott. Blunt recently spoke out about this "terrifying" stunt, saying she was proud of Krasinski for choreographing the shot, but she also told the stunt driver on top of the car that her life was in his hands.
Here's more from John Krasinski to ReelBlend on the close-call execution of that one-shot take:
But Emily, God love her, she still got in the car. But that little boy’s in the car. [Noah Jupe] is in the car. There's no switch. There's no nothing. And to go to those parents and say, ‘I promise you, Paramount safety, the stunt guys, they have all okayed this. This is all possible.’ You know, we had that bus on within a hair’s breadth of being able to stop. It had all these special brakes that he could stop real quick. So it's three weeks of rehearsal for one minute of shooting. And I said to Emily, I said, ‘Do you want to run it once?’ And she's awesome. She said, ‘No. Just put me in it.’ And so that take that's in the movie is her first day. So that’s her really saying ‘Jesus Christ’ and ‘Oh my God.’ Because she had no idea. It's like going on the best roller coaster ride of your life. That was the first take that we did.
It really adds to the tension to have that backstory. Re-watch that A Quiet Place: Part II trailer scene here:
Well done, everyone. That seems to be the response from early screenings, with a lot of praise for John Krasinski's A Quiet Place sequel. He wasn't planning to make a sequel, never mind show up in it himself, but there are good reasons for his return to screen for part of A Quiet Place: Part II.
The movie looks like it's going to be another horror hit at the box office when it arrives in theaters March 20. Listen to John Krasinski's full interview with the ReelBlend podcast the week of A Quiet Place: Part II's opening. In the meantime, check out ReelBlend's most recent podcast:
Keep up with everything heading to the big screen this year with our 2020 movie release date schedule.
