A Quiet Place: the story so far before you watch the sequel

A Quiet Place: Part II has already made some noise at the American box office, and opens in the UK on the 3rd of June. The sequel picks up right from the end of the first movie, so if you need a reminder of what's happened so far, you've come to the right place.

1. The story centres on the Abbott family

Dad Lee (John Krasinski), mother Evelyn (Emily Blunt), daughter Regan (Millicent Simmonds) and son Marcus (Noah Jupe) make up the Abbott clan. They are carving out a desperate, threadbare existence in a post-apocalyptic landscape, and must communicate using American Sign Language. This facilitates communication with Regan, who is deaf, but a lack of noise is also critical to the family's survival.

2. They are besieged by monsters who hunt via sound

The threat facing the Abbotts is a particularly hideous one: armoured alien creatures adorned with an ultra-sensitive, ear-like appendage. This means that even the slightest sound can spell doom for anybody foolish enough to make a noise. The aliens are impervious to bullets and terrifyingly swift in their attacks. In the first A Quiet Place, the circumstances surrounding the aliens' arrival is mysterious, although we see scraps of information that Lee has attempted to piece together. In the second movie... well, you'll have to wait and see.

3. The Abbotts must adapt to a strange new world

This means breathless, dangerous foraging expeditions to the local town for supplies. In order to get there, the Abbotts have devised a system for walking on sand, which muffles their footsteps. They must even eat their dinner in silence and enjoy family time, like games of Monopoly, without making a sound. Outside their farmhouse, they've devised a visual system to communicate danger: red lights mean danger is near.

4. The Abbotts have already suffered one devastating loss

At the beginning of the first movie, a foraging expedition goes horribly, tragically wrong when youngest Abbott child Beau activates a space shuttle toy. The blaring noise means he is immediately killed by one of the creatures.

One year later, Lee, Evelyn, Regan and Marcus are still grieving, but Evelyn is now pregnant with a new child. This leads to an agonizing sequence where she must give birth in near-silence in the bathtub while one of the beasts prowls nearby. Beau's memorial, a cross adorned with toys, photos and mementos, is visited by Regan in the first film and also features during a powerful sequence in the second.

5. Lee sacrifices himself for his children

Haunted by his apparent failure to save Beau, Lee makes a shot at redemption by distracting one of the monsters away from his remaining children. This, unsurprisingly, leads to his death, but it is a noble sacrifice. And, rest assured, you will see Lee again during the nail-biting opening sequence of A Quiet Place: Part II.

6. Daughter Regan has figured out the monsters' main weakness

The family has worked out that running water masks their sounds from the creatures. Lee demonstrates this to Marcus by taking him to a nearby waterfall for some father-son bonding time. Later on, Evelyn gambles with her life when backing behind a flow of water with her baby, away from one of the aliens. The overwhelming sound of the water confuses the creatures and means they can't echo-locate. but this is only a temporary reprieve.

At the end of the movie, Regan discovers that her hearing aid can be used with a microphone to produce piercing static noise. This stops the beasts in their tracks, causing them to lower their defences and exposing them to gunfire. This tactic plays a significant role in A Quiet Place: Part II – but of course, we're not going to spoil it for you.