It's a spoiler, so I can't

May 5, 2018 7:28 AM

We have seen "A Quiet Place" and my wife has a question ...

Why did the father tell Regan she couldn't go in the basement?

posted by donpardo to Media & Arts (7 answers total)

As I said over in FanFare:

I walked out of it thinking Meh, but then I realized that the whole film was about how literally any other member of the family was better at protecting the family than Dad. The real monster... was patriarchy.

Nearly all of Dad’s actions can be explained away as dumb “I alone can save this family” bullshit.
posted by Etrigan at 7:55 AM on May 5, 2018 [2 favorites]

I would say it’s because the basement was filled with equipment that could make a very loud sound if fiddled with by someone curious.

Add to that Regan’s previous example of going against her dad’s wishes (in giving the space shuttle toy back to her brother), and he probably thought it was safer to forbid her from the basement entirely, rather than trust her to go in the basement but not touch anything.
posted by ejs at 8:23 AM on May 5, 2018 [2 favorites]

I really enjoyed how well made it was. Excellent pacing and suspense. But goddamn that movie had huge gaping plot holes, the biggest of which is: instead of hiding by making NO sounds, hide by making a LOT of distracting noises all the time, you idiots. Instead of lights, you shoulda strung up speakers to play jazz or white noise or waterfall sounds around the perimeter of your property.
posted by MiraK at 9:16 AM on May 5, 2018 [6 favorites]

"But goddamn that movie had huge gaping plot holes, the biggest of which is: instead of hiding by making NO sounds, hide by making a LOT of distracting noises all the time, you idiots. Instead of lights, you shoulda strung up speakers to play jazz or white noise or waterfall sounds around the perimeter of your property."

A Familiar Place
posted by little eiffel at 5:12 PM on May 5, 2018 [3 favorites]

Cuz sexism. One read of A Quiet Place is it's girls-in-STEM propaganda. He clearly wanted to pass on his man-skills to his son, who is more the homebody type, and not his daughter, who is more the maker/adventurer type. He learns he's wrong. I thought this was just a realistic example of how parents unconsciously treat their kids differently depending on gender (and lots of other factors).

(Also the movie suggested the dad blamed the daughter for the death of the youngest kid and was perhaps unconsciously punishing her for it).
posted by latkes at 5:55 PM on May 6, 2018

Response by poster: But when he catches her and she asks why she can't go there, he says, "You know why." I don't think he means "Because you're a girl."
posted by donpardo at 7:59 AM on May 7, 2018

Huh... I forgot that. I guess that suggests the "You proved you can't be trusted when you killed your little brother so no going in the important/dangerous room" idea.
posted by latkes at 1:18 PM on May 7, 2018