Democracy Dies in Darkness

Opinion: ‘A Quiet Place’ isn’t just pro-life. It makes us

understand what being pro-life truly means.
Opinion by Sonny Bunch
April 11, 2018 at 1:00 p.m. CDT

This essay discusses plot points of “A Quiet Place,” which is in theaters now; as such, beware of
spoilers going forward.

It’s a fair question: In a world where making the slightest noise spells near-instant, incredibly gruesome death at the
hands of aliens who hunt via hearing, why on earth would you get pregnant?

This is the most common quibble with “A Quiet Place,” the hit horror film that has earned critical and audience
acclaim in roughly equal measures. The creature feature features creatures that have killed huge swaths of the
population; virtually the only people we see in the movie are the Abbott family, though we know others lurk about. The
alien invasion has forced humanity underground and off the airwaves, as the smallest sound can serve as a signal for
the murderous monsters.

The Abbotts themselves have survived, in part, because they have a natural advantage: fluency in sign language. Lee
(John Krasinski) and Evelyn (Emily Blunt), as well as oldest son Marcus (Noah Jupe), picked up the skill because their
daughter, Regan (Millicent Simmonds), is deaf. In the film’s opening moments, we witness the deadliness of the
Abbotts’ enemies when a toy held by youngest son Beau (Cade Woodward) emits a series of beeps and boops. He dies.

Despite this hard-earned education, Lee and Evelyn decide to keep living. And loving. A title card announces a gap in
the time of the film that stretches a little under a year. When we see Evelyn again, she is pregnant. Very pregnant.
There’s a baby coming soon, and with it, danger. Without getting too graphic — this is a family blog in a family
newspaper, after all — the birthing process is not the quietest of activities. And newborns aren’t the quietest of
creatures.

“A Quiet Place” is a pro-life movie in a deeper sense than we usually mean when we highlight “pro-life movies.” Such
discussions often revolve around films such as “Juno” or “Knocked Up” in which unexpected pregnancies serve as little
more than plot points. Discussions about abortion in these movies are generally beside the point; the reason the
characters don’t get rid of their kids in utero is because, if they did, there wouldn’t be a movie. Or there’d be a different
movie.

But there’s no reason for Evelyn to be pregnant in this film, really. You don’t need to heighten the stakes (they can’t
really get any higher), and you don’t need to heighten the danger (you try living silently for a day). Krasinski (who in
addition to directing has a screenwriting credit) and Bryan Woods and Scott Beck (who wrote the initial screenplay)
have made a choice here. The movie is pro-life, sure. But it transcends the narrow, ideological, partisan sense that term
has taken on. “A Quiet Place” is more philosophically minded; it’s pro-life in the sense that it is pro-living life.
Merely surviving is not enough. Merely surviving is empty. Merely surviving is not what living a life to the fullest is all
about. A life without family is sad; a life without family is a life without a future. Evelyn and Lee have to demonstrate to
Regan and Marcus that there is a reason to go on — and the only reason any of us has to go on, really, is to ensure the
propagation of the species. The paucity of dialogue required by the film’s conceit, and the confidence with which
Krasinski shoots the picture, guides us through a life fully lived: We see the efforts undertaken to muffle a crying baby
without killing it, how to live in a world where sound can be deadly. Far from looking horrible, it looks homey.
Difficult, yes, but filled with love.

“A Quiet Place” is about what it means to be alive, what it means to be human, what it means to continue to exist in a
world that has made being human virtually impossible. A film about the importance of passing on what you know and
what you are to the next generation.

Would it have been easier for Evelyn and Lee to avoid the pregnancy altogether or to terminate it once it had begun?
Should they have gotten rid of the child, perhaps one they didn’t want, because it would have made their life safer?
Maybe. But what would be the point of living at all in a world with no children, no future?

“Who are we if we can’t protect them?” asks Evelyn (Eve?), mother of the first generation of children in this terrifying,
but survivable, world. But protection means more than simple safety; it means giving them a reason to live. A purpose.
And that purpose is life.