One of the most compelling things about John Krasinski’s A Quiet Place franchise is its ability to tell a complete story without expositional backstories. We’re thrown into a post-apocalyptic setting that’s become rampant with gruesome killing machines, but we never learn why or how. But Krasinski actually revealed the origin of his monsters on an episode of the Empire podcast. There’s a lot more to them than meets the eye.

First off, Krasinski confirmed that the creatures are indeed extra-terrestrial. “They are absolutely aliens. They’re from another planet,” said Krasinski. “Where I developed the idea of them and what I wanted them to look like was most alien movies are about takeovers, agendas, they’re a thinking alien creature, and for me this idea of a predator, this idea of a parasite, this idea of something that is introduced into an ecosystem [was interesting]."

Krasinski likened the aliens’ takeover to a “terrible” joke he once heard about “releasing wolves into a daycare center.” But these are not just any wolves — they’re evolutionarily perfect machines. “So the idea is if they grew up on a planet that had no humans and no light then they don’t need eyes, they can only hunt by sound,” he explained. “They also develop a way to protect themselves from everything else so that’s why they’re bulletproof and all these things.”

Lastly, Krasinski shared his idea for how these aliens were able to traverse across space to Earth. Since they have no eyes, piloting a spaceship wouldn’t be possible. Their indestructible armor, however, allowed for a new means of transportation. Said Krasinski: “[The armor is] also the reason why they were able to survive kind of the explosion of their planet and then survive on these meteorites, because they’ve evolved to be bulletproof. Until they open themselves up to be vulnerable, they’re completely invulnerable.”

A Quiet Place Part II is in theaters now, and will arrive on Paramount+ on July 12.

[H/T Collider]

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