In John Krasinski's "A Quiet Place"
The earth has been overrun by creatures that attack any sources of noise the film follows Lee, Evelyn, Beau,
Regan, and Marcus Abbott as they attempt to survive in a silent new world
with great sacrifice and a lot of luck the family accidentally discovers that, big spoilers here
The creatures are vulnerable to high-frequency
sound and the movie ends with the surviving members of the Abbott family about to go on the offensive for the very first time.
Watching the Abbott family stumble their way onto the creatures greatest weakness by accident be other more
made me think that there must be reliable ways to beat the creatures besides depending on dumb luck alone.
With much thought and research I discovered that there are exactly four alternative solutions,
but before we can get into those possible solutions
We must first go over the specific conditions of the Abbott family or under so that we may plan around them
The Abbott family live on a big farm
and though they never specify where in the US the farm is located
We can tell from the opening scene that the farm is located within walking distance of the small town of Little Falls in New York State
in which A Quiet Place was actually filmed. We also know that they live near creeks into waterfalls
so they have a clean source of water.
The river is no doubt, one of the many subsidiaries of the Mohawk River if not the Mohawk River itself
Which flows through Little Falls and has numerous adjoining creeks and waterfalls in the area.
Food is not an issue for the Abbott family as they live on a corn farm and hunt fish.
And we're shown that they survived an entire year including the winter months in New York State without starving.
A year later, they all look to be healthy so food in water is not something they need to consider so long as they don't change their location
I'm very curious as to how they survive the winter months considering that walking around in the snow is well... loud
But since they survived an entire year
We can assume that they figured out some way to avoid that problem
At other times of the year, they laid down paths of soft sand so that they wouldn't make any noise while walking.
but the most amazing feat is how they were able to plant seeds water and harvest the corn and fill the grain silo without making any noise
Seriously, not enough credit has been given to them for managing to grow this cornfield
Do you know how loud walking through a fucking cornfield is?
Especially how fucking clumsy this family is that can't seem to go twenty minutes without knocking shit over
or stepping on the most nonsensical nail in the history of all nails.
like seriously, WHAT THE FUCK is this nail? Why on God's green earth
Would anyone hammer a nail upwards into a set of steps?
But somehow they are able to tender the farm without making any noise
As improbable as it may be we can move forward knowing that food and water are not determining factors in this scenario
They also have solar panels which seem to provide them with as much electricity as they need
We know that there are three creatures within earshot of the farm or at least Lee thinks there are
This is confirmed at the end of the film when they successfully managed to kill one as they look at the surveillance cameras
There are only two more creatures who heard the gunshot and come to investigate
Meaning that there were consistently three creatures on the farm at all times
The monsters themselves are described as virtually indestructible with an incredibly keen sense of hearing
They attack any sound they hear and they're only evident weakness is high frequency sound
They don't appear to be particularly intelligent and simply attack things that make sound including objects.
in a later scene the creature attacks the truck instead of attacking the things inside the truck that are actually making the sound
they are incredibly fast over land and adept swimmers
But they can't fly which explains why bird populations continue to thrive
They are blind and seem to you some kind of crude echolocation in order to navigate their surroundings
Interestingly despite their echolocation they don't seem to be able to detect movement
there are several scenes of people moving directly in front of a creature but is not able to detect them
and perhaps most bafflingly the creatures are not attracted to the sounds made by other creatures
when Regan's cortical implant sets off a high-frequency sound in the grain silo
the creature busts a hole in the metal wall to escape making a ton of noise on the way out and yet no other creatures come to investigate
According to these newspaper clippings, the entire planet has been overrun by these creatures
and the US military has been soundly defeated
the creatures first landed in Mexico on a meteorite and quickly spread across the globe
This means that there is no one to contact for help
The Abbott family must solve the problem on their own unless they want to enlist the help of their most immediate neighbors
It also means that there is no place they can travel to which will be any safer than where they are right now
Also, can we talk for a second about how hilarious it is that the message to stay silent is written on fucking newspapers
 
 
 
 
 
 
One possible solution might have been to wait until the creatures starve to death due to a lack of surviving prey
But they don't actually seem to eat the things they hunt. When Marcus and Lee encounter the body of a woman in the forest
We see that the body is very much still intact
It has not been eaten and although this adorable raccoon is killed
It isn't eaten so much as it is smashed into a fine paste
The point is they don't appear to be hunting the sources of noise for food. We don't know how they sustain themselves
So trying to wait until they starve won't be a reliable option
Now that we have outlined the conditions of the situation we can start to consider how to beat the creatures from A Quiet Place
One way to make yourself at least safe at home would be to soundproof your house
The Abbott family had been working on this in some capacity already
When Lee and Evelyn elude one of the creatures by entering the basement of the barn,
the ceiling of the basement is covered in burlap, sacks, blankets, and pillows which offer a reasonable amount of soundproofing.
"They can't hear us"
"It worked"
And since the basement is underground the ceiling is the only surface they need to worry about
Mattresses are also a good DIY solution for replacing a door
Which could be loud if it fell closed or if the hinges became rusty
one would assume that over the years Lee and Evelyn would be able to soundproof their entire living spaces
Soundproofing a house isn't actually all that difficult nor are the materials all that hard to come by
Soundproofing can be done by putting up heavy blankets along the walls
The bookcase is filled with books are also incredibly effective as they make the walls thicker and paper is quite good at absorbing sound
Even layers of cardboard are a great way to soundproof of space
The doors can be replaced by mattresses or a simple door
so you can do the job through the door itself may still make some noise when opened
You shouldn't need to worry about stepping on creaky spots of the floor anymore
because the surrounding walls and ceiling of the space are sound-proved
if they were able to find a music or recording store in the surrounding towns
They could even use dedicated acoustic wedges with a soundproof living space the family could at least let their guard down indoors
Well this doesn't exactly beat the creatures per se it would dramatically improve the living situation
and would prevent them from having to worry about their unusually uncoordinated children.
Another option would be to as the newspaper suggests live underground
but other than their already existing basement
This doesn't make a whole lot of sense for the Abbott family
if they are to try to extend their basement or create a separate underground structure
I can think of no conceivable way to dig through hard sediment bedrock or stone without making any noise
It doesn't make sense for them to move to a different underground living situation either
because at the farm they have the nearby river and their crops for reliable sources of food and water
the largest drawback with soundproofing is that you would only ever be safe indoors and that cornfield isn't going to harvest itself
Instead of trying to soundproof your home
It may make more sense to simply make sure that there are no monsters in the area when you actually do go outside or plan to make noise
Some of you kids out there who are with it have probably heard of drum
(Laughter)
Some of you kids out there who are with it have probably heard of drones
otherwise known as the latest and greatest way to piss off the kind of people who love to be pissed off
and if you know drones, you also know that drones are loud
And not only are they incredibly loud they also have an incredibly long range
There are currently four different drones on the market that have a range of seven kilometres
So we have an incredibly loud remotely controlled flying machine with a range of seven kilometres.
Anyone thinking what I'm thinking
Anyone, no, really?
You get the creatures
And they come to follow the drone
Very simply, you use the drone to leave the creatures away from the farm
First you need some kind of silent little hidey-hole for yourself. And then you start up the drone
Let it hover just out of reach wait for the surrounding creatures to show up and then you flight approximately five kilometres away
when the creatures are far enough away from the farm you fly the drone straight up until it's high enough that the creatures can't hear it
and then you fly it back to the farm. And now that the creatures are five kilometres away
Feel free to go about your daily life knowing that there are no creatures within earshot
Because Lee determined that there are only three of them in the area that are within earshot as long as there are initially three chasing the drone creatures
We know that there won't be any left hanging out near the farm
Then as often as necessary maybe once every morning
you make the drone run to draw the creatures off the farm in order to spend the rest of the day going about your business.
Now there are some major drawbacks with this solution
First of all, you will have to procure a few drones from the surrounding towns
But that shouldn't be too difficult as I imagine
The number of people interested in drones has dropped significantly since the invasion of the sound monsters
Secondly, many of your drones are going to be destroyed. Though, the creatures are unable to fly
They are incredibly fast and are capable climbers
So at some point they are probably going to catch the drone
the solution also depends on you being able to fly a drone without crashing it
but the largest problem with the solution is that we don't know enough about the creatures to completely predict how they'll behave in response to the drone
if they do chase it as soon as it's out of earshot, they may just immediately head back to the farm again
Considering that Lee noted that there are only ever consistently three around the farm
It seems to indicate that the creatures have a certain amount of territory that they stick to
they may return to their territory after the drone is out of earshot
They may also start to ignore the drone once they realize it's not something they can catch
In fact, we don't even know for sure what their motivations are for attacking sources of noise
The sound of the drone traveling may also attract even more creatures to the area making the problem even worse
So while the solution has promised it may take some experimenting to figure out exactly how the creatures will respond to the drone
whether they will return to the farm and if they do
How long does it take them?
the next possible solution is probably the most obvious and I expect it cause many arguments among those who have seen the movie
and that solution is -
Why didn't they just move next to the waterfall?
"Who's that Pokemon?"
One of the greatest weaknesses of the creatures appears to be, strangely enough, running water
during the river scene Lea and Marcus are able to make noise while fishing and no creature in the area comes to investigate
next to the waterfall Lea and Marcus scream at the top of their lungs and again
none of the creatures come looking for the sound
hell even when the basement floods and the creature gets within 2 feet of a noisy baby, it still doesn't notice them.
Lee explains that because they're near a loud source of noise
The creatures won't be able to hear them over the sound of the river. Some of you are probably thinking well, that makes sense
How could you hear quiet sound when it's next to a loud one?
In the real world at least just because the waterfall is louder than a person yelling doesn't mean that the yelling person will not be heard
It's generally true that you will not be able to hear a quiet sound such as a person humming if they're standing next to something incredibly loud like a fighter jet
This is known as signal masking the sound of the fighter jet is masking the sound of the person humming
But signal masking is only effective in a certain range of pitch or frequency
If we change the frequency of the person humming so that it's significantly different than the frequency of the fighter jet
Eventually we will be able to distinctly hear the person humming as well as the fighter jet
despite the fighter jet being much louder than the person humming
what this means for Lee and Marcus is that if they yell or scream or make any noise
that is of a frequency significantly different than that of the waterfall.
The creatures will still be able to hear them
It will also depend on their distance to the waterfall the direction of the sound they're making and where the monsters are in the vicinity
in the worst case scenario
The monsters are nearby Lea and Marcus are yelling at a frequency significantly different than the waterfall
and they're yelling in the exact direction of the monsters
the issue gets even more complicated when you consider that different animals can hear different frequency ranges
And they also perceive some frequencies to be louder than others
the movie suggests that the monsters are especially good at perceiving higher frequency sounds
to the point of it being painful or debilitating for them
All I'm trying to get at here is that in the real world
There's absolutely no guarantee that being near a waterfall or a river or any running water will mask the sound of someone yelling
there are multiple factors that contribute to signal masking other than simply how intense the masking signal is
but for this scenario we're only concerned with the logic that the film uses
So we will move forward with the assumption that the noise of running water will turn out other sounds of any frequency
Even if it would not be properly masked in the real world
because we have multiple examples from the film when signal masking should not be effective,
but the creatures are still unable to hear the sounds they make
The flooded basement scene is particularly egregious
Because the creature is unable to pinpoint the sound of the high-frequency baby directly in front of it
But at the same time instantly locks under the sound of Marcos falling through the grain silo
which is hundreds of meters away
For whatever reason the sound of running water prevents the creatures from hearing anything else
so long as the running water is louder
So again, why didn't they just live next to the waterfall? Well, it's certainly a possible solution
there are several reasons as to why living near the waterfall is simply not practical
On the farm they have...well, the farm
a good portion of their food supply comes from the crops they grow
and while it might be difficult to physically build a house near the waterfall
without the creatures hearing the construction
It still would be incredibly dangerous
Plus, imagine the sort of mold you would get from all that moisture in the air
Instead of bringing the house to the waterfall. It would be a lot easier to bring the waterfall to the house
Let me explain. First, You need to go to the river or the waterfall and take sound recordings of the running water
Then you need to collect a large amount of speakers like a lot of speakers
you place the speakers in a grid pattern throughout the farm so that wherever you are
You're always near one of the speakers and then you simply play back the recording of the running water
Leave it at full volume, loop the recording,  and bingo you can make as much noise as you want
Even if one of the creatures is standing right next to you you will be completely safe
The sound of the running water will mask any other sound you make as long as the speakers are louder than you are
That way at least at the farm you are completely invisible to the creatures
And if you need to leave the farm bring a beats portable speaker with you, which has a battery life of 12 hours
but I personally prefer the heft of a traditional boombox
as you might expect there are some drawbacks with this solution, too
I imagine that acquiring this number of speakers may take a very very long time
Secondly maintaining these speakers through rain and snow would be incredibly difficult and even through normal use
Mid-range speakers are only expected to last one to three years
at some point maintaining and replacing these speakers would become entirely impractical
Even in a world where speakers are readily available.
Remember they can't order these off Amazon. They would need to scavenge for these
Finally they would also need to generate enough electricity to power the speakers 24/7
so they would need a lot more solar panels
On second thought it may actually be easier to just move your house to the waterfall
but the best solution by far is much more practical than moving to the waterfall
and it needs less speakers than the speaker grid
This one trick to defeating the creatures once and for all has existed for the last 49 years
and frankly I find it unbelievable that no one has thought of this yet the best most perfect solution for
defeating the creatures from A Quiet Place is---
Mariah Carey
Look, I know I said that the high-frequency solutions seen at the end of the movie is stupid
because the Abbott family stumbled onto it by accident
But there is absolutely nothing stopping the Abbott family from scientifically determining this weakness through trial and error
There is in fact a reliable way to replicate their discovery
and even without knowing that they have such a weakness
Determining what volumes in what frequencies the monsters respond to is arguably important
because knowing which sounds attract them and which do not is kind of vital to your survival
If you could test which sounds they respond to that should be your number one priority
When dealing with creatures that are defined by their super gigantic and super disgusting ear holes
There are legitimate reasons for conducting these tests outside of just searching for a weakness that they don't know exists yet
First they would need to choose a test area
Preferably somewhere near the farm but not where the creatures could cause meaningful damage
Next, they would need to set up a speaker system they can control remotely
by stringing the wire from the speaker at the test area to the basement of the house where the surveillance system is
then they need to move one of their cameras to point at the testing area
Attract the creatures to the testing area by playing a sound of a person yelling
and then while they're near the speaker, test sounds and different volumes and frequencies
to determine which sounds aggravate them in which sounds if any repel or harm them
It would not take much testing to figure out that higher frequency sounds such as those made by Reagan's cortical implant
have a debilitating impact on the creatures causing them to retract their armor and make them vulnerable
The main problem would be keeping the speaker system from being destroyed by the creatures each time you conduct the test
Realistically, there is no way to stop the creatures from destroying the speaker
if it's able to get on top of the shed as well as climb the grain silo
It's probably also capable of climbing a tree in killing the speaker
not to mention actually setting up the speaker each time is a risk
because you need to either bring a ladder or climb a tree each time if you drop the speaker well you're in trouble
But it would be no riskier than setting up this vast array of surveillance cameras
and the best part of the solution Is that once the high-frequency weakness is discovered
one would simply need to keep a dog whistle and a handgun on their person at all times and they should be fine
the other solutions require constant maintenance and replacement of equipment
without actually eliminating the threat
but if you think that you have a better way to beat the creatures from A Quiet Place or if you think the ones listed here wouldn't work
Please tell me about it in the comment section below
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