A Quiet Place II is the long-anticipated sequel to the 2018 blockbuster hit. On May 28th, 2021, the film will finally be released to theaters after over a year of waiting since its initial premiere in New York City on March 8, 2020. Based on the trailers, here is a breakdown of what kind of story this will be as well as some predictions of what might happen to the Abbott family.
The finale of A Quiet Place saw the head of the family—Lee Abbott—sacrifice himself to save his family from the monsters that hunt by sound. After giving birth to her baby, Evelyn Abbott uses a shotgun to kill one of the monsters with the help of her daughter Regan who discovers that her hearing aid can produce a frequency that causes the monsters (who are sensitive to sound) to expose their vulnerable side. Because shotguns are obviously loud, the noise attracts even more monsters.
That brings us up to the opening of the trailer which finds the Abbott family, sans Lee, leaving their farm home because of destruction by fire. There are three possible reasons for the barn to be on fire. First, the monsters that were attracted to the home in the last scene of A Quiet Place outnumbered the family, and they set it on fire to get away—whether on purpose or by accident. Second, scavengers came to loot the farm and set it ablaze. And lastly, the loss of Lee was too much for the family to stay at the farm. They knew there were other survivors in the world, so they burned down the barn along with the memories and set out to find others.
A Quiet Place II will either start at the beginning of the 'outbreak' and then time jump to the present, or it will start right after the events of the previous film and include flashbacks to the downfall of civilization. Either way, audiences will get to see how quickly the monsters took over. John Krasinski—director of both entries—confirmed that the monsters are aliens. Perhaps audiences will get to see where they came from, or how they were first discovered. During these flashbacks, a new character will be introduced played by Cillian Murphy.
For those who will surely miss having Krasinski's character around, don't worry. Lee will be appearing in several flashbacks. He will not be the main character anymore, but fans will still get to see how he reacts to the invasion. But what will his significance in the sequel be? Most likely, Lee's character will be in the film simply to serve as motivation for the family to keep going. It's more likely that the film will include flashbacks of Lee while a character is thinking about their reasoning for doing something. Or, the flashbacks will be used to show why the family does certain things. The flashbacks will show how Lee taught them how to avoid being caught by the alien monsters.
It looks like Cillian's character, Emmett, will be playing a significant role in A Quiet Place Part II. But will he be a friend or an enemy to the Abbott family? From the trailer, it looks like Emmett is at his core a good person, but the way the world is now has made him trust no one and be quick to judge. Emmett is seen trying to help some children not get caught at the start of the invasion. So he clearly isn't—or at least wasn't—a bad person. During a conversation with Evelyn, she says how there are people in the world that are worth saving. But Emmett says something very interesting. He says, "you don't know, do you?"
This could mean a lot of different things. There is a shot in the trailer that looks like a small village with electricity, seemingly well off. Emmett and another character (possibly Marcus or Regan) are seen sneaking up on the village. They are trying not to be seen. This means that either there are very bad people in the world now that they must hide from, or something worse. Perhaps these people are a town of cannibals. Or maybe it's a Bird Box situation and they want to sacrifice people to the monsters so they will be left alone. Emmett says that these people aren't worth saving. Maybe he means that in a literal sense. It is possible the aliens have some ability to infect humans and cause them to morph into a human-alien hybrid.
Perhaps it is similar to a zombie bite situation, and if a monster bites or scratches someone and they actually manage to get away, they might start to turn into one. Also, if this town is a village full of human-alien hybrids, perhaps it actually is Regan seen with Emmett and they are sneaking up on the village so they can test out the hearing aid frequency defense. Audiences will definitely see more of the hearing aid loophole discovery. Maybe the radio station Regan was seen in during the trailer will be used to broadcast the frequency. Maybe the radio station is in the small town of bad people and the Abbott family and Emmett have to break in to get to it.
There is a scene from the trailer that shows Marcus pulling back a curtain to find something that upsets and shocks him. This happens at a train station—which is seen again later in the trailer after the family is running away from a monster. Whatever Marcus sees alerts a monster and causes the family to have to escape. Perhaps what Marcus sees is either just a sleeping monster, or maybe even a nesting/breeding ground. Marcus may have discovered that the monsters are breeding and producing offspring, which will make things even harder for the survivors left.
John Krasinski said he never wanted to do a sequel to the original movie. He didn't want to make something that was supposed to be a love letter to his wife and children a cash grab situation. But, studios eventually convinced the director/writer to make the sequel. A Quiet Place II may introduce topics and characters that need more than one movie to explore. And things are better in three's. So as a final prediction, this will be the second movie in a series that becomes either a trilogy or maybe even a full fledged franchise.