A Quiet Place Part II: Were The Boat People Cannibals?

In A Quiet Place Part II, are the boat people actually cannibals? The 2021 sequel doesn’t provide much information about the marina characters, but the evidence suggests that they are in fact survivors who target fellow humans. Acclaimed actor Scoot McNairy has a relatively small role as “Marina Man” in A Quiet Place Part II. It may well be that he could receive more screen time in the third franchise installment.

A Quiet Place Part II follows the Abbots after the death of the family patriarch, Lee (portrayed by director John Krasinski). As Evelyn (Emily Blunt) looks after her son Marcus (Noah Jupe), her deaf daughter Regan (Millicent Simmonds) embarks on a mission to an island radio tower, where she plans to use her hearing aid to transmit a frequency that will slow down the blind alien monsters that have arrived on Earth. Regan travels with her father’s friend Marcus (Cillian Murphy), who leads them to a marina where they can navigate to the island. There, the duo encounters savage humans who are ultimately killed by monsters. A Quiet Place Part II never explains the wild state of the boat people, or where they came from.

The boat people do indeed appear to be cannibals in A Quiet Place Part II, evidenced by fleeting images that imply they’ve resorted to consuming humans. As Regan and Marcus approach, a girl feasts on an unidentified meal while a body in a boat suggests that she’s been eating one of her own. McNairy’s character has visible scars and bloodshot eyes, which implies that he’s incredibly sick and has essentially transformed into a feral individual. But there’s no explanation for this, or why they attack Regan specifically. Fifteen months after the alien apocalypse, this particular group of survivors may have been forced into a life of cannibalism, and thus try to get by any way they can. Incidentally, they may view Regan as the most logical target. It’s also possible that infections have altered their state of mind, which could explain their zombie-like state in A Quiet Place Part II.

The marina sequence in A Quiet Place Part II likely sets up a larger storyline for the third franchise movie, set to be directed by Jeff Nichols. It could even potentially be a prequel starring McNairy and Djimon Hounsou, who briefly appears in the sequel as an island character. Krasinski may ultimately stick with a chronological timeline, but use flashback sequences to properly flesh out the character arcs for both McNairy and Hounsou’s characters. However, both performers could easily headline a prequel, which could broaden the scope of the narrative, much like Zack Snyder’s upcoming Army of the Dead prequel, Army of Thieves.

In A Quiet Place Part II, the boat people could be connected to The National Guard’s failed attempt to transport 12 evacuation boats to the island. McNairy’s character may have survived a physical attack by a monster and could’ve become sick while swimming to safety. The horror genre allows for several possibilities, evidenced in part by David Cronenberg’s body horror classics and decades of island-based movies where protagonists deal with both land and aquatic threats. The boat people in A Quiet Place Part II could even be island outcasts, and the island survivors could emerge as villains with questionable intentions, a la folk horror productions like Ari Aster’s Midsommar and the HBO series The Third Day.

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Q.V. Hough
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Q.V. Hough is a senior writer at Screen Rant. He’s also the founding editor at Vague Visages, and has contributed to RogerEbert.com and Fandor.

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