‘A Quiet Place’s’ alien monsters explained

A Quiet Place: Day One continues to terrorize theaters worldwide with strong box office numbers that are placing it even ahead of its two (mainline) predecessors, so we’re likely to see more of the ferocious aliens that kill anything that makes a sound. However, there’s much we don’t know about them yet and that information isn’t really explored in the movies. In this article, we aim to answer your most burning questions.

As great as A Quiet Place: Day One turned out to be, it didn’t really shine more light on the extraterrestrial invaders beyond one key scene we’ll discuss later, so the two ‘main’ A Quiet Place installments are more important to understanding what these monsters from outer space are, how they live, and what their end goal is. A closer look at those two movies, coupled with interviews with the key creatives and behind-the-scenes trivia paints a clearer picture of the aliens’ nature.

While we wait for official news on A Quiet Place Part III and whether or not it’s directed by John  Krasinski, there’s a surprising video game based on the movies coming our way sooner rather than later, and its reveal trailer is thrilling. Way before that, an even more nightmare-inducing alien species will be returning to the big screen in Alien: Romulus.

Where are they from?

On Empire’s podcast, all the way back in 2018, when the first movie was released, writer-director John Krasinski revealed much of the information that wasn’t directly stated on-screen and confirmed numerous theories. Chief among them was the origin of the alien monsters, which he described as “predators” and “parasites” that “can’t be held back.”

According to the filmmaker, the main idea behind the monsters, their design and unique capabilities is that they’re “an evolutionarily perfect machine,” only that they come from a planet very different from ours. Their doomed world had no living creatures that resembled anything on Earth and no light, at least not in the way that our system has light. As a direct result, they evolved to hunt by sound and protect themselves from harsh environments and conditions, which explains why they can’t be hurt unless “they open themselves up.”

Much like Krypton, the aliens’ planet was destroyed, but most of the creatures managed to survive just fine floating adrift on (and inside) chunks of rocks across space for what we presume was a very long time. They’re extremely resilient, seemingly don’t even need water and can survive the vacuum of outer space, so neither the destruction of the home planet nor crashing through Earth’s atmosphere and on different points across the globe killed them off.

Biology

Echolocation completely replaced sight as the species evolved on their planet of origin. On top of that, the aliens’ skin is nearly impenetrable and armor-like; possibly a sign of the unknown world having much harsher conditions and higher gravity than Earth. The density of their bodies, however, makes them bad swimmers, and it’s been proven they can drown. Therefore, many communities of survivors were established on islands.

The creatures are slightly taller than humans; it’s their width that makes them bigger overall. The body posture kind of resembles that of gorillas and bats, and they seem to walk on their ‘knuckles’ rather than the end of their very long arms, which end on terrible three-finger claws used for hunting. In spite of their body density and very odd posture, they have proven to be extremely good climbers at fast speeds. On the ground, they can hit up to 300 miles per hour, so running away from them in a straight line and without turning their attention elsewhere is impossible.

Though their heads hide a large jaw filled with fearsome teeth, it doesn’t appear to be used as a weapon. Moreover, it hasn’t been confirmed whether they can smell or not. They’ve got several ears protected by the head and face’s armor-like plates, and it’s been reported they’re so sensitive they can even detect small clocks – under normal conditions – from hundreds of meters (if not miles) away. However, their biggest known weakness comes from that strength: naturally noisy environments or phenomena, such as waterfalls and rainstorms, can hide noises that would usually attract them, plus certain high-frequency sound waves can render them almost completely helpless.

Do they eat humans?

The most baffling thing about these aliens is that they don’t kill for food. In fact, they don’t seem to consume any terrestrial organisms. This is hinted at in the very first movie, and human corpses are seen mummified and largely intact in most cases. The creatures instinctively hunt down and silence any other animal or thing that’s too noisy for them.

So, how do they regain energy and stay fed? By and large, they seem to violate the laws of thermodynamics and physics, given their resilience to world-ending events and the vast emptiness of space, plus how fast and strong they are despite not consuming their prey for nutrients and energy. A Quiet Place: Day One, however, shows the creatures eating alien plants that also came with the asteroids and survived the interstellar trip. It’s safe to assume – unless stated otherwise in a future entry – that these plants can reproduce as quickly as (if not more than) the creatures, which can’t eat anything on Earth because of incompatible biologies.

Behind the scenes

As it stands, the aliens don’t have an official name in marketing materials or in-universe, but a newspaper clipping seen in the original movie calls them ‘Death  Angels,’ which is kind of fitting given their long, almost wing-like, arms and the fact they fell from the sky.

The total population of ‘Death Angels’ on Earth hasn’t been revealed either. We do know, however, that several asteroids hit U.S. soil, and their numbers in New York were far greater than in the less populated rural areas seen in the two mainline A Quiet Place movies. Their rate of reproduction and expansion hasn’t been unveiled either, but the post-arrival timeline is only monthslong so far. Krasinski has stated in the past he’s more interested in the more intimate stories happening during this apocalypse rather than making a traditional alien invasion movie, so we’re not expecting to learn about global matters.

Another fun fact about the ‘Death Angels’ is that Krasinski himself also provided some motion capture for them, with ILM handling the CGI and adding a few extra touches to the final design that came from ancient bog bodies.