BEFORE: I know, I know, I said I wasn't going to follow the link to this film with Emily Blunt, and then that's exactly what I did. Up until today, the plan was to follow the Jesse Plemons link out of "Jungle Cruise" instead, to a film called "Windfall", then "Judas and the Black Messiah", which is taking up space on the DVR. But then I decided to check if I COULD fit this film in, which I really can't, because every slot between now and Father's Day is spoken for, but I'll be damned, I found a way to do it.
What I discovered was that this film links to, umm, tomorrow's movie, which was about 20 or 21 films down in the chain, and scheduled for June 4 or so - and I realized if I flipped that section of 20 movies around the other way, "Windfall" with Jesse Plemons would connect via another link rich back to the next film in the chain, after what is now tomorrow's film - now, then, that led to a few questions, should I flip the chain around, or not?
The negatives: to do this, I'd have to lose one film, a documentary called "An Accidental Studio" about the studio Handmade Films, which was founded by George Harrison and produced "Time Bandits", several of the Monty Python films, and others. I've seen part of it before, but I really want to see the whole thing. Plus there's the inertia of the whole thing, I feel like I JUST got the chain the way I wanted it, why go tearing it up and rebuilding it again?
The positives: every time I've done this, it's worked out to my benefit - look, I've got three perfect years under my belt, with unbroken chains, and I'm working on my fourth. Even this year, where I've been constantly dropping films to make room, rescheduling things that don't seem to fit, it always works out in the end - a film I drop today could become crucial next month or next year to get me out of a linking jam. And "An Accidental Studio" has a huge cast of stars appearing via archive footage, this could be the film that makes next year's documentary chain possible, you just never know.
More negatives - "A Quiet Place Part II" is a horror film, and don't those belong in October, not here in May?
Counterpoint - Who cares, I've done it before, I watched the first "A Quiet Place" film in April of 2019, in between two other Emily Blunt films, "Sherlock Gnomes" and "Mary Poppins Returns", any rigid rules about subject matter whiplash or scheduling are self-imposed, and thus made to be broken.
The deciding factor - by switching part of the chain around, I'll basically end up back in the same place I wanted to be by June 5, so it doesn't really matter, I could do whatever I want here, and if I want to watch "A Quiet Place Part II", I should just do that - it doesn't link to any other horror movies, so if I save it for October it could be YEARS before I watch it, and I was already very late to the party where the first film was concerned. Plus, as a bonus, the old path had a bunch of World War II-themed films that were about a week away from Memorial Day, which is May 30 this year, kind of late. By switching this section around, I'll be putting them much closer to the holiday, at least one will land on Memorial Day weekend this way. And the two films about Winston Churchill, "The Gathering Storm" and "Into the Storm", will be in chronological order - early Churchill should come before late-era Churchill, right? I had been using "An Accidental Studio" as a link to get them in the proper order, but this way it happens more naturally.
So, Emily Blunt carries over from "Jungle Cruise", and I'll get back to Jesse Plemons in about three weeks.
FOLLOW-UP TO: "A Quiet Place" (Movie #3,195)
THE PLOT: Following the events at home, the Abbott family now face the terrors of the outside world. Forced to venture into the unknown, they realize the creatures that hunt by sound are not the only threats lurking beyond the sand path.
AFTER: With some exceptions, like when I go to the movie theater to see "Spider-Man" or happen to catch "House of Gucci" at work and things line up JUST right with my linking schedule, I kind of always feel like I'm playing catch-up. Maybe everybody feels this way to some extent, because by the time a film gets to cable or even streaming, it could be months after it was in the theaters, so most of the people itching to see THAT film have seen it, and the rest of us are behind. Even if something debuts on Netflix or Amazon, most subscribers then have the luxury of watching it right away, but since I've decided I have to link to it, that takes some amount of planning. I'm booked until mid-August right now, so if I put something on my list today, I won't be doing another round of linking until at least July, so the chances of getting to watch a new film added today aren't great, unless it happens to link to what I'll be watching then. So sure, suggest a film that you think I should see, maybe I'll have some time in the fall, but probably not.
Still, I'm eager to see what's next for this family of survivors, living in the post-alien (?) invasion world, after the blind but savage creatures have killed off most of the humans. Several of the family members, well, let's say they didn't make it past the first film, and the remaining members have to make a terrible choice, remain in hiding or take the knowledge they have about how to fight back against the creatures and venture out to find other survivors. I guess maybe their food supply is going to run out at some point, something we've all dealt with during the pandemic, but at least we can order groceries online and have them delivered. Their house is a relative safe zone, with noise-cancelling waterfalls and a box with an oxygen tank to keep a crying baby in, but come on, it's months later and nobody fixed that giant nail sticking out of the stairs? Come on, you can't let these chores go, you're just asking for another accident to happen.
What the family learns is that not everyone's dealt with the invasion that well - some surviving humans have turned very hard and they've lined their property with things like bear traps - if a person should step on one, of course they'll scream in pain, and that noise will bring the creatures, but then they creatures will only eat the loud humans, not the silent ones standing a safe distance away. It's diabolical, but I can't help but think it's all a kind of metaphor for the "me first" attitude we've seen during the COVID pandemic. You know that weird reasoning, "As long as the virus kills other people and not me, why should I have to wear a mask?" or "I'm not even sick, so why should I have to get vaccinated?" and those people simply won't break down their own argument long enough to realize the hypocrisy and contradictions inherent in it.
Anyway, at the end of the previous film the deaf daughter realized that her cochlear implant device worked on a certain frequency, and when amplified, it produced a sound that the aliens couldn't tolerate. They may be blind, but they also have superior hearing, and this actually works as a nice contrast against characters who are deaf or half-deaf, the aliens' strength is the weakness of some of the human characters, who need to keep quiet and may not be aware that they are making sounds. The aliens CAN be defeated with a combination of technology, human intelligence and the use of sign language to communicate. Plus a handy shotgun or two.
Regan, the deaf girl, has a plan to further amplify the frequency she's found - if she can get it broadcast over the airwaves, she can defeat the creatures on a larger scale, or perhaps get the sound of it sent out to other humans, which would spread the news that the aliens are vulnerable. But to do that, she's got to leave her family, follow the clues about where more humans might be hiding, and hope that she's not being lured into a trap. After finding an old friend named Emmett hiding in an abandoned steel foundry, Regan's mother requests that Emmett follow after Regan and make sure that she stays alive.
Emmett and Regan do encounter more ruthless humans, who would sacrifice them to the aliens in order to save their own skins, but it's here where Emmett figures out another weakness of the aliens - I didn't catch it at first but it's listed in the Wikipedia plot summary, and it does make sense. And splitting the family up here is quite dangerous, but they are able to fight on two fronts this way - however what's very annoying is how slowly the plot in this franchise moves forward, it feels like we the audience spent another week or so with this family, and very little progress was made. Really, we're all just being set up for "A Quiet Place Part III", which is for sure in the works. By contrast, if the plot of, say, "Independence Day" was split over three movies and you had to watch all three before there was a resolution of any kind, you'd be pissed, right?
The first part of this movie does flash back to the day the aliens landed, or attacked from space or whatever. And yeah, this sequence of the family first realizing they're in danger, and seeing this small town being ravaged is very exciting, in a way it's what was missing from the first film, which dropped us all into the middle of the action. But in addition to "Part III", the franchise is also developing a whole "Day One" film, which will show the initial alien attack in greater detail. Really, after a while this all starts to feel like one cash grab after another - but since the initial film with a budget of $17 million made over $340 million at the box office, let's just all agree that this is a money-making enterprise, first and foremost, so really, what's the motivation to stop the money train from rolling at this point? This second film was made for $160 million, but brought in over $297 million, so all that's just motivation to keep the story going, I guess.
Speaking of which, when does the next season of "Stranger Things" start? Ah, May 27, got it.
Also starring Cillian Murphy (last seen in "Sunshine"), Millicent Simmonds (last seen in "Wonderstruck"), Noah Jupe (last seen in "Honey Boy"), Djimon Hounsou (last seen in "Serenity"), John Krasinski (last heard in "Free Guy"), Scoot McNairy (last seen in 'Aftermath" (2017)), Alice Sophie Malyukova, Dean Woodward, Okierete Onaodowan (last seen in "Thanks for Sharing"), Zachary Golinger, Lauren Ashley Cristiano, Wayne Duvall (last seen in "The Hunt"), Barbara Singer (last seen in "Private Life"), Blake DeLong (last seen in "Tesla"), Chad Corbi, Michaela Pace.
RATING: 6 out of 10 oranges in a bag
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