The Silence Ending Clarified: Ally and Her Family's Situation
The Silence by Netflix throws viewers into a world overrun by horrific creatures called "Vesps," who hunt by sound. The movie centers on the Andrews family, who after Ally (Kiernan Shipka) loses her hearing use sign language for communication. Their path to survival is rife with risk, leading to a heartbreaking climax.
Towards the last minutes of the movie, Ally and her father Hugh (Stanley Tucci) are frantically looking for antibiotics for her mother Kelly (Miranda Otto), who has a severe leg infection. Their search brings them to a pharmacy where they come upon The Reverend (Billy MacLellan), a cult leader trying to enlist them into his group.
The Hushed are a disturbing sect with sinister goals that have adapted to the new world by cutting out their tongues. Revealing they want Ally because she's "fertile," they follow Ally and Hugh back to their far-off safe house Armed with a rifle, Hugh tries to fend them off but The Reverend and his supporters vanish into the evening.
When The Hushed sends a small child carrying cellphones—which, upon activation draw the Vesps to the safe house—things take a terrible turn. The family withdraws to the basement as the Vesps fall upon the house, only to come upon The Hushed squarely.
Ally's grandmother, Lynn ( Kaye Trotter), yells in a terrible act of sacrifice drawing the Vesps to her and the surviving cultists. The sacrifice gives the family time to flee, and finally they head for a colder environment where the Vesps are less plentiful.
Explained: What are the Vesps? The Silence Creatures
The terrible mix of pterodactyl and alien that the Vesps evoke from movies like Jurassic Park and Alien calls for images from Blind but with great sense of sound, these animals—which escaped an underground cave system—can track and consume their prey with terrible efficiency.
According to Ally's studies, the Vesps are an ancient species that developed under long confinement in the caves. They hunt and navigate using sound, much as actual cave dwellers like bats. Their horrific habit of laying eggs in the bodies of their victims, a sobering reminder of their parasitic nature, adds to their terror.
The last scene of The Silence begs viewers to consider whether people would adjust to the quiet before the Vesps would to the cold. The movie raises a difficult issue: will mastery of silence or direct attack against the Vesps determine whether or not mankind can survive?
The Hushed: a Cult Reflecting Evolution and Adaptation
The Silence: Adaptation revolves mostly on The Hushed, with their disturbing methods and despondent leader. In a world dominated by creatures that hunt by sound, they have embraced silence as a means of survival.
The Hushed's obsession with Ally's fertility highlights the urgent need to rebuild a declining population against a terrible threat by reflecting the primal instinct for survival. Though their behavior is evil, they highlight the extent people will go to in order to survive, so reflecting the subjects covered in movies like Bird Box and A Quiet Place.
The Silence's End: An Apocalypse Driven by Reproduction
The fast breeding cycle of the Vesps drives the silence's end. Although the book offers a terrifying response, the movie doesn't first explain how the Vesps could quickly overrun whole cities. The Vesps lay many eggs inside their victims, which hatch rapidly to produce a multiplying epidemic akin to wildfire.
The last scene of The Silence exposes the whole scope of the Vesps' reproductive strategy by showing the terrible sight of a wolf carcass contaminated with translucent eggs, so highlighting the continuous multiplication and expansion of the species over their territory.
Survival of the Fittest: Theme Enduring Silence
Like A Quiet Place and Bird Box, The Silence redefines conventional disabilities—like blindness and deafness—as possible survival benefits. With her hearing loss, Ally is naturally suited to negotiate the quiet world and has an advantage over others who depend on sound. The last scene of the movie suggests a future in which people might coexist with the new threat by Ally and Rob, her boyfriend, searching the Vesps in the woods.
The family's move to The Refuge, a colder environment less friendly to the Vesps, emphasizes the need of locating safe havens while people negotiate their new reality. The conclusion of The Silence depends on the concept that evolution takes time and that humans's best chance of survival is in learning to fit their surroundings.
The Silence Movie Against the Book: Variations in the Narrative and Ending
Although The Silence film's central idea is shared with Tim Lebbon's 2015 book, their stories and ends differ greatly. The film shifts the action to the United States, so establishing a scale that would not be totally realistic given the fast expansion of the Vesps. Set in the UK, the book lets the infestation's believable pace to be more apparent.
Still another important distinction is in the Hushed's intentions. In the film, they fix on Ally's fertility, implying a twisted and unsettling need for procreation. Their interaction with the family is complicated in the book since their curiosity in Ally results from her knowledge of sign language.
The film also includes a hopeful sequence in the last scene whereby Ally and Rob search the woods for the Vesps. Though it contrasts with the book's more dubious ending, which leaves readers to consider the family's fate, this addition offers a sense of closure and hope.
