A QUIET PLACE PART II

Paramount

In the sequel to John Krasinski’s 2018 Paramount thriller — which follows a family trying to survive in a world inhabited by deadly predators that are blind but can hear the slightest sound — the director reteamed with supervising sound editors Erik Aadahl and Ethan Van der Ryn, who were Oscar-nominated in sound editing for their work on the original A Quiet Place. “One of our mantras on A Quiet Place Part II was, ‘The smallest sounds are big sounds,’ ” says Aadahl. “Whether it’s a close-up of a foot gently compressing sand and then next a foot stepping on a leaf that’s uncomfortably crunching, those tiny sounds are huge sounds. They are so critical.” Of creating the creatures, two-time Oscar winner Van der Ryn explains that the sound team gave them “sonic modes” — a search mode, which included recording “a stun gun against grapes, pitched down,” as well as a navigation mode and an attack mode. In the movie, actress Millicent Simmonds, who’s deaf, plays the deaf character Regan. Aadahl explains that the film’s sound, from her perspective with cochlear implants, is “almost an internal sound — the sound of your body and rumble of the heart and blood.” He says that feedback from Simmonds helped to shape this sound, as well as additional research when he and Van der Ryn visited an anechoic chamber, which is a space isolated from outside sounds.

Top: Emily Blunt as Evelyn and Noah Jupe as Marcus. Bottom: Millicent Simmonds as Regan.