A Quiet Place Part II ending explained: Revisiting the sequel before watching the new prequel

Warning: This article contains spoilers for A Quiet Place and A Quiet Place Part II.

John Krasinski’s character may have died in 2018’s A Quiet Place, but when you’re writing and directing the sequel, it’s funny how you can manage to find your way back into the on-camera proceedings anyway.

Yes, Lee (Krasinski) nobly sacrifices himself toward the end of the first film, drawing the attention of one of the alien beasts — they’re blind, as you may recall, but possess top-notch hearing — in order to provide his son Marcus (Noah Jupe) and his deaf daughter, Regan (Millicent Simmonds), with the opportunity to make their way back home to their mother, Evelyn (Emily Blunt), and their new baby sibling.

Given that Lee is most decidedly bereft of life once the credits roll, then how does he manage to appear in A Quiet Place Part II? Easy: The second film kicks off with a flashback to the day the alien invaders arrived. 

Given that the first film kicks off at some point after the aliens have already settled into life on our planet, it was probably always in the back of Krasinski’s mind that they’d eventually explore how they got there in the first place. Still, kicking off the sequel with a look backward serves as a nice teaser for the new prequel, A Quiet Place: Day One, which is set in New York City during the advent of the apocalypse.

Here’s a refresher of the previous film in the franchise ahead of the latest chapter, starring Lupita Nyong'o, Joseph Quinn, and Alex Wolff.

When and how do we fast-forward from the intro to the post-Lee era?

A Quiet Place Part II starts with a segment that finds Lee attending Marcus’ Little League game, arriving slightly later than Evelyn and the rest of the kids because he’s had to stop to get snacks for the team. During his turn at bat, Marcus — along with everyone else in attendance — becomes aware of something in the sky that is so strange that everyone decides to hightail it home. 

Unfortunately, Lee has left his truck a few blocks away, so Regan tags along with him while Evelyn hops in the car with young Marcus and Beau… because, yes, this flashback takes place prior to the latter’s extremely traumatizing demise at the beginning of the first film. (There’s even a nod to the moment when Lee passes by a shelf in the general store and we see the Space Shuttle toy that proved noisy to a deadly degree.)

As a result, both Lee and Evelyn end up having to avoid aliens independently of each other, and although Evelyn and the boys are shielded from harm by a police car, Marcus is all too aware of the sound of a police officer meeting his gruesome demise, covering his ears in horror. It’s a moment that Krasinski — now officially doffing his director’s cap for the duration of the proceedings — echoes as the film jumps to the present, with Marcus still covering his ears, but now it’s to drown out the sound of his new baby sibling, who’s crying to beat the band. 

(Before moving on, it’s worth mentioning that so much has happened by this point that it’s hard to believe that the whole opening flashback sequence lasts for less than 12 minutes.)

What’s up with Evelyn and the kids now that Lee is gone?

If you’ve seen the first film, then you already know what’s up with the surviving family members since the sequel picks up right where they left off: with Evelyn and the kids having to leave their home, since their successful takedown of one of the alien creatures in the wake of Lee’s death has left the site in shambles. 

While searching for a new place to call home, or at least somewhere that will help shield them from the beasts to some extent, the clan makes their way through a fenced-off area, hoping that it hasn’t been traversed very much. But in the process of doing so, she sets off a sound alarm, and while running away from a potential attack, Marcus stumbles into a bear trap and lets out an understandable amount of extremely loud screaming. Fortunately, the combined efforts of Evelyn and Regan allow them to free Marcus, kill the creature, and escape into a steel foundry, where they cross paths with their old friend Emmett (Cillian Murphy).

Wait, why don’t we remember Emmett from the first film?

Because he wasn’t in the first film. He was, however, in attendance for the aforementioned Little League game during the flashback sequence in Part II, positioning him to play a key role in the proceedings when Evelyn and the kids stumble upon him.

Since the fateful day when the aliens arrived, Emmett’s story has arguably been even more tragic than Evelyn’s: His wife and his kids have been killed and he’s only just barely finding the strength to forge ahead, something he likely wouldn’t have been able to do if he hadn’t managed to find himself a soundproof underground bunker of sorts. There’s in no way enough room, let alone food and water, for Evelyn and the kids to stay with him for the long haul, but because of the baby, Emmett begrudgingly agrees to let them stick around for the time being.

Not long after their arrival, Marcus — who’s been listening to radio static on headphones as white noise — is surprised to suddenly land on a channel that’s actually playing the song “Beyond the Sea.” When Emmett says that the song has been looped nonstop for months, Regan rationalizes that it’s intended as a signal of sorts, telling listeners that there are survivors on a nearby island, and she concocts a plan that could potentially help save the world.

Given that incredible leap of logic, what exactly is this epic plan that Regan has devised?

Back in the first film, Regan discovered that her cochlear implant could create a high-pitched feedback that  — given the pronounced hearing of the creatures  — could potentially incapacitate the aliens and leave them wide open for attack when the noise is cranked up through a portable microphone. Understandably, the family now carries this equipment with them at all times, but Regan’s theory is that if she can find this radio station, then she can broadcast the sound of her implant over the airwaves, thereby weaponizing it for listeners everywhere. 

Of course, Regan’s plan is one which could easily get her killed, which is why she doesn’t tell anyone about it except for Marcus. Since he’s still healing from the bear trap wound, he couldn’t go with her even if he wanted to, and he doesn’t even want her to go, which is why she slips out under cover of darkness to go by her damned self. As soon as Marcus discovers she’s gone, he immediately tells Evelyn, but given the baby as well as Marcus’s continued need for medical attention, she pleads with Emmett to go after Regan and bring her back, which he semi-begrudgingly does… or at least tries to.

What happens when Emmett finally catches up to Regan?

Well, first and foremost, he saves her life, since — formidable though she is — she’s on the verge of being killed by an alien, one which almost certainly would’ve succeeded if Emmett hadn’t taken its head off at the last second. With the danger averted, Emmett immediately tries to get Regan to return with him, but she refuses, saying that the mission she’s embarked upon is exactly what her father would’ve done, and although it’s kind of an emotional slap across the face for Emmett, he concedes the point, and the twosome makes their way toward a marina to find a boat and head to the island.

So Evelyn and Marcus are just relaxing while this is happening, right?

Not even a little bit. With Marcus in need of medical supplies, Evelyn instructs him to watch his newborn sibling while she goes out to gather materials. While she’s gone, however, Marcus finds the body of Emmett’s recently deceased wife, which scares him to enough of a degree that he draws the attention of a creature. In the process of escaping, he ends up in the airtight and soundproof container without enough air for both kids to survive for very long.

Does Evelyn make it back in time?

Come on, this franchise is dark, but it’s not that dark. (Actually, in thinking back to Beau in the original film, it certainly can be that dark. But it isn’t in this case, thankfully.)

Do Regan and Emmett finally make it onto the island?

They do, but not without a whole lot of hassle from some bandits who’d just as soon see them dead as anything else. Thankfully in this instance, Regan and Emmett arguably owe their lives to the creatures when — in the midst of attacking the gang — Emmett realizes that the otherworldly foes can’t swim, which suddenly makes the existence of survivors on the island significantly more feasible.  Finding a boat, the duo cross the water safely and encounters a friendly community, led by an unnamed man played by Djimon Hounsou, who welcomes them with open arms… right up until the point when one of the creatures that’s been afloat on a boat manages to drift to shore and launch an attack on them, killing Hounsou’s character. As it happens, this occurs right around when Regan and Emmett find the radio station.

Wait, but if they’re that close to the radio station, then what about Marcus and the baby? You said Evelyn makes it back in time, but what happens then?

Well, when Regan snuck out, she left Marcus a two-word note — “Keep listening” — and despite everything he’s been through in the interim, he’s kept doing that whenever possible. Mind you, it’s not exactly easy, since even after Evelyn rescues him and the baby from suffocation, they still have to avoid another creature attack. In fact, they find themselves in pretty dire straits right around the same time that Emmett and Regan are dealing with the alien at the radio station.

And that’s when Regan finally brings her plan to fruition, sending out the sound of her cochlear impant’s feedback just in time for her to take down the creature that’s on the verge of killing Emmett and for Marcus to take down the beast that’s about to kill him, his mother, and the baby.

It’s about as happy an ending as you could expect from this franchise, and it sets things up nicely for Krasinski to pen a trilogy. But, as noted, at least we have the new prequel in the meantime. Plus, remember Hounsou’s character? Well, A Quiet Place: Day One proceeds to tell you more of his backstory, including — finally! — his name.