Sound and Silence - A Deep Dive into "A Quiet Place: Day One"

Welcome to the O'Brother Podcast with hosts Dan and Mike Smith , brothers from the same mother with different opinions on movies , tv , video games and more plus celebrity interviews . Get ready , get set it's time for the O'Brother Podcast .

Welcome to the O'Brother Podcast . I'm your host , dan Smithside me , as always , my brother from the same mother , mike Smith . How's it going , Dan Be very quiet You're just back from the movies right , yeah , so we're going to do A Quiet Place Day 1 . Now both fans of A Quiet Place and A Quiet Place 2 . Big fan .

Well , I know that , but but yeah there's a difference between where you can get a pizza and a theater where you're .

No , that's like that's almost every theater now you can do that , but anyways , not here , okay , so mike living , uh , somewhere in the frozen tunnel in here forever yeah so , but what was interesting is she does this little quick PSA . You know , this is a new thing with the movies . Now they've got the whole .

Oh no .

But she , they have her , do this little quick , psa and you know it doesn't work . It doesn't do anything . I mean if , if this would , if , if the theater was the film , the guy in the back chomping the popcorn would have been the first one to get swept up and ripped apart by one of these clackers , right , right at day one .

It's just I'm so , and the cell phones is what drives me crazy , is the light ? Yeah , like a distraction . I don't want to go .

I don't , I don't want to pay too negative a picture because , all things considered , the the crowd was relatively tame and it wasn't a pack theater or anything like yeah , you went at a good time if you had gone to a later show yeah , I had a five o'clock show , so it was it was . It was a little more .

You know more cars in the parking lot than I anticipated really yeah well , it did a hundred million over the the weekend worldwide yeah , and maybe , maybe the receipts haven't caught up to what's online yet .

It's just shy of that . But okay , 100 million um a budget of like 67 million , way beyond what the original film's budget was right and it's also beat the originals in overall .

You know , first weekend opening okay , the opening weekend .

Okay , yes , because certainly not worldwide gross yet , but no , um , directed by michael sarnowski , who we talked about when we did a first look for this a while back , right , because we liked his work .

part two right and you know what I ? I was so curious . I went to imdb and looked him up and I looked at quiet place too , which is there , and it says under what character . A name says guy on Island .

Correct , he was on , he was an unnamed character , right it ?

was a small part , and it's a . It's a relatively small part in this one too , but at least we got a name , Henry .

Right , and it's just enough to kind of , like I said , grounded in the quiet place universe , did it ? You know well , I mean a familiar face to tie it back to . You know it was , it was cool to see him , but um so give us a quick synopsis , unless you want me to just read the imdb synopsis no , I'll , I'll do it .

Okay , for those who know quiet place , quiet place two yeah , you know those films . So this is a quiet place day one . This is the onset of the attack , which is not what I thought it was going to be .

Okay , wait back up a second , I don't think a year , because in the first one or in the second , in the sequel rather , the very opening is day one , right ? That's really a parallel . Again , it's like the first 15 minutes maybe of the sequel , right .

I read the one year .

Yeah , I think it's a year Like after that and then when the first one starts , just A Quiet Place we're talking about from 2018 . That is probably about a year removed from this . That would make sense .

I think , yeah , that fits .

Because , if you go back , I did a quick rewatch of both of them . Oh really yeah , and in fact I wrote it down . There was one .

Was that ?

enjoyable it was . Um , was that enjoyable it was ? It was a quiet place . Um . The original starts off . It says day 472 right , a quiet place . Two . After that opening sequence , which is day one , it's day 474 . So that was . That picks up only a couple of days after he was killed , right ? Spoiler alert if you didn't see the first .

Whatever right , and we got wow , new creatures in this one , like this one gigantic creature . I mean , they were all basically the same size in the first two , but this one gives us a multitude of aliens right , right , right .

So the score , the , the , the creatures you know that the effects were were pretty solid and lapita nuongo , uh , I thought was really good , but that's about where it ends . For me , it and because I think for the , for the most part the pacing , you know the first two , it's like once it hits , it's non-stop . You're going , it's non-stop .

But what was the purpose of the ?

cat . Okay , the cat again , I the cat again . I'm glad you said it , he comes and goes . I'm glad you said it . Okay , I got two of my own , yeah , but that f***ing cat would have been dead in five minutes , like the first whimpering for kibble . And Mike , did you love the part when the cat donned the scuba suit and swam through the flooded subway ?

No , but twice folks swam through the flooded subway .

Not once , no , but twice , folks , yeah the cat and also garfield movie , or what yeah , and they used like six different cats .

And if you're really a cat person and and you know , I my last cat I had for 23 years , you notice change you haven't had a relationship for that long with a woman . You're my longest relationship , but the cat would just go off and then you know , 10 minutes later she'd have it in the bag or it was just like meaningless .

Well , but it was also like a Sherpa at one point , leading the way through this .

It was just silly .

I don't . They broke a cardinal rule . I should wait for this , but I got to get it out .

Yeah , go for it .

The trailer has basically the final scene in it . The rule of thumb is you put something from the first five minutes in the trailer , because I was looking for this guy and there's also a poster for the movie with him holding the cat . And the cat in the poster actually has a COVID mask on , which would make sense to stop him from meowing .

Oh , a COVID mask Okay .

But that wasn't in the movie .

That's funny . I never even picked up on that , but the cat's name was Frodo , by the way . I don't know if you saw that , but now I just learned , before we got on air , that the Peter Luongo or Lupita Luongo I just said her name backwards she was had a big fear of cats before this film .

Yeah .

And there was some talk of maybe doing CGI and Shonosuke was like no , no , no , it's gotta be a real cat . This guy's work with pigs . You know he knows the animal world , but it was just , it was just it was a trope to the nth degree it was unnecessary . We didn't . And the cat was beautiful . Sweet love the cat . But right it was .

They would have been torn up , which eventually they were . But you know right , she's going in the opposite direction . There's another ridiculous plot point , and it's not funny we both like pizza , we both love pizza . See you , I didn't even tell you and you knew what I was gonna say .

She wants to have a piece of pizza from new york city before she goes well , and there's a story about her relationship with her father that they right it's high into that right . He was a piano player .

My god , folks is trying to muffle this guy to the point where it was really weird , because I didn't think you could choke somebody in 0.5 seconds . But apparently you can't wait , you're talking about dijamon .

Yeah , right , well , I think he knocked him out , I think he like broke his neck by punching him or something . Oh , maybe that was it . That would make more sense , because he kind of , like you know , neck by punching him or something .

It is . You know what it is ? It's an alien from Dune A sandworm . Yeah , when it opens up , it's a sandworm .

If it had sex with a clicker from the Last of Us . You put all of that together , of course . See , that's an interesting thing too , because it does have some very similar characteristics to the clickers in the last of us . Yeah , and I don't , and I think the last of us video game probably came before the first quiet place .

I don't know the the that's right , because it's basically the same story but it is .

It is unique enough for me , although , as you just mentioned , alien , it was starting to go a little too alien for me at one point with yeah , oh , here we go and they're , they're , uh , they're well right , the xenomorph . But it was this , um , the character , eric and the cat , he's like climbing up some scaffolding to go get her some medicine .

I wasn't sure if they were dead aliens licking it right and then you know . But but then they rip it open together and they start eating , so I didn't know what the hell was going on . Yeah , is it an egg ? Is it another alien ? Do they ? Are they cannibals ?

here's another beef I have all right , which is I've got more brzezinski in some of the , the , the featurettes on the first two he talks about . You know how , as he was growing up , all of the sort of those types of films were always about these , these intelligent beings coming down from space to invade , which is why he kind of went in a different way .

The name of this movie should have been Quiet Place , New York , not quiet place day one , because he didn't tell us how , the where these came from . Great point , you know what are they we ? I thought we were going to get the backstory of how they came to earth .

Instead , it just starts out like a quiet place , I think we're going to get another one , and if we do the only thing we we can do .

It's already listed . It's already listed Quiet Day 4 .

But but is Krasinski going to direct ?

No , the guy that directed this one , I didn't Sarnoski , sarnoski .

I didn't have any problem with the directing . I really didn't .

No , I didn't have any problem with you know , didn't have any problem with the directing ?

I really didn't .

No , I didn't have any problem with you know , acting was fine , although it was a bit odd with this guy shows up and he gloms on to yes uh , that's luongo eric , played by joseph quinn , right , and she's trying to like get rid of him and then , you know , all of a sudden , the tide turns and this is like one day and she's , you know , all of a sudden ,

Yeah .

It just was the continuity , the story wasn't smooth .

Well , so far it's not . It's certainly the third of the three , Definitely . You know I'm surprised it's already hit 100 million .

to be honest with me , too , and you know what I'm .

The only thing that's going to , because you got Deadpool and Wolverine as of this recording right around the corner , like a few weeks out . That's crush the box office .

I hopefully I don't see any world where that isn't gonna be the case if that doesn't turn marvel on its head , I don't they need to fold up shop and go back to making disney films .

Yeah , this just you know . What was interesting too is I . I was very surprised . We do not say this very often on the podcast , but when when it ended , I was like holy right , it was early , it was quick , but it's an hour and 40 minutes , which is short by today's standards . Right , but it's like a few minutes longer than the sequel , I think .

So it's not the shortest of the three , but it felt really quick it did , and I think that's because so many story points didn't flow right and , like you said , if it wasn't for um the main actor , henry , there's no okay , this is just an alien movie yeah , I like that comment you made about like it would have been cool if they showed us some other locations

Right , you know parallels . I like that , because I do , you know you . You do find yourself thinking about I always go back to the baseball field in the sequel . Right , they see , you know it , you . You do find yourself thinking about I always go back to the baseball field in the sequel Right , and they see , you know it's at the very beginning .

And this was a little odd because they're in New York and there's these bulbs . Hey , I don't know if it was a holiday season or whatever , but the first indication is , you see , like the blue angels fly overhead and you know , but nobody's .

Yeah , yeah , it's devastating when they , when they do attack though , like when they come in , like when it's a whole army of them , it's super intense and that would have been different from the other one , because we really in the first one we barely saw them until the very end .

Krasinski did pull the jaws , almost right , you know , kept it out of sight , and then all of a sudden , at the end , we see him and of course he surrenders to and that didn't bother me .

I I didn't think they were overshown in this , certainly more than we've seen , right , but it was still some nice directing shots with like using like fog and smoke and stuff to suggest . You know , there's the scene we mentioned in the subway where the cat puts on a scuba suit , you know , makes it out of there alive somehow .

And the big one the way it would walk was really intense . I mean , when the creatures were on the screen . That seemed to be the most energized this movie was yeah , great design .

Ilm did a fantastic job . I I really liked the creatures , but too short uh , the . I didn't understand , like you , I didn't understand , like you said , I didn't get this whole interplay between her and this other character . Eric , it just didn't why , if it was just her and the cat , maybe I could have done with that .

And I remember , does Disney still have the animal show out at the Animal Kingdom , which , well , there's a lot of like a live action animals and it's oh yeah with the cat and I can train cats to do pretty amazing things , but this is like , uh , you know , like for a blind person that uses a dog for her .

Correct yeah .

And she named it , I forget . Like when she was in the store the clerk's like , hey , no cats .

Well , she said it's a service cat . A service cat , that's the word . Yeah , which , there's , no such thing . But so , yeah , I was disappointed . I mean I'd give it like a C plus Maybe . Yeah , because you kind of like the creatures .

Yeah , there's not much dialogue . So you know the actors . That's tough on actors sometimes , so I appreciated that . Okay , like you said , the directing . I had no problem with his directing .

No .

But I had a huge problem with the story and Zero . There needs to be a day like Godzilla . There needs to be Quiet Place minus Zero .

Right .

Because we still don't know where these things came from .

I know it had that World War Z kind of vibe too going on with it . Yeah , with the crowds and yeah , yeah yeah , I'm surprised .

And the pizza thing , like you kind of yeah what ?

why , again , it's just this whole , this emotional beat about her relationship with her father and I . I don't know , you know , cherishing the little things in life . Maybe was the message . I don't know .

And granted , even if I had a month to live and these creatures are all around me , I probably would have been a little more , you know , loose with my words or actions , but I just didn't feel that from the story . I thought it was a terrible story . It doesn't connect to the first two .

Like I said , quiet place , new york , yeah this is what happens when this happens in new york . I agree , there you go , you get a whole like uh , installment of different cities .

You could have a quiet place , tokyo if I place tokyo right right kong versus one of the creatures .

That'd be a good way to go . Yeah , why not in the monster verse ? Yeah , yeah , well , it's disappointing . I was so , although I was skeptical , even just based on what we saw in the first look . But and , but . As soon as we're 15 minutes in , I'm like where are they going with the story ? How is this going to satisfy ?

And that's the big problem . That's the biggest problem is the story .

I liked . I did like the very ending beat , which is very sort of typical for how these have ended , but I did like the very last shot . I will have to say , you know , I thought that was cool , yeah . So now all I can do is anticipate the next one and hope it's better .

Right Because the first two , I think , were the best new horror films in a long time . They were just different .

Yeah , if the cat returns in the next one , I'm gonna have a serious problem .

well , according to the director , he's already pitching a sequel , but I don't want to see a sequel to this . And how long could it be anyway ?

as disappointing as it is , I say you got a trilogy , just let it be .

Yeah .

I would say enough's enough , walk away at this point , which they don't often do , that with these franchises . Again , they squeeze the juice , all the juice , out of the lemon Furiosa , I mean the two movies .

So far there's three movies that I've really been excited about Ball Guy Totally disappointed .

This one .

Totally disappointed . Yeah , they screw up Deadpool . I don't know what to say .

I haven't been since I saw the Marley movie .

Right .

And that was a good one .

Prices are just and I kid you not , not , the popcorn was more than the beer .

wow and I didn't get any . I didn't . I , you know we were going back and forth , whether or not what we were like we always do , we , we debate and ultimately it was your decision and I watched it , I had seen it . Ouch , I wanted to say , dan , don't waste your money . I know 17 , 17 bucks , I know for that .

Here they still have that anymore yeah yeah , well , there you go , folks , a quiet place day one . Um yeah , it just came out june 28th , so literally wait , wait till it's streaming or absolutely wait till it's stream . Do not spend your money to go see this in the theater .

You would be disappointed family of four .

Do not drop a c-note it would be a nice watch , do a do a marathon and watch them all together , or something like right . And there's the beauty you can start with this one and you can end with the sequel right , which ? Is great , you know , emily blunt , come on , you got no complaints right all right , folks .

Bye everyone .