How Regan’s Story Will Change A Quiet Place’s Franchise Ending

Warning! Minor spoilers below for A Quiet Place Part II. 

Regan’s (Millicent Simmonds) story arc in A Quiet Place Part II completely changed the trajectory of the rest of the series. With star Emily Blunt’s confirmation that the movie is meant to be part of a trilogy, the second movie has established that Regan will play a big role in the finale. Her elevated part has likely completely altered the series’ ending.

The first Quiet Place movie follows a family living in a hiding from deadly alien monsters that hunt by sound. In its opening scene, Regan goes against her father Lee’s (John Krasinski, acting as star and director of the series) wishes and gives her youngest brother Beau a battery-operated toy. He eventually turns on the toy which attracts a monster that instantly kills him. That incident causing tension between Lee and Regan for the rest of the film. But when the time comes that Lee sacrifices himself for Regan and her surviving brother Marcus, he made sure to tell his daughter that he has always loved her.

As the feedback from Regan’s cochlear implants was discovered to be the monsters’ one weakness, she’s always been an integral part of The Quiet Place movies. But the second movie completely switches the focus to her, turning the films into her coming-of-age story. That tonal shift is set to completely change the movie’s ultimate finale.

Krasinski has previously compared the first Quiet Place movie to a parent’s promise to always protect their child. Due to that premise, Krasinski’s Lee and Blunt’s Evelyn were the focal points of the film. The movie highlighted their quiet strength in raising two children in highly unusual circumstances. With Lee’s death in the climax of the first film, the first movie seemed to set up Blunt as the sole protagonist. The projection for that trilogy would be clear — Evelyn and the children would have some close calls with the monsters but eventually find their groove as a happy family in a strange new world. But with Krasinski’s confirmation that A Quiet Place Part II is meant to be Regan’s story, that original arc is tossed out the window.

The second movie wisely rewrites history. Like actress Millicent Simmonds, Regan is deaf. That and her strained relationship with Lee were both vital storylines in the first movie. After Regan witnesses her father’s final act of love in the first movie, she’s inspired to step up and protect her family. The second movie follows Regan as she breaks away from her family for the first time in order to find help. She finds the courage and strength to venture to a functioning radio station in order to broadcast the cochlear implant frequency, in the hopes of helping others kill monsters.

That final moment in A Quiet Place Part II sets up Regan to be the driving force in the franchise’s finale. The horror movie series is no longer a story about a family trying to survive amongst monsters. Instead, it’s about legacy — what Regan does with it and how she makes it her own. The second movie’s ending showed significant character growth in Regan, as she went from hiding from the monsters to facing them head-on. Regan has seen what she is capable of and what is left in the world. A Quiet Place Part III will be her chance to walk in her father’s footsteps. That likely means that the third movie will focus on her being a driving factor in defeating the monsters once and for all, which is a far cry from the trilogy that A Quiet Place set up.

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