Horror prequel A Quiet Place: Day One has been one of the major success stories of the summer box office, with audiences making plenty of noise for the alien invasion flick to the tune of $253 million.
And though we always stan and support queen Lupita Nyong’o, it didn’t appear Day One had much else to offer the gays, which—as a viral tweet puts it—was for good reason:
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But, as a new deleted scene from the apocalyptic film reveals, there may have actually been a queer character in the movie the entire time!
*Spoilers ahead for the plot of Quiet Place: Day One*
Nyong’o plays Sam, a terminally ill cancer patient traveling into Manhattan with her hospice program when the sh*t hits the fan and extraterrestrial creatures begin falling to earth, using their extra-sensory hearing to swiftly wipe out much of the city’s population.
Having already made her peace, Sam decides she just wants to get to Harlem for one last slice of pizza from her favorite spot before she dies, and she has some help along her perilous journey thanks to a young, English law student named Eric (rising star Joseph Quinn).
Sam initially meets Eric as he’s escaping from a flooded subway station and, at least within the official theatrical version of the film, we never learn much about who he is—or was—before the aliens arrived.
However, People has exclusively premiered a deleted scene where Eric discussions what brought him to NYC in the first place—and its a story that’ll feel especially familiar to any queer kid who left their small town behind for the big city.
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In a rare moment of rest, Sam asks Eric where he was headed on that fateful subway ride, which inspires him to open up about his chidlhood:
“When I left home, I thought, ‘I can go anywhere.’ New York, there. That’s the place—I will be accepted in that city,” he explains to his fellow survivor. “I grew up in a really small town, and my dad was… He had an idea of the sons that he wanted, and I wasn’t like that. Here, people didn’t really mind that part of me. It was different here.”
But, eventually, a different feeling started to set in for Eric. “I was so lonely, and then one day I woke up and I just realized I just… I don’t have a home anywhere. I’m really tired of feeling alone… so I thought it would be easier not to live anywhere.”
The fairly obvious subtext here is that Eric is queer, and left home for New York City where he thought he would not only be accepted for who he is, but also manage to find a sense of belonging for once in his life. Sadly, he couldn’t bare to wait around for it any longer, and had made a plan to end his life.
There’s no explanation for why writer-director Michael Sarnoski may have opted to leave the scene on the cutting room for, though it is a particularly heavy one, even in a movie about an alien apocalypse.
But, in addition to highlighting Eric’s queerness, keeping the moment in certainly would’ve provided some emotional heft to the character’s arc. Especially in contrast to Sam’s story, here was someone who found new purpose, a new lease on life, in these extreme circumstances, and stepped up to the plate to help others.
It also would’ve been a cool move for emerging star Joseph Quinn to play an LGBTQ+ character just as his career is starting to explode. After breaking through with Season 4 of Stranger Things, he’s lined up a number of high-profile projects in addition to this year’s horror prequel, like the new Fantastic Four movie opposite Pedro Pascal, the upcoming Alex Garland movie Warfare with an all-babygirl cast, and this fall’s historical epic Gladiator II (it looks like he might be a bit of a queen in that, too, though the jury’s still out).
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And, hey *here’s yet another A Quiet Place: Day One spoiler warning for you* Quinn’s Eric does make it out of Manhattan alive at the end of the movie—with Sam’s sweet cat Frodo in hand—so maybe a sequel can explore him in more detail? Perhaps one that even weaves his queerness into the story in a meaningful way?
It’s high time we have a movie with a gay cat dad as the hero, so why not A Quiet Place: Day Two?
A Quiet Place: Day One is now available for digital rental/purchase on VOD platforms.
Cam
“The fairly obvious subtext here is that Eric is queer, and left home for New York City where he thought he would not only be accepted for who he is,”
So LGBTQ people are supposed to be happy that there is a deleted scene where the person said he didn’t fit in where he was from and we can infer that MAYBE he was talking about POSSIBLY being queer.
Wow, how inclusive.
Kangol2
More dreck from Hollywood.