A Quiet Place: Day One Ending Explained: I'll Have One Pizza Slice To Go, Please
Shhhhh, keep that trap shut! This article contains major spoilers for "A Quiet Place: Day One."
What do you do at the end of the world? For most people, like John Krasinski's Lee Abbott and his small family of survivors in the first "A Quiet Place," you simply internalize your grief and keep going as best you can. In its 2021 sequel, the promise of a miraculous safe haven on an island at least provides Emily Blunt's widowed Evelyn Abbott a semblance of hope for a fresh start in this strange and silent new status quo. For Lupita Nyong'o's terminally ill Samira in "A Quiet Place: Day One," thoughts of escape and survival simply don't mean as much to her. For her, grabbing one last slice of authentic New York pizza at a location full of happy childhood memories is the best outcome she could possibly find.
"A Quiet Place: Day One" stands apart from the prior two films in this horror franchise (perhaps even surpassing them, according to Chris Evangelista's review for /Film), on the strength of writer/director Michael Sarnoski's laser-guided focus on character above all else. The monsters are still a scary, though secondary concern this time around, meaning the film goes entire stretches of time without sight or sound of the alien invaders that have forever silenced the planet. While the mere threat of their presence casts all sorts of tension over the proceedings at any given moment, this allows for far more emotional and — fittingly enough — quiet moments between Samira and her clingy new friend Eric (Joseph Quinn).
So what do we do when everything's gone to hell? Sarnoski's answer is that we might as well go out with a Nina Simone song in our hearts and a New York slice in our hand.
The city that never sleeps goes silent
After the impressively restrained first 10-15 minutes or so give us one last glimpse of humanity's final moments of normalcy before noise-sensitive aliens invade en masse, "A Quiet Place: Day One" wastes no time at all setting the stakes for what's to come. Sam and her loyal cat Frodo (played by twin felines, according to the end credits, adorably named Nico and Schnitzel) quickly realize that sound means instant death, a lesson learned the painful way when the bravery of her caring friend/nurse Reuben (Alex Wolff) in shutting down a noisy generator costs him his own life. From Nyong'o's body language and haunted eyes alone, it's easy to tell that this is one person who has already experienced as much grief and loss that she could ever take in a single lifetime — an unhealed scar that, perhaps, first began to form with the loss of her beloved father, a talented jazz musician, as a child.
Having long gotten used to the concept of impending death through her own illness — in a particularly poignant scene, Eric reads one of her heartbreaking poems about constantly outliving the dire prognoses of her doctors — Sam knows that she can't outrun her shrinking life expectancy forever. So, naturally, the end of the world gives her the perfect opportunity to ignore the military's instructions for a mandatory evacuation by South Street Seaport (that's roughly the southernmost tip of Manhattan, for the rest of you) and instead head in the exact opposite direction ... all to pay off her running gag with Reuben and finally get herself a slice of pizza.
Eric (like ourselves) can't fully understand what's driving Sam, but he accompanies her and Frodo every step of the way through thick and thin.
A different kind of monster movie
If the mere presence of the director behind the excellent Nicolas Cage-starring flick "Pig" didn't already give it away, the middle portion of "Day One" makes it abundantly clear that Michael Sarnoski's approach to the "A Quiet Place" franchise couldn't be more different from John Krasinski's. Where the previous two films mixed in action, scares, and tension with workmanlike efficiency, this prequel largely eschews such genre trappings in favor of just ... following Eric and Sam (and Frodo!) as they make their way through the ruins of New York City, trying desperately to stay alive until they reach their goal. The script sprinkles in some genuinely clever set pieces along the way, from claustrophobia-inducing peril beneath cars to unleashing new nightmares on aquaphobes everywhere in flooded subway tunnels, but the scenes that truly pop come from the near-silent moments where Sam and Eric simply take a breath and take stock of themselves as individuals clinging to their own mysterious motivations.
Some of the highlights of this middle act come when the pair make their way to Sam's old apartment, which reveals some key backstory into her life. Here, we find out about her gifted dad who passed away years before, important exposition about her need for prescription drugs to keep the ever-present pain of her illness at bay (crucial information which pays off later), and her stubborn refusal to do anything except make her way to the pizza place she remembers visiting as a child. For his part, the Kent, England-based Eric is simply a law student stuck in a strange land who's terrified of dying and needs a little help finding his courage. By watching Sam stare into the abyss and wait for it to blink first, that's exactly what he does.
Going out with a bang
Although "A Quiet Place: Day One" keeps things relatively small-scale, the final stretch feels bigger due to our investment in these two characters and their loyal, scene-stealing kitty. When they finally make their way to her old pizza joint Patsy's, they find it a burned-out husk following the chaos of the alien invasion. Understandably, Sam all but despairs that the universe has refused her this one final wish.
That is, until Eric offers his best suggestion yet and asks where they could find her father's old jazz club Loetta's. When they arrive, one of the film's most beautiful scenes features Eric cheering her up with a dorky performance as a would-be magician pulling off a funny card trick, some smooth whiskey, and even a pizza pie from a nearby place (with a well-meaning "Patsy's" hastily scribbled by Eric on the pizza box). Now, even without saying a word, it's clear that Sam feels she can finally die in peace. But one final set piece remains in the way, as the two hear one of the evacuating ships making its way downriver and towards safety. In a touching gesture that hits unexpectedly hard, Sam gifts Eric her bright-yellow cardigan and her beloved cat Frodo so they can make their escape while she stays behind and causes a distraction for the onlooking (on-hearing?) aliens.
Once Eric and Frodo barely make it aboard and Sam's voiceover takes over, reading the goodbye note she left with Eric, she takes her iPod and takes one last walk. With Nina Simone's recording of "Feeling Good" blaring and her stomach full of adequate pizza, she allows the darkness to take her ... and it's the most hopeful, optimistic ending of the year.
"A Quiet Place: Day One" is currently playing in theaters.