ComingSoon Editor-in-Chief Tyler Treese spoke to A Quiet Place: Day One director Michael Sarnoski about the prequel, which is now available to own digitally.
“Experience the day the world went quiet in this terrifying continuation of the A Quiet Place universe. When Samira (Lupita Nyong’o) returns home to New York City, her simple trip turns into a harrowing nightmare when mysterious creatures that hunt by sound attack. Accompanied by her cat Frodo and an unexpected ally (Joseph Quinn), Samira must embark on a perilous journey through the city that has suddenly gone silent, where the only rule is to stay quiet to stay alive. Djimon Hounsou and Alex Wolff also star in this intensely suspenseful thriller,” says the synopsis.
Tyler Treese: This might sound ironic, but I swear this is as truthful and earnest as possible but I’ve really struggled with relating to heroes in apocalypse films in the past. I don’t think my will to live is that high in that scenario. But I really connected with the idea of just having one really good last piece of pizza before you go. I just love that. How was it figuring out that goalpost? It really spoke to me.
Michael Sarnoski: I think it was kind of the same for me. It was like, okay, I’ve seen a lot of apocalypse movies. They’ve run the gamut. I know why people are fighting in these worlds to save their kids or whatever. I was a little tired of some of that stuff and I was just trying to think about what sort of things would excite me in that world and what sort of storylines and what sort of characters I hadn’t seen before and would speak to me.
A dying person looking for their favorite slice of pizza just kind of clicked for me. It just felt like something I hadn’t seen before and it felt like something that I just immediately related to and understood. It was sort of off the beaten path, but very much, “Oh, I get that.” I think you can say that to anyone and be like, “World’s ending. You’re dying. Go get your favorite slice of pizza.” So it just kind of just kinda makes sense.
My favorite scene in the movie was at the bar with the magic show. It’s this 10-minute scene where it’s just total quietness. You’re sitting with these characters, there’s no imminent threat of danger. Although the whole time I was like, “Is he gonna make noise or, and screw something up?” So I was still nervous, but it was such a beautiful scene. Were there any worries about having such a character-driven moment in a blockbuster? Because there, there’s no action, no words, but it’s so beautiful and I think that scene really resonated with a lot of people.
Yeah, I mean, there’s always worries about that. I don’t usually worry about that just because I would love a scene like that in a movie like this. I understand that maybe some people in the public would watch it and be like, “Where’s all the monsters?” But you just kind of hope that people respond to the same things that you do and you make something that means something to you and hope that people connect with it.
I was really happy to see that people really connected with that scene, and they didn’t need a monster jumping through the window. It was just like, “Oh, this is our moment to be with these characters in this moment of silent communication.” So yeah, I knew it was a risk, but I wasn’t too worried about it because I was like, “Well, this is the kind of stuff I wanna put in this movie.”
I wanted to ask about Joseph Quinn because I first saw him in Stranger Things, like a lot of people, and he is very charismatic. He’s still likable as Eric, but he’s got none of that coolest person in the room energy. It’s completely different. So what made him stand out and made you know that he could play this role? Because I was really surprised in such a good way here.
I think it was that same idea of he has this inbuilt charisma. He’s a very kind, intelligent, wise beyond his years kind of person. So you can strip all that away and make him kind of a lost puppy dog, and you’ll still be leaning in with him. You still, kind of against your better judgment in the same way that Sam does, fall in love with this character and want the best for him.
So I think it’s just that all that endearing nature of him comes through regardless of what he’s doing, and you just kind of wanna be friends with this person because there’s something that just, there’s a sparkle with them. He’s just so wonderful to work with and so great at conjuring these nuanced emotions and really tricky things for an actor to do. Because he doesn’t get to talk very much. You don’t get a lot of his backstory, but you have to just kind of feel for him, and all that just kind of shines through with him.
There’s a big world building scene where we see the pods that the creatures come from. We see them feeding upon it. I was curious because I never know how this stuff works with these big franchises. Was that your own idea? Is that something directed to put in to flesh out things? How does that kind of get decided upon when you’re part of this huge franchise, and you’ve gotta be laying the framework for the future as well?
Yeah, I mean, it usually starts with… Paramount wanted more lore to the creatures. Like you want some new bits of information about the creatures. Then the actual idea for that, that was just something that I found interesting in watching the first two movies was that you don’t really see a lot of like bodies left behind. So, it sort of implies that the creatures are taking the bodies. I think everyone assumed that that meant they were eating them.
This is something you’ll kind of see on the special features, but the implication of that is that the creatures are actually using our organic material in our bodies to grow their food source, which is sort of loosely based on how leafcutter ants work. They sort of use leaves that they collect and use that organic material and put a fungal spore in it that then produces the sugar that they eat.
So I liked that idea that the creatures, as vicious and scary and sharp as their teeth are and all that stuff, they’re not eating people, they’re just collecting organic material, and at the end of the day, they’re farmers. I think drawing that parallel between them and the Abbott family in the first movie was kind of fun. So yes, they’re scary, and they’ll kill you, but they’re sort of just trying to live their lives and create their own ecosystem.
I love the connective tissue with Part II with Djimon Hounsou returning. What I specifically liked is he told his story in II and instead of showing us that, we go the complete opposite direction. So how was it incorporating him but not doing a retread? Because I thought that was really smart how you handled that.
I definitely watched that scene in the second one and that could be a movie all its own. But I kind of wanted to feel like that’s happening off-screen. That’s the sort of classic, more heroic escape story that a lot of people are engaging in. But Sam sort of rejects that story.
It happens a few times, like when she meets the two kids in the fountain, you think, “Oh, this is gonna become a movie about her taking care of children and rescuing them.” It’s like, no, she’s got her own thing to do. So I kind of wanted to present these options of like, “Hey, some apocalypse movies might go down this path, but actually, that’s just like happening in the background elsewhere, and that’s not what Sam’s core story is.” So using it kind of as like a bit of a foil was what I wanted to play with. I just know as an audience for myself, I wouldn’t just want to see, “Oh, that’s the story they told in Part II. Let’s see it visualized now.” It’s just like, “Okay, but maybe we can do something more or something different.”
Thanks to Michael Sarnoski for taking the time to discuss A Quiet Place: Day One.
