28 Days Later (2002)

Although I didn't see it until 2009, when I bought it on DVD, I certainly knew of 28 Days Later when it was released in the U.S. in 2003, both through TV spots and by word-of-mouth. The TV spots were just a flurry of images that didn't leave much of a single impression on me, but I do remember the often repeated critical quote which proclaimed the movie, "Scary as hell!" The first truly concrete impression I had of the film was when it was featured at the beginning of Bravo's 100 Scariest Movie Moments, where people like Leonard Maltin, Eli Roth, and Peter Jackson were praising it. I also got more of a sense of what it was about, with those iconic shots of Jim wandering around a completely abandoned London and how everyone called it the first "zombie" movie where the zombies ran. In addition, Roth mentioned that it was shot on DV rather than film, which was why it had a rather grainy, harsh look to it. As for the "scary moment" itself, they showed the scene early on where several of the infected break into the house and attack Jim, which gave me a sense of how crazy and kinetic the action was. That was enough to sell me on needing to see the film (though, I also decided to see every single movie on that list that I hadn't already seen), which, as I said, wouldn't happen for another five years. I bought it, as well as its sequel, as part of a massive buying spree I went on in October of 2009 when I went up to Pigeon Forge to attend my first ever horror convention and had a crap-load of money to burn. It and 28 Weeks Later were the last of that haul I watched and, if you've seen my other Danny Boyle review, 127 Hours, you'd know that I actually wasn't that big on it at first. One part of it was the thick accents of the cast and their often hushed tones, often making it hard to understand what they were saying (the same thing happened when I first saw Dog Soldiers, which I don't really like at all); another part of it was the characters themselves, whom I had a hard time getting into; and the final part was the look of the film, especially the kinetic action, which often made it really hard to figure out just what was going on. I also wasn't a big fan of the second half, dealing with the military group, as I thought it distracted from the real threat of the Infected. I must admit that, overall, it was kind of a disappointment.

Now, having watched it several more times since, as well as listening to Danny Boyle and writer Alex Garland's commentary, I will say that I do get what they were going for and, while it's still never going to be one of my favorite horror movies, I do appreciate and respect it more. I still find the movie's look to be off-putting, though I can't deny it does make it unique, I wish the attack and horror scenes weren't so crazy in their quickness, and even though I get what they were going for, I wish they would've gone in a different direction for the second half. But, all that said, it's definitely well-made, with a lot of talent in front of and behind the camera, and there are moments that are unforgettable. What's especially unsettling about it is that, while it was considered at the time to be a relevant film of the post 9/11 age, its core idea of a virus running rampant and causing a societal collapse is even more resonant in the era of COVID-19, with all those shots of abandoned cities and empty streets looking very much like how it was during the lockdown.

Radical animal rights activists break into the Cambridge Primate Research Center to free the chimpanzees being held there, when a scientist walks in on them. The activists stop him before he can contact security and he warns them that the chimps are infected with a highly contagious virus he simply calls "Rage." Ignoring his further warnings that one bite can lead to infection, they open up one of the cages and the chimp inside immediately attacks the woman in the group, viciously biting into her. After the chimp is pulled off her and killed, she spits blood into another activist's face, infecting him. Within seconds, they become bloodthirsty, ferocious monsters like the chimps and attack the others. A month later, a young man awakens from a coma in a hospital to find the place deserted and looking like it's been ransacked. Finding some clothes and something to drink, he walks out into the streets of London and finds the entire city seemingly abandoned, after some sort of massive disaster. Among the shambles, he finds a newspaper with a headline proclaiming that all of Britain has been evacuated. Wandering into a church, he's attacked and chased by a number of people infected with the virus, but is rescued by two normal people, a woman named Selena and a man named Mark, who him to their hideout down in the London subway system. There, the young man introduces himself as Jim, a bicycle courier who's been in a coma since getting hit by a car. They break it to him that, in the 28 days he was unconscious, the Rage virus spread throughout the country and now, society has collapsed completely and the virus may have spread across the world. Despite being told they're likely dead, Jim insists on going to his parents' home in Deptford. Arriving there the next day, he finds they committed suicide together and left him a note saying they hope he never wakes up. That night, several of "the Infected" break into the house and attack Jim, leading to a fight that leaves Mark bleeding. Selena, not taking the chance, immediately hacks him to death with a machete, and she and Jim head back into the city. They soon meet two other survivors: Frank and his teenage daughter, Hannah, who've taken shelter in their apartment building. Frank plays them a recording of a radio broadcast from a military blockade in Manchester, which claims to have the answer to the infection. With no other recourse, the group decides to try to escape London and head to where they hope salvation is waiting for them.

This was Danny Boyle's fifth film as director, after he'd made his debut in 1995 with Shallow Grave and 1996's Trainspotting, and then tackled some bigger budgeted but ultimately unsuccessful films with A Life Less Ordinary and The Beach. Significantly, The Beach was based on a novel by Alex Garland, who came up with the idea for 28 Days Later and wrote the screenplay, basing it on his love for zombie movies, particularly Night of the Living Dead and Dawn of the Dead; Boyle, however, said in the marketing that it was more akin to The Day of the Triffids and tried to avoid it being labeled purely as a zombie movie (but we'll get into that debate later). I myself view it as one of Boyle's last films as a purely cult director, as after this, he went on to make more mainstream, Oscar-winning films like Slumdog Millionaire and 127 Hours. Referring back to my review of the latter, you'll remember that I came to realize after watching it that I wasn't a big fan of Boyle's filmmaking style, as I felt he went a little overboard while telling such a simple and intimate story. Granted, I've only seen a small handful of his films at this point, so my opinion may shift if I check out some others (I've long been interested in seeing Shallow Grave, since it was also on the 100 Scariest Movie Moments), and I do think it worked here, even if I'm not crazy about the entire end result, but, as it stands, I can hardly call him one of my favorite directors.

Is it me or is Cillian Murphy's voice deeper in this movie than it normally is? Maybe it's because he's not putting on an American accent or something about the movie's audio, but his voice sounds several octaves lower than it does in the Christopher Nolan Batman movies and Red Eye. Regardless, Murphy's character Jim goes through a considerable arc across the story. He awakens in a London hospital a month after getting hit by a car to, one, find himself completely naked, and two, find the place abandoned and in shambles. After getting some clothes and some soda to drink, he wanders out of the hospital and finds that, to his shock, the entire city of London is abandoned. No matter where he goes, be it across the Westminster Bridge, Oxford Street, or Piccadilly Circus, he's completely alone. He gets a clue as to what's happened when he finds a discarded newspaper with a headline about an evacuation and total exodus of the British Isles, as well as a spot filled with hundreds of missing persons fliers, but it's only when he goes inside a church and is confronted by throngs of the Infected that he gets his first taste of it. Fortunately for him, he's rescued by Selena and Mark, who take him down to their hideout in the subway and brief him on what's happened and the extent of it. He's especially shocked to learn there's no government anymore, exclaiming, "There's always a government! They're in a... a... bunker or a plane." Despite being told his parents are likely dead, Jim is so desperate to find them that he's willing to walk to their home in Deptford. Selena and Mark take him there the next day, where he discovers that they committed suicide together and left him a note written on the back of a photo of him as a kid, saying, "Jim, with endless love, we left you sleeping. Now we're sleeping with you. Don't wake up." As distraught as he is, Selena and Mark tell him that their deaths were nothing compared to how others, including Mark's own family, succumbed to the virus. That night, Jim reminisces about his parents, only to accidentally attract the attention of some Infected with a candle, leading to a confrontation that results in Mark getting a bleeding cut on his arm and Selena, in turn, killing him with a machete.

After leaving the house, Selena tells Jim that she killed Mark because of how quickly and easily the virus spreads. Jim spots some blinking lights in an apartment building, which leads to the two of them meeting Frank and Hannah, who let them into their home and allow them access to everything they have. Unlike the cynical, hard-hearted Selena, whose only concern is whether or not they're going to slow them down, Jim is more willing to partake in their hospitality and says that, unlike her, he

wouldn't abandon them if the opportunity arose. When Frank brings up the subject of the radio transmission from the military blockade in Manchester, Jim is more willing to chance going there, thinking they might possibly have a cure for the virus. During the trip, Jim is all about taking the longer but safer routes out of London and advises against going through a tunnel, which proves to be sound advice, as it has a big pileup of cars and Frank's driving over it blows out one of

their tires, leading to their nearly getting attacked. He also proves to be fairly easygoing and even funny, for the most part, but there comes a crucial moment when, while searching a small diner, he's attacked by an infected boy. Having learned from Selena's example, he easily overpowers and kills him with a baseball bat, though he doesn't tell Selena about it and is clearly troubled by it. When they stop by the side of the road for the night, he has a bad dream about waking up alone, like he did in the hospital, a sign of his growing closeness to

the group and a peek at his number one fear. After they reach the blockade in Manchester and are taken in by the military unit, Jim learns that their promised "answer" to the infection is to simply wait until the Infected all starve to death. He also learns the transmission was little more than a lure to get women to their base for the sex-starved soldiers, as well as to ensure a future to mankind. Horrified, he tries to escape with Selena and Hannah, only to be captured and imprisoned, with plans to be executed the next day. But when they take him out into the woods, he escapes and ends up resorting to brutality on the level of the Infected in order to get back in and save the girls.

Selena (Naomie Harris) also goes through an arc, only it's the exact opposite of Jim's. When Jim first meets her after she and Mark save him, she's cold, no nonsense, and tough as nails. She and Mark matter-of-factly lay out what's happened while he was in his coma, as well as that their families are dead and his will be too. She assures him that, if he does try to walk to Deptford to find his parents, he won't come back, and the next day, when she and Mark take him there and he finds they committed suicide together, Selena tells him he should be grateful that they died peacefully. It's after several Infected break into the house and attack that night that Selena shows how ruthless and uncompromising she is. Pointing a machete at Jim, she demands he reveal if he were bitten or if any of the blood got in his mouth. When he shows her it didn't, she turns to Mark, who's nursing a bleeding wound on his arm. She then brutally hacks him to death without hesitation, before scrambling for supplies and telling Jim they need to get out before more Infected come. As they walk back into the city, she tells him, "I didn't know he was infected, okay? He knew. I could see it in his eyes. Look, if someone gets infected, you've got between ten and twenty seconds to kill them. It might be your brother, or your sister, or your oldest friend. It makes no difference. And just so you know where you stand, if it happens to you, I'll do it in a heartbeat." She then adds, "Have you got any plans, Jim? Do you want us to find a cure and save the world, or just fall in love and fuck? Plans are pointless. Staying alive is as good as it gets." Because of this attitude of hers, Jim doesn't bother to tell Selena that he's getting a pounding headache until it's so bad he can barely stand, saying, "I didn't think you'd give a shit." When they meet Frank and Hannah, Selena sees them as little more than a liability and admits to Jim that, if she thinks they'd slow her down, she'd leave them behind. Jim says he wouldn't and she responds, "Then you're gonna wind up getting yourself killed." Jim then tries to thank her for saving his life, to which she just says, "Sure," and when he says up front, " No, look. I mean, thank you," she responds, "And I mean, sure."

Though she's reluctant to drive to Manchester to see if there's anything behind the military radio transmission, saying the soldiers who made the recording could be dead, as well as being adamant that there's no cure for the infection, the four of them do make the journey. Along the way, Selena's mood begins to soften, as she grows closer to Frank and Hannah, especially Hannah, acting like a big sister to her. She also begins to genuinely care about Jim, telling him to stay close when they stop

to refuel. When they stop on the side of the road for the night, she admits to him, "I was wrong... All the death. All the shit. It doesn't really mean anything to Frank and Hannah because... well, she's got her dad, and he's got his daughter, so... I was wrong when I said that staying alive is as good as it gets." Jim says he was thinking the same thing, adding, "You stole my thought," and Selena promptly kisses him on the cheek. The next morning, when they leave, they wake Jim up with

the car horn, with Selena playfully calling him "sleepyhead" and "Babe Ruth" when he picks up the bat he's been using as a weapon. Upon reaching the blockade, only to find it abandoned, Selena acts as the sensible one, telling the freaked out and desperate Frank they need to go, when he yells, "Go fucking where?!" After Frank becomes infected and is gunned down by the soldiers, who take them in, Selena becomes so worried for Hannah that she actually starts to cry. Jim tries to console her, telling her that Hannah will cope just

like the two of them have, and Selena shows just how much she's changed when she exclaims, "I don't want her to have to fucking cope! I want her to be okay. When Hannah had her dad, it was okay. It was okay for them, and it was okay for us. Now, it's all just fucked." Jim kisses her on the mouth and the two of them kiss passionately for a little bit, before Selena breaks it off and leaves the room. Also like Jim, she's disturbed by how much the soldiers seem to get off on killing the Infected, and she's harassed by Corporal Mitchell, one of the

more perverted of the men. This proves to be horrific foreshadowing for the soldiers' plans for both her and Hannah. Following an escape attempt, Jim is taken to be executed, while the girls are prepped for... ensuring the future. Selena does the only thing she feels she can do for Hannah, which is give her a bunch of Valium so she won't be as traumatized. Fortunately for them, Jim manages to break back in and save them, though the brutal way he kills Mitchell initially makes Selena think he's infected. She swings the machete at him when he approaches her, only to stop halfway towards his neck, to which he remarks, "That was longer than a heartbeat." Realizing he's still himself, she kisses Jim passionately and the three of them attempt escape. However, Jim is severely injured in the process and Hannah has to use her medical know-how to save him.

Selena's initial companion, Mark (Noah Huntley), proves to be the antithesis of her when he introduces himself to Jim by telling a joke: "A man walks into a bar with a giraffe. They both get pissed. The giraffe falls over. The man goes to leave and the bartender says, 'Oy, you can't leave that lyin' there.' And the man says, 'No. It's not a lion. It's a giraffe.'" Jim just stares at him in shock, as well as probably because that joke sucked, and Mark, removing the gas mask he was wearing, tells Selena, "Completely humorless. You two should get on like a house on fire." Mark keeps this cynical, humorous edge to him as he and Selena tell Jim what's happened, saying, "I've got some bad news," but he's also much harsher when it comes to Jim's likely dead family, telling him, "We'll take you tomorrow. We'll all go and find your dead parents together." However, he's not completely unsympathetic. When Jim, distraught over what's happened to his parents, tells Selena he's not at all grateful that they're gone, Mark tells him how his family became infected: "My parents and my sisters, we went to Paddington Station, hoping, maybe, we could get on a plane. Maybe we could... buy our way onto a plane. My mum and my dad had all this cash, even though cash was completely useless. About 20,000 other people had the same idea. The crowd was surging. I lost my grip on my sister's hand. I remember the ground was soft. I looked down, and I was standing on all these people, like a carpet. People who had fallen, and somewhere in the crowd, there were Infected. It spread fast. No one could run, all you could do was... climb. Climb over more people. So, I did that. I climbed, and I got up on top of this kiosk. Looking down, you couldn't tell which faces were infected, and which weren't. Then, I saw my dad, not my mum or my sister. My dad. His face... Selena's right. You should be grateful." That night, after he and Selena save Jim from a couple of Infected, Mark is, possibly, saved from suffering his father's fate when Selena sees he's been cut on the arm and hacks him up with a machete.

Jim and Selena first meet Frank (Brendan Gleeson) and his daughter, Hannah (Megan Burns), when they spot some flashing Christmas lights they have set up in their apartment's window. Frank, dressed in police riot gear, saves them from a pair of Infected that chases them up the building, in a rather badass fashion, too. Hannah is reluctant to let the strangers in until Frank gives her the okay, and though he seems intimidating in his gear and the mask he wears, when he takes it all off, he's revealed to be a very friendly, welcoming guy, even offering them something to drink. He later apologizes to Jim for forcing him to dry-shave because they can't spare the water, and also breaks it to him that he'll have to use the bucket as a toilet. He offers both him and Selena a spare room, thinking they're a couple. Hannah, however, is more standoffish towards, at first, though she does eventually warm up to them and gets particularly close with Selena. The next day, Frank plays them the recording of the military radio transmission and figures how long it would take to reach Manchester. He also reveals he heard what Selena said the night before, about how they need her and Jim rather than it being the other way around, and instead of being angry, he says she's right. He more or less admits they were trying to attract more people for them to journey to Manchester with, as he felt it was too risky for him and Hannah to go by themselves. And though he agrees the whole thing could be a dangerous wild goose chase, he says they won't know for sure unless they go. Hannah, in turn, says they all need each other, that, "We'll never be safe in the cities. The soldiers could keep us safe. So, we have to try and get there." With that, they set out in Frank's taxi cab. On the way, he proves to be up to taking risks, as seen when he drives over a car pileup in a tunnel, as well as quite funny and likable. In a scene where they search an abandoned market for food, he finds some fresh apples among a bunch of rotting fruit and vegetables and comments, "Mmm. Irradiated." And when Jim is looking for some liquor, Frank says they should take something fancy and pulls a bottle of single malt whiskey in a box off the shelf. He becomes enraptured with what it says on the back, to where Jim walks off, and proceeds to grab three more bottles. When they leave, he jokingly leaves his credit card at the register.

Frank also proves to be a very protective father, telling Hannah to stay put when they stop to refuel; Hannah, in turn, is a bit of a rebellious teenager, as she drives the cab right up to them to pick them up, swerving and stopping when she's almost on top of them. Though Frank sternly makes her get out of the driver's seat, he can't help but smirk at her behind her back. When they stop off the side of the road for the night, Frank spots a herd of horses running free. Hannah asks if they're infected and he

says, "They're doing just fine,"; as they run off, he blows them an admiring kiss for luck. Watching Frank and Hannah's playful and loving interactions slowly melts Selena's icy resolve, and Frank has a moment where acts like a surrogate father to Jim, waking him up when he has a nightmare about being left alone. Unlike the others, who take Valium in order to get some sleep, Frank decides to stay up and keep watch. He's reluctant to let Hannah have one but Jim talks him into letting

her take half of one. When they reach the blockade and find it abandoned, Frank is so distraught that he freaks out and curses at Selena when she tells him they need to leave. Going off by himself, he sits and feels sorry for himself, as well as broods over how hopeless the situation seems for all of them, when he sees a crow feeding on a corpse up on a balcony. He yells at it and then kicks at the wall below to drive it off, only for some blood to drop down and fall into his eye. He immediately recoils and gasps, knowing what it means. At that

moment, Hannah comes looking for him and Frank, after apologizing for shouting, tells her, "Hannah, I love you very much." Confused at this, Hannah approaches her father, as he quietly warns her and then yells at her to stay away from him. He's forced to grab and shove her away, then goes into convulsions as he becomes filled with the Rage. Jim goes to kill him with his bat, when he's shot up by the soldiers, who then take them to their hideout. This, needless to say, badly traumatizes Hannah, and she later says she wishes to bury her

dad (you don't ever learn what happened to her mother, though it's likely she died when the infection spread). Then, as if that weren't enough, she and Selena are intended to be made into sex slaves, despite her being only 14 or 15. Selena gives her some Valium to make it easier for her, but in the chaos that ensues when Jim tries to save them, she continually talks out of her head, antagonizing the soldiers, and even whacks Jim over the head with a bottle when he and Selena kiss, as she thinks he's attacking her. In the end, she's the one who takes care of the soldiers' commander and drives the getaway vehicle in their escape.

The commander of the military unit, Major Henry West (Christopher Eccleston), appears benevolent enough when Jim, Selena, and Hannah meet him, allowing them shelter and hot water to bathe. However, he's slowly but surely revealed to not be as noble as he seems, and the same goes for the nature of their broadcast, which he himself sent out. When he meets with Jim in private shortly after their arrival, he tells him they do have an answer to the infection, adding, "Though it may not be quite what you imagined." Showing him around the place, he introduces him to Mailer, a former private who's now infected and kept chained up in a walled off section in back of the house. As Mailer tries to get at West and then falls to the ground, where he writhes about, West tells Jim, "The idea was to learn something about infection. Have him teach me... He's telling me he'll never bake bread, farm crops, raise livestock. He's telling me he's future-less. And eventually he'll tell me how long the infected take to starve to death." Like West said, this is not at all the answer Jim was expecting. That night at dinner, West gives his own take on what's happened since the infection took hold: "This is what I've seen in the four weeks since infection. People killing people, which is much what I saw in the four weeks before infection, and the four weeks before that, and before that, as far back as I care to remember. People killing people, which to my mind, puts us in a state of normality right now." He also hints at what their real plans for their guests are, when he asks Hannah if she can cook, saying they're in desperate need of someone who's really good at it. Following a moment where some Infected are gunned down in the yard, and some of the soldiers all but sexually assault Selena, West admits he sent out the broadcast because he promised the men some women. He elaborates, "Eight days ago, I found Jones with his gun in his mouth. He said he was going to kill himself because there was no future. What could I say to him? We fight off the Infected or we wait until they starve to death, and then what? What do nine men do, except wait to die themselves? I moved us from the blockade. I set the radio broadcasting, and I promised them women... because women mean a future." Following Jim and the girls' failed attempt to escape, West gives Jim the opportunity to join them, but when he refuses, he orders him to be executed the next day. However, Jim escapes and starts picking off his men, enraging West to he point where it becomes personal for him.

Along with Jim, West also orders Sergeant Farrell (Stuart McQuarrie) executed, as Farrell does not at all agree with his view of things. Earlier, at the dinner table, he gives his own reading of the situation: "If you look at the whole life of the planet, we, you know, man, has only been around for a few blinks of an eye. So, if the infection wipes us all out... that is a return to normality." West laughs at this sentiment, refers to Farrell as their "New Age sergeant" and "spiritual guru," before asking him why he joined the military; Farrell gives no answer for this and just glares at West. Later, Farrell tries to stop the soldiers from making sex slaves out of Selena and Hannah but he's outnumbered and subdued. He's imprisoned with Jim, and as they sit on the floor, each of them handcuffed to a radiator, Farrell rants and raves, suggesting that, due to its nature, the virus never spread beyond Britain and that the entire country has been quarantined. He goes on to call West insane, that he simply wants to restart civilization in the country in his own manner. The two of them are taken out into the woods the next morning, to a pile of bodies, and before he's killed, Farrell stands up to Corporal Mitchell, whom he dislikes immensely and who he severely punished when he hit on Selena earlier. Mitchell prepares to kill Farrell with his rifle's bayonet, which Farrell mocks him for, even spitting in his face. But before Mitchell can do him in for that, Private Jones shoots him down instead.

Among the soldiers, Corporal Mitchell (Ricci Harnett) is the most sadistic and depraved. He especially gets off on killing, be it the Infected or just people in general, and after they take down a group of Infected who charge at the house, he comes upon Selena and harasses her. When she says, "Fuck you," he responds, "How about right now?" and tries to have his way with her, only for Jim to take a swing at him. He manages to put him in an arm-lock, but Farrell cracks him over the

back with his rifle. Mitchell almost gets some payback when he and Private Jones (Leo Bill), the unit's not-so-great cook, take Farrell and Jim out into the woods to be executed, only for Jones to give Farrell a quick and painless death, while shooting right past Mitchell's ear. Mitchell is so taken aback by this that he pins Jones to the ground with his rifle and curses him out, giving Jim the opportunity to escape. Though Jones panics at this, Mitchell figures Jim is good as dead out in the countryside with no vehicle or weaponry. But that

night, when Jim comes back and lets Mailer loose, the shit hits the fan when they both manage to get into the house. Another of the soldiers, Private Clifton (Luke Mably), is grabbed and pinned to the floor by Mailer, who vomits blood all over him, infecting him. Jones gets chased through the house and takes cover in the kitchen, where he hears another soldier get torn to bits. He manages to slip out of his hiding place, only for Jim to kill him by, ironically, stabbing him with a bayonet. And because of how sadistic and depraved he was about Selena, telling him that he was going to make her squirm, Jim delivers Mitchell a brutal, nasty death when he ambushes him while he's holding Selena hostage.

There were a couple of reasons why Danny Boyle decided to shoot the film on DV rather than actual film. One was practicality: because they were only allowed small blocks of time to shoot scenes that take place in supposedly abandoned areas of London and the surrounding countryside, with the police holding back commuters for just so long, the DV cameras made things much easier due to their small size and maneuverability. The other reason was artistic, as Boyle liked the raw, grainy look they brought, thinking it fit the story. I can't deny

that I haven't seen another movie that looks like 28 Days Later, and the harsh, desaturated look the DV brings to much of it, with its muted colors and pitch-black shadows in the many nighttime and dark sequences, do work well with the post-apocalyptic setting. In particular, it makes the climax, which takes place in a rainstorm, look especially raw, cold, and uncomfortable, and brings a palpable feeling of grittiness to a number of sequences, such as the opening in the primate

research center, practically all the scenes in the abandoned London, the scene at the blockade, and the third act in the mansion when things start to go sideways. But it also brings out the beauty in others. The scenes that take place inside Jim's parents' home and Frank and Hannah's apartment actually look quite warm and comfortable, as does the scene around the campfire, despite how risky it is for them to be sleeping out in the open. A shot of a sunset behind the city's skyline manages to look quite beautiful, in spite of the danger another night means for the survivors, and when they're on the road, the shots of the countryside are quite gorgeous, chief among them the scene where they see the horses running free in the open field beside a lake,

But, while I can appreciate why the filmmakers made use of it, I can't help but be put off by the look of the DV. If you've read a number of my reviews, you'd know I'm not a fan of the look of digital cameras and color correction. I can tolerate it more now, as they've gotten past the point where the result made it feel like you were watching dailies rather than a finished film, but in this early period, when they were first beginning to shoot on digital, you can feel the growing pains and it hasn't aged well. Again, I know the gritty look of the DV

was what Boyle was going for here, and it certainly does work, but I'd much prefer actual film, as this simply doesn't appeal to me. Something else I don't care for is how Boyle shot the scenes where the Infected are onscreen, making use of a feature in the cameras that created the kinetic, lightning-fast effect of their movements. Again, while this was likely the point, as it helps you feel the frantic, chaotic nature of those scenes, it also makes those sequences virtually incomprehensible, as

everything happens so quickly and the scenes often take place in dimly lit rooms and nighttime sequences. Once more, if you've been with me for a while, you know that I hate action scenes shot in that manner, and this was around the time that trend first started to be used regularly and would really get out of hand in the years to come. I'm not saying Boyle invented that trope, as I think The Bourne Identity was the actual impetus, and I get his reason for using it (he also shot Jim's siege on the mansion during the climax in that manner, which I thought was clever, since he'd become just as vicious as the Infected by that point), but that doesn't change the fact that I find it disorienting and headache-inducing.

As per usual, Boyle proves he's not interested in shooting a movie in a typical fashion and, like always, is quite creative at it. For instance, at the beginning of the movie, the scope of the devastation is only gradually revealed to the audience, who discover it along with Jim when he awakens in the hospital. He starts with a close-up of Jim's right eye as he first wakes up, followed by various shots of the devastation of the room, as he rises up out of the bed he's laying in. Looking out the blinds on the room's windows, he gets his first

look at the ransacked, deserted corridor outside. Unlocking the door, he wanders about the hospital and makes his way out onto the grounds, as the film shows wider and wider shots of his abandoned surroundings. This is where Boyle's filmmaking truly shines, as he shows us numerous impressive vistas of the empty city of London, making it seem as though this place really has been abandoned. Not only is it impressive that he was able to negotiate the deals necessary to get such shots, but the vantage points he shot them from are amazing,

as you can tell they were very, very high up. He continues this trend throughout the movie as a whole, with shots looking straight up and down inside Frank and Hannah's apartment building, a wide one of the roof, showing their futile attempts to collect rain water, and many breathtaking shots of the countryside during the journey to Manchester. There are also some interesting shots and scene transitions here, such as a pan of the city skyline at sunset when Jim, Selena, and Mark stay

at his parents' home... but then, you notice the bottom half of Mark's face reflected in the upper-left corner of the screen, and the camera pans up to show him and Selena sleeping inside, revealing the horizon was actually reflected in broken glass in the window. Right after that is a moment where Jim goes into the kitchen and looks at things that remind him of his parents, including pictures of them on the refrigerator, as we hear muffled voices in the background. It then cuts to home movies of

his parents but, rather than something he's watching, they're his memories and even imagines himself in them, taking a carton of orange juice from the counter and drinking straight from it as his mother unpacks some groceries. In addition, there are many instances where Boyle shoots through or from underneath something, suggesting an infected person may be lying in wait there, and moments where he holds on the characters' reflections on a shiny surface before they actually walk into frame. He even gives the drop of infected blood that falls into Frank's a red-colored POV shot, followed by a closeup of it hitting his eye, something not many other filmmakers would come up with.

Though some scenes were shot at Pinewood Studios, the movie was, for the most part, shot almost entirely on location, and that's among its most impressive aspects. As I've already said, and has been stated many times by others, it's amazing they were able to make a place as bustling and crowded as London look totally empty and in shambles, especially when you realize the police were only able to hold back traffic for a limited amount of time and they had to get it done quick. They even put a double-decker bus on its side for

one moment of filming and then quickly removed it (they pulled that all off within twenty minutes). On top of that, they got some shots of Jim, Selena, and Mark walking the monorail tracks, which is jaw-dropping to see in and of itself. And the sight of so many iconic places, like Westminster Bridge, Big Ben, Oxford Street, Horse Guards Parade, Trafalgar Square, and Piccadilly Circus, in complete disarray and with nobody around at all is quite eerie, for more reasons than one, as I'll elaborate on later. The same goes for the

abandoned hospital Jim wakes up in, which is actually kind of creepier in that there's no music score in this part but rather, just dead silence, as he finds there's no one around and the phones don't work. That place actually was a real hospital, but it was a day hospital open only during the week, meaning the filmmakers had access to it all weekend long. The church where he first comes across the Infected is especially horrific, with how dark it is inside and the main chapel being filled

with dead bodies, looking very akin to the aftermath of the Jonestown tragedy. There's also a bit of sick humor with the graffiti on the wall behind the staircase leading to the chapel, which reads, REPENT. THE END IS EXTREMELY FUCKING NIGH. The house where Jim's parents' lived also turns out to be little more than a big grave but it also makes for a microcosm of what's happened all across the country, as it's one of  

many quaint little homes where innocent people were living comfortably and now, are either dead or among the Infected. It's especially poignant that the two of them committed suicide together rather than risk becoming infected, and left a note for their son that they prayed he would never get. Frank and Hannah's apartment building was also a real place, Belfron Tower, and their apartment, as small as it is, is far cozier and more welcoming than the dark, murky hideout Selena and Mark had made for themselves down in the subway system.

While their journey to Manchester begins with them passing through more scenes devastation and death, and they have to make their way through a tunnel filled with dead bodies and piled up cars (an extension of the Blackwall Tunnel, which the filmmakers had special permission to use), the tone immediately shifts when they stop at a supermarket to stock up on supplies and they enjoy having the entire place to themselves. After leaving the market, they drive by an enormous garden of flowers that haven't yet wilted, and though they

have to stop and siphon gas out of an abandoned tanker truck, which is where Jim is forced to kill an infected boy, they then head into a lovely bit of countryside to spend the night. The spot where they park and camp are the ruins of Waverley Abbey, which is just beautiful, with its big open fields and lakes, the surrounding forests, and the stony remains of the abbey itself. That said, they also manage to make it come off as dark and frightening when Jim has a nightmare about waking up alone. And when they finally make it to

Manchester, they find the entire place in ruins, most of it still burning, and the blockade is abandoned, with nothing but a bunch of useless vehicles and aircraft, empty tin buildings, and tents filled with tables that still have teapots and silverware on them. Following Frank's death after he becomes infected, the soldiers take Jim, Selena, and Hannah to their hideout, a huge, abandoned mansion at the end of a long drive through the woods (said house is Trafalgar Park). The place is

quite secure, placed behind a fortified wall that surrounds much of the grounds, with another wall that has barbwire across the top surrounding the house itself, and floodlights illuminating the terrain that surrounds the house, which is full of tripwires and landmines. The house itself has a boiler that provides hot water, a kitchen, an enormous dining room with a big, long table, a fairly big foyer with a large marble statue in the center, and a big study with a large fireplace, which Major West has made into his den. There's also an outside spot in the back of the house where the infected Mailer is kept, and when Jim and Sergeant Farrell are taken out into the woods to be executed, they're brought to an execution pit.

While the movie's opening setting is a disturbing animal research facility (which was shot in Germany), with crazed chimpanzees in cages and one strapped down while being shown footage of civil unrest and riots, the ending following Jim, Selena, and Hannah's escape from the soldiers shows them living in a small, cozy cottage by Ennerdale, a large lake in the county of Cumbria in Northwest England. This area is on the border of Scotland, and the rolling hills and canyons you see the fighter jets fly over do bring to mind the Highlands.

As I said earlier, 28 Days Later came about from screenwriter Alex Garland's love of the zombie subgenre, specifically the first two of George Romero's movies, and the movie has a few references to its inspirations, with the basic premise being akin to I Am Legend, the supermarket shopping scene and the refueling that involves Jim getting attacked by an infected child alluding to Dawn of the Dead, and the imprisoned infected man named Mailer being akin to Bub in Day of the Dead, as is the holed military unit. In

addition, as with most movies in this subgenre, especially Romero's films, the focus is on the people and how they cope with such a situation, while the Infected are little more than an ever-present background threat. But, as I also said, Boyle has often attempted to keep the movie from being called a "zombie" movie, saying it's more akin to The Day of the Triffids (which I have never seen, sadly), and I think that's a good move because, as you've no doubt gathered from the absence of the "Zombie Flicks" tag, I don't

consider it, or 28 Weeks Later, to be one either. For a long time now, it's been debated whether or not the Infected in both of these movies, despite being hailed as starting the modern trend of "running zombies," really are zombies themselves. In conceiving the film, Garland and Boyle decided that the concept of undead corpses feeding on human flesh was old hat and came up with the idea of the Rage virus killing its victims psychologically rather than physically, turning

them into ravenous, violent monsters that act like traditional depictions of the living dead. Definitely a unique take on the subject matter but, for me, that doesn't equal zombies. In my mind, whether they're fast or slow, extremely vicious or just kind of apathetic in regards to their prey, zombies, as they've been popularized since Night of the Living Dead, are dead people who've resurrected and are attacking the living, usually to eat their flesh. The monsters in these films, however, are still living people who've simply been driven completely mad by this disease.

But just because they're not zombies doesn't mean the Infected aren't scary as hell. What I find especially frightening about the Rage virus is how quickly it takes over its victims, running through their entire systems in less than twenty seconds, in addition to what it does to them, turning them into red-eyed, snarling, constantly bleeding, ravenous, and monstrously aggressive beasts that are more like wild animals than human beings. The Infected are so filled with uncontrollable rage that the only thing they have on their minds is ripping apart

every living thing they come across, either with their bare hands or by biting into their jugulars, though they don't seem to eat their victims. Their blood and saliva are filled with the virus, meaning anybody who gets attacked is in danger of becoming infected, especially if they're bitten or if any of the blood or saliva get into their mouths, eyes, or other orifices, which isn't helped by how the Infected have a tendency to vomit up blood. Though most of them only show up for one scene to menace the characters and are often killed

immediately, there is one featured Infected in the character of Mailer (Marvin Campbell), the infected private whom Major West keeps alive and chained up in the back of the mansion in order to observe him. When West first introduces Mailer to Jim, he does everything he can to get at both of them, then falls to the ground, writhes around, and vomits up blood. West then describes how he intends to keep him chained up until he starves to death, which actually seems rather inhumane.

Mailer does show some signs of cunning, appearing to gesture for Jim to help him, but when Jim gets close enough, he lunges at him ferociously, sending him running back inside. Later, when Jim returns after escaping execution, he shoots Mailer's chain off, setting him free to get inside and wreak havoc on the soldiers. Mailer seems to realize what he just did, as he looks up at Jim before heading inside, and later appears to intentionally vomit blood in Private Clifton's face, infecting him as well. Mailer also proves to be something of an unintentional hero in the end, as he's the one who kills West.

When Bravo's 100 Scariest Movie Moments kicks off with 28 Days Later, Leonard Maltin describes it as, "One of the scariest movies I've ever seen," adding, "And I think one of the reasons it's so scary is that it seems possible." It's amazing how true those words are, both for when the movie was originally released and in the decades since. For the aftermath of the Rage virus epidemic, Boyle took inspiration from a number of incidents of social unrest, rioting, and genocide, from Rwanda and the Sierra Leone Civil War (the footage that's

shown to the chimpanzee during the film's opening is based on coverage of the latter) to the Cambodian Civil War and others. But because it was released in the UK little more than a year after 9/11 and in the U.S. less than two years after, many saw parallels between the destruction wrought by the Infected and the rubble and ruins of Ground Zero, even though much of the movie was shot prior to 9/11. In fact, Boyle had to remind people of this, as he drew some criticism for the moment

early on where Jim finds a number of missing persons fliers, as people felt it was akin to such fliers that were posted following the destruction of the World Trade Center, when he was actually taking inspiration from the aftermath of an earthquake in China. However, there was a scene that was shot on September 11th: the scene where Jim and Selena first meet Frank and Hannah and have a celebratory drink with them, which Boyle said was very weird to shoot, knowing what was happening across the Atlantic at that moment.

Another inspiration for Garland and Boyle's take on the subject matter was the idea that a major fear of modern society is that of disease, especially one that gets out of control in this manner and virtually brings about the end of the world. Little did he know how true that sentiment would turn out to be and how his film would become even more relevant nearly twenty years after it was made. Let's not beat around the bush: the many empty streets and town squares, the speed with which the virus spreads throughout the British Isles, and the

idea of taking shelter and isolating oneself from the outside to avoid the danger all brings to mind the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic and the months-long lockdown. Sergeant Farrell's suggestion that the entire country was simply evacuated and quarantined, which is proven to have been accurate in the sequel, is also frighteningly relevant, as many countries did have to go into more or less full-on quarantine,

including the United States. Even the origin of the Rage virus escaping from a lab is akin to the conspiracy theory that COVID came from a research lab in China, not to mention that the virus was actually based on Ebola, right down to its being transmissible between all primates and its residing in the blood.

One thing I especially appreciate about the film is that, as dark and grim as its subject matter is, it does have some humor and light-hearted moments. A lot of that humor comes from various quotable lines, most of them from Jim and Frank. Jim's initial freakouts over what's happened when he's first chased by the Infected are actually kind of funny, as he frantically screams, "What the fuck is going on?!", at Selena and Mark, and when they're going through the tunnel on their way out of London, he rants, "This is a really shit idea. You

know why? Because it's really obviously a shit idea. So, we're just gonna drive in the tunnel full of fuckin' smashed cars and broken glass. It's really fuckin' obviously a shit idea!" Then, they have a blow-out and Jim chides Frank, saying, "World's worst place to get a flat, huh?" When they've stopped on the side of the road to camp for the night, Jim and Hannah have a hard time sleeping, but notice that Selena had no trouble at all. Jim wakes her up from a deep sleep, risks getting her machete in his face, and asks how she got to sleep.

Turns out, she's been taking Valium, and when she pulls it out, Jim remarks, "Not only will we be able to get to sleep, but if we're attacked in the middle of the night, we won't even care." There's a debate over whether or not to give Hannah some and Frank reluctantly lets her have half of one. This proves to be foreshadowing, as Selena later gives Hannah a number of Valiums so she can cope with being forced into sexual slavery at her age, and she spends much of the climax stoned and talking out

of her head. She even breaks a vase over Jim's head because she thinks he's infected and attacking Selena, making him ask if she's high, while Selena says it's a long story. For Frank's part, he's a pretty jolly and funny guy in general, commenting, "You'd never think it... needing rain so badly. Not in fucking England!", and also making jokes about his having been a cab driver, turning the meter on before they head to Manchester and telling them, "Just so you know, I don't take checks or credit

cards." The entire scene at the supermarket is definitely the most upbeat and funny sequence in the film, with Frank becoming enraptured with the fresh apples and the liquor they buy, while Jim, after being told to not buy something that has to be cooked, looks at a can and figures, "I think you can eat that raw." Moreover, it's the first time you see Selena with a genuine smile on her face, which really says something.

However, while I can respect and even appreciate much of the movie for various reasons, I'm not a big fan of the second half with the military. Besides just being downright cliche and almost expected, I feel it distracts from the threat of the Infected, going down the route of "men are the real monsters" with their intention to make sex slaves out of Selena and Hannah, and how Major West is being so cruel to Mailer by keeping him alive as a guinea pig rather than putting him out of his misery. I get what they were going for, which is to

show what a situation like this can do to people, with the collapse of society leaving the salvation of mankind in potentially deranged hands and what can happen if you isolate and abandon small blocks of people to fend for themselves, as well as give more substance to Jim's arc, but I would've liked it more if, after Frank became infected, Jim went through with killing him and the rest of the movie just focused on him, Selena, and Hannah's fight for survival among the Infected. They still could've

had growth in the characters as they continued fighting off the Infected and traveling the country, searching for a safe place and eventually finding the place they're living in at the end, and it wouldn't have led to that post-apocalyptic trope of your protagonists coming into conflict with a villainous group of humans.

While not an absolute tour-de-force, I'm sure there are a number of visual effects to be found here, most likely in creating some of what you see on the horizon, like the burning city of Manchester and perhaps some of the other wide vistas that they couldn't actually get on location. Also, I think some of the flaming Infected in an early scene and the rain you see during the third act are CGI, as the latter sometimes looks superimposed onto the image and the raindrops themselves look... off. As for the blood and makeup effects, while there are

plenty of bloody moments with the Infected attack scenes, as well as in the instances of normal people attacking each other, they happen so fast that you don't get to sit there and admire any individual gore effects, save for when the Infected vomit up blood and when you see the nasty cut on Mark's arm. That's not what this movie is about; you're meant to be horrified by the carnage that happens, rather than admire the effects gags. That said, though, the effects are very well done, as are the makeups for the Infected themselves, making them seem very much like grossly-diseased, insane people. The fake corpses you see throughout the movie, as well as in the execution pit Jim and Farrell are taken to, are also very realistic, as well as the dissected chimp you see in the opening scene.

The movie opens with footage of civil unrest, executions, and riots (it's not real, though; Danny Boyle drew the line there), with the camera eventually pulling back to reveal it's being played on monitors for a chimpanzee who's strapped to a table, with electrodes attached to his head. As the camera pans around the room in the Cambridge Primate Research Center where the chimp is contained, a CCTV security monitor shows a trio of masked people walking down a hallway,

blinding the cameras. They manage to get into a room containing a number of chimps in cages, with one lying dissected on a table. They're quite shocked by that they see, especially the woman in the group, as they make their way to the back of the lab, entering the room where the one chimp is strapped to the table. When they see what he's being shown, the woman whispers, "Oh, God," while her partner tells her to keep it together. He takes a picture of the chimp, while the other man

starts trying to free the others from their cages, when a scientist walks in on them. Dropping his cup of coffee, he runs back to the door, grabs the phone on the wall, and attempts to call security, but the man stops him and rips the phone out of the wall. Taken hostage, the scientist warns the activists, "The chimps are infected. They're highly contagious. They've been given an inhibitor," and when asked what they're infected with, he simply answers, "Rage." Not taking him seriously, they start opening the cages and the scientist tries to

stop them, but he's restrained, with the one activist telling him that they're taking the chimps with them. He, again, warns them of the danger, saying the infection is in their blood and saliva, but it's too late. The woman and the other man break the lock on one of the cages and the chimpanzee inside comes bounding at the entrance. He jumps at the woman and pins her to the ground, biting into her neck. The other man attacks the chimp with his bolt-cutter, as the others begin crazily pounding on their cages. He manages to get the chimp off her

and kill him, when the woman vomits up blood and yells, "I'm burning!" The scientist says they have to kill her, as she spits blood in the other activist's face and convulses violently, with blood gushing out of her mouth. The scientist grabs a stool to bludgeon her with, when she turns to look at him and stands up, her eyes blazing red. Before he can react, she lunges at him and attacks, as the other chimps watch from their cages. After a fade to black, the title comes up, but it's really a caption, indicating a passage of time since this opening.

After Jim awakens in the abandoned hospital and wanders out into the deserted streets of London, he makes his way into a church and up some stairs leading into a loft overlooking the chapel, which he sees is filled almost completely with dead bodies. Looking around, he says, "Hello?" to see if there's anyone in there, and two of the Infected suddenly rear up and look at him. He then heads down the loft, hearing some commotion on the other side of the door at the end, when a priest bursts through.

He staggers at Jim, hawking and convulsing as he walks, as Jim backs away, trying to make him come to his senses. The priest charges at him and Jim smacks him in the head with his bag full of cans, knocking him to the floor. All this does is enrage the priest further, and Jim realizes he made a mistake as he continues crawling and swiping at him. Jim runs back downstairs and out of the church, as a group of the Infected run out of the chapel and chase him into the streets. Though Jim

has no hope of outrunning them, salvation comes when two figures, Selena and Mark, come running towards him, throwing Molotov cocktails. One of them hits a wall near Jim but another hits and engulfs one of the Infected chasing after him, as he runs to safety past his two rescuers. Another Infected is hit and lit ablaze, as Jim and the other two run across the street. While Jim is dragged across the street by Selena, Mark stays behind and sets a trap before joining the others around a corner. This trap causes the two flaming Infected to

set off a large explosion that takes out a gas station, killing them off for good, and blows out the windows of the building the three survivors are hiding alongside. Once it's died down, Selena and Mark take Jim down to their hideout in the subway station, where they finally bring him up to speed on what's happened in the month he's been in a coma.

Following the trek to Jim's parents' home in Deptford and the discovery that they committed suicide together, the trio decide to stay the night there. Come nightfall, while Selena and Mark are asleep in the living room, Jim walks into the kitchen, holding a candle, and reminisces about his family. However, the glow from his candle doesn't go unnoticed, as a sudden POV shot from outside shows. Jim sees a shadow on the skylight above him, but when he turns to look up at it, an Infected

comes running across the lawn and smashes through the door behind him. When he turns to react, another Infected drops through the skylight and they both pin him to the floor. Mark comes running in, throwing one of the Infected off Jim, when Selena comes in and hacks into the other's back with a machete. They both kill their respective opponents, with Mark stabbing into the other with a kitchen knife. Jim backs up across the glass-covered floor and against the wall, horrified,

as the Infected were both people he knew, when Selena demands to know if he was bitten or if any blood got in his mouth. Jim shakes his head, when Selena spots Mark wiping a bleeding wound on his left hand. Realizing what she's looking at, he shakes his head and says, "Wait," but Selena knocks him to the floor and hacks his arm off before brutally killing him, spraying blood all over the wall. Once it's done, she grabs some paper towels and throws them to the shocked Jim, telling him to clean himself up and change his clothes.

She also says that more Infected will be coming, meaning they have to leave. In the next scene, as the two of them are walking the streets, she explains how quickly the infection spreads, when Jim spots some blinking lights in the window of a distant apartment building. They decide to go check it out, and at its base, they find a blockade of shopping carts they have to climb across in order to reach the stairs heading up the tower.

On their way up, they have to stop briefly, as Jim says he has a headache. Selena looks in her bag for something that could help, when they hear a screech down below that she recognizes as the Infected. Two of them find their way into the building's base and easily climb up the carts to the stairs. Selena and Jim run for it, the former getting far ahead of Jim and leaving him behind, ignoring his pleas for her to wait for him. At the top of one flight, they come across a man in police riot gear,

the sight of whom startles them. He then points to a door behind him and tells them to head down that corridor and which apartment to go for. They run for the doorway, with Jim standing guard in it while Selena runs down the corridor to the apartment, while the man in the riot gear effectively fends off the Infected. However, the young girl inside the apartment isn't keen on letting in a strange woman she's never met before, let alone a strange man when Jim comes running to the door after seeing the man beat the crap out of

the Infected. She asks where her father is, while the man watches an Infected he sent over the railing fall down the height of the building and hit the blockade of carts below. Selena becomes frantic, screaming at the girl to let them in, when her father shows up and tells her to let them in. She unlocks the door and allows them in, with her father following after them and telling them to go on. Once they go into the living room and find that the lights they saw were Christmas lights, complete with Frosty the Snowman playing, the man takes his riot gear off and introduces himself as Frank and the girl as Hannah, his daughter.

When the four of them decide to make the trek to Manchester in Frank's cab, they come upon a tunnel, which Selena says is the most direct route to the other side of the Thames but Jim is against it. Regardless, they decide to drive on in, coming upon some dead bodies and a pileup of cars. Despite Jim's continued complaints, Frank swerves around some crashed vehicles and goes right up the side of the pileup and across the tops of a number of cars. They get swung back and forth inside and

find themselves laughing about it, including Jim, but the laughter stops when the cab comes down on the other side of the pileup and hits with enough force to blow out the front, right tire. Seeing this and cursing about it, Frank gets out and opens up the left backdoor, with Jim grumbling, "World's worst place to get a flat, huh?" They all get out of the car, with Selena and Jim keeping watch while Frank and Hannah attempt to change the tire. Hannah slides under the car with the jack, when

Jim says he hears something. At first, Frank and Selena don't hear anything, but as they stand and listen, they hear a distant skittering sound, that's then accompanied by a loud shrieking. A stampede of rats comes at them, sending them recoiling, while Hannah screams under the car, as the rats skitter all over her. Frank and Jim pull her out from under the car, when they see that the rats were running from a group of Infected. Having no time for the jack, Frank and Jim use their combined strength to lift up the cab, as Hannah quickly

removes the flat tire and replaces it. The Infected come screeching at them, jumping and climbing over the cars, when Hannah tells them to drop the car and they all climb inside. The Infected manage to get right up to the car's rear, with some of them pressing against the back window, when they take off down the tunnel and leave them behind.

Following the light-hearted sequence at the market, the group comes upon an abandoned tanker trunk near a diner, as Frank tells them they need to refuel. He, Jim, and Selena get out and head to the tanker, while Frank makes Hannah stay in the car. As Frank siphons the fuel out of the tanker and into some gas cans, Jim wanders over to the diner, despite Selena telling him they have enough supplies. He walks inside, covering his face due to the stench of rotting food, and walks to the back to

find a woman lying dead with her baby in her arms. Disturbed at this, he then steps over the corpse of an old man and looks at some bodies sitting at a table. He says, "Hello?", and an infected boy jumps down from behind him and runs at him. Hearing him, he swings around and whacks him with his bat, then pins him to the floor with his foot on his chest. The boy grabs at his leg and writhes back and forth under his foot, even yelling, "I hate you!" (This is the only time in either of these films that one of the Infected actually speaks and it

makes for a chilling insight into what's going through their rage-filled minds.) Jim then brings his bat down on the kid's head. He walks out of the diner, cleaning the blood off his bat, and heads back to the group, not telling them what happened. Having gotten enough fuel, Frank tells Hannah to drive the cab over to them. That's when she decides to be a bit mischievous and drives at them too fast, as her dad yells at her to brake, only to swerve the cab and stop right in front of them. She gives him a smug smile when she stops, while he tells her to get out of the driver's seat and gives her the tank of fuel, though he can't help but smirk at her stunt himself.

The movie's pace becomes slow and leisurely for a bit, as the group find a spot on the side of the road to bed down for the night. However, Jim has a nightmare where he wakes up to find himself alone, like he did in the hospital. He shoots up with a start and runs through the grass in front of the ruins, yelling for the others. Seeing a herd of sheep running in the field across from him, he yells, "Hello!", again and again in desperation, then collapses to the ground in tears. Frank shakes him

awake and tells him he's having a bad dream, to which Jim says, "Thanks, Dad," before turning back over to sleep some more. The next morning, he gets awoken with a start, like in his dream, only this time, it's the others beeping the car horn to wake him up and get him moving. After some more driving, they reach Manchester, only to see from afar that the entire city is in flames. Reaching the blockade, they drive through the gates, park the car, get out, and walk on in, only to realize it's

abandoned. Selena says they should leave but Frank, desperate to salvage something, looks around frantically, checking the inside of the vehicles, but finds absolutely nothing. He becomes frustrated and yells at Selena, asking where they're going to go, before stomping off back through the gates. He sits down in front of the guard station and broods, when he hears a crow cawing and sees it feeding on the body of a soldier up on a balcony. Yelling, "Get out of it!", he walks up and kicks the gate below to chase it away. But, when it flies

off, a drop of blood drips down from the body and lands right in Frank's eye. He gasps and recoils, knowing what it means, and wipes at his eye. Hannah shows up, asking if he's okay, and after apologizing for losing his temper, he tells her he loves her, before warning her to stay away from him. That's when he's forced to grab and shove her away, then puts some distance between themselves, as he starts to convulse and scream. Hearing this, Jim and Selena come running, and Selena knows what's happened when she looks at him. She tells

Jim to kill Frank, having to restrain Hannah, who's hysterical. Once he's completely turned, Frank turns to Jim, who readies his bat, when a barrage of rifle-fire brings him down. Even after he drops, more shots are fired into him, from a number of soldiers hiding in various positions. They tell them to keep away from Frank's body, as they come in and then take them to their hideout at the mansion.

That night, as the soldiers and the survivors are gathered around the dinner table, giving their personal views of what's happening, a cutaway shows some Infected heading for the mansion, seconds before the place is shook by a landmine exploding. The soldiers jump to their feet and rush outside, as the spotlights are switched on, illuminating the lawn. A soldier on the roof fires at the Infected approaching, while the other soldiers line up at various spots along the house's wall and fire on them from there. They manage to take them

down fairly easily this way, with Private Jones getting really excited when he manages to kill one himself. They continue firing, when one of the Infected steps on a landmine, gets blown through the air, and lands on another mine, blowing him to smithereens. As pieces of him, as well as dirt, rain down on Corporal Mitchell and Jones, the former excitedly proclaims, "Fucking hell! He bounced! I ain't never seen anything like that in my fuckin' life! Fuckin' hell." With that, it's deemed all clear and the jazzed up soldiers head back inside. In the

foyer, they come upon Selena, holding her machete, and Mitchell decides to make a move on her. He takes her machete away, saying she doesn't need it, and that he'll protect her. He holds it out in front of his crotch and tells her, "You wanna get your hands on a really big chopper, well, you just come and see me." Selena tries to grab the machete but he pulls it away, and when she says, "Fuck you," he asks, "Is that an offer, bitch?", and decides to take the initiative. He grabs at her, while she 

smacks at him, prompting Jim to run in and try to stop the assault. Mitchell manages to get him in an arm-lock, but Sergeant Farrell knocks him across the back with his assault rifle. Major West shows up and, after reprimanding Farrell, sends Mitchell and some others to secure the perimeter. He sends Farrell and the rest to get rid of the bodies on the lawn, then takes the machete from Private Clifton and gives it back to Selena, offering his apologies. He invites Jim into his study for a drink.

West tells Jim what the real purpose of their broadcast was, sending him into a panic as he runs to where Selena and Hannah are. He tells them they need to go and there's no time for any explanations. But before they can escape the house, a soldier hiding behind a pillar knocks Jim out by smashing him in the face with a rifle. When he comes to on the floor, he faintly hears Farrell attempting to protect the girls from the soldiers, but he's outnumbered and quickly disarmed and taken prisoner. West then leans down over Jim and tells

him, "I want to give you a chance. You can be with us, but I can't let them go." The two of them exchange glances and West, able to tell from looking in Jim's eyes that it's a no-go, touches his right cheek and tells his soldiers, "Him, too." As Selena tries to comfort the hysterical Hannah, a soldier stands over Jim and points his rifle's barrel at his head. The house's lights go out for the night. The next morning, Jim and Farrell are taken out into the woods by Mitchell and Jones to be executed. Mitchell shows Jim no compassion when

he falls to the ground, putting his foot on his neck and alluding to his depraved plans for Selena. Farrell tells Mitchell things will end badly for him, while Mitchell forces Jim to his feet and further down the path. They come to a spot full of bodies and Farrell begins mocking his former subordinates, while Mitchell prepares to stab him with his rifle's bayonet. But just as he's about to get on with it, Jones gives Farrell a quick and easy death by shooting him. However, his round whizzes right by Mitchell's ear, nearly deafening

him, and he angrily lunges at Jones and pins him to the ground, threatening to kill him. In the confusion, Jim slips away, and when they see he's gone, they rush off to find him. Little do they know he's hiding among the corpses, and once they've passed, he gets up and rushes off. He hides behind a tree, while they try to draw him out by shooting randomly into the forest. Although his hands are tied, he still manages to get over the wall, though his shirt gets caught on the barbwire lining its top and is ripped off. Realizing their mistake, the

soldiers return and shoot at the corpses. Jones then spots Jim's shirt on the wire and panics, exclaiming, "We're fucked," but Mitchell assures him, "Relax. He's over the wall. He's got no vehicle, no shooter. He's dead." Meanwhile, Jim runs through the woods, as a storm gathers overhead, and collapses to the ground. While lying there, he looks up at the sky and sees a plane.

Back at the mansion, the soldiers are forcing Selena and Hannah to pick out an ensemble from the former Lady of the House's wardrobe, when they hear the sound of an air-raid siren. Realizing that someone is over the wall, and it can only be Jim, West and Private Davis drive out into the pouring rain and drive to the blockade, where Jim is cranking the siren. When they arrive, he hides. The two of them disembark and split up, with West firing randomly to drive Jim out, while Davis heads around the side of one of the abandoned

vehicles. A camera pan shows Jim standing out in front of the vehicle, but when Davis comes around, he's gone. He gets a glimpse of Jim going across a rooftop and climbs a ladder up there, while West shoots among the tents. Just as Davis reaches the top of the ladder, Jim comes running at him and smashes him in the face. Hearing Davis shout, West heads back among the vehicles and yells for him. He finds him sitting in the front seat of the truck they drove out there, but when he opens the

door, he sees that he's dead, with a bleeding wound in his head. West whips around and fires his assault rifle randomly at hearing something, but he hits nothing. He goes around, yanks Davis' body out of the driver's seat, and prepares to leave, but when he tries to start the engine, he realizes Jim sabotaged it. A random Infected jumps up on the hood and smashes at the windshield, but he manages to shoot him through it. More Infected come running at him from the woods and he jumps out and takes them down with his rifle, before escaping into the woods himself.

As those inside wait for West and Davis to return, Jim makes it back and gets to the rooftop overlooking the walled off yard where Mailer is kept. Using the assault rifle he took from Davis, he shoots the chain holding Mailer, freeing him. Looking up at him, Mailer then turns and heads around the house. In the sitting room, Jones says he heard something. Mitchell says it was lightning but when Jones says it sounded like a claymore, he decides to go and take a look with the floodlights. Once he's gone, Hannah, who Selena gave a

number of Valiums before, says she thinks she can feel them. She then starts talking out of her head to Jones, asking him what he'll do if West and Davis don't come back, and while Clifton finds it funny, Jones starts to freak out and tells Hannah to shut up. Ignoring both him and Selena when she says the same, Hannah goes on, saying she thinks West and Davis are dead and he will be too. Lightning flashes and Clifton turns around at that moment to see Mailer staring at him through the window behind him. He punches through the glass and

comes smashing through, pinning Clifton to the floor. Selena grabs Hannah, pulls her off the couch, and through the door, while Jones trains his gun on Mailer. Jones tries to get Mailer off Clifton by firing his assault rifle above him, when Mailer vomits blood into Clifton's face. Realizing Clifton is screwed, Jones drops his rifle and takes off running, with Mailer giving chase. Once he leaves, Clifton reanimates as an Infected. Elsewhere, Selena and Hannah attempt to escape through the

front door, only to run into Mitchel and Private Bedford. Mitchell demands to know what the shouting was about, when Jones runs straight through the foyer behind them, screaming like a girl, with Mailer hot on his heels. Mitchell, looking at the dumbfounded Bedford, sends him after him, while forcing the girls back inside at gunpoint. Jim looks through a window from outside, watching as Mailer enters the kitchen, searching for Jones, who's hiding in a cupboard beneath the sink. Jim

ducks out of sight when Mailer looks out the window, and then, Bedford appears in the doorway. He trains his rifle on Mailer, taunting him, and Mailer charges at him, regardless. But before he can shoot, Clifton comes running at him from his right, tackling him to the floor. Both of them drag Bedford into the kitchen, slam him onto the table, and rip him apart, as both Jim and Jones watch from their respective vantage points.

Mitchell forces the girls upstairs, telling Private Bell, who's also up there, to defend the stairs. Hannah slips away from Mitchell and wanders down the other hall, while Mitchel drags Selena away. Back down in the kitchen, Jones emerges from his hiding spot and runs down the hallway and to the foyer. But when he gets there, he runs right into a bayonet being held out by Jim. The two of them exchange looks before Jim, hearing the Infected coming, runs into the adjoining hall, leaving Jones to collapse to the floor and bleed out.

He runs into a room and slips through a secret door in the wall, just before the two Infected enter and become perplexed at having lost him. They then make their way upstairs, while Major West finds his way back to the house and comes across Jones before he finally expires. He holds his hand and shushes him as he slips away, while upstairs, Hannah enters the bathroom where she and Selena were forced to change into the red dresses they're now wearing. She finds a picture of her with her mother and father among her discarded clothes,

when Jim, who's running up the stairs, calls for her. She turns her head, but then hears the infected Clifton coming and hides behind the mirror. Clifton enters the room and scans it, looking for a victim, and there's a moment of suspense when he approaches the mirror, as the frightened Hannah attempts to be quiet while also holding herself up off the floor to keep him from seeing her feet. Fortunately for her, he ducks back out of the room. Jim, meanwhile, frantically searches the second

floor for the girls, ducking into a room that was clearly once occupied by a child. Pulling back the sofa and putting it against the door, he finds Bell, lying near the corner. He tells Jim he has no bullets, when Clifton and Mailer start banging on the other side of the door. Jim runs for the window and opens it, and turns when Bell begs him not to leave, when the Infected burst through the door. He ducks out the window, while they make short work of the defenseless Bell. Jim runs across another

section of roof, when he looks through a window and sees Mitchell dragging Selena down a hallway. Seeing a skylight near them, he climbs up there, then jumps through it. The two of them hear the loud thud he makes when he hits the ledge below it and Mitchell drags Selena into another room and closes the door behind them. Jim follows them across the rafters of the ceiling, as Mitchel pulls Selena to a window and talks about his plans for her.

Not liking what he's hearing, Jim jumps down across from them, runs at Mitchell, and grabs him. Mitchell fires his rifle blindly, but Jim forces him to drop it and attacks him viciously, biting his fingers and slamming his head against the wall, very much like an Infected. He then slams him to the floor and, as Mitchell lets out high-pitched, disturbing screams, jams his thumbs into his eyes before snapping his neck. Mitchell makes one last feeble grab at him before he finally dies. Horrified at this, Selena grabs her machete and stands by the

window. When Jim turns around to face her, she looks ready to put him down should he turn out to be infected. He comes towards her and she's about to swing the machete, but stops the blade inches from his neck. He remarks, "That was longer than a heartbeat," proving he's still himself. Selena drops the machete and the two of them start kissing passionately, Jim telling her that it's going to be okay. Hannah them comes in and smashes a vase over Jim's head, but Selena grabs her and tells her Jim isn't infected. Groaning in pain and

aggravation, he says he was kissing Hannah, when they hear the real Infected wail nearby and run downstairs to the door. They rush out into the rain and to Frank's cab, only to find West waiting for them in the backseat. He says, "You killed all my boys," and points and shoots Jim in his midsection with a handgun. He drops to the ground, where Selena catches him, but then, Hannah, who got in the driver's seat, takes off with West. She backs up in reverse to the porch, just as Mailer comes

rushing out. Hannah stops the car, allowing Mailer to smash through the back window, grab West, and pull him out. Hannah then drives up to Selena and Jim, the former helping the latter into the backseat. They take off into the stormy night as West's screams from being torn apart by Mailer echo through the mansion. Heading towards the gate, Hannah sees that they're locked. Jim tells her to go for it and she punches it, smashing through the gate and flinging Selena and Jim forward, when the film freezes.

After a fade to black and another "28 days later..." caption, Jim is shown being rushed into some sort of clinic by Selena, who starts chest compressions to get him to breathe. And then, just like at the beginning of the movie, he awakens, this time in a comfortable bed. As he gets out of bed, it's gradually revealed that he, Selena, and Hannah are staying in a cottage near Ennerdale. A Finnish fighter jet comes roaring through the sky over a valley, passing some badly malnourished Infected who are on the brink of starving to death. Hannah

tells the others the jet is coming and they quickly rush outside, putting together the last bit of a large S.O.S. signal they've created using various fabrics, including those red dresses. Straightening it flat on the ground, they jump and down and wave at the jet when it comes through, a wide shot showing they're doing so on the "O" of a HELLO sign. The jet flies right over and heads back up across the hills, with the pilot speaking in Finnish, "Will you send a helicopter?" The movie ends with Selena asking Jim, "Do you think he saw us this time?", while Jim keeps watching the jet fly off with a hopeful look on his face.

The score, composed by John Murphy, is rather unusual, as it's often more about the atmosphere than the action. While Murphy does make use of metal for a number of the Infected attack scenes, he sometimes goes for a more subtle approach, even in a scene where something frantic is happening. For instance, the opening at the primate research center is scored with very subtle, poignant music, even when one of the chimpanzees spreads the Rage virus to the activists. It's so quiet that you basically can't hear it over how loud the action is, and it only becomes loud and horrific itself when the female activist changes and attacks. Unfortunately, as interesting at the approach is, the score, overall, is that type where the music does its job well enough when you actually watch the movie but doesn't really stick in my head outside of it. Even the really well known track, In the House - In a Heartbeat, which got reused in the sequel and in other movies, like both of the Kick-Ass films, and has been featured in video games and television shows since, fits well with the climax, basically playing throughout the whole sequence, but if you were ask me to describe what it sounded like right now, I wouldn't be able to say anything. One piece, though, that took me by surprise because of how atonal it sounded was the music Murphy composed for the last part of the ending credits, which is this rather happy, upbeat guitar riff that certainly leaves this grim movie off on an interesting note.

The soundtrack also features material by other artists, some of it created for the film, with Murphy's arrangement, and others pre-existing (interestingly, these are the tracks that stick in my head more). An example of the latter is a condensed version of East Hastings by Godspeed You! Black Emperor, which plays during the sequence of Jim searching the deserted London. It starts off with just a soft, melancholic electric guitar, then expands into a full-on musical movement, accompanied by drums, and grows and grows in speed and intensity as the sequence goes on and Jim realizes the extent of the disaster that befell the city while he was in a coma. Other examples during the movie itself include the Christian hymn, Abide with Me, sung by Perri Alleyne, which plays very faintly in the background in the scene at the home of Jim's parents, and Ave Maria, also sung by Alleyne, at the beginning of the journey to Manchester; A.M. 180, by Grandaddy, an upbeat, electronic keyboard song that plays during the scene at the supermarket, which fits perfectly with that scene and also reminds me of some of the silly mall music heard in Dawn of the Dead; and An Ending (Ascent), by Brian Eno, a lovely piece of ambient music for when they first stop for the night. Murphy also arranged another classical church piece, In Paradisium for Requiem, to play for the last bit of the journey to Manchester, giving an eerie vibe to their seeing the city in flames and seeing it as hell. Over the first part of the ending credits (at least in the American version), you hear Season Song, performed by Blue States, which has an expected depressing, downbeat, and uncertain feel.

28 Days Later is another example of a movie that I won't deny is of quality and well-made but, in the end, is not one I'm in love with. It's certainly well-directed and acted, with characters I grew to like on repeated watches; the numerous shots of abandoned cities and streets are very impressive and eerie to look at, as is all of the location work; regardless of whether or not you think of them as zombies, its depiction of "the Infected" is definitely a unique and frightening one; there's some pretty

horrifying violence and unnerving scenes;  I appreciate that it keeps a sense of humor throughout and has some welcome light-hearted moments; its soundtrack has an interesting mixture of pre-existing songs and pieces of work by a handful of artists; and after being thought of as a quintessential post-9/11 movie, it became disturbingly relevant all over again twenty years after its release, but for a very different reason. But, that said, the film's look, despite its effectiveness and practical uses, isn't one I'm fond of, nor do I care for the disorienting, kinetic nature of the horror and action scenes, or the direction the film went during its second half. I can understand why it was so lauded at the time and why a lot of people still enjoy it and call it one of the best horror movies of the 2000's, but it's yet another film I admire more than I like. Again, good movie, but there are other 2000's horror movies I'd much rather watch.