Halle and Alison talk their way through the terror to ruin A Quiet Place.

 

TRANSCRIPT

 

[AD BREAK]

 

[theme music]: If scary movies give you dread. Keep you up late night in bed, here’s a podcast that will help you ease your mind. We’ll explain the plot real nicely then we’ll talk about what’s frightening, so you never have to have a spooky time. It’s Ruined.

 

Halle Kiefer: Hello. Welcome to Ruined. I’m Halle. 

 

Alison Leiby: And I’m Alison. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And this is the podcast. Where we ruin a horror movie just for you. 

 

Alison Leiby: Just for all of you. Halle. What’s new? How are you? 

 

Halle Kiefer: I, I am much the same. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yes. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Things continue at pace. We were just talking about, going to, a film festival last year and somebody who, a South Korean filmmaker was asked, well, so how did you how did you fund this? And she had to go. I’m sorry. Our government gives us money. I sorry, I forgot about America. How did I do this? I wouldn’t have been able to do it because without a value placed on the arts. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yes. 

 

Halle Kiefer: For me to make something important for people to feel alive and like this is all worth something. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yes. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And we live here. 

 

Alison Leiby: And we live here. 

 

Halle Kiefer: I’m grateful for other countries that do that. I know, I know, we have. I’m not saying like, there’s no one in the government who cares. Just sort of like that is—

 

Alison Leiby: It’s not a priority at all. 

 

Halle Kiefer: No. 

 

Alison Leiby: And it erodes more and more every year. And we don’t care about art. We don’t care about creating new things that are valuable, even if they aren’t valuable to every single person. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Yeah. 

 

Alison Leiby: In a way that they, you know, make back money or something like that. [laughs]

 

Halle Kiefer: Yeah. And I think it’s like, I’m sure I’ve talked about this before, but I remember when I first came out, I was really looking for specifically for, like, lesbian stand ups that I really like because I, you know, I was like, you know, a queer stand up. And I’m like, I would say with, like, the lesbians and gay people I saw and trans people too, but it’s like all bad. And I was like, why is it so bad? Why do I hate this so much? And then it wasn’t until I was queer for longer, amount of time I was like, oh, because this is for straight audiences, I’m seeing that. Oh, like. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yes. 

 

Halle Kiefer: I’m holding on to like, I want you to talk about my experience, which is also absurd. But like, you know, we have a I want your take on what the fuck is going on at what we’re dealing with. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And it’s like, oh, no, that’s not you have to get paid. This is your job. You have to get you can go to casinos. So it’s like your version of like what a lesbian is or like whatever bisexual. It’s like it is the most flat, palatable laugh. People are drunk laughing at chicken fingers. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And then to be fair, I just you can still push the envelope a little bit or push things forward. 

 

Alison Leiby: Absolutely. But but. 

 

Halle Kiefer: I, I was holding them to a standard of like no they’re do like their depiction of their own queerness is also mitigated by capitalism because we all need to get paid and a sort of shame that it’s like, oh, right, everything is affected. It’s, I’m sure you know, true of every minority group of like, well, it’d be nice to see like that had all the bad stuff too, because like, that’s it here. It’s it’s imbued in it. And I love pride, but we also need wrath, you know, like we also need. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yes. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Sadness. I know that’s not one of them. But.

 

Alison Leiby: Right. 

 

Halle Kiefer: So anyway, I don’t know. But there’s something where it’s like, yeah, if, if the goal is to get as many people as possible to give you money, then there are certain stores that are not going to be prioritized, and then art becomes dead. Then it’s just like, okay, so we’re just seeing, you know, again, another Marvel movie.

 

Alison Leiby: Another Marvel movie. 

 

Halle Kiefer: How you doing? 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. It’s terrible. I’ve been very proud that I’ve been, like eating all the food I buy recently. 

 

Halle Kiefer: That’s good. Yeah. 

 

Alison Leiby: Like finishing things like. Which as when you live alone and mostly eat, like, cook and plan and shop for one it’s not like, it’s not even like I feel like I’m. So. It’s just like it is a skill to, like, know how to do it without. Wasting a lot of food money. So yeah, I feel like I had like a couple good weeks where I was like, you have this stuff, eat it. And also like, we’re, you know, in New York, like it’s fucking freezing. This week for some reason, because it’s winter again. But, it is getting to the time of year where it’s warm enough that I’m craving a salad more than just being like, I should have a salad. Like, I’m like, oh, I kind of want, like, a big crunchy, like, not hot thing. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Which sounds delicious. I, I’ve been trying to, do something similar where I just, I’m trying to have, like, frozen protein in my house because I like. 

 

Alison Leiby: Mm hmm. Yes. 

 

Halle Kiefer: I can’t—

 

Alison Leiby: Protein’s the hardest— 

 

Halle Kiefer: I can, you know, you know. But then of course I bought it. And then I come home and I have failed to shut my freezer. I had a ton of stuff and everything I had bought, I had to throw away. And I’m like, well, best laid plans. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. That’s a tough one. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Yeah, I, I, I feel you especially living alone. It’s like I always have these aspirations to cook. It’s like, I know I’m just going to put a piece of salmon in the air fryer. I don’t know who I’m who. I’m lying to at this point.

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah, but it’s like I get so bored. I’m like, not somebody who’s like, great at eating leftovers. So, like, I, tend to be like, okay, it’s either got to be like a soup that I could, like, eat for, like the first day and the second day, but I can freeze the rest. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Yeah. 

 

Alison Leiby: But like, otherwise, it’s like I want, like, different veggies. I want like, different, like salads. And it’s just like, it’s so expensive. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Yeah. 

 

Alison Leiby: And like, also like, when push comes to shove, I’m not cooking different stuff every night. [laughs]

 

Halle Kiefer: I will say I the one, one ace I have in my, in my hand, is that I could eat the same food for three weeks straight and it won’t bother me so. 

 

Alison Leiby: I can do that for breakfast, but for lunch and dinner I cannot. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Well, speaking of people who have limited, meal options, this is, of course, a continuation of, perhaps our finest theme, six degrees of Kevin Bacon. And the movie we are doing finally, off requested is A Quiet Place. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yes. Finally. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Starring, John Krasinski and Emily Blunt. And I’m, of course, pulling up the oracle of Kevin Bacon again. 

 

Alison Leiby: I would like to try and guess. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yes. Yeah. 

 

Halle Kiefer: At least because I feel like you could go from John Krasinski or Emily Blunt and get to Kevin Bacon. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Okay. I feel like you maybe could do probably not. Let’s do Emily Blunt. 

 

Alison Leiby: Because like, Emily Blunt was just in Oppenheimer, which has every man ever. So it’s like she was an Oppenheimer and so was like Robert Downey Jr. Feels like somebody who could then like has been in something the thing, the issue for me with this is I actually don’t know Kevin Bacon’s filmography very well. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And the reason it works is because he has been in so many things. 

 

Alison Leiby: So many. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Including most things that we’ve never heard of. 

 

Alison Leiby: Right. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Because the man worked, this guy was working, and I can’t I can’t attest to the quality of these films. But when he started that, he’s like, I am booking. He stayed booked and busy for decades. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. 

 

Halle Kiefer: So something again that we will never, would never know about, you know. And that’s before he became like an actual star even. But he’s gonna, he’s he’s constantly doing stuff that I’ve never heard of or like. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. 

 

Halle Kiefer: You know a 2009 movie called My One and Only. Don’t never heard of that, Renee Zellweger, Kevin Bacon couldn’t you could put a gun to my head. And I would say that you made that up. You know what I mean? 

 

Alison Leiby: Okay, I’m gonna guess. Wait. Emily Blunt to Robert Downey Jr. Robert Downey Jr was, in Iron Man with Gwyneth Paltrow. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Okay great. 

 

Alison Leiby: Was in was Ben Affleck in Shakespeare in Love, or am I, like, fully making that? No, that was someone definitely different. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Hang on, but hang on. But I bet that they have been. 

 

Alison Leiby: I feel like they. Because I’m trying to get to Casey Affleck. He was. It was Ben Affleck, I thought so. 

 

Halle Kiefer: They’re in Bounce, Ben Affleck and Gwyneth Paltrow were in Bounce together. 

 

Alison Leiby: They were in Bounce. And so then they were in that Ben and Casey were in Good Will like isn’t Casey in Good Will Hunting? 

 

Halle Kiefer: I believe so. 

 

Alison Leiby: Ben and Casey were in good Will hunting. And Casey and Kevin Bacon were in Mystic River. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Wow Alison you did it. 

 

Alison Leiby: Wow. There’s probably a shorter path, but. Yeah, well. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Here’s what the Oracle said, which is Emily Blunt to Sicario, to Josh Brolin to Hollow Man. And Kevin Bacon was in Hollow Man. We’ll have to do Hollow Man before the end of this. 

 

Alison Leiby: Oh, yeah. 

 

Halle Kiefer: His Invisible Man movie. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yes. Okay. 

 

Halle Kiefer: But I think the question is not how many. I think it’s just like the fact you did it at all is really an achievement Alison. 

 

Alison Leiby: Good for me. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Great work. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. 

 

Halle Kiefer: But yes, we are doing A Quiet Place. A oft requested, I know. You know what? I’ll be absolutely honest. I didn’t love this movie when it came out. But people, I think there is a part of myself I was thinking recently, cause I was talking about The Matrix. I hated The Matrix. Not out of any aesthetic or cinematic problem, but because everyone else loved it. And so I was like, I have to reject that. 

 

Alison Leiby: I tend—

 

Halle Kiefer: My brothers loved it. I don’t talk to me about it. You know.

 

Alison Leiby: I tend to have those feelings about popular very, Elaine on Seinfeld hating The English Patient because everyone else loves it, and then enjoying, the Comedy Sack Lunch. [laughs]

 

Halle Kiefer: Yeah, I feel like I am someone that doesn’t watch, the. Best pictures. I watch it like now I’m watching the best pictures. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yes. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Because I don’t like competition and I don’t want to compare movies and I don’t believe in it. 

 

Alison Leiby: Well I don’t think that you yeah.

 

Halle Kiefer: And I, that creates a resistance. You know what I mean?

 

Alison Leiby: Yes, exactly. And it creates also, just like, I don’t know, it’s always going to be rooted in like, you know, some kind of like patriarchal white supremacy. [laughs] So.

 

Halle Kiefer: Yeah. And money obviously. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yes. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Like you could run the campaign—

 

Alison Leiby: Of course. Movies spend a absolute ton of money to win awards. And, it seems unfair. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Yeah. But what’s even more unfair is the scenario that, our characters find them in, in the movie A Quiet Place. Which, of course, was sort of, I think, John Krasinski, how he sort of broke into his next stage of his career. Remember, he also had like, a little during the pandemic, he would do like a web show, like a web late night show. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And then he sold it to NBC, and then he never did it again. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. He just seems like a cop.

 

Halle Kiefer: Yeah. And so he directed this movie. It’s written by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods and Krasinski, and, we always like to have Alison watch the trailer for the film. Alison, what are your thoughts about the trailer for A Quiet Place? 

 

Alison Leiby: I mean, I had seen the like this is one that I like, know a little bit about because it’s recent and popular. I mean, I don’t like it. Just likes the quiet—

 

Halle Kiefer: How do you think you’d do?

 

Alison Leiby: Terrible. I can’t. I make so I make noise standing up from a chair. Like I’m just not like there’s no part of me like. Like just like involuntary noises are their own. I started the last episode. Just like hacked coughing out of nowhere, trying to be quiet. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Yes. 

 

Alison Leiby: And also, like, I can’t stop talking. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Yeah. 

 

Alison Leiby: Now, I went to an elementary school that, was kind of like a feeder or like a central school in the area for, deaf students all around, like the county. So, like, people came in from, like, Baltimore and people. So, we all had to learn American Sign Language. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Oh I didn’t know that. 

 

Alison Leiby: All throughout elementary school and in elementary school. I, like very much, could communicate through American Sign Language, but it’s like totally gone now, I know, like a few things that like, just like, what is your like there? Like there there’s some stuff and like, I still know the alphabet and stuff, but like, I can’t communicate effectively that way, but I feel like I could like. Get back in the groove and hang in that in that capacity. But I still couldn’t stop talking. 

 

Halle Kiefer: I feel like it’s something that you should, like, maybe. Look, I’m never going to tell you what to do your life, but that seems like I wonder if you went to a couple of classes and sort of refreshed, like maybe it’s still in there. 

 

Alison Leiby: I would like to brush up on my American Sign Language. I feel like that’s just like a good skill to have in case of emergency. Like whether it’s, you know, aliens trying to kill your family or just like, you know, living in a city among people who might communicate through American Sign Language. [laughs]

 

Halle Kiefer: Yeah. Either way, it’s it seems like a big, thumbs up. And, just a little bit about this movie. They, there’s a deaf character played by, the actress Millicent Simmonds, who is herself deaf, and all the cast had to learn sign language. You know, those were their lines, basically, like, there is a there are a few spoken lines in this, but for the most part of the sign language. So obviously, had to teach everyone that. And I thought that was really interesting. I guess. Sorry go ahead.

 

Alison Leiby: They did that on, an episode of The Last of Us as well. There was a deaf child. 

 

Halle Kiefer: I love that. 

 

Alison Leiby: Just like, very cool. I watched the like behind the episode and then just, like, sobbed forever about him being, like, really excited to get to be in the movie. He’s like, so cute. 

 

Halle Kiefer: I think a great example of like, you know, obviously we talk about us with all different, minorities, but especially disability, like hiring people, hiring disabled writers. And then when you are writing to, have disabled characters in it, and then once you if you hire a disabled performer, then it can inform the performance and like make everything more realistic. So I shout out to John Krasinski, I think that was, you know, I really appreciate that. And she does a great job at it. It is it does bring us to our baseline scary. Alison, how scary you find the concept of being a tween, living with your family at the end of the world? 

 

Alison Leiby: I mean, that seems like because especially like as a tween in normal times, like you are getting away from your family, sometimes. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Yes, you have friends. 

 

Alison Leiby: You are getting a break, you’re going to school, you’re you’re meeting your friends after school to go to the mall. You’re playing sports, you’re doing what you have, your little hobbies, you’re running around outside like you have a break. But like in this scenario, it seems like, boy, you’re all just like, kind of locked up together. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Right? Like, at least when you have friends, you can complain about your parents, you know, and also in, in real most life you can complain out loud where this is a lot of, you know, you’re stifled in a lot of different areas and you’re already stifled when you’re a tween in regular life. So watching this, I was very empathetic, in watching this character then also make some dumb tween decisions. But of course you would. Just because there’s—

 

Alison Leiby: Tweens are tweens.

 

Halle Kiefer: —monstrous spiders beings doesn’t mean. Yeah, exactly. Your tween regardless. And then finally, would you like to guess the twist in A Quiet Place? 

 

[voice over]: Guess the twist. 

 

Alison Leiby: Is there a twist? 

 

Halle Kiefer: You know, I don’t think so. But I will say. I would say guess. How do you think that they fight the spider alien creatures? 

 

Alison Leiby: Oh. They’re spidery. Okay. 

 

Halle Kiefer: That’s the best way. I mean, they’re also kind of ape like, but they have, like, very long term, sorry I have like a, mouthful of saliva, I’m salivating. 

 

Alison Leiby: You hungry? [laughs]

 

Halle Kiefer: I want to chomp right into them. To me, they feel, arachnid like. 

 

Alison Leiby: Okay, I’m going to guess that what they maybe it’s. Water. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Okay, great perfect. 

 

Alison Leiby: Water is something that they, that, you know, melts them or somehow or poisons them. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Alison. You’re a very great, great, great guess. You’re getting better at this every passing week. So let us begin ruining. Boop boop boop boop. A Quiet Place. Alison, we open on on the screen. Day 89. 

 

Alison Leiby: Oh, God. 

 

Halle Kiefer: We find ourselves a downtown of a sleepy little town in upstate New York where the apocalypse has come. There are leaves on the ground. There are upturned, traffic lights we see in the front of the pharmacy. There are missing posters sort of blanketing the front of the pharmacy. 

 

Alison Leiby: Okay. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Dozens of them. Dozens of people missing from a town that is obviously pretty small. Like. Like, I think Albany. Outside Albany. Not even like the Hudson Valley? We’re talking, like, up there, right? And we see inside the pharmacy, of course, windows and doors smashed in, leaves on the ground, and we see a little boy named Beau scampering around barefoot. Everyone we see in this movie is barefoot, but of course, that is the quietest way to walk. 

 

Alison Leiby: I wouldn’t even like that part of this. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Oh no. And they’re all bundled up like they have, like, coats and sweaters and bare feet. 

 

Alison Leiby: Puts some socks on.

 

Halle Kiefer: I would not go on survivor and I would not go survive this. 

 

Alison Leiby: No. 

 

Halle Kiefer: I every part of this would be untenable to me. 

 

Alison Leiby: Untenable. 

 

Halle Kiefer: We see. A tween girl. Regan. She’s also looking in the aisles. We see she has a cochlear implant. She is deaf. We see another boy, her brother, around ten, sort of brooding in the aisles. That’s Marcus, and he is unwell, so he’s sort of, like, slumped over, not doing really well. 

 

Alison Leiby: Like physically unwell. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Physically unwell. Just temporarily. It seems like it’s a flu or something. But that’s why they came to town to look through the pharmacy, to look for medication. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Finally, we see their mother, Emily Blunt, known as Evelyn in the film. But in my mind, it is Emily Blunt. Every time I see her. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah, she’ll she’ll always be Emily Blunt even like. And I find her to be kind of. Chameleon and I feel like she can take on like she doesn’t always look the same, but I’m like. But she’s always Emily Blunt. [laughs]

 

Halle Kiefer: Yes, I absolutely I feel that way about like Cate Blanchett too. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yes. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Excellent actor the whole time I’m like that’s Cate Blanchett. 

 

Alison Leiby: Cate Blanchett. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And I don’t want to be this person, but Emily Blunt has never looked better. She looks so good in this. I don’t know whether it’s like, she just isn’t glammed up. Like, she’s just like, you know, in mom gear or something. But I was like. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Emily Blunt, you’re killing it. She’s methodically going through the medications, seeing what they have. Finally find something, probably an antibiotic, to try to give their son, gives the pills to Marcus and hands water from a water bottle. No one is speaking. And when they start communicating, we see that they are all using sign language. And I think the implication is because they had a child who was deaf, they all were learning sign language anyways. 

 

Alison Leiby: Anyway. Yes. 

 

Halle Kiefer: So they have been able to survive because they had that skill. So to your point, Alison, if you were to brush up that you have it, then you’re ready to go. If something like this does happen.

 

Alison Leiby: Happens, which it probably will. [laughs]

 

Halle Kiefer: Yeah. Regan’s kind of nervous. So she approaches her mother. And, so also when I say they said unless I specified they’re signing. 

 

Alison Leiby: Okay. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And so Regan approaches Evelyn and Marcus, and her mother says, you know, he’s okay. Regan finds Beau is drawing in chalk on the ground in the pharmacy, and he signs to her, this is how we’ll get away. And Regan smiles at it. But then you see, like, her eyes start to tear up and we see that he’s drawn a spaceship. So I think he’s like, well, we’ll escape, we’ll get on a spaceship. 

 

Alison Leiby: And it’s like, oh, that’s not happening.

 

Halle Kiefer: No. But she smiles and kind of like, plays along. Their dad John Krasinski His name’s Lee. He returns. He’s got a bunch of electronics that he’s found in another store. He’s got a camera. And Regan had some sort of like, an electrical board from inside of a computer that she found somewhere. And he says signs, like, oh, we could use this to boost the signal. And in return, Lee gives Regan a pair of pliers. And the implication is like, they tinker together. He. She’s sort of his, like mentee. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Like, you know, he’s sort of teaching her, and they’re obviously trying to build something to communicate during this catastrophic thing. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yes. 

 

Halle Kiefer: That has happened to the planet, which we’ll find out more in a little bit. They alter around as Beau walks up to the group and they all have a look of horror, and we see Lee nervously grabs something out of Beau’s hand. And it is a toy spaceship, and he very deftly takes out the batteries so that it doesn’t make any sound. 

 

Alison Leiby: Okay. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And so he hands it back to his very sad son, they can’t make any noise, but obviously had it made noise, it would have called something to them or alerted something. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yes. 

 

Halle Kiefer: So thank God, caught it just in time. Done with their trip to town, they all start to head out and we see not only are they barefoot, but they have laid out, sand like a path of sand through town, back to their farm. 

 

Alison Leiby: Okay. 

 

Halle Kiefer: So wherever they need to go they lay out sand again to try to walk as quiet as possible. Very clever. Again. I would have been immediately killed the day this happened. 

 

Alison Leiby: I’m out of there. 

 

Halle Kiefer:  Yes. 

 

Alison Leiby: No it’s like one. I can’t keep my mouth shut. But two. I can’t, like, think ahead about. Like I would never be, like, playing around in the kitchen, like I. It’s just too hard. 

 

Halle Kiefer: There’s no before. There’s no after. It would just be panic the entire time. 

 

Alison Leiby: Nonstop. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Unfortunately, as they walk out this door, Regan feels bad for Beau. So she hands on the spaceship and sort of shushes him, but of course she turns, doesn’t see that he pockets the batteries and he’s little. He’s like four. So like, he’s not thinking, oh, this is dangerous. He’s thinking, oh, I’ll use these batteries and they won’t know, you know. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. 

 

Halle Kiefer: So he puts the batteries in his coat and then they’re all walking single file. 

 

Alison Leiby: It’s also a tough, like catastrophe to deal with because like, children already. Like, it’s like, be quiet. And then, like, I don’t want to like, it’s like. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Yeah. 

 

Alison Leiby: It is an extension of just like a rule they don’t like, as opposed to, like, an obvious physical threat. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Right. Like my brain isn’t developed. So it’s like, don’t make sound. It’s like, okay, but like I will. 

 

Alison Leiby: I want to. Yeah.

 

Halle Kiefer: So they all walk carefully. Single file. Lee is in the front carrying Marcus because Marcus is that unwell. And they, we see, Lee and Marcus up front, Evelyn, Regan and Beau leading up the back. And I don’t want to be like this. Do not let the little one be in the back. If you’re out, there has to be someone behind the the youngest person.

 

Alison Leiby: Right. Yeah. You, like sandwiched the kids in the middle. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Yes. Exactly. Like. And again, obviously hindsight is 20/20, but never let the baby bring up the rear. And you can quote me on that. Alison, they walk across a bridge and we cut to Regan, and we have moments where we cut to her in silence and we realize that her hearing aid isn’t on. And so I wasn’t sure if that was because you couldn’t charge it, or if the hearing aid had broken. And you can’t fix it because. 

 

Alison Leiby: Right. Because you couldn’t even tell somebody it needs to get fixed. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Yeah, but whatever. We cut to her and it’ll be total silence. And so obviously they could communicate with her, but she cannot hear like ambient sound. So there are moments, obviously, they play with that where she’s aware of something and other people aren’t, or other people are aware and she’s not. 

 

Alison Leiby: And she’s not. So unfortunately, we have this moment where she’s in silence and her parents turn around with a look of horror. And so she turns around and we see that Beau has put the, batteries back in the spaceship. [sound effect]

 

Alison Leiby: Who gave him the batteries? 

 

Halle Kiefer: Well, he, he just Lee put them down on the counter. 

 

Alison Leiby: And he just picked them up again.

 

Halle Kiefer: Picked them up. Yeah. So you think he’s, like, four, so he’s, like, old enough to know what batteries are old enough to be like. Well, that was in the. I can put together what’s going on but not ergo what’s about to happen to me. 

 

Alison Leiby: Right. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Alison, I have bad news. 

 

Alison Leiby: Oh, yeah.

 

Halle Kiefer: They all turn around and Lee tries to run to him, but before he can get there, a gigantic spider like alien explodes out of the woods and snatches Beau up to his doom. Day 472 Alison. 

 

Alison Leiby: Okay, so we’re a more than a year later. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Yes. And so that means it’s been over a year and a half, basically until since the since this has begun. 

 

Alison Leiby: Okay. 

 

Halle Kiefer: We see Regan sort of laying in the sand path in the cornfield, and she jerks awake, sort of realizing she’s dozing off outside. And I think that there’s just like this concern at all times, like where you’re at, even if it seems like you’re safe, you don’t know, you know. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And again, she’s in silence. She can’t hear anything. Her mom walks by with a basket, and she joins her to, like, go help do chores. Excuse me. They’re, basically in their barn in the basement of the barn, which is a storehouse, like a storeroom for, like, preserves and stuff. So they are there because that is the safest place. So they’re able to put themselves down there and sort of not be visible or, or be less obtrusive versus living in the house. But in the basement of the house, Lee has sort of a think tank with, like all of his electronics, where he’s trying to figure out, like how to keep us safe. Right? 

 

Alison Leiby: Yes. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And so he has some things, like they clearly have a generator because they have security cameras that he’s put together and they’re all DIY. So like he has security cameras around the, the farm. And he pours over all these newspapers with headlines like National Guard emergency evacuation. They can hear you. Hundreds dead in Shanghai. 

 

Alison Leiby: Oh, God. 

 

Halle Kiefer: It’s sound. Stay silent, stay alive, and then finally get underground. Which is why, you know, there’s sleeping quarters in their living spaces, like underground. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. 

 

Halle Kiefer: He finds his notebook. He stands in front of a whiteboard. Whiteboard that did become kind of a meme, because a whiteboard is like very day one. Like the things you would write down versus like, it’s been over a year. I’m sure you’ve come to some other conclusions. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah, yeah, yeah. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And so it says creatures that are underneath it says blind attack armor. Question mark. How many in area confirmed? Three. So we know there are three gigantic spider aliens in the area. 

 

Alison Leiby: Okay. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Survive medical supplies, soundproofing. And then finally what is their weakness. And again these are good things to think about. But I just feel like you would have. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Erased the whiteboard. Yeah. 

 

Alison Leiby: You wouldn’t use the whiteboard for a lot more more current information. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Yeah. We see Lee go to his shortwave radio, and he basically is trying to communicate with different countries specifically just to see, like, how far this has spread. And he’s trying to call, I guess is a way to like, call like a country specific number that, like, takes you into their shortwave. So he keeps crossing out. Needless to say, none of these countries are calling him back. Like, it seems like they are among some of the last. 

 

Alison Leiby: Last. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Survivors. Outside we see Mark is pretending to drive a truck that lies like unused in the field probably because they don’t have gas or it’s broken. They can’t fix it. And we see Marcus go down into the basement of the barn, which is where their living quarters are. They have a store room. And, Alison, they are setting up a crib, and we see Evelyn hang a handmade mobile mobile. And she is nine months pregnant. 

 

Alison Leiby: No. 

 

Halle Kiefer: I we need to talk this through because I understand. Look, what do you do? Never have sex again?

 

Alison Leiby: Right. It’s like you do need it, but it’s like. 

 

Halle Kiefer: It doesn’t seem worth the risk. 

 

Alison Leiby: Pull out man. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Pull out. Have other kinds of sex. Like. 

 

Alison Leiby: Just like, stick to oral until you like. I don’t know.

 

Halle Kiefer: Hey, you know, but then also, I do think I took having seen it multiple times at this point, I was like, you know, I think that they intentionally got pregnant because they there’s no way for yeah, there’s no way for them to process the death of their son. 

 

Alison Leiby: No. Especially if you can’t even talk about it. 

 

Halle Kiefer: No. Exactly. And there’s no one else around. There’s nowhere to go. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. It’s kind of just.

 

Halle Kiefer: We have to. 

 

Alison Leiby: We have to just push this family forward. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Yeah. So in that way I’m like, okay, I, I’m sympathetic. 

 

Alison Leiby: I get it. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Up in the grain silo. As evening falls, Lee looks out over the hills and, again, the lights come on. So it’s linked to a generator. So they do have light, and it’s sort of these, like Christmas lights around the, farm, just, like, provide illumination. And he’s looking at photos of Beau, like when he was a baby, but with and I was I took the shortwave radio thing to be like, wow, no one else is alive. But then he lights a fire on a silo and you could see multiple fires like other people lighting them back in the hills. So I kind of wanted them to make a decision on that. Like either they’re completely cut off or there’s other people, and then you mention you eventually go over there and like exchange goods or something. 

 

Alison Leiby: Something. Especially because especially in a scenario where like there is such an obvious common enemy as opposed to like kind of other apocalyptic scenarios where it’s like, well, we don’t know if they’ve been bitten by the zombies yet or not. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Yeah that’s a good point. 

 

Yeah. We’re just trying to stay, like, you’re not, like, low key a spider alien. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Yeah. And so that that I think maybe it was just a, decision of what they wanted, the, plot and the movie to be about. But I’m saying this guy’s going over there. This guy knows everybody. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. 

 

Halle Kiefer: In my mind, they’d have a whole alphabet of, like, fire and smoke or. You know what I mean like the. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah, yeah. Something. 

 

Halle Kiefer: So set up more communication knowing there are people that close by. But again, not my movie. Not my monkey, not my circus, not my spider alien. Not my movie. In the down in the living quarters, Marcus and Regan are helping put layers of newspaper on the walls and sort of like a Mod Podge type of thing to create soundproofing. Because babies do cry, like you said, especially like a four year old baby could control control himself in some situations. 

 

Alison Leiby: Babies. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Babies. You know, they’re just a little they’re like a puppy. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. 

 

Halle Kiefer: We see that Evelyn. Evelyn must have been a medical professional again. You don’t find out anything about them other than they do have this farm. But she is essentially her own ObGyn and. 

 

Alison Leiby: Jesus Christ. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And like neonatal ward. So she has a wooden box with. She has an oxygen tank with a little baby mask that I assume she modified from an oxygen oxygen mask. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And ostensibly so they could create a soundproof box for when perhaps some of the aliens show up and we see, like, like it’s well put together, but also, like, if I did that, the alien would eat the baby, like, there’s no. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yes. 

 

Halle Kiefer: You know, I well, but they have it prepared for when she gives birth. Evelyn makes some delicious looking fish that they caught in the stream. 

 

Alison Leiby: I love a good fish dish. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And it’s like you’re eating fresh bread. Like she serves that like a kale leaf. It does look really nice. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah, they must be so healthy. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And they do look great. I will say that. And she sort of nods at Regan. And this is where we see, you know, the beginning. Regan and her dad were, like, so close and seem very similar. And now there’s this, thing between them. And the implication is that his resentment, which isn’t fair, but is resentment over the death of Beau on some level. So she doesn’t even want to go get her dad for dinner. She goes to get them. And I do think that’s insane. It’s like obviously, one, she didn’t, like, give him the batteries. And two, she’s a kid. 

 

Alison Leiby: Right. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Like she herself was a child. Obviously she—

 

Alison Leiby: She’s a child. If you’ve been thinking she would have, like, not thrown the batteries or something. But they all go to dinner and they hold hands and pray. And I assume the prayer is, Dear God, please take the homicidal alien monsters you sent to Earth back because they’ve killed everybody. Amen. [laughter] Later they play monopoly. And I will say right now, I would rather be decapitated by an alien. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Absolutely. 

 

Alison Leiby: Then ever play that game again. 

 

Alison Leiby: No, I yeah. 

 

Halle Kiefer: If the kid wants to that’s fine. But no adult don’t ever come to me with that kind of thing.

 

Alison Leiby: I don’t want to play a game where I’m just paying rent. 

 

Halle Kiefer: No. Fuck that. 

 

Alison Leiby: That’s sucks. I’m not playing landlord. That’s not. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Let’s play Hungry Hungry Hippos. Let’s play Uno. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Unfortunately, Alison they’re playing. And as they’re playing, Regan knocks over a lantern like an oil lantern. Not only does it smash on the ground and causes a huge, shattering sound, but it lights the rug on fire. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah.

 

Halle Kiefer: Lee springs into action. He’s able to put it out, but now they all freeze. You know, they have sort of the door over them, but they hear the birds are taking off from the cornfield as something starts to approach the house and we hear a loud crash upstairs, and there’s like a little window that Lee’s trying to peer out at, like a ground level. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah, yeah. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And they hear a screech. Alison, it’s not the aliens. It’s just some big, fat raccoons. 

 

Alison Leiby: Oh. That’s fun. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And I do. Well, I’ll say this at the end, but, like, I do feel like I, you know, I complain about movies with kids in it. I feel like this one is okay. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Because it’s about the family. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yes. I think that that, like, is an exception. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Yes. It’s about sustaining and working on your family and about their dynamics. So then I’m like, okay, I will allow I will watch a child be endangered because I feel like you’ve in some way earned it. We also see as the raccoons make their way to the cornfield. Something in the corn just snatches one of them up and eats it. 

 

Alison Leiby: Hmhm. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Spoiler it is the alien. In the evening. Evelyn goes into Lee’s, think tank in the basement of the house and entreats him to dance with her, and she has her headphones in, and she takes one of the, headphones and puts in his ear, and they’re sort of swaying to Neil Young, and it’s genuinely very sweet, like they. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Obviously are very sweet together. And again, Emily Blunt looking fine as fuck in this movie, I don’t know. I don’t know where, but I was like, damn. Like, I guess I’ve never seen Emily Blunt before. 

 

Alison Leiby: She’s hot. Yeah.

 

Halle Kiefer: Day 473. 

 

Alison Leiby: Okay. 

 

Halle Kiefer: We see it’s October 3rd. And again, Evelyn must be a doctor because she’s, like, taking her own blood pressure. And we see her due date is October 23rd, so we’re on the homestretch. 

 

Alison Leiby: Okay, okay. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Right? That does seem a little precise for the end of the world, but that’s fine. I’ll allow it. She also used the stethoscope to check the fetal heartbeat. Everything seems good. She’s healthy. The only problem, of course, the tremendous human devouring spider monsters from another dang planet. 

 

Alison Leiby: As if pregnancy isn’t hard enough. 

 

Halle Kiefer: We see Regan goes into the house, which she’s not allowed to go in, and we see that in the house. They’ve put little a little patches of green paint where you could walk on the floorboards that won’t creak. I was like, very, very smart. I wouldn’t think to do that. 

 

Alison Leiby: No, not at all. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And we see her about to go down into her dad’s electronics room, and he grabs her and he hauls her out and he says, you’re not allowed to go down there. And she starts to argue with him and he’s like, I’m just telling you, that’s my stuff. It’s just not safe. Basically, he doesn’t trust her. 

 

Alison Leiby: When they’re signing. Are there subtitles? 

 

Halle Kiefer: Yes. Sorry, I should have said that. Yeah. Sorry. There are on screen subtitles, and so they’re signing. So you understand the whole time you do. It’s a lot of reading. I know some people don’t like that. It never has bothered me. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah, I don’t I only don’t like it when I’m half watching something. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Yes. I understand that.

 

Alison Leiby: I don’t like it for, like, a passive watch of something I kind of don’t care about. Like for like a good movie that I want to sit down and see. I don’t mind if there are subtitles, but, like, if I’m, like, trying to watch a just a stupid show and it’s like a bunch of subtitling, I’m like, well, I don’t care enough about this to read. 

 

Halle Kiefer: I will say, my challenge to myself for this year is to watch movies all the way through without looking at my phone that are not horror movies, because I could do that with horror pretty well, but I’m trying to branch out a little bit. I need to see Anatomy of a Fall. Still, I’m trying to watch anything that’s not horror. 

 

Alison Leiby: I know I need to see American Fiction as well. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Oh yeah, me too. 

 

Alison Leiby: Hopefully by the time this comes out, I’ll have seen it. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Well. You better please report back.

 

Alison Leiby: I will.

 

Halle Kiefer: But clearly, Lee does not trust his daughter. Which I just think is like. I understand, but you again. But he can’t go to a therapist. How’s he suppose to process it, you know. 

 

Alison Leiby: Also like you cannot trust her because she’s like a tween girl in, like, a psychotic, apocalyptic like scenario, but you can’t not trust her because of what happened to your son. Like, that’s unfair. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Because that could have happened to you. You left the batteries there. Are you afraid that you could blame yourself just as much. 

 

Alison Leiby: Right you could have put them in your pocket and then it wouldn’t have been an issue.

 

Halle Kiefer: So they’re already fighting, and then he tries as like a, you know, olive branch. He takes something out of his pocket and he hands her it’s a hearing aid. He’s like, I think I fixed this one. I used the little amplifiers on the speakers. Would you try it? She says it won’t work it. None of the ones that you have fixed have worked. And he’s like, no, no, I it increases the frequency, which I think she’s she’s like, it will not work. But obviously this reticence is also part of their fight. Like they’re just upset with one another. He tries to put in her ear and she slaps his hand away as a stop and clearly, again, hard to work on family issues. When there’s all these spider monsters running around. 

 

Alison Leiby: There’s a lot of them. 

 

Halle Kiefer: But he gives her. He puts the hearing aid her hand, basically like you could use it if you want to, and let me know if it works and walks away and Regan starts crying because obviously she doesn’t want to fight with her dad. And this is all impossible. In the barn we see Evelyn is homeschooling Marcus, and I think, we’re to think that Lee and Regan are very similar. And then Evelyn and Marcus are very similar, like, more mild mannered, you know, Lee gestures, comes in and says, oh, Marcus, it’s time to go. Marcus says, I don’t want to go do this. Evelyn signs you’ll be fine. Your father will always protect you. It’s important you learn all the things that go with, like running the farm. Plus, who’s going to take care of me when I’m old and gray and I have no teeth? And she has some very funny like Emily Blunt faces. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And Marcus signs to her. Like I don’t want to go. And of course Regan’s like, well, I want to go take me. But he says to Regan stay with your mother. She’s pregnant. She needs you to help her. You know, you need a safe. You’ll be safe here. But again, she’s taking it as you don’t want me to go. You don’t want to be training me to, like, be your successor in the way that clearly you were last year, you know? 

 

Alison Leiby: Right. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And also, Marcus doesn’t want to go or do anything because Marcus is terrified. And I think that has to do with, like, he was sick when all this happened, so I think he just feels so vulnerable. So he’s like, please don’t make me go and do stuff when there’s aliens running around. But understandably, Lee says, you know, we got to go. We got to learn this stuff. So they head out and Regan just like cries and rages and again, right. Like, it’s hard not to be a teen and now there’s fucking aliens. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And she picks up her new hearing aid and replaces the one she’s wearing when she turns it on, it crackles, but when she snaps her fingers, she can’t hear anything. Alison, what would you do? 

 

[voice over]: What would you do? 

 

Alison Leiby: I mean, I’d already be dead. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Yeah, 100%. That’s. Absolutely. Same here.

 

Alison Leiby: I definitely like, I don’t know. I. I would try and just go really far away from my family and make a noise and just let them kill me because [laughs] like, I can’t live like this. 

 

Halle Kiefer: It’s also like, oh, great, the only people we get to hang out with are, our immediate family, for the rest of time. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah, right. It’s like, if this is what life is like. Oh, God. 

 

Halle Kiefer: That’s really hard. 

 

[AD BREAK]

 

Halle Kiefer: To your point, Alison. She packs her bag to run away. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. 

 

Halle Kiefer: We see her take her pliers, and we see her take a cloth wrapped item from inside her dresser drawer. Meanwhile we see where Lee was taking Marcus. They go down to the creek, so they have these, traps to check for fish. And he finds a live fish, plops it onto the rocks, and Marcus panics because it makes a sound. And Lee says, no, no, no. He signs the river creates a lot of sound so we can actually make more sound here because of the the rush of the water. 

 

Alison Leiby: Oh, okay. Because that’s a constant. So it’s almost like white noise. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Yes, exactly. And he says it’s a very important like if there’s a big, big sounds are bad little sounds, you could get away with big sounds are bad. But if there’s bigger sounds, if there’s other sounds, you could make a big sound, you know. So it’s hard teaching him, like, how are you going to live in this in this world, you know? Meanwhile we see Regan. She’s packed up. She’s walking through the cornfield and she’s walking back towards town essentially. So she’s headed back towards that bridge. Meanwhile, Evelyn goes into the basement to do laundry by hand, which sucks. And the laundry is in the electronics room, right. So it’s in that area. And when she hauls it back up, the laundry bag snags on a nail, but it wrenches the nail upward when she pulls the bag. So now there is a nail standing straight up on this step, which is scary for the aliens because one you know that it’s coming back later because of the care they took to show it to us. 

 

Alison Leiby: Obviously.

 

Halle Kiefer: And also nails are real and spider aliens knock on wood not. 

 

Alison Leiby: Also like, boy, if you get tetanus. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Oh, God. 

 

Alison Leiby: That’s it. Lights out. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Yeah, that makes me want to pass out. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. 

 

Halle Kiefer: But unfortunately Evelyn doesn’t see it. She goes, to take the laundry away. Over at the river Lee takes Marcus behind a waterfall and he screams. [screaming] And Marcus, of course, panics. He’s like, no, no, listen, you could we could talk back here because there’s this deafening roar like, the waterfall is so loud. And so he tells Marcus, you’re all right. I promise. And so while they’re there. It’s like, well, dad, can we cut the shit? He says, well, why didn’t you let Regan come with us? Do you blame her for what happened? And he says, no, of course I don’t. It’s like, okay, well, she blames herself for it, you know, and we see where Regan has been going. She wasn’t going to town. She’s going back to the bridge where they have sort of a memorial to Beau, and it’s a little cross and like a bunch of his little toys and some photos and it’s all like, sun weathered. It was. He is, you know, he’s four years old when he died, and she and she unwraps the things she took out of the dresser. And it is the spaceship. So she just bring there to sort of, like, put it out. She’s probably been the one bringing toys occasionally. 

 

Alison Leiby: Oh, yeah. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Because obviously she’s devastated. Does blame herself. 

 

Alison Leiby: It is her brother like, aw. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And meanwhile we see Evelyn doing laundry as she’s in their house. So she goes into Beau’s room on the first floor, she’s crying, and Lee tells, you know, Marcus at the waterfall, like there’s nothing there’s this wasn’t anyone’s fault. And Marcus says, well, you love her, right? You love Regan, Lee says, of course. And Marcus goes, well you should tell her that, like, you know. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah.

 

Halle Kiefer: Just let her know that you don’t believe her because she absolutely does what I thought was very, very nice and very observant as a sibling, you know. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. 

 

Halle Kiefer: So Regan’s there at the, you know, the memorial, basically. And Marcus and Lee are headed back towards home. But the implication is like it’s a long walk. So as they’re walking, they pass what looks like an abandoned house. And when they turn the corner around it, they see an old man standing outside. And when they look down, we see his wife, who looks who appears to have been bitten in half and eaten by the aliens. 

 

Alison Leiby: Oh God. 

 

Halle Kiefer: The wife’s dying body. And Lee makes eye contact with the man. And the man looks not good. And Lee shakes his head because he knows what he’s about to do. And the man screams, which I mean, what are you going to do, right? 

 

Alison Leiby: I mean, yeah. It’s like your wife who, however long you’ve been together, has now like been killed by these things. Like. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And you’re alone. 

 

Alison Leiby: That’s your whole life. Like I don’t know. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And the way he screams, I took it as a suicide, I took it. It’s like he is calling the aliens. 

 

Alison Leiby: Come get me. This is not worth it. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Yeah. Lee grabs Marcus. They puts his hand over his mouth, and they hide behind the trees, and an alien shows up and eviscerates the old man and eats him. Back at home. See, this thing is like Lee was right. Somebody did have to stay with Evelyn. Because while she. She picks up a photo of, her late son Evelyn’s water breaks. So she is now in labor. 

 

Alison Leiby: Silent birth. Like, what is she, a Scientologist? 

 

Halle Kiefer: I mean, yeah, get those reps in, she’s in the house. She’s not in the barn, like the safe space. And of course, she has to sit down because it’s incredibly painful. Alison. She walks down the basement stairs and steps directly on the nail and she doesn’t scream. But she does drop the photo she’s holding and it shatters. 

 

Alison Leiby: Oh. 

 

Halle Kiefer: So even though she didn’t scream, she did everything she could have. 

 

Alison Leiby: Still made a noise.

 

Halle Kiefer: And we have to see her pull her foot off a nail which looks like a thousand yards long, covered in blood, removing her foot from it. She goes over to Lee’s electronic station to turn on the outside lights, and she pulls a lever and the lights turn from like, a regular light bulb to a red light. So I think that’s her signal, like something horrible has happened. Get back as soon as you see this. 

 

Alison Leiby: Okay. 

 

Halle Kiefer: You know, as far as, you know, because you could sort of see it, you know, it’s like mountains and valleys. So hypothetically you might be able to see the the farm from further away. When she goes to walk back up the stairs, Alison, she sees that there is an alien inside the house. 

 

Alison Leiby: How large is it? 

 

Halle Kiefer: I would say it is the size of a moose. 

 

Alison Leiby: Oh. 

 

Halle Kiefer: It’s very tall. 

 

Alison Leiby: But it’s kind of like bigger. But yeah. 

 

Halle Kiefer: I would say like, it’s tall in front with, like, a lower back legs. And it sort of has like, like praying mantis. It walks on like praying mantis limbs, but instead of praying mantis where the limbs point up, these point down. 

 

Alison Leiby: Okay. Yes.

 

Halle Kiefer: And we haven’t seen its head yet, but the heads are really interesting and gross. So we’re going to see them in a minute. So I would say like a gray. Reptilian spider moose with a, a head that opens like a flower. Like a like a Venus flytrap. And inside it’s a beautiful. It looks like an ear. Like. It’s like the. It’s iridescent, like the inside of a shell. And it’s all these coils. I think we’re to think that’s why it could hear so well. 

 

Alison Leiby: Oh, okay. That makes sense. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Though. It is funny. And I will say watch this again. I’m like, what’s funny is it actually can only hear as well as we can, like. 

 

Alison Leiby: Right. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Because if it could hear better, it could hear them breathing or the blood in their veins or something. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah right right. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Thank God it can’t hear better. It’s just some guy basically. 

 

Alison Leiby: It’s just like like someone with good hearing. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Yes. And thank God, because we wouldn’t be able to do it otherwise. 

 

Alison Leiby: It’s indoors. Ah, 

 

Halle Kiefer: Yeah. So it is now shambling around this beautiful farmhouse and she is in the basement. Not only did she just step on a nail, but she is in labor. And despite all this, she is still smart enough to find a timer so smarter than I so she can set the timer and forget it. But really? Yeah, like, set a timer and then get some distance to her in the timer and like, have the aliens, attack that. 

 

Alison Leiby: Oh I see. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Because the aliens are not sentient, it’s sort of like if there was like a tiger or like a bear, like you can sort of distracted and confuse it. 

 

Alison Leiby: Okay. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Yeah. It’s not it’s not going to pick up on like, a particular humanness. 

 

Alison Leiby: Okay. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And I do think there is something like the reason they eat fish. It seems like it would have eaten all the animals too. I guess it doesn’t eat the birds, but you don’t see any, like, livestock or dogs, and I think it would have just consumed anything it found. 

 

Alison Leiby: Okay. Yeah, that was what I was going to ask is like. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Yeah. 

 

Alison Leiby: I guess it ate the raccoon, but like, yeah, it doesn’t eat animals, but, that makes sense. 

 

Halle Kiefer: I guess it just eats. Yeah. Flesh. So yeah, we see the alien, it has huge venom teeth and it sort of opens its face, like in, like, multiple petals, revealing this fleshy inside, which is like a coiled mass of an ear. And we see it picking up on the timer, and then the timer goes off and it’s so loud. And the alien, of course, freaks out and attacks the timer, giving Evelyn enough time to, like, hurry up the stairs before she can get to the front door. Alison. She sees another alien on the lawn. And remember, there are three in the area and we’re seeing two right now. 

 

Alison Leiby: Two of the three are hanging around. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Yeah, ostensibly because she dropped the, photo and the glass shattered, so they’re like, okay, great. Soup’s on. Meanwhile, Lee and Marcus get to like, the the edge of the farm, which is still incredibly far away, but they see the red lights and they, of course, both freak out and realize something is going on. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And Lee, signs to Marcus. He says. Remember I told you about how in order to cover up a loud sound, you have to make a louder sound. Okay? I need it sort of like I need you to do plan 58, you know, to help your mother. And, boy, I was like, boy, he is going to be really mad at Regan. Now, if he wasn’t mad before, Regan did sort of bail on their very pregnant mother then. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. Yeah. 

 

Halle Kiefer: You know, maybe we shouldn’t have done that, but because she can’t get out of the house, Evelyn does the other thing to do which is she goes and she gets in the bathtub to give birth to this baby because, like, where else are you supposed to go? 

 

Alison Leiby: Right. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And of course we hear the other. She sees the other alien enter the house and Evelyn is, you know, starting, and there’s blood dripping into the drain. And just as she’s about to scream, Alison, outside in the sky, we hear fireworks exploding. So as she screams, a louder sound covers it up. Obviously, this is something that Lee developed. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yes. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Where we could create this cacophony. It also draws the aliens out of the house. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yes. 

 

Halle Kiefer: So fortunately, she she’s giving birth, at least with some sort of cover. Regan sees the fireworks on the bridge and she starts to run home, but also she’s a little distance away and Lee grabs a shotgun and makes his way into the house, trying to find his wife. 

 

Alison Leiby: And can they be killed? 

 

Halle Kiefer: Yes, they can, and we will in fact find out how. But the good question, if they can’t be by human means, then like give it up. 

 

Alison Leiby: Give it up. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Then I can’t. Couldn’t do this.

 

Alison Leiby: You win. You win. Aliens. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Yeah. Alison, he finds a bathtub. It is full of blood, but it is empty. So Lee collapses, obviously assuming his wife and unborn child got eaten by aliens. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Luckily he turns and there’s sort of a separate shower with a glass door, like the vertical door, and he sees a bloody hand slapped against the door. Evelyn is alive and hiding in the shower, and so is the baby. 

 

Alison Leiby: Oh my God. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And this is where we keep playing pretty fast and loose. Because like, this baby would be crying. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. Yeah, right. 

 

Halle Kiefer: But luckily it’s not their first baby. Then I think they would be dead. You know, dead people walking. But luckily she’s alive. Baby’s alive. And Marcus tries to walk back through the cornfield towards the house, only for the aliens to hear him and start chasing him through the cornfield. So now poor Marcus is being terrorized by the aliens while Lee is carrying Evelyn and the baby, who’s is cooing, making a little sound nothing crazy. He gets them down into the basement in their living quarters and, like, shuts the door right as an alien appears outside the barn. They put the baby in its wooden box and they put his little oxygen mask on. 

 

Alison Leiby: Aw tiny little oxygen mask. 

 

Halle Kiefer: I know, and so it is soundproof. So he put the top on. So the idea is like, the baby will survive if we have to do this temporarily. 

 

Alison Leiby: Right? Right. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Oh my God, that’s exhausting. And how long is the oxygen tanks like that—

 

Alison Leiby: Right. 

 

Halle Kiefer: They use a lot of oxygen. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. Especially if it’s crying. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Yeah. Meanwhile, Regan has made it back to the cornfield. Regan doesn’t know about anything, right? She doesn’t know where she sees the lights. She knows something bad is happening. Is it her mom? We don’t know. She gets into the cornfield and we don’t see one of the. She does not see that the alien, one of the aliens, has stepped into the corn behind her and is following her, stalking her. But then when it gets close enough, the feedback from her hearing aid, which is on but not working. 

 

Alison Leiby: Oh. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Irritates it so much it drives it away. Obviously this will come into play later. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yes. Because I was like, I was like, oh, I wonder if like a, like a dog with like a literal dog whistle. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Yes. 

 

Alison Leiby: Would do the kind of same that where it’s like, oh, a frequency that is off putting. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Yeah. I think that’s a good question. Like what other extremely piercing sounds because this is clearly it’s reacting to this like the whine of feedback from her, from her hearing aid that she’s also reacting to. But for the alien is so excruciating because of its intensely sensitive. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Hearing. But then she doesn’t even see the the aliens there, unfortunately. And because it’s driven away, Evelyn, you know, sort of passes out after giving birth and then wakes up and is like, he’s like, don’t worry, we’re safe. The baby’s safe. And she goes, oh great. Oh my God, where are the other kids? Like, it’s just like, I’m glad that that worked out. Where the fuck are—

 

Alison Leiby: On to the next crisis. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Yeah. And he’s like, Marcus set off the rockets. He knows enough to stay. Basically, he set him off from the top of the silo. The corn silo. He’s like, he’s safe. And Regan’s very smart. I’m sure she’s hiding and we’ll find her, so don’t worry. But of course, Evelyn also blames herself for Beau’s death, so she starts crying. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And she’s like, you know, the thing that haunts me is, like, my hands were free. Like, I had a backpack with all of her stuff from the pharmacy, but I could have been carrying him. And he’s like, well, you could have made him not last. That’s what I would have said. But you can’t say that at the moment. 

 

Alison Leiby: Right, right.

 

Halle Kiefer: And she says, Sally, you have to promise me no matter what, you have to protect them. And he says, yes, I absolutely well, obviously, meanwhile, in the cornfield, Regan finds, Marcus’s flashlight that he dropped. And when she, he, she reaches for it, he’s hiding there, and he grabs her hand and they hug like, okay, so at least we’re alive together. 

 

Alison Leiby: Mm hmm. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Meanwhile, Lee comes back out of the, living quarters to go find the kids, not seeing that the aliens have broken a water pipe, fucking doing what they do, clamoring around with their big stupid arms. And it’s slowly the water is flooding the barn. And it’s, of course, only a matter of time before it starts to go into their underground living quarters. And at this point, Alison, I have to ask who will survive? 

 

[theme music]: Who will survive?

 

Alison Leiby: Well, there is a sequel, right? 

 

Halle Kiefer: There is yes. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. And I think they’re both in it, aren’t they? 

 

Halle Kiefer: Well, but who’s to say in what capacity? 

 

Alison Leiby: That’s true.

 

Halle Kiefer: Maybe it’s a flash back. A flash forward.

 

Alison Leiby: Okay. Okay, okay. Okay, then. 

 

Halle Kiefer: His own twin. 

 

Alison Leiby: I’m going to guess that. Lee dies. And what’s Emily and Emily Blunt lives and the kids all live. Great. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Okay. Ahem. 

 

[AD BREAK]

 

Halle Kiefer: So Marcus and Regan wisely, like, we can’t make it back to the house because there’s aliens in the cornfield. Let’s go to the top of the corn silo because that’s closer. We’ll build a fire. Dad will see it. He’ll know what’s going on. I was like that. Smart. Good. Good idea. Lee goes into his workshop and you can see his security cameras. And you can see that they’re at the corn silo. So in my mind, actually, if everything stopped here would be totally fine. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Like, the kids would have to stay there all night and that would suck. But eventually the aliens would wander away. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah, they’d go find some other noise. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Yeah. So Marcus signs to Regan, like, let’s just stay here. He’ll come and get us. And she says, no, she wants to leave and go back to the house. And I will say, I will be honest. I’m on my last nerve with this girl. But I think that’s just being a tween where it’s like, girl, you’re safe. Don’t do this just because you’re mad at your dad or you think your dad doesn’t. It doesn’t love you in this moment. Let’s think about how not to get eaten by an alien, you know? 

 

Alison Leiby: Yes. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Meanwhile, Evelyn wakes up in the fucking basement where they live, and it is full filling with water. Alison. So much water that the baby’s box is now floating. 

 

Alison Leiby: Jesus. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Also she just gave birth. Also, she had a nail in her foot. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah, she’s like been through it. 

 

Halle Kiefer: She had a day. Yeah. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. That’s a day all right. 

 

Halle Kiefer: She stands up in like probably at this point two feet of water and has to walk through. So then I’m like tetanus for sure. 

 

Alison Leiby: Oh I mean no question. 

 

Halle Kiefer: She walks over to the baby box and right behind it, out of the water emerges one of the aliens. 

 

Alison Leiby: What? They swim?

 

Halle Kiefer: They swim and then you see it go back in and it’s like this very seamless dive underneath, as if it’s used to swimming, which I hated. 

 

Alison Leiby: I don’t like that. That’s not okay. 

 

Halle Kiefer: So obviously Evelyn’s like, okay, great. She picks up her baby. Luckily the baby’s not crying. And similar to like, we saw the waterfall, she’s able to take her baby and sort of step behind the, like wall.

 

Alison Leiby: Gushing.

 

Halle Kiefer: Thin wall of water coming down. 

 

Alison Leiby: Okay. 

 

Halle Kiefer: So there’s at least a sound barrier between her and the alien, but seeing it go into the water is very unnerving. 

 

Alison Leiby: And also like, if it like. If it was close enough to touch you, would it know to eat you? 

 

Halle Kiefer: I that’s a great question because in my mind, like it’s already there, it could. Like there’s no there’s no care considered to say the smell or. 

 

Alison Leiby: Right. 

 

Halle Kiefer: I guess it can’t see you because it was there. 

 

Alison Leiby: Right. 

 

Halle Kiefer: I don’t know, it’s like it was there when she was asleep too. So it’s like if you’re asleep. 

 

Alison Leiby: Right. 

 

Halle Kiefer: I guess we’re to think if it can’t hear you. It can’t sense you in any way. 

 

Alison Leiby: Okay. It’s just okay. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Yeah. So we’ll say that. 

 

Alison Leiby: That’s like Last of Us, that’s like the closest I could get to this. 

 

Halle Kiefer: I would say like Jurassic Park, I guess, because, like, if you, if you move, it can see you, but otherwise it can’t tell where you are. Maybe, meanwhile, up at the silo, Ragan says we have to go. While Marcus is like, absolutely not. He will come for us. And Ragan signs back. He’ll come for you. It’s like there are aliens. Give your father a break. He’s doing the best he can. 

 

Alison Leiby: I know, oh my go— 

 

Halle Kiefer: It’s been a bad day for everybody. Yeah. Like don’t don’t cut off your nose to spite your face. You know. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Don’t be mad at your dad and get eaten by aliens. But Marcus steps towards his sister to be like, don’t do it. Don’t leave. He steps on a panel at the top of the silo and it flips open and he falls into the corn and immediately starts sinking in the corn, which is one of my irrational fears. Have you ever heard about this? I, like people fall into grain and corn all the time, and it’s just like quicksand. I like that because there’s it is an inescapable mistake. 

 

Alison Leiby: You can’t climb yourself to the top. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Exactly. And I think I could see myself doing it because it’s something stupid. Oh, it’s called grain entrapment. 

 

Alison Leiby: Grain. Entrapment. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Grain. Entrapment. Yeah basically it’s like—

 

Alison Leiby: —on goop. Like, stop eating bread. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Right when they find that your vagina smells great. Amazing that you are dead. [laughter] Terrifying. So, of course, he falls in the corn. He immediately starts getting, like, drawn into the corn. Luckily, one of the panels that he stepped on also falls onto the corn and almost hits him. But then at least he has sort of a, you know, like Rose in the Titanic like platform, like a sling to try to pull himself up onto. But he can’t do it. So then Regan jumps in, which I thought was stupid, but I understand. What are you going to do? You know what I mean.

 

Alison Leiby: I also like I, you know, she’s trying to help. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Exactly. So she jumps and pushes the door over to him and he’s able to start climbing on, but then she starts to get sucked into the grain. And I said, now this is a scene in a movie. And he grabs her hand and has to haul her out. She’s gasping, spitting out corn, probably inhaling dust like you’ve been doing. 

 

Alison Leiby: Eating so much dust. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Alison, they successfully get on the door panel and it seems like. Okay, so again, like, it’s like water. So like we’re on top of the door. So our dad will have to lower something down, but we will be okay. Alison, an alien drops down into the corn. 

 

Alison Leiby: No. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Luckily, the aliens also don’t do great on corn because it’s just like you’re still have weight. You know what I mean so it’s still slip sliding around. 

 

Alison Leiby: At least it’s like an even playing field then. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Thank God. Right exactly.

 

Alison Leiby: Not like the water where it’s like, oh, I love this.

 

Halle Kiefer: Right. If it had a pretty unnatural corn balance, we would be in rough shape here. However, even better, the same thing happens with Regan’s hearing aid again the second time. Where it’s so the feedback is so incredibly loud that the alien is driven so insane that it bursts horizontally through the metal wall of the silo. 

 

Alison Leiby: Woah. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Which also then gives them at least a way to get out and not have to, like, get sucked into the corn. Right. Meanwhile, we see Evelyn, has escaped the basement with her child. 

 

Alison Leiby: Oh, good. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And is now in Lee’s workshop, which, to its credit, is not filling with water to look at the security cameras. So everything we’re about to describe Evelyn is watching her family go through in horror. Right?

 

Alison Leiby: Oh, God. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Poor Lee is running all over this damn farm trying to find his kids because they keep moving around. 

 

Alison Leiby: Right. And you can’t be like, I’m over here. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Exactly. And finally, they’re able to crawl the silo because there is a ladder affixed to the side of the silo. So through the alien hole, they’re able to get to the ladder and come down, basically, and they find their father on the on the sand path through the cornfield, and they all hug. But of course, an alien is coming, and he sends them to hide. In this abandoned truck. Marcus hides in the cab and Regan slides underneath it because there’s not enough time. While their dad picks up an ax from a cache of farm implements, I was like, is he going to ax this alien to death? But unfortunately, we won’t know because when he looks up, the alien is perched on top of the shed and he swings the ax at the alien. But it’s too late. The alien takes one swipe at him and sends him flying to the ground, losing his weapon? 

 

Alison Leiby: No. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Alison. Just now, we see Regan’s hearing aid go off again, but she has not made the connection, so she just shuts it off. And when she shuts it off, she sees the alien react to it and attack the truck. And so it’s in that moment that she starts to put together like, oh, this was actually keeping them away. 

 

Alison Leiby: Away. 

 

Halle Kiefer: But unfortunately now. But she in the moment the alien’s attacking the truck, she has to get into the cab she’s trying to protect Marcus Lee is not dead. So he’s able to get up and he picks up his ax, and he is seeing an alien attack both of his children in the cab of this truck, and he makes eye contact with Regan, and he signs to her, I love you. I have always loved you. And then to distract the aliens, alien Lee screams to draw the aliens to him. 

 

Alison Leiby: I’m gonna cry. 

 

Halle Kiefer: I it was so great. But then I will say John Krasinski’s scream is very funny because that’s a really hard scream to nail. And if I was him, I would have picked something a little more—

 

Alison Leiby: A comedy guy at the end of the day. 

 

Halle Kiefer: It literally sounds like Ray Romano. He’s like. [screaming] And I was like, I would have hired a like you like, because then it’s like the moment of like, oh, everything. My child has died. Like. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yes. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Living this way— 

 

Alison Leiby: Hire professionals, scream and dub it. 

 

Halle Kiefer: You know, I think, yeah. Because I think John Krasinski has made you know, a lot of great decisions this. But that scream was hilarious. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah, yeah. I remember there was like an even a, office, a scene where, like, Pam’s like, you’ve literally never yelled. He’s like, I yell all the time, and she’s like, you exclaim like, like like, oh, the car’s over here. Like, it’s very. 

 

Halle Kiefer: That’s really funny. Now the alien is distracted by eating their father. Marcus pulls the brake, and he and Regan roll down the hill towards the farm to meet their mother, who runs out to hug them. And she’s got the shotgun, too. 

 

Alison Leiby: Okay. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Unfortunately, while they reunite with their mother, they, the aliens are still there, and they hear the aliens screeching and they run back over the house into Lee’s, electronic room. And we see Evelyn specifically point out the nail, because obviously every time we go up the stairs, like, tell them about the nail. But now Evelyn hides Marcus and sort of, grabs the baby. She had him in a laundry basket carrying him around, which does seem kind of fun. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And evil. And, Regan goes over to her dad’s equipment and finally takes it all in. Again. She being like, his protege. He’s, you know, pouring himself into her, the disruption of the alien. She now now that she’s allowed to see his work because he didn’t allow her down there, she’s smart. She’s able to put together what’s going on. And also, she had the experience of the hearing aid. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yes. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And she sees that he had all these different hearing aids that ostensibly he like, found in town or was trying to fix that he was trying to do all this work for her, even when they were sort of estranged, you know, he had like an anatomy, like a book, of the ear and like, how to fix electronics. So he was really trying, and that meant a lot to her. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And Evelyn, Evelyn comes over to her, and Regan shows her all the hearing aids. And Evelyn, they didn’t translate this. Like, Evelyn taps her head and I didn’t look it up, but I assume it means I know, like, yes, your for your father loved you, Alison. The aliens have arrived. 

 

Alison Leiby: Oh, good. 

 

Halle Kiefer: So, yeah. What a touching moment. The aliens are here to eat my entire family. Evelyn has the shotgun, and basically the alien corners them. One of the aliens, and we see its head, like, open. And we finally get this, like, reveal of, like, this dark gray flesh and, like, the iridescence of the ear, which I thought was an interesting design. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And as you watch some of the feedback from one of the equipment’s bothers it, and we see the alien lash out and smash it. And finally Regan realizes, oh, my hearing aid is bothersome. Yes. And she looks at her dad’s whiteboard again. We saw the it says, what is their weakness? And she looks at all these hearing aids, and she turns her hearing aid back on all the way up. And the feedback hits the alien. It’s shaking like sort of the petals of its head opens. And then Regan—

 

Alison Leiby: Petals are open. You know, things are serious. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Exactly. And Regan turns on her dad’s microphone and then plays takes off her hearing and plays the feedback into it. And the alien is so struck by it that it’s vulnerable, and Evelyn shoots it in the fucking head when its head is open, killing it. 

 

Alison Leiby: Great. 

 

Halle Kiefer: They did it. Unfortunately, this does mean because of the extremely loud sound, the amplified feedback. 

 

Alison Leiby: Here come the other two. 

 

Halle Kiefer: The other two and the other two aliens are running towards them, but luckily they know how to handle them and Evelyn turns or like Regan turns for mother and Regan turns up the microphone to like 11 to this deafening feedback, and Evelyn racks another shell into the shotgun. The Quiet Place. 

 

Alison Leiby: Oh, it ends right there. 

 

Halle Kiefer: It ends right there, my friend. 

 

Alison Leiby: Wow. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Yeah. 

 

Alison Leiby: So that they could have the sequel, Quiet Place II to quiet too place. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Exactly. And I believe there’s a third one. Or there might be a third one. 

 

Alison Leiby: I think there’s one forthcoming, because when I was looking for the trailers, one of them was like A Quiet Place 2024. And so I guess there might be a third. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And I will say, I did not love this movie, but that is, I liked it more on rewatch. Because the thing is, to me, this is not a horror movie. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah, this is thriller with aliens. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Science fiction, post-apocalyptic thriller. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And that’s not to say there aren’t horrifying moments, but that it is not scary like it is thrilling. Exactly. And I think that’s fine. And watching it that it’s almost the same as, like if there are a bunch of tigers that were loose. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yes. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Like, that’s not scary, but it is unnerving and thrilling, you know, and could be really interesting. So I feel like watching that with that in mind versus watching it with a horror mind. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yes okay. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Where I was like, okay, scary. It’s like, no, no, that’s it is what it is. And I like it. And yes, exactly. And watching it again, I do appreciate all the acting in it. And I thought it was really great. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yes. 

 

Halle Kiefer: What are some fatal mistakes you think people have made in A Quiet Place? Alison? 

 

[theme music]: Fatal mistakes. 

 

Alison Leiby: I mean, it feels like the biggest one was not tossing those batteries. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Yeah. Yeah. Big time. Big time. 

 

Alison Leiby: Because if he had survived, there probably wouldn’t have been another baby. And her being pregnant and all of the stuff that came along with that. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Yeah. 

 

But sure. I mean, aside from that, it seems like they did literally all the stuff you could ever. 

 

Halle Kiefer: They were doing the best they could with what they got. 

 

Alison Leiby: Oh God, my God, you don’t have a lot of options. And they they were super clever and ahead of the game on so much stuff that, yeah, it feels like the not chucking the batteries from the spaceship is probably the worst mistake anybody in this movie made. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Yeah, and I feel like this is a good lesson in like, you know, hey, we’re all going to have to be more in tune with our emotions because a lot of horrible things are going to be happening once we reach the climate apocalypse over murder. It’s like, being able to have conversations and talk about emotions is actually going to be the only way we could survive as a society. So if he was able to have some resources to speak about how he blames his daughter, even if it was irrational, that would have allowed him to sort of be passing on the information to her, which he obviously understood, like she was the child that could carry on his legacy and only by by preventing her keeping her from it out of a sense of resentment. It, in fact, only killed him. And then she was able to sort of take over when she was allowed to access the information of the father. And isn’t that what feminism is about? 

 

Alison Leiby: It really is. 

 

Halle Kiefer: What if we all the information of the father and we could all help each other, and we don’t have to do any of the stuff that we’re doing now? 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. 

 

Halle Kiefer: A Quiet Place, a feminist film, if there ever was one. But we’ll have to do the other ones. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. We should. 

 

Halle Kiefer: All right. Hell yeah.

 

Alison Leiby: And spooky scale?

 

Halle Kiefer: Where would you put A Quiet Place on the spooky scale? Alison?

 

[theme music]: A spooky scale. 

 

Alison Leiby: I think this is a three. Like I think that, I put myself in this scenario. Very scary. Like, the plot of this is terrorizing. But. Yeah, it does have more of a thriller, a sci fi vibe than necessarily like, you know, when I think about, like, The Babadook and Candyman, you know, like stuff like that where I’m like, oh, I’m genuinely scared. Like, this is like more just like I’m holding my breath. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Yes. And thrilling. And I think a great, like to see in theaters is really fun. 

 

Alison Leiby: Fore sure. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And I do want to see the other ones. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah, we’ll have to do them. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Yeah. Is there a third one or am I making that up? 

 

Alison Leiby: I know there’s a second. And again, I feel like there’s like an announcement about a third one, but maybe I’m. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Yeah. Yeah, the third one’s coming out in June. [both speaking] Okay. So we’ll have between now and June. 

 

Alison Leiby: Maybe we’ll do a live show. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Yeah, absolutely. And we’ll do the second one in between now and then so everyone will be caught up. 

 

Alison Leiby: All right. We got a plan. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Awesome. 

 

Alison Leiby: What about you? Spooky scale. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Spooky scale. Again. Not spooky. I’m going to say a two. Just because I feel like when we first see the the aliens, I like the alien design. I do think that it’s, creepy, but other than that, it’s it’s. To me, it’s more of a it’s Spielberg. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. 

 

Halle Kiefer: You know, it’s more of, a family adventure working together, which I love, but I wouldn’t call it horror personally. But but if it horrified you then I think that’s great. But. Yeah, that’s that’s where I’m at on it. Oh, I wanted to say I forgot to write this down, but I believe one of the, magazine headlines that, Lee has about the aliens. It says they came on a meteor, or they came in a meteorite. And I think that I like that because they’re like, are we? People are going to wonder how they got here. Just say they came on a meteor and that that is enough. I’m like, that’s all you need to know. That’s all you need.

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. 

 

Halle Kiefer: They obviously don’t have ships. Like they’re not smart. They’re like a creature that was—

 

Alison Leiby: It’s like an invasive species.

 

Halle Kiefer: Exactly. 

 

Alison Leiby: Like, colonialism. [laughs]

 

Halle Kiefer: Yeah. Like, it’s like how, anacondas got into the Everglades, where it’s like, they can’t help that. They’re good at being in the Everglades. 

 

Alison Leiby: They’re great at being snakes. 

 

Halle Kiefer: All right, well, I hope you enjoyed this. Everybody, shout out to Kevin Bacon for his making, bringing people together, across time and space, as always. And until next time. 

 

Alison Leiby: : Don’t forget to follow us at Ruined podcasts and Crooked Media on Instagram, Twitter and TikTok for show updates. And if you’re just as opinionated as we are, consider dropping us a review. Ruined is a Radio Point and Crooked Media production, we’re your writers and hosts Halle Kiefer and Alison Leiby. This show is executive produced by Alex Bach, Sabrina Fonfeder and Houston Snyder, and recorded and edited by Kat Iossa. From Crooked Media our executive producer is Kendra James with production and promotional support from Ari Schwartz, Kyle Seglin, Julia Beach, Caroline Dunphy, and Ewa Okulate.

 

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