When it comes to the A Quiet Place franchise we kept coming back to one big question: What are the biological factors that would allow these terrifying aliens who terrorize Earth to hunt via sound alone? The aliens, often referred to as “dark angels” in the films, have a number of distinct characteristics which will inform our questions.

For starters, they're blind but incredibly sensitive to sound, which gives them an instinct to kill everything that emits the slightest noise. They are also incredibly strong and fast and they possess armored skin which protects them from most kinds of weapons, including bombs and fire. The only ways to kill them (so far) are to drop them into deep water (since they can’t swim) or by emitting high-frequency sound which causes the armor on their heads to open and expose their only vulnerable part: their ears.

In this episode we will dive into how this alien echolocation differs from what we see in animals native to our planet, and the environmental factors that might have contributed to how and why these creatures evolved as they did.  And then there are all the story elements to consider, from the sound design (and lack thereof) of the films themselves, the question of childbirth in a world where uttering a sound can get you killed, and much more. Oh yeah, and then you might want to find out who from the film thought this movie should have been called Don’t Fart. It’s all fair game in Does it Fly? episode 12!

SUGGESTED VIEWING

This episode is FULL OF SPOILERS, don’t say we didn’t warn you! So, we’d recommend you watch both A Quiet Place and A Quiet Place Part II. Keep in mind, we recorded this episode without having seen A Quiet Place Day One (in theaters now), so there’s no spoilers for that film. 

And if you’ve seen the entire franchise and still need this creepy itch scratched, when watching A Quiet Place, Hakeem also thought about the 2018 film Bird Box (you can find it on Netflix) starring Sandra Bullock, where the threat is sight instead of sound—if you see the force extinguishing humans, you die. It’s kind of creepy, but definitely a good horror watch before going to bed!

FURTHER READING 

Do you want to delve a little deeper into the facts, concepts, and stories Hakeem and Tamara referenced in today’s episode? Here are a few recommendations!

Echolocation

“Let's talk about the anatomy of these aliens... They are big and strong. Their limbs are incredibly long and at the end they have these claw-like hands... Their heads are made of these plates that open to reveal the fleshy parts underneath. But their exoskeleton and the plates on their head, those things are virtually impenetrable. So, in order to kill it, what they've discovered is, is that with the right high frequency pitch... The monster just freaks out all the plates, opens on his head, making it vulnerable, and then they can take it out.”

See also: Engaging Silence: Behind the Daring Sound of A Quiet Place

Hearing in Cockroaches, Spiders, Elephants and Other Animals

How Cockroaches Experience the World

“There are some animals that use air movements [to listen]. One of my favorites is one of my least favorites… I was a kid in New Orleans. And if you live in New Orleans, especially in the 1970s, you have to deal with a monster even scarier than the one in this movie… They're called roaches.”

See also: Do Cockroaches have ears?

The Earth’s terminator Line

“There's that ring that separates the light side from the dark side, what we call the terminator in astronomy. And at the terminator [on planets that do not rotate] there will always be incredibly strong winds. So you will need something like those big claw hands to just sit there against those winds.”

See also: The Moon's Terminator Line

Project Hail Mary

“Andy Weir, who wrote The Martian which then became a movie with Matt Damon, also wrote Project Hail Mary, which I don't want to give too much of it away, but… a big part of the book is trying to figure out and understand the aliens' background [and] the kind of world that they come from.” 

How A Quiet Place Sound Designers Made Audiences Afraid of Their Own Noise

“Ethan Van der Ryn and Erik Aadahl, who were actually nominated for an Oscar for sound editing for the first film… said:  ”By working on scary films as sound designers, we can become the puppet masters of the audience's emotions in an invisible way as opposed to the image. A great picture editor, Walter Marsh, had this wonderful saying along the lines of ‘images come in through the front door, but sound comes in through the back door’.” 

WANT MORE FROM DOES IT FLY?

Can’t get enough of The Boys, now in its fourth season on Prime Video? Well then you certainly won’t want to miss our episode detailing how Starlight’s powers might work!

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