A Quiet Place: Where on Earth would you most likely survive?
By Sandy C.
Last month, A Quiet Place debuted at SXSW. As the film’s premiere draws closer, the movie continue giving fans a lot to talk about. The question going around the most is — Would YOU be able to survive?
We received the chance to screen A Quiet Place at SXSW and earlier this week, so as someone who has watched it twice, I can say the film really holds up. A Quiet Place is a movie you’ll want to watch at the movie theater. Just like Jordan Peele’s Get Out, seeing the movie in a dark room is part of the experience. The fears, emotions, and brilliant performances impact audiences the most via a large screen and with the volume loud.
A Quiet Place has changed the game for horror movies, completely reinventing the genre. It will leave you very emotional and with much to debate. A fun discussion has been putting yourself in the character’s shoes. What would you do and, more importantly, where would you hide? We did some research to find the quietest places on Earth! The results are surprising.
*NOTE: Very light spoilers may follow. Only avoid if you wish to know absolutely nothing about the movie. Rest assured, however, we won’t spoil the plot or outcomes in any way.*
"A Quiet Place follows a small family who communicate with each other using sign language. Their surroundings appear post-apocalyptic and we quickly learn a tragedy took place not too long ago (we meet the family on day 89 after the attacks). Strange creatures have taken over the entire world. All the family, or anyone, really, know about them is that they’re fast, they’re ruthless, and they’ll find you — IF you make a sound!"
How can you possibly not make a sound? It’s nearly impossible. The parents in the movie have a daughter who is deaf, so knowing sign language has helped them survive since they have a way to communicate. They have also set up red light bulbs to alert each other of danger, painted the floorboards that aren’t noisy so you know where to step, made pathways of sand, and many other precautions. We also learn that it’s safe to be next to a body of water as the river or waterfall will muffle your sounds as long as they are not louder than the water. But you can’t hide there forever.
A Chamber?
Where can you go for absolute silence? According to Smithsonian, the quietest place on Earth is a chamber located at Orfield Laboratories in Minnesota. The source claims that the room is so quiet, the “longest anybody has been able to bear it is 45 minutes.”
They also share this interesting bit of info: “When it’s quiet, ears will adapt. The quieter the room, the more things you hear. You’ll hear your heart beating, sometimes you can hear your lungs, hear your stomach gurgling loudly. In the anechoic chamber, you become the sound.” This is fascinating because this is an activity we see the monsters in A Quiet Place do. Viewers see their “ears” opening up, searching for sound and adjusting to the noise surrounding them.
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This chamber may be a bit too quiet to be able to survive. After being there for a while, you may not even be able to stand, “how you orient yourself is through sounds you hear when you walk. In the anechnoic chamber, you don’t have any cues. You take away the perceptual cues that allow you to balance and maneuver,” Orfield tells the source.
A Desert?
Another quiet place we found via Telegrah is Kelso Dunes, Mojave Desert. Pro: Lots of sand to muffle all noise, and it’s reportedly very silent. Con: Not much of anything else you need to survive.
The same source did provide a promising location though, but if you’re not in Switzerland, you’re out of luck! According to Telegraph, Zurich is the quietest Swiss city and “the least noise polluted in the world.”
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The results? The Abbott family is doing it right. Not only do they have sign language as an advantage, but they have all the resources they need nearby and take proper precautions. However, as you’ll see in the movie, something always eventually goes wrong (or off, in this case).
A Quiet Place is in theaters Friday, April 6.