A Quiet Place: Day One, ending explained

A Quiet Place: Day One delivers several emotional gut punches during its bittersweet ending. Although it is another excellent entry in this modern horror trilogy, Day One doesn't add to the world-building, preferring to focus on human connections amid horrifying circumstances.

Below, we're breaking down some of the biggest questions presented by Pig director Michael Sarnoski's latest film and revealing which characters survive until the end.

Day One is a prequel, but doesn't explore the monsters' origins

If you were hoping Day One would reveal the origin of the monsters, or Death Angels as they're also apparently known, you might have been disappointed by their quick introduction into the world. Par for the course for this franchise, the latest film is far more interested in its characters than in precise world-building.

Technically, the beginning of Day One consists of material we've seen before, in A Quiet Place Part II, which starts with Evelyn (Emily Blunt), Lee (John Krasinski), and their two children attending a baseball game when the asteroids carrying in the creatures crash down on Earth. But while Part II eventually moves forward to show us Lee's family after his death (he sacrificed himself at the end of the first film), Day One stays on, well, day one (and two, technically).

Day One's protagonist, Sam (Lupita Nyong'o), is a terminally ill patient in hospice at a facility near the city. Hospice care worker Reuben (Alex Wolff) coerces Sam into attending a marionette show with the other residents, promising they'll get pizza from Patsy's in Harlem. But Sam doesn't get the chance to indulge before the aliens arrive.

Does Sam ever get her pizza?

She does, but it's not from Patsy's pizzeria. Patsy's was important to Sam because it connects her to her late father. They used to go to a little tavern in Harlem where he'd play piano beautifully and then get pizza afterward. Missing her dad in her own final days alive, Sam wants to feel connected to him one last time. It's why she's so desperate to get to Harlem.

Sadly, the pizzeria is already in ruins by the time Sam and Eric (Joseph Quinn) get there. Eric suggests she take him to the tavern instead, which is luckily still in one piece. It's one of the movie's best and most endearing scenes, as Eric takes it upon himself to cheer Sam up.

He even finds a different pizza place nearby and salvages one of the last remaining pizzas, scrawling "Patsy's" on the box to stand in for the real thing. So damn cute. Sure, it might not be the real Patsy's, but it's the thought that counts. Sam gets her pizza (and Frodo steals a slice, too).

Which of the main characters survive?

Reuben is the first major character to die in the film. A monster kills him while he and Sam are turning off a generator to prevent the sound from attracting the creatures.

Technically, Sam and Eric both survive the movie. In the end, Sam creates a huge distraction by setting off several car alarms and causing a general ruckus so that Eric can escape the city with Frodo, the cat.

Luckily for them, Henri (Djimon Hounsou, who played the "Man on the Island" introduced in Part II) is on one of the last boats to leave the harbor and tells the boat captain to stop and wait for Eric as he sprints toward the dock. He and Frodo make it alive and well onto the boat and seemingly escape the city.

As for Sam, the creatures don't kill her during the mayhem, but the film's final moments show her making peace with the end of her life before taking a final stroll through the city while listening to Nina Simone's "I'm Feeling Good" on an old iPod. She pulls the headphones out so the music can play out loud, and we see one of the creatures drop in behind her (on beat, mind you) just as the credits roll, suggesting that the monster kills her soon after.

A Quiet Place: Day One is now playing in theaters.