A Quiet Place: Day One Takes Us Back to the Beginning
Lupita Nyong’o and Joseph Quinn try to survive in silence.
The first 10 minutes of A Quiet Place Part II weren’t just a flashback, but a prediction of things to come. The invasion thriller, directed by John Krasinski, keeps its story focused on the eventual aftermath of an alien apocalypse, but not before turning the clock back to the first day our world was visited by a legion of sightless, super-hearing aliens. The creatures known as Death Angels made an indelible impression in the franchise’s first two films, and that’s set to continue in A Quiet Place: Day One, the latest entry in Krasinski’s soulful, somber apocalyptic drama.
Day One is a significant departure from its predecessors. The 2018 phenomenon and its sequel were helmed by John Krasinski, who starred alongside Emily Blunt, Millicent Simmonds, and Noah Jupe. While Krasinski came up with the idea for the spin-off, he’s taking a step back this time. Day One will follow an all-new cast of characters, while Pig director Michael Sarnoski takes the helm.
Instead of the uncommonly capable Abbott family, Day One follows a group of survivors — including Lupita Nyong’o, Joseph Quinn, Djimon Hounsou, and Alex Wolff — fighting to withstand the first day of an extraterrestrial invasion. Nyong’o is Sam, a solo traveler enjoying a day trip in the city when the Death Angels descend to Earth. In the chaos, she quickly falls in with Eric (Quinn), and the unlikely pair band together to navigate their new normal. Check out its first trailer below.
Humanity being forced to survive in silence will always be ironic, but Day One takes that even further by setting its story in what might be the loudest city on Earth: New York. The devastation echoes the effect of big-city disaster flicks like War of the Worlds, but like the other Quiet Place films, Day One will likely take a more intimate approach to survival.
“When you have a family, there is an innate expectation that they will want to stick together,” Nyong’o told Entertainment Weekly. “We don’t have that in this film. We have these disparate individuals who collide into each other’s lives, and it is at a very pivotal time for the world. How do they negotiate survival together? What we get is really interesting — and even surprising — chemistry in the characters that meet each other along the way.”
Quinn views Day One as “more of a [character] drama” between Sam and Eric. While their paths do cross with other characters (like Hounsou’s mysterious stranger, who was introduced in A Quiet Place Part II), “it’s very much a film about these two characters who are lost and trying to negotiate their fates.”
It’s been a long road to Day One. Originally announced in 2022 and set for a 2023 release, the prequel has faced its fair share of delays. Changes to the Paramount slate have seen it pushed back on several occasions, but its summer 2024 release date is finally in sight. If all goes to plan, fans will be holding their breath in theaters again soon.
A Quiet Place: Day One hits theaters June 28.
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