A Quiet Place: Day One (2024)
Rated PG-13, 1 hour 39 minutes

A Quiet Place: Day One is a spin-off prequel of the movie A Quiet Place, directed by Micheal Sarnoski. This movie introduced new characters, the main leads being Sam, her cat Frodo, and Eric, who met each other as the Death Angels first began to invade New York City. Those death angels were extremely fast, and any form of sound would trigger their murderous senses. Sam was a character who was ill and appeared first in a hospital, where she went out to get her promised pizza with Reuben when disaster struck the city. After seeing her companions get killed one by one by the aliens, she ends up venturing into the invaded city alone along with her cat. She was shown to have a very special connection with the cat, and when she held it, a wave of relief and peace could be seen through her character. It was raining when Sam approached a flooded subway, where she noticed a man who crawled out of the water, soon introduced as Eric. Eric followed Sam despite her retorts, so far as following into her apartment. However, in the apartment, they shared a special bonding moment when they both screamed into the rain, releasing their pain and stress freely as the Death Angels couldn’t hear them over the loud thunder and rain. There were more special moments of bonding between them, such as when Eric risked his life to fetch Sam her medicine, and when they tried to escape together near the end. Additionally, Frodo also played a crucial part in increasing the bond between Sam and Eric. Despite this story seeming like they would both either meet a tragic or happy end, it was rather bittersweet. 

Lupita Nyong’o, the actress for Sam, did a phenomenal job of portraying her personality. Sam had a complex character who had a bitter yet humorous character. Seeing how she first reacted to Eric following her and her quick thinking in a dire situation shows that due to her illness, she wants to live her life to the fullest. Eric, played by Joseph Quinn, also did an amazing job at expressing the anxiety of his character as he was foreign to New York. Both characters helped each other overcome their fear, going through many close calls, and slowly grew more friendly with one another. Sam slowly opened up to Eric, shown in the scene where she told him about his father and the piano. Eric, who took this information with care, helped her relieve those memories as he performed a cheesy show for her to raise the mood. In that scene, it was a true milestone in the relationship between Eric and Sam. 

One of the greatest parts of this movie for me was the bittersweet ending, where Sam helped Eric escape into a nearby boat, heading to safety, and left her cat and jacket with him. This was an extremely heartbreaking scene to witness because, throughout the movie, it was obvious how much these two items meant to her. From being resilient to Eric to placing her most beloved belongings in his care shows just how much their relationship developed over the movie, making it heartbreaking that they couldn’t survive together. As stated before, Sam was very ill, yet she strived throughout the disaster to live her life as she wanted it to. This was portrayed at the end when Sam purposefully unplugged the radio, which produced a loud noise, ultimately attracting the Death Angels. By being able to entrust her precious belongings to someone she truly cared for, she felt enough relief to finally end at her own choice, without her illness taking her by chance. She also placed a letter in the pockets of the jacket she gave Eric, making the ending more tear-jerking. 

As someone who enjoyed the familial relations in A Quiet Place One and Two, this prequel did an excellent job of building the relationship between two strangers during the time of disaster. I watched this movie with a more found-family-with-a-horrific-plot perspective because of how well the relationship was paced and how much I enjoyed this troupe in the series. I believe A Quiet Place: Day One will surely touch the hearts of many people as they watch.