When it comes to the A Quiet Place franchise we kept coming back to one big question: What are the biological factors that would allow these terrifying aliens who terrorize Earth to hunt via sound alone? The aliens, often referred to as “dark angels” in the films, have a number of distinct characteristics which will inform our questions.

For starters, they're blind but incredibly sensitive to sound, which gives them an instinct to kill everything that emits the slightest noise. They are also incredibly strong and fast and they possess armored skin which protects them from most kinds of weapons, including bombs and fire. The only ways to kill them (so far) are to drop them into deep water (since they can’t swim) or by emitting high-frequency sound which causes the armor on their heads to open and expose their only vulnerable part: their ears.

In this episode we will dive into how this alien echolocation differs from what we see in animals native to our planet, and the environmental factors that might have contributed to how and why these creatures evolved as they did. And then there are all the story elements to consider, from the sound design (and lack thereof) of the films themselves, the question of childbirth in a world where uttering a sound can get you killed, and much more. Oh yeah, and then you might want to find out who from the film thought this movie should have been called Don’t Fart. It’s all fair game in Does it Fly? episode 12!