'A Quiet Place' Has No After-Credits Scene Because of the Ending

Allow us to save you your valuable time by spoiling that no, John Krasinski’s excellent new sci-fi horror film A Quiet Place does not have any sort of post-credits scene, and that’s because it has an incredibly potent ending. The movie wraps up with an excellent cliffhanger that implies enough that we know exactly what’s going to happen next without having to see it. And because this story’s creators aren’t concerned with building any sort of cinematic universe, they can let this story end organically.

A Quiet Place hits theaters on April 6, and in a cinema landscape where plenty of sci-fi stories like to infuse stories with more and more mystery, we’ve come to expect that a post-credits scene is possible. After all, people have thought this could be a secret Cloverfield movie for months, so a post-credits scene would be the perfect opportunity to introduce some tease that relates to The Cloverfield Paradox. It helps that A Quiet Place does come from Paramount Pictures, the same studio that developed all of the previous Cloverfield movies.

But instead of obsessing over building a universe and providing answers to mysteries about where the alien monster came from, A Quiet Place instead uses its modest 95-minute runtime to make you fall in love with this family and how the parents struggle to define how their children can do more than just survive in this world.

At a press event for A Quiet Place in March, Krasinski’s co-star and real-life wife, drew a distinction between “surviving and thriving” that’s at the core of the movie. Lee will do anything to protect his kids, and Evelyn does her best to nurture this family. This doesn’t present any sort of conflict so much as it establishes the delicate balance of what it can be like to raise kids under any kind of difficult circumstance.

This isn’t a movie about the apocalypse; it’s a movie about family and how humans communicate and grow together despite immense trauma and hardship.

That’s what makes the ending so tragic, and also why this movie has no reason to include a post-credits scene, especially considering there are no plans for a sequel right now.

Huge spoilers follow beyond this point for the ending of A Quiet Place.

In a heartbreaking moment during the final act, the children Regan and Marcus are in trouble. Lee’s already wounded after trying to attack one of the monsters, so much like the old man in one of the trailers, he uses sign language to tell his kids how much he loves them before screaming at the top of his lungs. We don’t see Lee die, but it’s a certainty. The kids have enough time to escape.

Back at the house, we’re given a glimmer of hope when Evelyn and Regan realize that Regan’s hearing aid that her father made somehow creates a feedback loop of sound that harms one of the monsters. They amplify the sound using a microphone and sound system in the basement, and it injures the beast enough that Evelyn can shoot it in the head with a shotgun.

The movie ends with several more creatures streaking towards the house after hearing the shotgun blast, but armed with their knowledge and a way to defeat the creatures, the remaining members of the Abbott family brace themselves to kill the few creatures left that inhabit their area.

What more story could there possibly be to tell for this family?

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