STAY QUIET. STAY ALIVE.

A serviceable prequel to the first two Quiet Place films, depicting the day when the alien monsters invaded Earth.

Our new lead is a dying poet who finds herself on the run in New York together with her cat and a British law student (Joseph Quinn); Lupita Nyong’o’s performance is one of the film’s great strengths. Echoes of 9/11 (and, in a few scenes, Alien) as a normal day turns into a war zone in Manhattan.

Much is familiar from the first two films, but the urban setting is a nice change of pace and there are good thrills along the way.

2024-U.S. 99 min. Color. Widescreen. Written and directed by Michael Sarnoski. Story: John Krasinski, Michael Sarnoski. Cast: Lupita Nyong’o (Sam), Joseph Quinn (Eric), Alex Wolff (Reuben), Djimon Hounsou, Eliane Umuhire. 

Trivia: Co-produced by Krasinski and Michael Bay. Jeff Nichols was originally hired to direct, but he dropped out.