'I would just make a noise and die': How A Quiet Place Part II’s stars would handle a real apocalypse

In the spring of 2018, silence gave way to terror in A Quiet Place. John Krasinski’s critically heralded, crowd-pleasing horror-thriller ushered audiences into a world under attack by ravenous creatures who hunt their prey by sound. On a remote farm, the Abbott family strove to survive by eliminating noise from their lives. But some sounds can’t be stifled. 

Now, Krasinski, his cast, and those creepy critters are back for A Quiet Place Part II. Last year, before the pandemic pushed back the film's initial 2020 premiere, SYFY WIRE sat down with Krasinski and company to see how they’d fare in such an intense apocalypse. 

In A Quiet Place Part II, Krasinski, who wrote, directed, and appears in flashback scenes, reveals how these pernicious predators first crashed into the cozy rural town the Abbotts called home. A bustling main street proves a deadly location to meet the movie’s monsters. In the blink of an eye, strolling neighbors run down the sidewalk screaming, as street lights are felled by a furiously fast and fatal foe. Amid the chaos, the Abbotts cling to each other and seek out safety in silence. But, where would be the worst place to encounter these noise-hunting fiends? 

“The worst place to be — I would say — would be somewhere with kids,” answered Millicent Simmonds, who plays A Quiet Place’s brave teen heroine Regan Abbot. “A playground, or a roller coaster, or a toy store, or a candy store.” 

Director John Krasinski on the set of A Quiet Place Part II. (Credit: Paramount Pictures)

Blunt, her co-star and on-screen mom, agreed.

“[The worst place would be] my apartment, which is really loud with my children,” Blunt said in a separate interview, though she noted that this very interview, in front of all the lights and cameras for the sequel’s pre-pandemic press junket, would be a deadly spot, too. “Anywhere around talkative people like a junket would be bad,” Blunt added, playfully. “We’d be wiped out. We’d be gone.” 

“The worst place to be would probably be New York City,” echoed Krasinski, Blunt’s onscreen and offscreen husband. “Let's get out of here.” 

Djimon Hounsou and Cillian Murphy, both newcomers to the Quiet Place universe, were on the same page. In a joint interview, Murphy said any “metropolis” would be a bad spot. Hounsou backed him up, by offering the best-case scenario. 

“The purest nature setting in which you could be would probably be the best,” Hounsou explained. “Where you can hear birds and animals more than the system and infrastructure that we have created to make so much noise.” 

However, he argued such natural quiet might be its own challenge. 

“Silence is such a powerful, powerful moment, but at the same time, silence can also be such a hunted feeling, you know?” Hounsou said. “Because you are so used to — so conditioned — with sound and producing sound, where if you don't hear the sound, you almost seem to cease to exist. You panic.”

Speaking of panic, how does the Quiet Place Part II cast think they’d fare if this horror scenario played out in real life? 

Murphy said that he, like Krasinski’s character, would look to protect his kids. 

“I think the film deals with your first instinct is to protect your children,” he explained. “Hopefully, your own safety is secondary, and the safety of your children and your family is primary. So that's what you would hope. But I hope I never have to prove myself. 

“I think actors, in general, would be terrible survivalists,” Murphy continued, scoffing at SYFY WIRE’s suggestion that, perhaps, actors such as himself might have an advantage since they’ve acted out disaster scenarios on the big screen. “Yes. But, then we have people bringing us snacks. You don't get that in the apocalypse, do ya?”  

“Oh, I would die if it really happened,” Simmonds signed on in agreement.  

Unlike her co-stars, Blunt wasn’t so quick to admit defeat against hypothetical monsters. 

“I don't know how well I would do in a scenario like that. I think that's what the movie's about,” she said. “You see this really ordinary family, who is thrust into an extraordinary situation, where you see that resilience. You see the power of the human spirit. And maybe that's what's so optimistic and hopeful — ultimately — about the film, which is you see when the chips are down: How far would you go for your kids? How far would you go to survive? What's your willingness to survive despite all the odds? I think that's what I find so emboldening about the idea of this film.”

As for Krasinski, he too learned a lesson from the Abbotts’ battles with these beasts. But his takeaway wasn’t quite as uplifting as his wife’s. His answer?

“I would immediately tell my wife good luck, and I would just make a noise and die.”

A Quiet Place Part II opens in theaters on May 28.