5 of the most heart-pounding scenes in A Quiet Place

Shh! Nobody make a sound. While watching heart-thumping scenes from A Quiet Place, you may be too afraid to eat your popcorn, in fear of making a noise.

Warning! Spoilers ahead. If you haven’t seen A Quiet Place yet, go watch the film and come back here after you’ve checked it out.

Forced to live in silence in order to survive, a family does their best to adapt to a mute life in fear of being hunted by sound-sensitive creatures. A Quiet Place is a must-watch film even if you’re not a fan of the thrills and chills genre movies, as John Krasinski directs it expertly to show the underlying message of love between parents, children and family.

Here are the five most terrifying and suspenseful moments in A Quiet Place:

1. When the mother steps on a nail

This scene has a fantastic lead up as the mother, Anna (Emily Blunt) realizes her water has broken earlier than expected while alone in the house. Anna races down to the basement to send a light signal for her husband to see that there’s an emergency. But as she hastily descends the stairs to the basement, she stands on a nail, pinning her foot to the wooden step and smashing a small picture frame she had in her hand.

This scene only gets more intense as she tries not to scream in agony for not only her foot but also her increasing contractions. What follows is the unforgettable bath scene, which truly takes the cake.Emily Blunt in this sequence is absolutely brilliant. Her acting skills masterfully outshine like never before.

2. The man in the woods

This scene is memorably suspenseful as a strange man suddenly appears in the woods as the father, Lee (John Krasinski), and son, Marcus (Noah Jupe), are walking home. Although this happens in true thriller movie fashion, we haven’t seen any other people besides this family for almost the entirety of the film. So when he appears, it’s incredibly shocking, and you experience a thousand racing questions in your head. Who is he? Where’d he come from? Does he have a connection with the creatures?

Obviously, this man’s intentions are revealed not long after, and the few moments following make you fear for the father and son. But I still have one question for the man in the woods: Why?!

This is such strong a strong scene as the camera follows the son, emphasizing his obliviousness and innocence in a gravelike world. Even he wasn’t expecting to meet anyone in the woods.

3. The daughter in the cornfields

Check your heart rate for this one. This scene’s use of sound (and lack thereof) is phenomenal in heightening the sheer sense of suspense as you watch the daughter, Regan (Millicent Simmonds), walking through the cornfields unaware of what’s around her. None to her fault either.

She sees a light from a flashlight as she walks by the cornfields and stops to investigate. Let’s just say from here, it’s a slow and mighty escalation in suspense as we gradually find out why the creatures are drawn to her.

4. When the underground cellar starts to flood

Not long after giving birth to her new child, Anna wakes up to the underground cellar being flooded by a burst pipe. As she gets her bearings, she sees her child in a wooden crib a few inches out of reach from her. Then something moves in the background, a skulking creature chasing the sounds of the water in hope for food. The uncertainty of whether Anna can safely get to her newborn child in time becomes even more fearsome as the baby starts to make noise, attracting the creature into the unclear water.

Anna gets into the water to grab her child even though the creature could be swimming anywhere underneath. This shows how strongly Anna is willing to protect her kids even in the face of danger. This is, in addition, one of many moments demonstrating the love between parent and child, and the sacrifices parents are willing to take.

5. When the kids are in the truck

This scene is more suspenseful not because of what’s actually happening, but more so of what you think you know is going to happen. The predictability is only slightly there, just enough to allow you to guess what’s going to happen, but also not enough to hope for the best. You really pull for this family to get through this whole ordeal, you become attached to them as if they were your own. Not only does this scene give us a suspenseful moment of what’s going to happen, but it also packs an emotional punch that tugs right at your heartstrings. No seriously, its a tissue-grabber kind of scene.

A Quiet Place did not disappoint. Its brilliant balance of sound and silence is almost literally breathtaking as you become a part of this survivalist journey with the characters. The lack of dialogue only adds to the remarkable performance from Emily Blunt, John Krasinski, Noah Jupe and Millicent Simmonds.

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