Originally conceived and scripted by Bryan Woods and Scott Beck (with Krasinski working on the script when he agreed to direct and star), the first ‘A Quiet Place’ follows a family (Krasinski, real-life wife Emily Blunt and two kids) surviving in the aftermath of an alien invasion by blind aliens with incredibly powerful hearing who hunt and kill humans.
That movie enjoyed $50.2 million opening weekend, and a near $153M domestic and $341M global take, and received an Oscar nomination for Sound Editing.
It saw its release pushed due to Covid, but brought the box office back alive during Memorial Day weekend 2021 with a $57M four-day start, ending with a $160M domestic and $297.3M global haul. A prequel, ‘A Quiet Place: Day One’, arrived in 2024, directed by Michael Sarnoski.
When will ‘A Quiet Place: Part III’ be on screens?
The movie is set for a July 30, 2027 release date.
(L to R) John Krasinski as Lee Abbott, and Noah Jupe as Marcus Abbott in ‘A Quiet Place.’
Super Bowl LX is scheduled for Sunday, February 8th and it promises to be an unforgettable game between the Seattle Seahawks and the New England Patriots.
6966
However, if you still need your football fix, Moviefone has compiled a list of 30 of the best football movies of all time for you to watch after the game.
These football movies cover what happens both on and off the field, and best of all, every movie here is streaming right now, so you can get started watching any of them immediately.
(L to R) Quinton Aaron and Sandra Bullock in ‘The Blind Side.’ Photo: Warner Bros. Pictures.
The story of Michael Oher (Quinton Aaron) a homeless and traumatized boy who became an All American football player and first round NFL draft pick with the help of a caring woman (Sandra Bullock) and her family
American Underdog tells the inspirational true story of Kurt Warner (Zachary Levi), who went from a stockboy at a grocery store to a two-time NFL MVP, Super Bowl champion, and Hall of Fame quarterback. The film centers on Warner’s unique story and years of challenges and setbacks that could have derailed his aspirations to become an NFL player – but just when his dreams seemed all but out of reach, it is only with the support of his wife, Brenda (Anna Paquin) and the encouragement of his family, coaches, and teammates that Warner perseveres and finds the strength to show the world the champion that he already is.
High school football coach Harold Jones (Ed Harris) befriends Radio (Cuba Gooding Jr.), a mentally-challenged man who becomes a student at TL Hanna High School in Anderson South Carolina. Their friendship extends over several decades where Radio transforms from a shy tormented man into an inspiration to his community.
Sensitive study of a headstrong high school football star (Tom Cruise) who dreams of getting out of his small Western Pennsylvania steel town with a football scholarship. His equally ambitious coach (Craig T. Nelson) aims at a college position resulting in a clash which could crush the players dreams.
Jaycen ‘Two Js’ Jennings (Snoop Dogg) is a washed-up former pro football star who has hit rock bottom. When he is sentenced to do community service coaching the Underdoggs, an unruly pee-wee football team in his hometown, he sees it mostly as an opportunity to rebuild his public image. But in the process, he may just turn his life around and rediscover his love of the game.
Pro quarterback Paul Crewe (Adam Sandler) and former college champion and coach Nate Scarboro (Burt Reynolds) are doing time in the same prison and are asked to put together a team of inmates to take on the guards. Crewe enlists the help of Scarboro to coach the inmates to victory in a football game fixed to turn out quite another way.
Several players from different backgrounds try to cope with the pressures of playing football at a major university. Each deals with the pressure differently some turn to drinking others to drugs and some to studying.
In small-town Texas, high school football is a religion, 17-year-old schoolboys carry the hopes of an entire community onto the gridiron every Friday night. When star quarterback Lance Harbor (Paul Walker) suffers an injury, the Coyotes are forced to regroup under the questionable leadership of John Moxon (James Van Der Beek), a second-string quarterback with a slightly irreverent approach to the game.
Burt Reynolds in 1974’s ‘The Longest Yard.’ Photo: Paramount Pictures.
A football player-turned-convict (Burt Reynolds) organizes a team of inmates to play against a team of prison guards. His dilemma is that the warden (Eddie Albert) asks him to throw the game in return for an early release but he is also concerned about the inmates lack of self-esteem.
Bobby Boucher (Adam Sandler) is a water boy for a struggling college football team. The coach (Henry Winkler) discovers Boucher’s hidden rage makes him a tackling machine whose bone-crushing power might vault his team into the playoffs.
Jerry Maguire (Tom Cruise) used to be a typical sports agent willing to do just about anything he could to get the biggest possible contracts for his clients plus a nice commission for himself. Then one day he suddenly has second thoughts about what he’s really doing. When he voices these doubts he ends up losing his job and all of his clients save Rod Tidwell (Cuba Gooding Jr.) an egomaniacal football player.
Inspired by the true story of Vince Papale (Mark Wahlberg), a man with nothing to lose who ignored the staggering odds and made his dream come true. When the coach of Papale’s beloved hometown football team hosted an unprecedented open tryout, the public consensus was that it was a waste of time – no one good enough to play professional football was going to be found this way.
A light hearted comedy about the beginnings of Professional American Football. When a decorated war hero (George Clooney) and college all star (John Krasinski) is tempted into playing professional football. Everyone see the chance to make some big money, but when a reporter digs up some dirt on the war hero… everyone could lose out.
Marlon Wayans is Isaiah (back, pointing) and Tyriq Withers is Cam (foreground) in ‘HIM’, directed by Justin Tipping. Photo: Universal Pictures.
After suffering a potentially career-ending brain trauma, Cameron Cade (Tyriq Withers) receives a lifeline when his hero, legendary eight-time Championship quarterback and cultural megastar Isaiah White (Marlon Wayans), offers to train Cam at Isaiah’s isolated compound that he shares with his celebrity influencer wife. But as Cam’s training accelerates, Isaiah’s charisma begins to curdle into something darker.
When the Texas Southern Armadillos football team is disqualified for cheating and poor grades, the University is forced to pick from a team that actually goes to school. Will they even win a single game?
Inspired by the true story of four best friends (Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, Rita Moreno and Sally Field) living life to the fullest when they take a wild trip to the 2017 Super Bowl LI to see their hero Tom Brady play.
At the NFL Draft, general manager Sonny Weaver (Kevin Costner) has the opportunity to rebuild his team when he trades for the number one pick. He must decide what he’s willing to sacrifice on a life-changing day for a few hundred young men with NFL dreams.
Keanu Reeves in ‘The Replacements’. Photo: Warner Bros. Pictures.
Maverick old-guard coach Jimmy McGinty (Gene Hackman) is hired in the wake of a players’ strike to help the Washington Sentinels advance to the playoffs. But that impossible dream hinges on whether his replacements can hunker down and do the job, including washed up Quarterback Shane Falco (Keanu Reeves). So, McGinty dusts off his secret dossier of ex-players who never got a chance (or screwed up the one they were given) and knits together a bad-dream team of guys who just may give the Sentinels their title shot.
Based on the real-life relationship between teammates Brian Piccolo (James Caan) and Gale Sayers (Billy Dee Williams) and the bond established when Piccolo discovers that he is dying.
Joe Pendleton (Warren Beatty) is a quarterback preparing to lead his team to the Super Bowl when he is almost killed in an accident. An overanxious angel plucks him to heaven only to discover that he wasn’t ready to die, and that his body has been cremated. A new body must be found, and that of a recently-murdered millionaire is chosen. His wife and accountant—the murderers—are confused by this development, as he buys the L.A. Rams in order to once again quarterback them into the Super Bowl.
Molly (Goldie Hawn) is a high school track coach who knows just as much about football as anyone else on the planet. When a football coach’s position becomes vacant, she applies for the job, despite snickers from fellow staff members and her former husband.
When a plane crash claims the lives of members of the Marshall University football team and some of its fans, the team’s new coach (Matthew McConaughey) and his surviving players try to keep the football program alive.
(L to R) Bruce Willis and Damon Wayans in ‘The Last Boy Scout’. Photo: Warner Bros.
When the girl (Halle Berry) that detective Joe Hallenback (Bruce Willis) is protecting gets murdered, the boyfriend (Damon Wayans) of the murdered girl attempts to investigate and solve the case. What they discover is that there is deep seated corruption going on between a crooked politician and the owner of a pro football team.
Rudy (Sean Austin) grew up in a steel mill town where most people ended up working, but wanted to play football at Notre Dame instead. There were only a couple of problems. His grades were a little low, his athletic skills were poor, and he was only half the size of the other players. But he had the drive and the spirit of five people and has set his sights upon joining the team.
A small, turbulent town in Texas obsesses over their high school football team to an unhealthy degree. When the star tailback, Boobie Miles (Derek Luke), is seriously injured during the first game of the season, all hope is lost, and the town’s dormant social problems begin to flare up. It is left to the inspiring abilities of new coach Gary Gaines (Billy Bob Thornton) to instill in the other team members — and, by proxy, the town itself — a sense of self-respect and honor.
After leading his football team to 15 winning seasons, coach Bill Yoast (Will Patton) is demoted and replaced by Herman Boone (Denzel Washington) – tough, opinionated and as different from the beloved Yoast as he could be. The two men learn to overcome their differences and turn a group of hostile young men into champions.
(L to R) Jamie Foxx, Al Pacino and Denis Quaid in ‘Any Given Sunday’. Photo: Warner Bros.
A star quarterback (Dennis Quaid) gets knocked out of the game and an unknown third stringer (Jamie Foxx) is called in to replace him. The unknown gives a stunning performance and forces the ageing coach (Al Pacino) to reevaluate his game plans and life. A new co-owner/president (Cameron Diaz) adds to the pressure of winning. The new owner must prove herself in a male dominated world.
Beyond that, we don’t know much (see below for wild speculation), but at least we do now have some forward movement on the movies, with presumably some delay happening while backers Paramount figured out their merger with Skydance (which is set to be sealed this week).
Originally conceived and scripted by Bryan Woods and Scott Beck (with Krasinski working on the script when he agreed to direct and star), the first ‘A Quiet Place’ follows a family (Krasinski, real-life wife Emily Blunt and two kids) surviving in the aftermath of an alien invasion by blind aliens with incredibly powerful hearing who hunt and kill humans.
That movie enjoyed $50.2 million opening weekend, and a near $153M domestic and $341M global take, and received an Oscar nomination for Sound Editing.
It saw its release pushed due to Covid, but brought the box office back alive during Memorial Day weekend 2021 with a $57M four-day start, ending with a $160M domestic and $297.3M global haul.
Last summer, ‘A Quiet Place: Day One,’ the aforementioned prequel spin-off set in an apocalyptic New York City ravaged by the aliens during the initial invasion, starred Oscar winner Lupita Nyong’o and Joseph Quinn, debuted to $52.2M and ended up with $139M domestic and $262M global.
What will happen in the new ‘A Quiet Place’ movie?
(L to R) Millicent Simmonds as Regan Abbott, Noah Jupe as MArcus Abbott, Emily Blunt as Evelyn Abbott in ‘A Quiet Place Part II.’
With Krasinski back, we’d be shocked if it didn’t continue the story of Blunt, Jupe and Simmonds’ characters (Krasinski’s unlikely to return unless through flashbacks because –– spoiler alert! –– he died in the first movie).
Quite what they might get up to is anyone’s guess at this point (though hopefully Krasinski has some more solid info, since he’s scripting and directing!) The second film left the main characters on an island having discovered a way to hurt and potentially kill the creatures with sound frequencies, so that may well factor in.
And could it completely pivot to a different story? The world of ‘A Quiet Place’ is a big one so… maybe? But we’re guessing for now Krasinski’s focus will be on the characters he helped bring to screens.
When will ‘A Quiet Place Part III’ be on screens?
Per Krasinski’s post, the third outing for the main ‘A Quiet Place’ movie series will look to scare us in summer 2027, confirming a July 9th, 2027 release date.
Lupita Nyong’o as “Samira” in ‘A Quiet Place: Day One’ from Paramount Pictures.
John Krasinski in ‘Fountain of Youth,’ premiering May 23, 2025 on Apple TV+.
There was a time in the 1990s when big-name actors could be tempted outside their usual attempts to win awards with challenging dramatic work and have some fun appearing in rip-roaring adventures after ancient artifacts, dodging life-threatening peril and trading quips.
And before that, the 1980s brought us all manner of satisfying throwback adventures, led by the immaculately directed delights of the ‘Indiana Jones’ franchise. These days, the genre tends to paddle in the shallow end of straight-to-home entertainment releases or, as in the case of ‘Fountain of Youth,’ streaming.
But can this new offering live up to that grand tradition?
Script and Direction
(L to R) Director Guy Ritchie and star John Krasinski behind-the-scenes of ‘Fountain of Youth,’ premiering May 23, 2025 on Apple TV+.
A big issue with the new movie lies in its script. Crafted by James Vanderbilt, whose career has swung wildly between the acclaimed likes of ‘Zodiac,’ the fun action nonsense of ‘White House Down’ and misbegotten misfires including ‘Independence Day: Resurgence,’ this new ‘Fountain’ sputters more than it should.
Vanderbilt cobbles together a blend of the aforementioned Indy franchise entries, the more high-tech and fight-orientated world of ‘Mission: Impossible’ and the “path to something important hidden within esoterica” plot fuel of Dan Brown.
Yet it’s not a mixture that always works. Yes, there are the requisite globe-trotting action sequences, a few moments of entertaining banter for the leads and of course some twists and turns, but it’s all so off the peg, an uncomfortable patchwork of seen-it-before wannabe thrills and lucky escapes.
It’s all very well to try and stand on the shoulders of giants –– we see you, veiled reference to Doctor Jones in the name of Krasinski and Portman’s characters’ name: Harrison Purdue –– but you have to have something innovate in exchange. This new outing doesn’t ever hit that stride.
How many times can our heroes stumble on their latest clue, only to be ambushed by their antagonists, and then turn things around for a lucky (and more than one instance, logic-defying) escape? If the evidence of ‘Fountain of Youth’ is to be believed, it’s many more times than is believable, and indeed it all becomes tiring by the end.
(L to R) Natalie Portman, Benjamin Chivers, John Krasinski, Domhnall Gleeson and Michael Epp in ‘Fountain of Youth,’ premiering May 23, 2025 on Apple TV+.
Guy Ritchie, meanwhile, has been a genre-hopping directorial journeyman for some time now, but seems to flourish when he’s given full reign to embrace his violent, jokey style as seen in recent Netflix series ‘The Gentlemen.’
Here, it’s as if he’s working with kid gloves on; while he’s certainly produced effective, family-friendly material in the past, this is a poor example of him toning himself down. A few of the set pieces are solid with some diverting stunts, but all in all, this is a blandly clockwork chore.
Cast and Performances
(L to R) Natalie Portman, John Krasinski, Domhnall Gleeson, Carmen Ejogo and Laz Alonso in ‘Fountain of Youth,’ premiering May 23, 2025 on Apple TV+.
While you can absolutely imagine John Krasinski seeing this as solid extension to his nice-guy-turned-action-hero brand after years spent playing Jack Ryan, the character of treasure hunter Luke Purdue only sometimes works to his strengths.
Krasinski certainly doesn’t lack for charisma and he sells some of the cheesier lines; he’s also decent when it comes to the action (again, partly thanks to his time as Ryan).
And when he and Natalie Portman are trading sibling barbs, the movie feels like it more lives up to its promise, the pair sharing some entertaining on-screen family chemistry.
Portman is a more surprising performer to show up in a movie like this, though we imagine the appeal of having fun on set with Krasinski and a solid Apple-backed payday is probably more the reason she took the gig rather than something she saw in the script.
Eiza González in ‘Fountain of Youth,’ premiering May 23, 2025 on Apple TV+.
As the third main character, Eiza González does just enough to make her relatively stock badass character watchable –– she’s also effective when it comes to the action, but as one of the “protectors” looking to stop Luke on his mission for seemingly noble reasons, it’s not always enough to overcome a generic role.
Likewise Domhnall Gleeson, who has little to do as Owen Carver, the ailing rich mogul bankrolling Luke’s search. Gleeson has a couple of moments, but it’s largely a waste of a decent actor.
Still, he comes off better than Laz Alonso and Carmen Ejogo, who play Murph and Deb, Luke’s support team. They’re mostly there to deliver the exposition, and that’s usually provided in big, ungainly lumps around tables.
Beyond a few memorable moments as driven Interpol agent Abbas, Arian Moayed likewise is given little chance to shine.
Final Thoughts
(L to R) John Krasinski, Domhnall Gleeson and Natalie Portman in ‘Fountain of Youth,’ premiering May 23, 2025 on Apple TV+.
Does ‘Fountain of Youth’ keep the flame of fun adventure movies from the 1980s and 1990s burning? Not really.
This is a less-than-thrilling example of the genre which certainly starts promisingly and has a few decent lines or moments here and there (fans of ‘Knight Rider’ might be happy at one, and no, we don’t mean The Hoff shows up), but it’s not enough to keep it from feeling stale.
You could certainly watch this. But you’d choose… poorly.
1WBYPlIVHkxeDNKz2wY071
What’s the story of ‘Fountain of Youth’?
The new movie follows two estranged siblings (John Krasinski and Natalie Portman) who partner on a global heist to find the mythological Fountain of Youth.
They must use their knowledge of history to follow clues on an epic adventure that will change their lives… and possibly lead to immortality.
John Krasinski and Prime Video changed all that with TV series ‘Jack Ryan,’ which aired four seasons between 2018 and 2023. It offered the chance for longer, more nuanced adventures for Ryan (well, as nuanced as a show based on a Tom Clancy character truly gets) and was a big success.
al0OvheO9oZBI0lckRMUA3
Amazon MGM Studios is looking to keep that going but is switching tracks to send Ryan back to movie form (likely so that Krasinski can keep playing him but doesn’t have to commit to another season).
What’s the story of the ‘Jack Ryan’ movie?
John Krasinski as Jack Ryan in Prime Video’s ‘Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan’ Season 4. Credit: Attila Szvacsek/Prime Video. Copyright: Amazon Studios.
There are zero details on what Ryan might be up to in the movie, though it’s a fair guess that it’ll involve some big, probably terrorist or rogue state-sponsored threat that Ryan has to A) figure out and B) take down.
Given that Amazon also owns the rights to the Ryan-adjacent John Clark character (as portrayed by Michael B. Jordan in ‘Without Remorse’, and aboard to return for ‘Rainbow Six,’ might we get a fan-pleasing crossover, if only for one scene?
Who else is working on the ‘Jack Ryan’ movie?
Wendell Pierce as James Greer in ‘Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan.’ Credit: Sarah Shatz. Copyright: Amazon Studios.
With Krasinski starring and producing, we’ll also see the return of Wendell Pierce, who plays James Greer, Ryan’s superior in the series.
And Michael Kelly, who had a sizeable roles as Mike November, is in talks.
Behind the scenes, Andrew Bernstein, who served as an executive producer and director on Season 2 of the series, is directing the film from a script by Aaron Rabin, who served as a co-executive producer and writer on Season 4.
John Krasinski as Dr. Jack Ryan in Prime Video’s ‘Jack Ryan.’
There is no word on when the movie will land on the big screen. And it might also be an “if” situation –– Amazon could still decide to release it via streaming to keep the Prime Video audience watching.
Still, with Krasinski in the lead, the studio may well decide to leverage his film star status to turn this into more of an event.
(L to R) John Krasinski as Dr. Jack Ryan and Wendell Pierce as James Greer in Prime Video’s ‘Jack Ryan.’
Available to purchase on digital June 30th and on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray, DVD, and in a collectible 4K Ultra HD SteelBook on October 8th is the box office hit ‘A Quiet Place: Day One,’ which is a prequel to John Krasinski’s ‘A Quiet Place’ and was directed by Michael Sarnoski (‘Pig’).
Moviefone recently had the pleasure of speaking with writer and director Michael Sarnoski about his work on ‘A Quiet Place: Day One’, taking on the franchise, the challenge of directing a movie with little to no dialogue, showing the aliens, Lupita Nyong’o’s performance, Sam and Eric’s friendship, Djimon Hounsou’s return, recreating and destroying New York City, and what it’s like to direct a cat.
You can read the full interview below or click on the video player above to watch our interview.
(L to R) Joseph Quinn as “Eric” and Director Michael Sarnoski in ‘A Quiet Place: Day One’ from Paramount Pictures.
Moviefone: To begin with, coming off the success of ‘Pig’, can you talk about taking on a big franchise like this and developing the screenplay based on a story you created with John Krasinski?
Michael Sarnoski: Initially, ‘Pig’ was well received. That was very exciting. It was a very small movie, it very much felt like a piece of my soul, and I think there was a part of me that was like, I don’t want to do the whole jump into a franchise studio project. I want to be very cautious about that. But then this came along. John had loved ‘Pig’ and he really was asking, “Hey, can you bring some of that ‘Pig’ feeling to the ‘Quiet Place’ universe?” He gave me just a lot of freedom to be like, “All we need is New York on day one. What characters do you want? What story do you want? Make this your own.” So, it just felt like a unique opportunity to play in this big sandbox but do it with my own voice. It was kind of scary to jump into something like that, but it seemed like a unique opportunity and something that I would really love. Thankfully, it really worked out and I count myself very lucky. But it was intimidating and exciting and all those things.
(L to R) Alex Wolff as “Reuben”, Lupita Nyong’o as “Samira”, Producer John Krasinski, and Director Michael Sarnoski in ‘A Quiet Place: Day One’ from Paramount Pictures.
MF: This is of course a prequel to the first two movies, but in release order is the third in the franchise. In the first movie, Krasinski was careful to not show the aliens too early in the film, but you show them in full very early in ‘Day One’. Did you feel like you had the freedom to do that because as an audience we already know what they look like from the other two movies?
MS: It was a balance that we were always talking about, because even with things like the rules and all of that, everyone knows all the rules already, so you need to show them a little bit, but if you suddenly make that a huge part of the story, it’s just going to be like, “We’ve seen all of this twice before.” So, finding that right balance of feeling like you’re seeing fresh stuff and your expanding things was important. We still tried to space out the aliens properly so that initially, you’re not seeing too much, and then it gradually as it builds and builds, you’re seeing more and more, and part of that comes with this scope of this New York invasion. This isn’t in the farmland with a couple of creatures wandering around. This is a hotbed of where the aliens landed, so you need to carry a heft of that. But we still tried to do it in ways that wasn’t too in your face. I liked this idea of these creature stampedes that just made the ground shake and you’re not as focused on specific things, it’s just these passing shadows. So, we tried to find ways to keep it exciting and keep it feeling like there was a progression to the reveals of these creatures, but you do still have to give a little more because of the scale and because of it being the third movie in the franchise. But it was just always something we were talking about and playing with.
Lupita Nyong’o as “Samira” in ‘A Quiet Place: Day One’ from Paramount Pictures.
MF: As a filmmaker, can you talk about the challenges of making a movie with little to no dialogue? Was it restraining or freeing in a sense?
MS: It’s a little bit of both. I love dialogue. I love a long dialogue scene where you really get to understand these characters and their nuances, but then at the same time, I think you rely on having really good actors like Joe and Lupita, but just watching these two people navigate silently together and their expressions also brings out a ton of stuff that in some ways, you wouldn’t be focused on as much in a more dialogue heavy movie. So, you’re just trading one tool for another. You do have to lean on your actors a lot more to be able to convey these characters and convey these moments, but I was lucky to have amazing actors.
(L to R) Lupita Nyong’o as “Samira” and Director Michael Sarnoski in ‘A Quiet Place: Day One’ from Paramount Pictures.
MF: Can you talk about centering the movie on the character of Sam, and what Lupita Nyong’o brought to the role?
MS: I think Lupita brings a lot to every role she does. She’s incredible. She’s extremely intelligent, she’s very thoughtful and is willing to dive in and talk about these characters and figure out what’s driving them, what their history is. All of the nuances of these characters, she spends a lot of time on, and I think Sam, on paper, she’s kind of prickly and standoffish and has separated herself from her past life, and to be able to play that character in a way that doesn’t alienate the audience but actually makes the audience lean in is really difficult, and she did an amazing job with that. You get that she’s got a chip on her shoulder, but it makes you care about her more, and you want to know more how this story is going to play out for her and how she’s going to develop. I think that just comes from creating a very full, realized character that she does so beautifully.
(L to R) Joseph Quinn as “Eric” and Lupita Nyong’o as “Samira” in ‘A Quiet Place: Day One’ from Paramount Pictures.
MF: Can you also talk about Sam and Eric’s unusual friendship, and Lupita and Joseph Quinn’s onscreen chemistry?
MS: I think we really lucked out with both together because Joe’s wonderful, and I think there was something about it being such a silent film with not a lot of dialogue, that the two of them really had to lean in and engage with each other. So, they’re watching each other’s performances a lot. They really connected on a silent but beautiful level, and I think it made a dynamic that you just felt like these two people were really seeing each other and really trying to understand each other because that’s what they were doing on set every day. I think it came across on screen better than I could have hoped.
Djimon Hounsou as “Henri” in ‘A Quiet Place: Day One’ from Paramount Pictures.
MF: Can you talk about the decision to bring back Djimon Hounsou’s Henri from ‘A Quiet Place Part II’ and flesh out that character’s backstory?
MS: He’s an incredible actor and he’s so easy and fun to work with, and so, A, I’m just happy I did that, but B, I liked the idea of in the second one, we see a glimpse into his stable society that he’s helped create, and I wanted to explore the difficult decisions that were made in order to get to that place and hint at this wasn’t all happy living on an island stuff. He must have made some really hard decisions to protect his family and to lead this group of people. So, I wanted to glimpse that, but then I also wanted to use that as a, okay, this is his story and he’s going to go off and live that story, and this is where Sam diverges from that. So, it’s also used as a foil to her personal journey, going to get pizza story, and he’s going to escape the island and try and survive in this apocalyptic world. So, I use it as something to just compare her story, so we understand, that’s not what she’s engaged with. He was wonderful.
Lupita Nyong’o as “Samira” in ‘A Quiet Place: Day One’ from Paramount Pictures.
MF: Can you talk about New York City as a character in the film?
MS: When I first got this project and when I was working on the script, I rented an apartment in New York for a month, just to steep myself in this place because I knew that that needed to be a part of it. This was a New York day one invasion movie, which we’ve seen a lot of, and I felt like if I was going to do it, I wanted to do it right with New York City. I think the thing I ended up landing on was exploring the different meanings of New York City to different characters, and for Sam, she’s someone that was raised here but then had to leave it behind. For Eric, he’s someone that came here with dreams. He’s the classic immigrant story to New York, and they all mean different things, but we all have this common understanding and cultural meaning of New York. So, I wanted that to just be felt so that we could all relate to that, but then also understand the kind of nuanced differences between each character’s relationship with the city. I just spent a lot of time wandering around New York, reading books about New York, and just thinking about what it meant to these characters. I think as a society, we have a very charged relationship with this city, and especially the idea of the destruction of this city. Without putting too fine a point on it, I wanted to tap into that so that people could feel like they were there with these characters, and they recognize these images and these ideas and these feelings.
Lupita Nyong’o as “Samira” in ‘A Quiet Place: Day One’ from Paramount Pictures.
MF: Finally, how difficult is it directing a cat?
MS: It is impossible. You’re not directing a cat, you just are casting your wishes to the winds and hoping for the best. Once you get the hang of it, after a couple of weeks of shooting, then you know, okay, this is what the cat can do. This is what the animal trainers can help us with, and these are the things that we can aim for, and you adjust certain actions based on that. So, it’s like once you have an understanding with the cat and the trainers, then it becomes a lot easier. But I think that initial sniffing out period of like, okay, so he’s not going to want to do this action, and if we want him to do this, there’s going to have to be food involved or something like that, and then you just start figuring out creative compromises and solutions to all that stuff. So it wasn’t that hard. I think it’s telling that by the end of the movie, the cast and crew all adored Nico and Schnitzel who played Frodo, whereas if it had been a real pain, everyone would’ve been like, “Thank God Nico and Schnitzel aren’t on set anymore.” I think it really worked out wonderfully.
Mpa8XPcjUYrSUd7jytoDi1
What is the plot of ‘A Quiet Place: Day One’?
On the first day of an invasion by aliens that hunt living things by sound, a woman dying of cancer (Lupita Nyong’o ) tries to make her way uptown in Manhattan while befriending a fellow survivor (Joseph Quinn) who’s lost and alone as the world crashes down around them.
Lupita Nyong’o as “Samira” in ‘A Quiet Place: Day One’ from Paramount Pictures.
Although ‘A Quiet Place Part II’ already documented the arrival of the first movie’s vicious aliens via opening flashbacks, this prequel makes the choice to tell more or less the same story again, only on a bigger canvas. ‘A Quiet Place: Day One’ is set in New York City, as opposed to the quiet rural town of John Krasinski’s first two films, giving new director and writer Michael Sarnoski a much wider field to play on.
Sarnoski made a bracing debut in 2021 with ‘Pig,’ an affecting study of loss and love hiding within a crime thriller, anchored by a brilliant Nicolas Cage performance. Although he’s thrust into blockbuster territory with ‘Day One,’ the movie’s quieter moments are what work best, providing brief moments of human empathy amidst the otherwise familiar mechanics of the alien invasion we’ve seen in the two previous ‘A Quiet Place’ entries.
Story and Direction
(L to R) Lupita Nyong’o as “Samira” and Director Michael Sarnoski in ‘A Quiet Place: Day One’ from Paramount Pictures.
Opening on a bird’s-eye view of New York City (with a title card telling us that the city constantly generates 90 decibels of noise), Sarnoski zeroes in on Samira (Lupita Nyong’o), a bitter young woman ravaged by cancer and living out her last days in a hospice. Her caregiver, Reuben (Alex Wolff), encourages her to come with him and the other patients into Manhattan to see a show – but boy did they pick the wrong day, even if Samira is enticed by the promise of pizza and being allowed to bring her faithful cat, Frodo (get it, Sam and Frodo?) along with her.
Not long after the show – and in case the jet fighters that buzzed the city earlier and the helicopters whizzing overhead at this point didn’t tip it off enough — the sky is suddenly full of meteorites streaking down to Earth, carrying our hideous extraterrestrial pals from the first two films, who can’t see for beans but track everything – including the scores of hapless humans they pick off within minutes of landing – by sound.
As everything on the streets goes to hell, the group bus is caught in an explosion. Samira stumbles out, covered in chalk-white dust – filmmakers are still reaching back for that 9/11 imagery, some 23 years later – and watching in horror as people around her are picked off one by one. Another explosion sends her through a storefront and knocks her out. She wakes up sometime later, back in the theater with other survivors that include Frodo, Reuben, and a man named Henri – played by Djimon Hounsou in what is essentially an origin story for the character he played in ‘A Quiet Place Part II.’
Sam and Frodo eventually leave the theater, with Sam still determined to get to Harlem for pizza at a place called Patsy’s. Why she thinks that Patsy’s will be open and serving as New York City crumbles into smoking ruins is one of the more inexplicable aspects of the narrative here. Along the way, she comes across a young Englishman named Eric (Joseph Quinn, soon to be seen as the Human Torch in ‘The Fantastic Four’), who’s prone to panic attacks and doesn’t want to be alone, so Sam grudgingly lets him accompany her.
(L to R) Joseph Quinn as “Eric” and Lupita Nyong’o as “Samira” in ‘A Quiet Place: Day One’ from Paramount Pictures.
The burgeoning friendship between Sam and Eric is probably the best part of ‘A Quiet Place: Day One,’ with Nyong’o and Quinn doing a lot of the heavy lifting to make one feel something for two otherwise thinly written characters. All we know about Nyong’o is that she has cancer, is a poet, and wants pizza; we know even less about her companion, but the longish second act does allow their relationship to breathe a bit.
That’s where this movie works: in developing a relationship where there was none before. After all, the first two movies were about a family; the dynamics and love were already there. If ‘A Quiet Place: Day One’ is good at one thing, it’s showing us that unimaginable tragedy and horror can bring total strangers together to help each other as well.
The rest of the movie – that is, the action sequences between the Sam/Eric stuff – is on rinse/repeat cycle: monsters attack, everyone gets quiet, someone accidentally makes a noise, monsters attack again. Refreshingly, we’re not given a whole lot of exposition again about how the creatures operate via sound alone; on the other hand, everyone seems to learn this rather quickly. Also, where exactly do eight million people in New York City go in the space of a day? What is the government response other than a few helicopters flying overhead and knocking out the bridges? And why does Frodo the cat – who arguably steals the movie – never meow or hiss once?
The Cast
(L to R) Joseph Quinn as “Eric” and Lupita Nyong’o as “Samira” in ‘A Quiet Place: Day One’ from Paramount Pictures.
Lupita Nyong’o is a transformational actor. She looks totally different here from her turn in the ‘Black Panther’ movies, which look just as different from her work in ’12 Years a Slave.’ As mentioned above, Sam is not a particularly well-fleshed-out character when we meet her, but Nyong’o has a way of bringing out pain, warmth, and humanity all at the same time.
Joseph Quinn is not quite on her level, but he’s equally empathetic and often humorous – a young man who’s totally lost and alone in a different way than Sam. He’s afraid, and he almost gives into panic, but he is able to muster himself up and even make good decisions along the way. We haven’t seen his work as Eddie Munson on ‘Stranger Things,’ but we’re convinced Quinn will be a terrific Johnny Storm (as long as he gets the American accent down).
That’s pretty much it – Alex Wolff and Djimon Hounsou get very little to do (Hounsou setting up a movie that’s already three years old aside), so this is largely a two-hander for most of its running time. Thankfully, Nyong’o and Quinn are up to the task.
Final Thoughts
Lupita Nyong’o as “Samira” in ‘A Quiet Place: Day One’ from Paramount Pictures.
We went into this with low expectations: first, because it’s a prequel and they are always problematic from a narrative point of view, and second, because we weren’t big fans of the two popular previous ‘A Quiet Place’ entries to begin with. But we liked ‘Day One’ a hell of a lot more than ‘Part II,’ if only because our main characters here don’t make as many dumb mistakes, and we may even like it best of the three.
But familiarity also breeds contempt, and ‘Day One’ certainly does nothing to advance the mythology of the entire franchise, especially with regards to the aliens. Aside from one brief, puzzling scene in what looks like an alien garden, we learn nothing new about these creatures or their purpose here. Even with a few tense set pieces, the attacks and chases take on a numbing sameness.
Sarnoski benefits from excellent sound, and gets some decent mileage out of his sets (England’s Leavesden Studios, home of ‘Harry Potter,’ stands in for the streets of New York), but even the post-apocalyptic urban milieu seems commonplace now. ‘A Quiet Place: Day One’ does succeed in putting some heart into what could have been a fully generic cash grab, and Sarnoski again shows that he knows how to work with major actors while also displaying the confidence to make a film on a larger scale. But the quietly poignant half-movie that Lupita Nyong’o and Joseph Quinn star in is much more interesting that the monster movie noisily wrapped around it.
‘A Quiet Place: Day One’ receives 6.5 out of 10 stars.
Mpa8XPcjUYrSUd7jytoDi1
What is the plot of ‘A Quiet Place: Day One’?
On the first day of an invasion by aliens that hunt living things by sound, a woman dying of cancer (Lupita Nyong’o ) tries to make her way uptown in Manhattan while befriending a fellow survivor (Joseph Quinn) who’s lost and alone as the world crashes down around them.
(L to R) Cailey Fleming and Ryan Reynolds star in Paramount Pictures’ ‘IF.’
After spending most of the past decade following the end of ‘The Office’ in “tough guy” mode, playing a soldier, a spy, and an alpha male patriarch (perhaps to distance himself from his nerdy image as Jim Halpert), John Krasinski pivots into family film mode with ‘IF,’ an original live-action feature that he wrote, directed, and co-stars in. But while Krasinski showed some filmmaking flair with the intense ‘A Quiet Place’ and its sequel, his heavy-handed attempt to make a would-be family classic is overwrought and underwritten, giving the usually charismatic Ryan Reynolds and spunky young star Cailey Fleming little to do but stare at some Pixar-esque CG creations.
Story and Direction
Director John Krasinski on the set of Paramount Pictures’ ‘IF.’
‘IF’ opens on Bea (Fleming), a young girl who loses her mother to cancer before the opening credits even finish rolling. But that’s not all: Bea’s dad (Krasinski) is suffering from a heart condition and requires surgery, forcing Bea to stay at her grandmother’s (Fiona Shaw) New York City apartment while her dad undergoes his procedure (his pre-op stay in the hospital is unbelievably long – whatever he does for a living, he must have great insurance).
Lonely but apparently not going to school, Bea spies some odd-looking characters around the apartment building that lead her to a flat upstairs. That’s where she meets Cal (Reynolds), a strangely out-of-time man who resides in the whimsical apartment with a whole horde of bizarre beings that only Bea and Cal can see. As Cal explains, these are imaginary friends, or IFs for short, who are looking for new children to bond with since their previous children grew up and forgot about them.
Cal takes Bea to Coney Island – apparently it’s perfectly okay for a 12-year-old girl to wander around the city as she sees fit – where he introduces her to a subterranean retirement home for a large contingent of IFs, such as a robot, a flaming marshmallow, a glass of water, a big purple furball that looks like it stumbled over from ‘Monsters University,’ and many more. Most of them are voiced by famous people like Steve Carell, Bradley Cooper, George Clooney, Emily Blunt, Awkwafina, Matt Damon, Jon Stewart, and Blake Lively, who all don’t get much more than a line or two (even the ones married to the director and/or male lead). The founder of the place, a teddy bear named Lewis (the late Louis Gossett Jr.), recruits Bea to help Cal find new children for the wayward IFs, which Bea apparently finds more worthy of her time than, say, staying by her dad’s side.
(L to R) Ryan Reynolds (Cal), Louis Gossett Jr. (Lewis) and Cailey Fleming (Bea) star in Paramount Pictures’ ‘IF.’
‘IF’ wants very badly to be a sort of live-action Pixar movie. While the idea of hanging onto one’s power of imagination even as an adult is a worthy one, and we will give Krasinski a certain amount of respect for taking a big, original swing with his own material, he’s not good enough of a writer to make it work and can’t quite get a handle on it as a director either. The movie continually tries to pull shamelessly and relentlessly at one’s heartstrings, aided so obtrusively by Michael Giacchino’s pervasively syrupy score (a rare misfire from the otherwise great composer) that one wants to tell the music to shut up.
The biggest problem with ‘IF,’ beyond its overt mawkishness, is that Krasinski’s world-building is sloppy and undercooked. Does Bea’s grandmother wonder where she’s going all the time? Does her father? Why can some people suddenly see their IFs for no apparent reason years after having forgotten them? How can IFs apparently open doors and move objects? Sure, this is a fantasy film, and real-life logic doesn’t always apply; but there has to be some sort of internal logic, a set of rules for the world, and that doesn’t seem present here.
There are some funny lines sprinkled throughout the film, and young children may delight in some of the many IFs who populate the story (even if none of them are given anything more than a cursory character sketch), but ‘IF’ meanders along with little urgency and no real sense of what we’re supposed to feel, despite its strenuous attempts to make us feel something.
John Krasinski Cast Many BFFs in ‘IF’
(L to R) George Clooney (Spaceman), Amy Schumer (Gummy Bear), Emily Blunt (Unicorn), Steve Carell (Blue), Flower, Cailey Fleming (Bea), Phoebe Waller-Bridge (Blossom), Richard Jenkins (Art Teacher) and Maya Rudolph (Ally) star in Paramount Pictures’ ‘IF.’
‘IF’ has a stacked voice cast, although as mentioned earlier, the IFs come flying through so frequently that few get a chance to make any kind of impression. Aside from the kindly, wise Lewis, the IFs who get the most screentime are Steve Carell’s Blue and Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s Blossom, a sort of 1920s dancer who turns out to be Bea’s grandmother’s one-time IF.
The main human character, Cailey Fleming’s Bea, starts off as earnest and intelligent, but begins over-emoting through the second half of the film; Fleming is still an engaging presence who can probably do better. Krasinski’s dad, a whimsical sort who implores his daughter not to grow up too fast, is too smug to earn much of our empathy, while the usually sparkling Reynolds is forced to play it somewhat morose and passive through large sections of the film. His effortless way with one-liners doesn’t get the workout that this film could use. ‘Deadpool and Wolverine’ can’t come soon enough.
Final Thoughts
Cailey Fleming (Bea) and Steve Carell (Blue) star in Paramount Pictures’ ‘IF.’
There’s a 10-minute tour through the IF retirement home about half an hour into the movie, in which Lewis tells Bea that she can make whatever she wants happen just by thinking about it (we guess). It’s a potentially interesting idea ruined by overly frantic, busy visuals, ending in an extraneous dance number which has absolutely no bearing on the rest of the plot. It’s also indicative of the problem with the rest of ‘IF’: this is a shapeless movie that feels more like the director playing with all the tools at his disposal yet not firming up the story he wants to tell.
After the success of the ‘A Quiet Place’ films, we suppose it was inevitable that the director would get to indulge himself with a vanity project. And as noted earlier, certain younger audience members may be enraptured by everything going on in the film. But if John Krasinski wants to try his hand at a family movie again, he should concentrate more on a good, focused story and characters, and less on self-satisfied sentimentality.
‘IF’ receives 4 out of 10 stars.
KIPeeXzs3ztnna8SBSoyD1
What is the plot of ‘IF’?
A young girl going through a very difficult time in her life suddenly gains the ability to see the imaginary friends (IFs) of other people who have left them behind. With the help of a neighbor, the little girl attempts to reunite all the IFs with the kids they once belonged to.
Tom Cruise in ‘Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning Part One’ from Paramount Pictures and Skydance.
Preview
The actors’ strike means ‘Mission: Impossible 8’ won’t be ready for next year.
The next ‘Mission’ movie is shifting to Memorial Day weekend 2025.
With that change, other Paramount movies are changing dates, including ‘A Quiet Place: Day One’.
The cavalcade of movies being delayed because of the ongoing actors’ strike continues. We recently brought word that ‘Deadpool 3’ was joining the list of movies going into release limbo, and now ‘Mission: Impossible 8’ is facing another date change.
Work on the two ‘Mission’ movies (‘Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning’ finally arrived this year to somewhat disappointing box office figures) has been packed with problems –– especially the Covid-19 pandemic, which shut down shooting almost immediately.
Despite heroic attempts to keep it going, more delays and problems cropped up. And, of course, with SAG-AFTRA members on strike, that means that the cast cannot work on the film until the issue is resolved.
Unlike other movies, which have the potential to gear back up quickly once the strike is resolved, ‘Mission: Impossible 8’ has a lot of footage left to shoot and requires globe-trotting travel, multiple crews and huge logistical planning.
While ‘Mission: Impossible 8’ was scheduled for June 28th next year, it’s now shifted to May 23, 2025, Paramount likely hoping that the Memorial Day weekend will offer a prime opportunity to lure in audiences. It means (barring other movies shifting to the same period) ready access to IMAX screens and a historically successful spot for Cruise movies following ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ last year.
So now we can add industrial action to Covid on the list of obstacles that Tom Cruise cannot hurdle.
5AaefAclQbFxKKldaHR185
When was ‘Mission: Impossible 8’ originally to be released?
(L to R) Hayley Atwell and Tom Cruise in ‘Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning – Part One’ from Paramount Pictures and Skydance.
This is far from the first release date change for the movie, which was originally scheduled for August 5th, 2022, but was then delayed to November 4th of that year. Yet the tough production schedule meant more changes.
At one point, it was dated for July 7th of this year, before setting its most recent slot. And now, we’ll have to wait even longer. But knowing Cruise, Christopher McQuarrie and co., it’ll be worth our patience.
(L-R) Noah Jupe and director John Krasinski and on the set of Paramount Pictures’ “A Quiet Place Part II.”
‘Mission’s arrival in May 2025 punts Paramount’s latest animated ‘SpongeBob SquarePants’ movie (which has yet to confirm a title) to December 19th of that year, which unfortunately puts it squarely in the crosshairs of the third ‘Avatar’ movie.
With the June 28th slot opening up next year, Paramount is shifting horror thriller prequel ‘A Quiet Place: Day One’ from its planned March launch to that date. The film, which stars Lupita Nyong’o, is set on the day the sound-hunting aliens arrive and start causing chaos.
Elsewhere, John Krasinski’s latest directorial effort ‘IF’, starring Ryan Reynolds, is moving a week from May 24th to May 17th.
Tom Cruise plays Ethan Hunt in ‘Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning – Part One ‘from Paramount Pictures and Skydance.
List of Movies and TV Shows in the ‘Mission: Impossible’ Franchise:
The fourth and final season of the popular Prime Video series ‘Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan,’ starring Krasinski, is set to premiere on June 30th.
In honor of the final season of the series, which introduces Michael Peña as Domingo “Ding” Chavez, who could receive a spin-off of his own in the future, Moviefone is counting down the best Jack Ryan movies of all time.
When the president of Russia suddenly dies, a man whose politics are virtually unknown succeeds him. The change in political leaders sparks paranoia among American CIA officials, so CIA director Bill Cabot (Morgan Freeman) recruits a young analyst (Ben Affleck) to supply insight and advice on the situation. Then the unthinkable happens: a nuclear bomb explodes in a U.S. city, and America is quick to blame the Russians.
When a squad of Russian soldiers kills his family in retaliation for his role in a top-secret op, Sr. Chief John Kelly (Michael B. Jordan) pursues the assassins at all costs. Joining forces with a fellow SEAL (Jodie Turner-Smith) and a shadowy CIA agent (Jamie Bell), Kelly’s mission unwittingly exposes a covert plot that threatens to engulf the U.S. and Russia in an all-out war. Torn between personal honor and loyalty to his country, Kelly must fight his enemies without remorse if he hopes to avert disaster and reveal the powerful figures behind the conspiracy.
A new technologically-superior Soviet nuclear sub, the Red October, is heading for the U.S. coast under the command of Captain Marko Ramius (Sean Connery). The American government thinks Ramius is planning to attack. A lone CIA analyst (Alec Baldwin) has a different idea: he thinks Ramius is planning to defect, but he has only a few hours to find him and prove it – because the entire Russian naval and air commands are trying to find him, too. The hunt is on!
