A Quiet Place 2 Makes John Krasinski's First Movie Death So Much Better
Warning: Contains SPOILERS for A Quiet Place Part II.
The death of John Krasinski's Lee Abbott was an emotional moment in A Quiet Place, but it's made even better by the events of A Quiet Place Part II. Given Krasinski directed, co-wrote, and co-starred in A Quiet Place, his death came as something of a surprise. Done as an act of loving sacrifice in order to save his children, it served as as both a real shock and a truly poignant twist to push the story into its climax.
Krasinski is back among the cast in A Quiet Place 2, a somewhat risky move given his Lee was killed off in the first movie. While his return comes in flashbacks, rather than a convoluted reveal that he was never really dead, it still could've upended his sacrifice if handled badly. Mercifully, Krasinski very much knows what he's doing, and Lee's return - and how that factors into the rest of the movie back in the present timeline of A Quiet Place - makes things even better.
Firstly, there's A Quiet Place 2's opening scene itself, which shows some of the monsters' origins and just how the Abbott family responded to the first attack. During the baseball game, Lee is shown to have a close bond with Regan (Millicent Simmonds), and when they're forced to go on the run, she decides to go with her father. Similarly, Lee quickly picks up on the fact the alien monsters use sound to hunt. It's never explained just how he knows this, but it seems plausible that, having a deaf daughter, he is particularly attuned to things surrounding sound and hearing, or at least just more likely to think of that more immediately. This look at his backstory strengthens the connection he has with Regan, some of which had been lost by the time of A Quiet Place, and makes his sacrifice to save her and Marcus' (Noah Jupe) lives even more moving.
The opening also shows just how well equipped Lee was at dealing with the attacks, and when the family later meet Emmett (Cillian Murphy), he confirms that he saw the signals from Lee but chose to ignore them. Later still, a radio signal confirms other people are still out there - alive and ostensibly safe on an island - and there's also confirmation of the monsters' weakness being water. These are all elements that connect back to Lee, and by proving him right in so many ways, it serves to make his death even sadder, yet also ensures that his legacy very much lives on. Lee may be gone, but he still feels like a huge part of A Quiet Place 2.
Nowhere is that more evident than with Regan. While the first movie felt more like it belonged to Emily Blunt's Evelyn, especially in its ending, A Quiet Place Part II is very much Regan's movie - and with that, it confirms that Regan is very much her father's daughter. She continues on his legacy more than anyone else, and given his sacrifice for her life, then she now carries the weight of that. What was shocking and emotional in the first movie becomes even more meaningful here, as his death serves a much greater purpose than one act to save his family. By bringing Lee back and keeping him "alive" in other ways, then it adds much more depth to his death, making it better, and turning him and his family into stronger characters.
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