Audiences watching “A Quiet Place: Day One” might find themselves rooting for an unlikely hero: Frodo the cat. Director Michael Sarnoski wanted the black and white kitty to feel like a real character. “We managed to get through the whole movie without creating a CG cat, which was a big victory for us,” he declares, proudly. Instead, Frodo is played by two cats, Schnitzel and Nico.
“Day One,” the third outing of John Krasinski’s hit horror franchise, takes viewers back to the day faceless alien beasts invaded New York City and subsequently the rest of the world. These creatures, known as Death Angels, have extremely sensitive hearing and attack at the slightest sound.
Frodo belongs to Samira (Oscar winner Lupita Nyong’o) and is a service animal, who at first is kept on a leash. He accompanies Samira on her trip to New York to visit the theater, but things go disastrously wrong when the city comes under attack. Samira’s goal is to survive, with Frodo in tow.
In an interview with Variety, Sarnoski explained why Frodo was chosen to be Samira’s furry companion. “A cat is one of the only things that you might be able to manage maybe a bunny rabbit, but a dog would not do very well,” he says.
Along the way, Samira meets Eric (Joseph Quinn) and while that duo is figuring out how to survive, Frodo tends to wander off — as cats do — which induces edge-of-your-seat anxiety for the audience as the cat narrowly escapes close encounters.
Before the attack, Frodo can be heard making meow sounds, but, remarkably, things change once he figures out what’s happening. He doesn’t scream for food at 4 a.m. He doesn’t make a sound.
While researching for the film, Sarnoski says he learned that meowing is part of natural cat behavior, but “a lot of it is put on as a way of communicating with humans. So, I thought it’d be interesting in the apocalypse, that if there weren’t really people around, there’s not as much of a need for a cat to meow.”
Plus, because Frodo is trained as a service animal, he explains, “I figured he was very obedient. If Sam said, ‘Be quiet,’ he would. … Cats can be extremely quiet. They’re predators, they can stop and move very silently, and I figured, game recognizes game. So when a cat saw these creatures operating, they’re like, ‘I get you, I’m going to just kind of keep it down.”
Schnitzel and Nico were well-behaved on set, too, the filmmaker adds: “These two cats got along and would hang out all day.”
The only hiccup was that Nyong’o had a lifelong fear of cats. To prepare for Samira and Frodo’s close relationship, on the role, she went through extensive exposure therapy.
“Paramount was kind enough to hire a cat trainer to meet me before I got to the production and helped me get over my fear, just through exposure and asking questions, [like] ‘Why is that cat rubbing himself on that furniture like that?’” she said. “Very slowly, I was able to grow with courage and touch them and before long, I could hold them.”
By the end of production, Nyong’o had fallen so in love with her co-stars that she got a cat of her own, Yoyo.
Warning: Major spoilers for A Quiet Place: Day One below! A Quiet Place: Day One director Michael Sarnoski wanted to invoke some very specific emotions when writing the absolutely devastating ending to the film. “This ending was pretty early on part of how I imagined this movie playing out. I thought it was important to honor the fact that this is a story about a dying person – and we’re not going to change that. We’re not going to try and sugarcoat that. But it’s about someone who sort of finds agency and find some joy towards the end of her life,” Sarnoski tells GamesRadar+.
Lupita Nyong’o plays Sam, a terminally ill cancer patient who leaves hospice for a day trip to the city with her service cat Frodo. During the trip, ultrasonic monsters descend upon the city and the apocalypse begins – but Sam fights her way through it with Eric (Joseph Quinn) by her side.
In the beginning of the film, Sam is looking forward to leaving hospice and getting a slice of pizza in the city – knowing she won’t have much longer to do so. When the monsters touch down on earth, the audience can tell that Sam has immediately made up her mind: While people are running to safety, Sam walks in the opposite direction.
“I wanted an ending that on paper seems kind of bleak, just like the rest of the movie. In the end, she commits suicide, but I wanted it to feel triumphant and feel like this was her decision. And this was something that she earned over the course of this of this story.”
With Eric and Frodo by her side, she gets her slice of pizza, and gets to see the jazz club her father used to take her to one last time. Feeling fulfilled and knowing she’s going to die – apocalypse or not – she helps Eric and Frodo board a boat full of survivors and leaves him a beautiful goodbye note.
Sam walks the empty city streets with her headphones in and abruptly pulls them out, making a sound that immediately attracts a monster. The screen then cuts to credits.
“I kind of want people to leave it feeling life-affirmed in a weird way, even though it ends with a death. And I think we’ve pulled that off. It was a very tricky balance to find, but I think just Lupita did an amazing job with it. I think also, just the journey that we watch her go on with Eric makes you feel like that moment is really earned. She’s come to a new level there.”
A Quiet Place: Day One hits theaters in the UK on June 27 and the US on June 28. For more, check out our chat with Michael Sarnoski about making a cat one of the movie’s main stars or about casting Lupita Nyong’o and Joseph Quinn as the perfect pair.
Despite enjoying both prior films in the franchise quite a bit, I actually went into A Quiet Place: Day One with some level of apprehension. A Quiet Place and A Quiet Place Part II had managed to find smaller, more character based stories within a monster movie premise. Would this prequel, trafficking in more blockbuster territory, have any hope of capturing that same feeling? Well, to my surprise, the answer is a resounding yes.
A Quiet Place: Day One is the rare prequel that doesn’t exist purely as a money grab. Having an interesting filmmaker like Michael Sarnoski at the helm certainly helps, but resisting the urge to fully make this a dumb blockbuster really makes all the difference. There are science fiction and horror tropes at play, but we’re always meant to be invested in our survivors. It’s a different flavor than the last two flicks in some ways, but in others, it’s clearly part of a whole.
The title doesn’t bury the lead, as this is day one of the alien invasion depicted in the franchise. We begin by being introduced to terminally ill patient Sam (Lupita Nyong’o). In hospice care, she’s convinced by a friendly nurse (Alex Wolff) to accompany some other patients, along with her cat Frodo, to New York City for a show. While there, the city feels off, which they soon realize is because an alien invasion is taking place. Creatures with ultrasonic hearing have fallen from the sky and are terrorizing humanity. Helped by Henri (Djimon Hounsou), the pair survive the initial moments of the attack. However, things are only beginning.
Determined to make it up to Harlem where she grew up, Sam and Frodo begin a journey of survival that pairs them up with Eric (Joseph Quinn). The duo, along with the very resourceful cat, form a bond that gives them hope as the world goes silent. For Sam, her days are numbered, but she’s determined not to go out without a slice of New York pizza, among other things.
Lupita Nyong’o is a great choice for a role that requires lots of facial acting. She and Joseph Quinn get to do a ton without much speaking, especially once the first act concludes. There’s physicality to their performances that fits in an action epic, but also here as a nearly dialogue free character piece. You root for them both. Djimon Hounsou is mostly a cameo, considering his other appearance in the series, while Alex Wolff once again works with Sarnoski. There are other small roles here, but A Quiet Place: Day One opts for a bigger scale while still keeping our heroes to a minimum.
Co-writer/director Michael Sarnoski blew me away with Pig and here, he manages to show that he potentially can do just about anything. The script he wrote, with a Story By credit going to John Krasinski, gives us characters worth rooting for. If there’s a flaw here, it’s that the actual monster and summer movie elements are a bit more meh. There aren’t major set pieces, with a lot of the encounters feeling like haunted house rides. While it’s designed to be the Aliens to the Alien of the other films, this one doesn’t thrill quite as much as it intends to. At the same time, there’s a shocking amount of emotion in the third act here, as well as genuine tension whenever the cat appears to be in peril.
A Quiet Place: Day One is a better character/dramatic piece than a monster movie, but both certainly work. This is a prequel done right and a real pleasant surprise. If this is how the franchise is going to be treated going forward, I think there’s potential to continue on with more installments. Either way, the trilogy we have now is among the better ones in recent memory.
Source: Variety, GamesRadar+
