The film sets up a paradox: avoiding sound on the one hand, and longing to hear it on the other. Keeping quiet is for survival, and hearing sound is also for better survival. The deaf-mute girl wants to hear the beauty that remains in this apocalyptic world. And my father is also working hard to repair a hearing aid. In this paradox is full of love, persistence and hope.
Another paradox is that humans who avoid aliens have learned to communicate in a variety of ways besides language. Such as eyes, movements, postures, etc., but in the nature that has lost human traces, more sounds that we have ignored are released, those wind blowing trees, birds singing and insects singing, the sounds of nature with babbling streams, gorgeous and desolate With its rich and diverse voices, the natural world reflects the sadness, loneliness and cruelty of the apocalyptic world of mankind. The horror and chill in the silence that runs through it is the foundation of the thriller's success.
The actors in the movie seem to have returned to the silent film era, but they have gone from being unable to speak to daring to speak, and the world has fallen into silence. How ironic this is. Human beings seem to go around in a circle and return to the origin of civilization. Let the ignorant little girl take away the battery that can make a sound. This is the value of Western freedom, although it may cost life. The death of the younger daughter created a gap between the father and the eldest daughter. In a doomsday scene of decay, human survivors walk barefoot, as if returning to primitive society. The title of the film is also very interesting, instead of silent place, it used quiet place. The former refers to the natural calm and quiet, while the latter emphasizes that human beings have to keep quiet as much as possible under some kind of strong repression. This forced meaning forms a terrible plot tension, which is vividly rendered at the beginning of the film.
Even if human beings live a quiet and embarrassing life surrounded by aliens, and death will strike at any time, there is still hope that is worth living in this terrible unease. Although the young daughter died, there is still hope for the human survivors to unite, and new life is brewing in the mother's womb and is about to be born. In this apocalyptic world, judgment and redemption exist simultaneously. In the transition between sadness and joy, we see more details of human nature and life, people's expressions, actions, eyes, and various furnishings, the content and meaning attached to various behaviors, and the emotions and thoughts revealed. , are so full and touching. Acts without dialogue, dialogue without voice, appear purer and more dramatic. The life of this family is like a pantomime that washes away the lead in this hustle and bustle world. It is simple, precious, mysterious and warm.
The sound of breaking a lamp almost killed the whole family. And the cry of the baby who is about to be born may be the end of the family's happiness! In the families of survivors, human beings must learn all the skills of survival, from theory to practice, and pass on valuable knowledge and experience from generation to generation. You must also know how to release yourself in a depressing and silent environment, go to the rumbling waterfall to shout to your heart's content, and send out a long-lost shout to repair your soul. At this time, nature has also become the best protector of human beings.
The middle part of the film is quite protracted, and the family seems to be still living in the shadow of the death of the youngest daughter, isolated from each other. Those feelings of remorse, sadness, and self-blame spread. On the way back to the waterfall shouting, the father and son met an old man who was tortured to madness by the silent environment, and the latter became an alien prey because of his shouting. Later, the situation took a turn for the worse. The mother's amniotic fluid broke and she was about to give birth. When she went downstairs, she accidentally stepped on a nail, making a noise that attracted the alien. The mother was extremely calm, first issued a red warning light, and then desperately took a deep breath to keep the power of action not offset by fear. Several alien creatures heard the sound of surrounding the home, and the mother inside and the father outside began to join forces to deal with the killers. Heroism has finally begun.
The family finally got rid of the killer by making a loud noise of fireworks, and the ultimate trouble came. The baby was born crying, what should I do? Do you want the baby's life or your own? A huge ethical dilemma arises. This extremely difficult test goes straight to the depths of human nature. And through the technical means of taking precautions, Dad actually successfully solved this trouble. All that's left is how to deal with these alien killers. At this moment, the whistling noise from the eldest daughter's hearing aid actually drove away the alien, which was extremely sensitive to sound. The plot of the film has become extremely compact, and the audience's emotions are constantly switching between reassurance and suspense almost every moment, and they can't stop.
The mother woke up and was close to the alien. Around the life of a newborn, a showdown is inevitable. Whether the baby can make a sound, whether it is detected by aliens, and whether the siblings who fell into the granary can escape the clutches. New suspense, new troubles follow. The whistling sound of the eldest daughter's earphones once again saved the siblings from the alien claws. The father took up the tomahawk and wanted to fight the alien to the death. In the end, in order to save the siblings, the seriously injured father ended the battle with a shout and died heroically.
Ultimately, the eldest daughter defeats Alien with a megaphone and a hearing aid. It was the useless hearing aid that her father made for her, the loudspeaker that her father kept using to contact the other survivors in vain, and these two almost useless devices became the ultimate weapon against aliens! How coincidental and reasonable this is, the strong fatherly love and warm humanity have become the last and most powerful force for mankind to fight against the cold and cruel aliens. And the mother also conquered the fear and gave the alien a fatal shot. The mother and daughter took over the responsibilities of the husband and father, and finally found a way to eliminate them in the face of the aliens rushing towards them. There is no longer fear and despair on the faces of mother and daughter, they have the will to fight to the end, the hope of protecting their homeland and the determination to never admit defeat!
The focus of this film is not so much a thriller plot or the theme of an alien killer, but rather the creation of an atmosphere and a reflection on how human beings survive and resist when they are in a predicament. In a desperate predicament, human beings are in a situation of facing death all the time, and the calmness, perseverance, wisdom, love and sacrifice that burst out in the predicament are moving and admirable. This is a great human movement that has nothing to do with the present world. In a world of abundance and security, in the face of various disasters and wars, people who are increasingly numb still lack the understanding and response to the crisis, as well as the warmth of mutual support and the courage to sacrifice others.
The audience can think like this: In the current society surrounded by noise and prosperity, does human beings still have a simple and powerful force? In a state of cowardice and malaise nourished by a comfortable and adequate environment, is there still the spirit of fighting the crisis and struggling to survive? Do we still have hope? Bao has a strong will that is invincible even if he loses everything? In this future world that may not be fantasy.
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