Director and award-winning actor, John Krasinski, briefly makes a cameo in the “A Quiet Place” sequel, which premiered at Joplin’s Regal Movie Theater on May 27, 2021.

Following its predecessor, “A Quiet Place: Part II” is set in a post-apocalyptic world where massive alien creatures attack and kill anyone who makes noise. The story continues with the remaining family members trying to survive without the father, Lee, played by Krasinski. The family leaves their home and travels to unfamiliar areas, where they meet several other people.

While the film is based around the lives of one family, Millicent Simmonds who plays Regan Abbot, steps up as a heroine. Simmonds character is tough, intuitive, smart, and deaf.

Not only does Simmonds character, Regan, give off feminist icon vibes with her bravery, leadership, determination, and wit, but having a deaf actress leading in the self-proclaimed “hit of the summer” on the movie’s Twitter page, is a big step for the disabled community.

Aside from the strategic use of sign language as the main method of communication to keep under the alien’s radars, it’s empowering to imagine a specific group of people feeling included and utilizing their disability as a strength in this setting. Of course, these themes were prevalent in the first film, but the sequel is even more effective of providing not only inclusivity but developing a role model for people who see the many great qualities of Regan, who is not only tough, but cool.  

Without giving too much away, the second film, like the first in the series, does a great job of including imagery and suspense throughout, while incorporating props that remind viewers of things that happened in part one.

One of the key differences in part two is the antagonists. Of course, the family continues to fear the aliens, but instead of consistently running away and hiding, they actually found a way to fight them by using strategies they learned towards the end of the first movie. However, new foes enter the scene—people who are doing what they can to survive.

Throughout the movie, Simmond’s character starts to develop plans to not only defeat the aliens, but to save other communities from them as well.

While the movie starts with a preface about how the invasion began, some questions weren’t entirely answered. Like, how did the characters learn that the aliens were attracted to noise? As chaos ensues, many people are screaming and crying, and everything happened so quickly. Did the characters pick up on the aliens attacking the loudest individuals or was it intuition? 

Another controversial area of the film as a viewer is the inclusion of a newborn baby in an apocalyptic world. While the mother, Evelyn Abbot, played by actress and Krasinski’s wife Emily Blunt, found serious solutions to keeping the baby quiet, would it be unethical to suggest there isn’t a place for a baby in a world like this?

 The end leaves viewers with even more questions. A third installment is implied and if it does come to fruition, Krasinski told Syfy Wire he will not be directing it. “Even though I’m the guy who did the first two, I won’t be the guy or girl who does the last one or the last two. I know that,” said Krasinski.

Before the movie even started, an interesting director’s commentary was aired. Krasinski addressed the audience with a personalized message about the importance of seeing a movie from the screens of a theater. After a year of having the option to stream brand new movies from home as a safety measure against the pandemic, it’s clear that theater companies and production companies are concerned with getting things back to “normal” as far as releasing movies through theaters.

As the numbers level out with COVID-19, there might be a decrease in premiering blockbusters through streaming services to increase revenue opportunity, but instead giving theater’s the opportunity to show movies first before providing them to streaming services. “A Quiet Place: Part II” will not be available to stream on Paramount Plus until July 12.