A Quiet Place: Day One is hitting theaters, finally answering all the questions hinted at in the trailers. Directed by Michael Sarnoski and starring Lupita Nyong’o, Joseph Quinn, and Djimon Hounsou, Day One revolves around exactly that: the very first day the alien invasion came to earth. The story follows a few humans as they try to survive in the suddenly silent, carnage-strewn New York City and quickly have to learn the rules of the dire new game they’re playing.

Considering its setting and title, Day One is obviously A Quiet Place prequel. Still, there are a few ties to the previous movies, most notably in Djimon Hounsou’s character, who also appeared in A Quiet Place Part II. There, however, he was only known as “Man on Island.” In Day One, we learn his name is Henri and bits of his life before the invasion. Here’s what to know about the movie before seeing it.

A Quiet Place: Day One Setting

The story unfolds in New York City, which is hardly a not-overused movie location. Still, it’s the very fact that New York City is so iconic and well-known that makes its utilization all the more interesting for A Quiet Place: Day One. Previous AQP movies have taken place in rural upstate New York, in the midst of quasi-wilderness, with humans beyond the Abbott family being few and far between. Moving the action to New York City, one of the most populated cities in the world, is a stroke of genius as it increases the magnitude of everything: the horror, the panic, the devastation, and the opportunity for different personalities to clash as each person tries their best to navigate the survivalist nightmare in which they’re suddenly thrust.

The timeline setting being on the first day of the alien arrival also provides plenty of interesting opportunities that the previous movies did not. In the first two movies, the Abbotts and the few people they encounter have largely adjusted to their new normal of silence and survival. In A Quiet Place: Day One, none of the many New York City citizens and tourists have had time to adjust: the alien threat descends and they’re instantaneously thrown into a new world. Some people will adjust quickly. Others won’t. The conflict comes from everyone suddenly trying to survive while figuring out the new rules.

A Quiet Place: Day One Characters

Though the setting is in the populous New York City, Day One, as the other movies did, follows just a few characters.

Sam (Lupita Nyong’o) – Sam is a woman who is dying from terminal cancer and lives in hospice care. It’s during a group outing to Manhattan that the aliens arrive and Sam suddenly finds herself trying to survive even as she’s dying.

Frodo (Nico and Schnitzel) – As Sam’s service cat, Frodo is as much of a character as any of the humans. He helps Sam, comforts her when she’s in pain, and becomes her only real tether to the world.

Eric (Joseph Quinn) – Eric is a law student from England who encounters Frodo when he gets separated from Sam. Frodo leads him back to Sam and Sam and Eric team up to travel the city, feeling they’re both stronger together than apart.

Reuben (Alex Wolff) – Reuben is a care worker at the hospice where Sam resides. When he notices Sam withdrawing, he’s the one who convinces her to accompany him and a few of the other residents to go on a day trip to Manhattan.

Henri (Djimon Hounsou) – When Sam is knocked unconscious in the initial alien attack, she awakens in a theater to find another survivor, Henri. He’s smart and has already figured out that it’s silence they need to stay alive.

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