28 Days Later

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28 Days Later
Directed by	Danny Boyle
Produced by	Andrew Macdonald
Written by	Alex Garland
Starring	Cillian Murphy Naomie Harris Brendan Gleeson Christopher Eccleston Megan Burns
Music by	John Murphy
Cinematography	Anthony Dod Mantle
Editing by	Chris Gill
Distributed by	Fox Searchlight Pictures
Release date(s)	November 1, 2002
Running time	113 min.
Country	UK
Language	English
Budget	£5,000,000
Followed by	28 Weeks Later
Official website
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

28 Days Later is a 2002 British post-apocalyptic science fiction horror film directed by Danny Boyle and written by Alex Garland. It established the international careers of leads Cillian Murphy and Naomie Harris.

Set in United Kingdom in the year 2002, the story concerns the breakdown of society following the release of a virus known as "Rage", which makes people mindlessly violent, and the struggle of a handful of survivors to come to terms with the ruins of everything they once knew.

A critical and commercial success, the film is widely recognized for its images of an entirely deserted London, and was shot almost entirely on digital video. There is currently a sequel in production, 28 Weeks Later, due to be released in 2007.

[edit] Plot

The film opens with the initial outbreak of the "rage" virus, caused when an infected chimpanzee attacks an animal rights activist attempting to free animals from a university animal testing laboratory at the University of Cambridge.

Jim walks across Westminster Bridge on his journey through deserted London.

Twenty-eight days later, Jim, an Irish bicycle courier, wakes up from a coma in a deserted and trashed London hospital. Leaving the hospital, Jim discovers that London is in the same state; the streets are ominously empty and filled with signs of catastrophe, and he appears to be the only person present. Taking refuge in a church, Jim is attacked by people infected by the rage virus. Before they can catch and kill him, he is rescued by two uninfected survivors, Selena and Mark, who kill the Infected and rush him to their hideout in a now abandoned section of the London Underground. They tell the terrified and confused Jim what has happened in the past twenty-eight days he has been in his coma; after the outbreak in Cambridge, everyone who came into contact with the virus (spread through transmission of blood or saliva) became the vicious and mindless ‘Infected’, intent only on killing. Despite the best efforts of the government and army, the virus spread uncontrollably and British society and civil authority has collapsed, the few scattered survivors left without any amenities or contact with the outside world, which they believe to have suffered the same fate. Despite Mark and Selena’s callous observations that his parents are most likely dead or infected, Jim insists on going to his parents’ home, only to discover that they have committed suicide. The three take refuge in the house, but Jim accidentally attracts two of the Infected. Mark and Selena manage to kill the attackers, but when it seems that Mark has been infected Selena ruthlessly hacks him to death with a machete.

Venturing out once again, Jim and Selena are surprised to see a set of working Christmas lights in the window of a nearby tower block. As they enter the tower, two Infected chase them up the stairs. Jim and Selena are rescued by Frank, a cab driver wearing police riot equipment, who manages to overpower the Infected. Frank introduces the two to his teenage daughter, Hannah, and offers them shelter for the night in his flat. The next morning, Frank explains that they cannot all survive in the tower block, as they are running out of supplies, particularly water. However, Frank has picked up a pre-recorded radio broadcast made by a group of soldiers who have set up a fortified base at a blockade near Manchester and who claim to have "the answer to Infection." Despite reservations, the group decide to leave London in Frank’s cab, raiding a nearby abandoned supermarket for supplies. The four narrowly avoid the Infected on several occasions, and begin to bond as a family unit during their journey. Arriving at Manchester, the four find that the city is engulfed by a massive firestorm, as there is no one left alive to fight the fires. They arrive at the blockade, only to find that it is deserted. Storming away from the others, Frank is accidentally infected by a drop of tainted blood that lands in his eye. As the virus begins to affect him, Frank manages to tell Hannah that he loves her before he is Infected, but as he is taken over he is shot by several soldiers wearing NBC suits.

Christopher Eccleston as Major West.

The soldiers transport Jim, Selena, and Hannah to a nearby mansion fortified as a small military base, where they meet the urbane Major Henry West, who explains that he and his seven soldiers are all that is left of the force which had been protecting Manchester, and that the fires in the city have driven hundreds of Infected into the nearby area. Jim is given a tour of the grounds and is shown Mailer, an infected soldier, who has been chained up by the major to determine how long it takes for the Infected to die from starvation. That night Jim, Selena, and Hannah, who are grieving Frank’s loss, eat an uncomfortable meal with the soldiers, the majority of whom are brash and crude. The meal is interrupted by a sudden attack on the house by the Infected; after defeating them, a corporal attempts to force himself on Selena, but is prevented from doing so by Jim. Major West takes Jim aside, and explains that he cannot let the three of them leave; he has promised his lonely, suicidal and rebellious soldiers sexual access to women as a means of giving them hope, and of "rebuilding" the world. The "answer" to Infection involves waiting until the Infected have all starved to death, and in the mean time, luring any survivors to the base to acquire women for rape by the soldiers. Horrified, Jim tries to escape with his friends, but is prevented from doing so; refusing to join the soldiers, Jim is imprisoned with Sergeant Farrell, the only soldier to rebel and who had unsuccessfully tried to protect Jim and the women.

In the cellar, Farrell tells Jim that the Infection never spread beyond the British Isles, and that the outside world simply quarantined Britain. West’s plan to rebuild the world is unnecessary, and he has been driven mad by the horror of everything he’s seen. Jim and Farrell are taken into the gardens by the corporal and another soldier to be executed. Farrell is shot dead, but Jim manages to elude his captors by hiding amongst a pile of corpses. During his escape. Jim sees the contrails of an aircraft in the sky, proving Farrell’s theory correct. In the mansion’s bedrooms, Selena convinces Hannah to take several pills of Valium so that she will not care about what will happen to her when sexually assaulted. Before anything can happen, an air raid siren is heard; Jim, outside the fences and thought dead by the soldiers, has managed to reach the blockade. West and another soldier make their way to the barricade while the rest wait back at the mansion with Selena and Hannah. Once they arrive, Jim sabotages the Jeep and kills the other soldier, stealing his rifle and leaving West to face the Infected and make his way back to the mansion on foot. Back at the mansion, Jim releases Mailer by shooting his chains. Mailer escapes into the house and attacks his former comrades, infecting or killing them.

Selena and Hannah attempt to escape; Selena is caught by the corporal, but Hannah manages to elude her captors. The corporal drags Selena away to another room but is ambushed by Jim, who mercilessly beats the corporal to death. Believing Jim to be Infected, Selena tries to kill him, but she has fallen in love with him and cannot bring herself to do it. Jim assures her that he is uninfected, and the two kiss passionately. Hannah, who also believes Jim to be Infected, attacks him with a vase, but the misunderstanding is quickly cleared up and the three run to the cab—only to be confronted by West, who is waiting in the back-seat. West shoots Jim in the stomach, but Hannah steers the cab back into the house, and Mailer drags West, screaming, out of the back of the cab and beats him to death. The three escape, Hannah ramming the gates with the cab to get Jim to a hospital.

The movie cuts to the mountains of Cumbria, another twenty-eight days later. As predicted by West, the Infected are slowly dying from starvation. In the film’s coda (shot on 35mm film, unlike the rest of the film), Jim reawakens in a country cottage, to find Selena and Hannah, creating the word "hello" out of all the fabric they could find. They manage to attract the attention of a Finnish reconnaissance jet aircraft. The pilot summons a helicopter as Hannah and Selena begin to cheer and Jim slowly smiles.

[edit] Style and inspiration

The film was well received both in the United Kingdom and internationally.

"The power of the film is not that it hasn't been done before, but that it hasn't been done recently." - Kim Newman, Empire

Similarities in the concept could be drawn to David Cronenberg's horror film Rabid and in storyline to George Romero's The Crazies, as well as The Omega Man, which are about a man-made disease that drives its victims insane. The latter example also presented the disease as destroying society and civilization seemingly worldwide as humanity became ravaged. The whole situation (an infection turning men into nocturnal, blood-seeking, savage creatures versus the survival of only a few intact humans) also has a resemblance with the novel I Am Legend by Richard Matheson, upon which The Omega Man is based. The film also bears similarity to John Wyndham's novel The Day of the Triffids in several of its story elements, notably in scenes where the central character awakes in a deserted hospital amidst a deserted London. The plot device of the military post also bears noticeable resemblances to the warren of the Efrafa in Watership Down. The film also contains similarities to James Herbert's novel The Fog. There are also similarities to Empty World, a 1977 novel by Samuel Youd.

Boyle has written that 28 Days Later is not a science fiction or horror film, but rather a drama. The film’s score was composed by British composer John Murphy and was released in a score / song compilation in 2003.

[edit] Alternate endings

[edit] Return to hospital

The first alternate ending is fully filmed. Jim is mortally wounded escaping from the soldiers. Selena and Hannah, having rushed Jim to a local hospital in a futile hope that they might save his life, leave his body there; completing an eerie circle for Jim who began and ended the film alone in a deserted hospital. This ending closes with Selena and Hannah walking down a corridor and carrying guns as the operating room doors slowly close and conceal them from view.

[edit] Modification of Rescue Ending

An unpolished alternate ending is included on the DVD, which is very similar to the original coda scene of potential rescue from the air. This time, however, Jim is not present and, amusingly, has effectively been replaced by a chicken.

[edit] Return to research complex

The second alternate ending was not filmed and is shown with the help of storyboards and voice overs. The story picks up at the point where Frank is infected at the military roadblock near Manchester. This time, the sub-plot involving the soldiers does not take place. In a radical turn, Jim, Selena and Hannah take Frank to a local research complex (the same complex in which the infected chimpanzees were being held in the first scene). Their goal is to attempt to find the cure for the virus, which the radio broadcast had suggested was nearby. A short time after arriving at the research complex, the trio discover a man who has locked himself in one of the rooms, with enough food and water to survive for another week or so he claims. After asking if he had sent the radio broadcast, he replies that the soldiers back at the blockade had sent the broadcast, but they have already died. He then refuses to talk to them any further and simply ignores them. In desperation, Jim brings Hannah outside the room, explaining their situation. In the end, he tells them the cure is a complete blood transfusion. Jim sacrifices himself so that Frank can live. Again, Jim is left alone, infected in a deserted hospital, while Selena, Hannah and Frank move into the room with the man. According to the commentary on the DVD, the director believed that this ending—namely the "cure" of a total blood transfusion—was unbelievable, given that it had already been established that a single drop of infected blood would infect an entire body.

[edit] Miscellaneous

While travelling around London at the beginning of the film, Jim picks up a copy of the Evening Standard. The front page carries a single headline printed in large font: "EVACUATION", with the sub-heading "Government plans to evacuate Britain." The main text (which appears to be a list of all of London’s boroughs) surrounds a section filled with smaller headers, including:

• "Military ordered shoot to kill"
• "Dangerous animals on the loose"
• "Military blockades overrun"
• "U.S. warships patrol British coastline"
• "Blair declares state of emergency"
• "Mass exodus of British people causes global crisis"
• "UN to build giant refugee camps"

The last two sub-headers suggest that substantial numbers of the population have in fact escaped from the British Isles successfully.

The film revolves around the genetically engineered disease "Rage", which is similar to rabies (itself the Latin word for "rage"), as both are spread through contact with an infected individual's blood and causes victims to become mindlessly violent.

In the film's Special Features, it is revealed that, in order to preserve the suspension of disbelief, relatively unknown actors were cast in the film. However, it should be noted that actors Christopher Eccleston and Brendan Gleeson were already well-known as a character actors. Eccleston had appeared in films such as Let Him Have It, The Others, Gone in 60 Seconds, EXistenZ, Elizabeth and Shallow Grave (another film directed by Boyle). Gleeson had appeared in Braveheart, Lake Placid and The General.

The ending is left to be a cliffhanger as the jet leaves the site and the movie ends there. But you can hear the person in the jet say "Lähetätkö helikopterin?" which is Finnish and means "Would you send a helicopter?".

One month before the movie was released in cinemas various newspapers included a short panel comic book style promo about this movie, the various scenes show a panicking London during those 27 days with people trying to escape the city en mass.

[edit] Sequel

A sequel, 28 Weeks Later, is currently in post-production, with a scheduled release date of May 11, 2007.^[1] The title implies that it would take place several months after the first film. Danny Boyle and Alex Garland took producing roles along side Andrew Macdonald. According to the Internet Movie Database[1], the plot revolves around the idea of Americans arriving about seven months after the incidents in the original film and attempting to revitalize an empty Britain.

The cast of the original film are not returning for this film. The cast for this sequel includes Robert Carlyle, Rose Byrne, Jeremy Renner, Harold Perrineau, Catherine McCormack and Idris Elba.

Fox Atomic Comics, in association with HarperCollins, is publishing a graphic novel bridging the two films, entitled 28 Days Later: The Aftermath, written by Steve Niles.

[edit] Filming details

28 Days Later features scenes set in normally bustling parts of London such as Westminster Bridge, Piccadilly Circus, Horse Guards Parade and Oxford Street. To capture these locations looking empty and desolate, the film crew closed off sections of street for a matter of minutes at a time, usually early in the morning, to minimise disruption. Parts of the film were shot on a Canon XL-1s digital video camera. DV cameras are much smaller and more manoeuvrable than traditional film cameras, which would have been impractical on such brief shoots. The use of digital video also adds a 'documentary' feel to the film, and adds to the overall realism (see Cinéma vérité).^{[citation needed]}

In the scene where Jim walks by the overturned London bus, the crew were able to place the bus on its side and remove it when the shot was finished, all in under 20 minutes.

The scenes of the M1 motorway completely devoid of traffic were also filmed in limited time slots. In this case, a mobile police roadblock slowed traffic down enough to leave a long section of carriageway empty while the scene was filmed. The section used for filming was actually at Milton Keynes, and nowhere near Manchester.

Filming took place before the September 11, 2001 attacks, and in the audio commentary the director notes the similarity between the "missing persons" flyers seen at the beginning of the film and how people tried to find lost ones in New York City. The director also notes that they probably would not have been given permission to close off Downing Street to film, after the terrorist attacks.

The mansion used was Trafalgar Park near Salisbury. Many rooms within the house including the Cipriani room and the main hall were used during filming with minimal set decoration.

[edit] Reception

The film was a considerable success at the box office and became highly profitable on a budget of about £5 million ($9.8 million). In the UK, it took £6.1 million ($12 million), while in the US it became a surprise hit, taking over US$45 million despite a limited release at fewer than 1,500 screens nationwide. Worldwide the film scooped up around $82.7m.

Critical views of the film were positive (with a rating of 89% at RottenTomatoes [2]) the L.A. Times describing it as a "stylistic tour de force", and efilmcritic.com describing it as "raw, blistering and joyously uncompromising". While most critics were impressed with the technical achievements of the scenes of a devastated London, some were not taken with the overall effect of the film. Philip French, writing in The Observer, said that the film was "at best clutching at a straw", and was a "gory, depressing affair" [3].

This film was #100 on Bravo's 100 Scariest Movie Moments. However, a Channel 4 poll placed it much higher, at #18 in the 100 Greatest Scary Moments.

[edit] Technical details

• Release date: November 1, 2002 (UK) June 27, 2003 (U.S.)
• Runtime: 113 min.
• Aspect Ratio: 1.85 : 1
• BBFC Rating: 18
• MPAA Rating: R
• OFLC Rating: MA15+

[edit] References

[edit] External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

28 Days Later

• Official website
• 28 Days Later at the Internet Movie Database
• 28 Weeks Later at the Internet Movie Database
• Interview with Danny Boyle about sequel at Sci Fi Wire
• 28 Days Later review at Cult Fiction