28 Weeks Later (2007)

I've said before that late 2006 and much of 2007 was not a good time for me mentally, and because I was so checked out, I was oblivious to a number of things happening in the world of entertainment. Case in point, I had no clue whatsoever that there was a sequel to 28 Days Later, let alone that it was in theaters. So when I first saw the DVD of this in stores, I thought it was cheap and direct-to-video, which it's not by a long shot. Like I said in my review of the previous movie, the first time I saw it was in 2009, when I bought both it and the first one on DVD while up in Pigeon Forge. I think I watched 28 Weeks Later just a few hours after I watched the first one, and while I don't remember exactly what my first impressions of it were, I think I was a bit indifferent about it, especially since I wasn't the biggest fan of 28 Days Later to begin with. But upon several re-watches, I must say that this is a pretty damn good horror flick. In fact, I'll go further and say I do think this is better than the first one, as some critics at the time felt. Like with the first one, it's not one of my absolute favorites, but it is more on my wavelength, with characters I get into and care about more, certain scenes that I think are done better, and a third act and climax, not to mention overall story, that I enjoy so much more. Some may feel that, without Danny Boyle's stylized direction, it's more straightforward and not as special of a movie, but since I didn't care for the first film's DV look and have never been a big fan of Boyle, anyway, that's perfectly fine with me. Now that said, the movie does go into that same kinetic and disorienting manner of photography and editing whenever the Infected attack, which I could do without. Also, it indulges far too much into badly dated visual effects and there are some aspects of the story that I think could've been expanded upon and explored more, but on the whole, I'd say I would rather watch this if given the choice between the two.

In the midst of the Rage virus outbreak in England, Don and Alice Harris have taken shelter with four other survivors in a small cottage in the countryside, while their two children, Tammy and Andy, were out of the country on a school trip when it began. But things quickly go south for the group when a young boy shows up at their door, begging to be let in. They give him shelter, and he explains that he was being chased by a horde of the Infected. Said horde shows up and break into the house, killing almost everyone instantly, and chasing Don, Alice, and the boy upstairs. Alice goes to help the boy, but when he's separated from them by the Infected, Don decides to save himself by climbing out a window and running to a nearby motorboat, just barely managing to escape. Seven months after the virus first began spreading and the entire country was quarantined, the Infected have all died of starvation and mainland Britain is declared to be completely rid of the virus. NATO forces take control and begin reconstruction and resettling of the evacuees, who include Tammy and Andy. The settlers are taken to District One, a safe area on the Isle of Dogs, while London itself is still deemed unsafe and forbidden. Tammy and Andy are reunited with Don, who's become the area's section officer, and he takes them to their new apartment there. He tells them what happened to their mother, but lies about his part in it. After Andy has a nightmare about his mother and tells Tammy he's worried that he'll forget her face, the two of them sneak out of District One and into London, to their old home. There, Tammy finds and gives Andy an old photograph of him and Alice. But when Andy searches one of the bedrooms, he's shocked to come across his mother, alive and well, and seemingly unaffected by the virus, despite being somewhat delirious. The three of them are picked up and taken back to District One. There, Alice is quarantined and examined by Maj. Scarlet, an army medical officer, who takes a sample of her blood. She discovers Alice is a host for the virus but is not suffering from the disease herself. Though Scarlet believes Alice's natural immunity could be the key to a vaccine or a possible cure, General Stone, the commander of the district's armed forces, orders her killed immediately. But when Don goes to see her first, he unwittingly becomes patient zero of a new outbreak that could spell disaster for the entire populace.

Danny Boyle, Alex Garland, and producer Andrew Macdonald were all quite surprised when 28 Days Later, which they made for just $8 million, went on to make $85 million worldwide. Naturally, it encouraged them to create a follow-up, but of the three of them, only Macdonald would return in his original position. Boyle couldn't direct the sequel because he was preparing his science fiction thriller, Sunshine, which was also another collaboration between him and Garland, meaning the latter couldn't write the film, either. Both remained attached as producers (I've read that Boyle was also a second unit director and did shoot the opening scene), but the director's chair went to Spanish filmmaker Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, whom Boyle chose because he was impressed with his feature debut, 2001's Intacto. In addition to directing, Fresnadillo rewrote the initial script by Rowan Joffe with two other writers, Enrique Lopez-Lavigne and Jesus Olmo, with Garland giving his input whenever he could. Since 28 Weeks Later, Fresnadillo has directed the 2011 film, Intruders, with Clive Owen, and was briefly attached to the long gestating remake of The Crow, which has still never been made.

An initial idea for the sequel was to start right where the first film ended, with the characters of Jim, Selena, and Hannah. But because Cillian Murphy and Naomie Harris couldn't return due to other movies they had in the works (Murphy was actually starring in Boyle's Sunshine), and Megan Burns quit acting in favor of a singing career, the filmmakers decided to go with a completely new set of characters. The cast of 28 Weeks Later is much more of an ensemble than in the first one,

with various characters coming in and out as protagonists, and some even becoming antagonists along the way. In the end, the two who end up coming out of the ordeal alive are the two kids, Tammy (Imogen Poots) and Andy Harris (Mackintosh Muggleton), who were away on a school trip when the Rage virus began spreading. They immediately prove to be likable rather than annoying, coming off as just a pair of normal kids, with Andy being a little shy, while Tammy can be more upfront and adventurous. The two of them are also extremely close, with Tammy always looking out for her brother. The two of them return to Britain, along with thousands of others, as part of the NATO re-population program, and are reunited with their father in District One. They were told at the outset that their mother had died, though they didn't know the details, and as they're settling into their new apartment, their father tells them a version of what happened. While Tammy takes what he says at face value, Andy is a bit more cynical, asking Don if there was nothing he could've done and has a hard time believing his mother is actually dead. Regardless, when he has a nightmare about her and tells Tammy that he's worried he'll forget what she looked like without a picture, she decides to head to their old home in London, despite its still being deemed unsafe, and retrieve keepsakes. Andy himself isn't so sure about this plan, but Tammy assures him it'll be fine. But even though Tammy finds Andy a picture of him and Alice, Andy shortly makes the shocking discovery that their mother is still alive, albeit somewhat delirious. Though he's happy to see her, when she embraces him, she squeezes him too tight and he becomes frightened and runs. The soldiers then come in and take the three of them back to District One, where they're separated once again. They also call their dad out on his lies when he comes to see them while they're in isolation, though he futilely tries to spin it around, saying he thought he saw Alice die.

Their being held in a containment cell keeps Tammy and Andy safe when things start going downhill and the Rage virus begins rapidly spreading throughout District One. They're rescued by Maj. Scarlet, the medical officer who examined their mother when she was brought in. But in the chaos that ensues with the attempt to quarantine everybody, Andy gets separated from them and ends up in a safe room with a bunch of people. There, he sees that his father has become an

Infected when he bursts into the room and starts an outbreak right there. Andy is able to escape through the ventilation ducts and later, after an all out slaughter when the snipers are told to shoot everyone, infected or not, he's reunited with Tammy and Scarlet, who take shelter with some other survivors. There, he tells Tammy what happened to their, much to her horror and despair. The kids then join the group, which includes one of the snipers, and attempt to escape from District One before it's firebombed in an attempt to destroy

the virus. After they make it out and into London, they're still under threat from a number of escaped Infected, including Don, and the military's attempt to quell the spread of the virus. Scarlet's interest in keeping the kids alive is not just morality but also because, due to their genetic makeup, they may have inherited their mother's natural immunity to the disease and could be the key to ultimately curing it. As for the kids themselves, they agree to stay together, whatever happens, and in the end, that's exactly what they do.

The character of Don Harris (Robert Carlyle) is definitely a divisive one and I've gone back and forth on whether I sympathize with him or despise him. Given that he did seem to really love Alice during the opening, that he hasn't gotten another lover in the time since, and when he learns his wife has been found, he goes to see her and genuinely apologizes for abandoning her, it makes it easier to not hate him. In the end, I think he's a decent enough guy who made a really bad decision when the Infected overran the cottage he and Alice were staying in. Looking back, I don't know exactly what he could've done to help Alice and the boy and protect himself when the one Infected burst into the bedroom and then lunged at him, but his climbing out the window and running to that motorboat to save his own skin, instead of at least trying to help, was so cowardly. Yeah, he was scared out of his mind and did see Alice get grabbed through the window, but given that it was his wife, you'd think he would've tried harder. Then, he tells his kids their mother's dead and, when they ask him what happened, he tells them the truth, up to the point where the one Infected burst into the bedroom. Not wanting his kids to hate him, he says, "I... I seen them... biting. I couldn't do anything. I tried to go back. She was already gone. She was already gone... There was nothing I could do." He also seems like he's trying to remove Alice's memory completely, using it as an excuse not to go back to their old house, in addition to its being outside District One. But then, his kids go out to there and actually find Alice, and when Don is told of this, you can see in his face that he knows what he did is going to come back to haunt him. While talking with his kids, he tries to spin it like they misunderstood what he said and that what happened was confusing to describe, as well as that they should happy they're all back together, but they're not about to let him off the hook. He really comes off like a guy who was caught with his pants down and was flailing to compensate, though he should've known his kids would take him to task for it. Still, like I said, he pays Alice an unauthorized visit and sincerely apologizes for what he did. The two of them reconcile and everything seems good... until Don becomes infected and starts the outbreak all over again.

Despite being attacked and even bitten by the Infected after Don abandons her, Alice (Catherine McCormack) not only survives but doesn't become one herself. When Andy finds her hiding in their old London home, she recognizes him but seems to be in a delirious mental state, as she squeezes him too tight, frightening him. Also, her brown left eye is red and bloodshot, like one of the Infected. Upon being taken to District One, she's decontaminated and examined by Maj. Scarlet, but doesn't answer any of her questions; instead, she simply asks to see her children. Scarlet takes a blood sample and finds that Alice is actually a carrier of the Rage virus while remaining asymptomatic herself. Unaware of this, Don goes to see her while she's still in isolation and she accepts his apology for what he did. The two of them even share a loving kiss. But that proves to be what undoes everything, as Alice infects Don, who then changes, kills her, goes on a rampage, and spreads the virus throughout the district.

Maj. Scarlet (Rose Byrne), District One's chief medical officer, is not happy when she sees Tammy and Andy get off the plane at the beginning of the movie, as she wasn't notified that children were being allowed to return and comments that they haven't yet established a protocol for minors. What's more, she's concerned about how they still don't know much about the Rage virus and fears what would happen if it resurfaces. Later, when Alice is found and brought in, Scarlet examines her, just as she did Tammy and Andy when they arrived, and learns from a blood sample taken from her that she's an asymptomatic carrier of the virus. Though she could, and does, potentially spread it others, Scarlet also sees Alice as a valuable person, as her natural immunity could be used as a roadmap to come up with a vaccine or even a cure. But General Stone orders Alice killed, and then Don becomes infected and starts spreading it throughout District One. Knowing that Alice's children may also have the same natural immunity, especially since she noted how Andy has the same different colored eyes as her, Scarlet gets the kids out of their isolation chamber and becomes determined to protect them at all costs, as a Code Red is declared.

Though I didn't know who he was at the time, in retrospect, Jeremy Renner is one of the things about 28 Weeks Later I really love. As Sergeant Doyle, one of the snipers guarding District One, he's initially seen sitting around at his post, rather bored and itching for some combat, while also trading jabs with the other snipers and his friend, helicopter pilot Flynn. He often entertains himself by using his sniper scope to see what's going on in the apartments, sometimes zooming in on whatever they're watching on television and, other times, their actual activities. His first major action in the story is when he spots Tammy and Andy as they sneak into London and reports it in, but he truly becomes part of it when things go south that night. As anxious as he is for some action, when he hears that Code Red is to be enforced, he takes it very seriously and is horrified when he sees how out of hand the situation gets, as the snipers are likely killing people who aren't infected. Then, when he hears they've been ordered to kill everyone, he first asks for confirmation and, after shooting down some possible healthy civilians, he decides he can't do it. He does manage to save Andy from nearly being killed when he wanders out into the midst of the massacre, but after another sniper is killed by the Infected because he was too distracted to help, Doyle decides to hell with it, takes the fallen sniper's gun, and abandons his post. He meets up with a group of survivors who managed to take shelter from the snipers, including Maj. Scarlet, Tammy, and Andy, and allows them to join him in escaping the district. He proves to be a valuable ally, as he uses his own sniping skills to pick off one sniper who pins them down in an alley, and they're able to get out before the district is firebombed. When they stop for a rest, Scarlet tells Doyle about how important the kids' lives are and from then on, Doyle, who grew to see Andy as more than a target over time, is just as committed to keeping them alive as she is.

Captain Flynn (Harold Perrineau) may be Doyle's good friend, and is more than ready to pick him up when he learns he escaped the firebombing, but when he sees the group with him, he says he can't take them, as he'll be shot down if they find out he's carrying anyone who could potentially be infected. Doyle tries to talk Flynn into taking them completely over the channel, but Flynn refuses, while Doyle, in turn, says he's not leaving them. The group gets attacked by a horde of Infected who escaped the district, and one member of the group panics and grabs onto one of the helicopter's legs. Flynn takes off into the air, trying to get him off, and then has to help Doyle and the others by using the blades to slice up much of the Infected. After all that, he tells Doyle to head to Wembley Stadium for pickup, though he still refuses to take the others. Doyle radios him, tells him to forget about the Code Red and the chain of command, and that the four of them will be there at the extraction point. In the end, only the kids make it there, and when they tell him Doyle's dead, Flynn decides to honor his friend's request and flies them to safety.

Another actor who, in hindsight, makes me enjoy the film is Idris Elba as General Stone, the one overseeing District One. He doesn't have many scenes but you realize there's no comprising with Stone: if the Rage virus comes back, they're going to eradicate it with their Code Red procedure. And when he learns Alice is a host for it, he intends to kill her, regardless of what Scarlet says about the possible medical benefits of studying her natural immunity to it. But when he and some of his men go to take care of it, they find the immediate aftermath of Don catching the virus. Knowing what's happening, he immediately authorizes the Code Red and orders all Infected killed immediately. Things quickly escalate to the point where the virus spreads quickly and Stone orders them to shoot everyone, regardless of infection, grimly adding, "We've lost control." Eventually, he orders the firebombing of District One, and once it's all done and the place is in ruins, he sits by himself in silence, the consequences of the decision weighing on him. And just for one last kick in the balls, he looks and sees that a large number of Infected managed to escape the bombing and are breaking out into London.

While some may feel that, after the first film had a unique visual style due to the early DV cameras, 28 Weeks Later being shot more traditionally is a disappointment, I'm more than fine with it. It does have that 2000's digital, color-correction look that I'm not a big fan of, and I also don't like it when the camera is always fidgeting and never still, but I'd gladly take that over the grainy, harsh style of the first film, especially since nearly all the daytime scenes are bright and sunny, instead of overcast and depressing. In addition, while all the

scenes with the Infected, once again, often happen in the dark and are done in that kinetic, disorienting type of cinematography and editing that often makes it hard to make out just what is going on, this movie makes it work better, in my opinion, and effectively makes them come off as even more terrifying. In the middle of the movie, when the virus begins spreading among the populace of District One, the fast-paced craziness is offset by instances of dramatic slow-motion that, while a little overused throughout the movie as a whole,

drive home the impact that it's starting all over again (a very memorable instance is one shot over Don's shoulder as he first begins his rampage). The film often switches between different viewpoints, be they POVs from surveillance cameras and sniper rifles, to even a bit near the end where Scarlet, Tammy, and Andy are forced to head down into the London subway station and Scarlet has to use a sniper rifle's night-vision scope to see in the dark. As for editing, there are some notable instances of cross-cutting and juxtaposition, like at

the very beginning, when Scarlet sees Tammy and Andy get off the plane and the movie cuts back and forth between them heading inside to be examined and Scarlet standing in a terminal, watching the passengers file in and contemplating what it could mean for children to be allowed in. When Don tells the kids his version of what happened to their mother, we keep cutting back and forth to what actually happened, as a reminder that he's fabricating certain details. Another example is 

when, as Scarlet tells General Stone that Alice could infect others, we continually cut back to Don going in to see her. And when Tammy is told her father is one of the Infected, the camera holds on her face as she grasps with that revelation, while Scarlet tells some other survivors of the procedure of Code Red and that it means extermination of the virus by any means necessary. There's also some Christopher Nolan-esque non-linear editing early on, as you see Scarlet's initial meeting with the kids

and their father while hearing her address her concerns about allowing children back into the country with her superiors. And in a moment that I could see Danny Boyle himself doing, following the firebombing, Stone sees a big group of Infected escaping out into London, and it slowly cross-wipes from a shot of him looking at a security monitor to an actual shot of them breaking down the gate and running into the city.

Because of the nature and timeline of the story, the only scene set outside of London is the opening, where Don and Alice are holed up in this little cottage with four other people during the events of the first film. Like the scene in the first where Jim learns that his parents committed suicide, this opening can be taken as a microcosm of what was happening all across the country: people taking shelter where they can, trying not to attract attention to, and just managing to get by while under constant threat of being attacked. You realize

just how serious it is when, after thinking it's so dark in the cottage because it's late at night and there's no electricity, it turns out to be the middle of the day and they've shut out the light by boarding up the windows. One of the survivors, Karen, is still waiting for her boyfriend, who deserted them, to come back, unable to accept that he's likely either dead or one of the Infected. By extension, another of them, Jacob, says they're the only non-Infected left, which other pockets of people across

the country likely thought as well. And then, they realize that, while that's not true, as a boy shows up, on the run from the Infected (he says his parents were among them, something else so many others have had to deal with), the countryside is totally overrun, given how an entire town's population attacks the cottage and chases Don down to the river.

The film confirms immediately that Sergeant Farrell was right when he suggested the Rage virus never spread beyond Britain, which was evacuated and quarantined from the rest of the world. We get a montage of the abandoned London, similar to the one from the first film, only on a much bigger scale, with numerous spanning overhead shots of the city. Even when the country is declared free of infection and the refugees are allowed back in, London itself is still considered unsafe, as the soldiers are continuing with the cleanup and

decontamination process. As Tammy and Andy ride a monorail over to District One, we see the ongoing procedure, as hazardous materials are gathered and piled up for disposal, the bodies of the Infected are burned, one soldiers is seen washing an S.O.S. message off a roof, and we're told wild dogs and other diseases are still rampant. When the kids later sneak into the city to go to their old house, you see that, like when Jim was wandering through it after he awoke from his

coma, it's still a massive dead zone, with rubble, trash, and abandoned vehicles everywhere, and various houses and businesses that are completely empty, save for rotting food and decomposing bodies. The small neighborhood they once called home is the same way, with their house left virtually how it was when their parents were forced to abandon it, right down to their spare key in its same hiding spot. And when they go inside, virtually nothing has changed, save for the squalor Andy finds in an upstairs bedroom, which turns out to be his mom's doing while she was in hiding.

The populace is taken to District One, the designated safe zone established on the Isle of Dogs, and while we don't get to see much of it, aside from the apartments and the military's facilities, it's said to contain a supermarket and a pub, which some of the refugees are happy to hear. The apartment building itself proves to be fairly high-tech and posh, with very nice rooms, and the place is absolutely bustling, as well as under constant surveillance, with security cameras everywhere, snipers posted on the rooftops, and a

helipad. You also see the military command center, its medical facilities, isolation cells, and big safe-rooms the people are huddled into when the virus begins to spread again. Although the interiors were likely sets at Three Mills Studios, like its predecessor, most of the movie was shot on location, mostly at Canary Wharf, as well as in London itself. Once again, they shot at a number of well-known places like Trafalgar Square, Millennium Bridge, Hyde Park, Parliament Square,

Greenwich Tunnel, Dover, and even the actual London subway system. The only place they were unable to actually shoot at was inside Wembley Stadium; while you do see its exteriors, the interiors were done at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, Wales. And like before, even though they had a bigger budget this time around, it's still impressive how they were able to make the city look abandoned, especially in those big aerial shots.

As frightening as they were previously, there's something about the way the Infected are portrayed here that makes them even scarier. They come off as all the more relentless and brutal in their attacks, like in the opening siege on the cottage, and when Don first becomes infected and starts his rampage. As the main Infected in the film, he is truly frightening from the minute he transforms, with his red, rage-filled eyes, blood gushing out of his mouth, and his constant snarling and seething. You can tell Robert Carlyle really threw himself into it,

as his attack on Alice is horrifying in its savagery and really hard to watch, as he furiously beats and bites into her, then gouges her eyes out with his fingers. The same goes for his following attacks, especially when he breaks into one of the safe rooms and starts a chain of infection throughout the civilians. That sequence is absolute hell, as you see people running and clamoring in the dark, rushing down a staircase and through the corridors, with many of them getting grabbed, brutalized, and

either dying or becoming more of the Infected. It doesn't get any better when they break out of the building and flood the streets, with the snipers attempting to kill the Infected but finding it difficult to tell who's who, leading to many healthy people getting shot as well. I had a similar reaction to Doyle when he says, "Jesus," upon seeing the carnage unfolding. And from there, despite that District One is firebombed, many Infected, including Don, escape out into London and stalk the small group of survivors. By the end of the movie, you see that, this time, the virus has actually spread to Continental Europe, as a group of Infected are seen running to the Eiffel Tower.

Going back to Don, he gives us a glimpse as to what it's like to be one of the Infected. When he first catches the virus from kissing Alice, we see what a painful change it is, as he recoils back from her, vomits, backs against the wall, lets out pained groans as saliva drips out of his mouth, blood starts to leak from his eyes, and he goes into a violent fit, with his groans becoming more like animalistic snarls, blood coming out of his mouth, and his eyes turning red. What's especially scary is that, when Alice calls to him and he turns and looks at her, he

does recognize her, as we get a quick flash from the opening at the cottage, but the Rage has so taken over his mind at this point, possibly amplifying any deep-rooted resentment towards her he may have felt by her showing back up and exposing his lies, that all he wants to do is brutally kill her. The same applies when he first sees Andy when he breaks into the safe-room; moreover, he deliberately targets him but grabs someone else by mistake. He continues targeting and stalking him in

the ensuing chaos and appears to do the same later in London, following both of his children and Scarlet in the subway. This suggests the Infected may not be quite as mindless as they seem, especially given how, in the midst of the slaughter in the safe room, Don can be seen smiling evilly, like he's enjoying causing so much death and destruction. And when he's confronted with Tammy at the end, he has flashes back to Alice upon hearing her and is read to attack her as well, when she manages to shoot him down.

This film gives you even more of a sense of how much the Rage virus has destroyed hundreds of lives, both in its initial outbreak and its resurfacing. Like I said, the opening scene in the cottage is an isolated example of what was happening throughout Britain during those fateful 28 days, and it's added onto when this sweet old couple, Geoff and Sally, get caught up in the attack, with Geoff shown becoming one himself after getting bitten. Then, we have Tammy and Andy having to deal with losing both of their parents to the virus in

different ways, as well as just seeing the virus reemerge and completely destroy months of progress and rebuilding, culminating in District One being firebombed and wiped out. And during the third act and ending, not only do we see that the virus continued spreading, despite NATO's containment attempt but both Doyle and Scarlet die in an attempt to save the kids and, despite their possibly being a chance for a vaccine, it seems as though the opportunity to study them for it didn't happen, as their fates are left unknown and the virus has spread as far as France.

One of my few disappointments with the movie is that it didn't spend more time on the medical research side of things. As Scarlet says early on, they still don't know that much about the virus, save for what was established by the end of the first movie, and I would've liked to have seen her doing more research, as well as maybe trying to find out more about how exactly Alice is an asymptomatic host and attempting to examine her children, before things go haywire. I also would've liked to know more about what exactly the Rage

virus is. We actually get to see it when Scarlet examines Alice's blood, which is cool, and it acts just as aggressive as its victims, but that and the notion of Alice's naturally immunity is about it. It was implied in the first film's opening that it was created by those scientists, using chimpanzees as test subjects, and that it might've been the result of that one experiment where the one chimp was being shown footage of violence and civil unrest, but we don't get any more insight into it here. Since

I'm the one who generally likes for things to be left ambiguous, you may find it surprising that I'm saying this, but that's because I do find the Rage virus interesting. It's even possible that NATO doesn't even know about its actual origin and, if so, I wish they would've made more of a point of stating that, such as having Scarlet come out and say they have no clue if it was natural or man-made, adding an eerie layer of the unknown to it. I'm sure this stuff has been discussed in other media, like the comic books based on these films, but I wish we could've seen it in the films themselves. Maybe if 28 Months Later ever gets made, it'll go in that direction.

While 28 Days Later was seen as having allusions to 9/11, despite its having been shot prior to it, for the most part, 28 Weeks Later likely has more overt connections, specifically with the cleanup and reconstruction in the months following. Granted, I don't know for sure if that was what the filmmakers intended, but the scenes of the military decontaminating and rebuilding London can bring to mind all that footage of them slowly but surely clearing away the wreckage of Ground Zero and repairing the damage caused to the surrounding

buildings and streets. Also, the military presence throughout can make you think of the heightened state of alert New York and all of the United States were feeling following the attacks. And not to be overly morbid or offensive, but if you want to connect this film to 9/11 itself, the military's decision to kill all the civilians, infected or not, to contain the virus is somewhat akin to when they were debating shooting down the other hijacked planes to prevent more crashes. (Okay, that's

enough of that. Just writing that made my skin crawl a bit.) Similarly, if Days ended up predicting the societal effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the lockdown, Weeks can be seen as what it was like when the lockdown was lifted and everyone was trying to get back to their normal lives, while also worrying that the virus may surge up again, which it did, just as the Rage virus does here. And those medical examinations the refugees are put through before they're allowed into District One, the lineups of people waiting to be examined and allowed into various places, and just the sights of people wearing face-masks or in bio-hazard suits are all things we saw after the lockdown and have become commonplace since the pandemic began.

Above anything else, I simply enjoy Weeks' story and characters more. While it was effective to see the virus' initial outbreak in Days and I liked the characters there well enough, it was, at the end of the day, another post-apocalyptic horror survival story, which there are plenty of; I don't think I've ever seen a movie where society is attempting to rebuild after the apocalypse, only for things to go haywire again, and that's one thing I feel makes this somewhat unique. I enjoy it more than watching a group of survivors making their way

across the Infected-filled countryside, as well done as that movie was. The horror scenes hit me more than in the first one, too. While they were certainly suspenseful, the sequences where the Infected attacked in the first were often more thrilling than downright horrifying, with the one exception being when Frank became infected. Here, you see and feel how that group of survivors in the cottage gets torn apart horrifically, Don becomes infected and beat his wife to death just after they'd reconciled, and the nightmare he unleashes among everyone in

District One when he starts that domino effect of infection, resulting in the snipers eventually being forced to kill everybody, regardless of whether or not they're infected. By the same token, the emotions from watching the populace's hope for recovery and return to normality get ripped away, right down to District One being firebombed and destroying all those months of work and effort, is gut-wrenching. I also just like this group of characters more. Nothing against those in the first

one, but I like the two kids, I like Doyle, and I like Scarlet, especially in how the latter two decide to lay down their lives to rescue Tammy and Andy, not just for their own sakes but for the sake of all mankind. Plus, as I said, I even found myself able to like Don and feel bad for him when he gets infected, despite what he did during the opening. And finally, I'd take this third act over everything dealing with the military unit in the first one any day, as it keeps the Infected as the real threat and raises the stakes in needing to keep the kids safe.

As you've likely surmised from the images you've seen so far, the makeup and gore effects are top notch, both with the design of the effected and the carnage they inflict upon their victims. Like before, these moments of gore and violence, which also include a number of fake corpses and lots of chopped up Infected during the helicopter sequence, are meant to be horrifying and grotesque rather than something for gorehounds to fawn over, and they pull that off once again. Unfortunately, I can't say the same for the visual effects. In Days,

they were either used very sparingly or so well-hidden that you didn't even know they were there; here, because of the bigger budget and scope, they're far more blatant and have not aged well. The most egregious example is the firebombing of District One. While the scene, overall, is still effective because of the emotional impact, and the effects of the buildings themselves blowing up and crumbling look good, as do the wide shots of the aftermath, the actual explosions often look digital and come off as so fake, as do instances of bodies

burning, both instantly and slowly. There are real blasts of fire mixed in with them, which helps, but still. those digital explosions probably didn't even look good back in 2007. More CGI is used for when Flynn chops up the big group of Infected with his helicopter's blades and, while it goes by really quick, it also looks bad, like something out of a PS2 game. I think there are some practical gore effects mixed in there (the editing is so quick, it's hard to tell), albeit with bad green screen work as well, but that doesn't help salvage this sequence. Fortunately, those are the only notable examples.

The movie opens with Don and Alice in the darkened cottage, living with four other people: Sally and Geoff, an elderly couple, Karen, and Jacob. The six of them are settling down to dinner, which Alice has cooked, when Jacob gets aggravated with Karen and her insisting that her boyfriend, Sam, who ran off five days before, will come back to them. He also proclaims, "There are no survivors. It's just us in there, and them out there." At that moment, there's a banging at the

door, and for a second, Karen thinks it's Sam. They then hear a young boy's voice outside, frantically yelling for help, and though Don is reluctant to open the door, he does so at Alice's urging. He goes to it, removes the bolts and boards, grabs a crowbar, just in case, and opens it. That's when you realize it's actually the middle of the day outside, as the light pours in brightly and nearly blinds everyone. Don pulls the boy in and closes the door behind him, boarding and locking it back up. As

they allow him to eat, he explains that he's from the town of Sandford and the Infected chased him all the way from there. While he talks, Karen walks over to a wall in the kitchen and pulls away a bit of cloth pushed in to keep the light out. The boy says his parents were among the Infected, which he also says there were "loads" of. At that moment, Karen looks through the slit and quietly calls for Sam, when an infected woman pops up and looks at her. She smashes through the boards, grabs Karen's

arm, and pulls it outside. Karen screams for help and Jacob comes running in, when the Infected viciously bites her on the arm. Jacob grabs her and pulls her back, the two of them falling on the kitchen floor. Karen becomes infected herself and starts attacking Jacob, vomiting blood on the floor next to him. He's able to hold her off until Don comes in and smashes her in the back of the head with the crowbar. More Infected begin smashing through the walls and windows and Don tells Alice to get out. She and the boy go one way, while

Jacob leads Sally and Geoff in another. Don stays behind and deals with another Infected that breaks into the kitchen, while Alice and the boy are cut off by more coming through a window near the front door. They're forced to run upstairs, the boy getting far ahead of Alice and ducking into a bedroom. Elsewhere, Jacob, Alice, and Geoff duck into a barn connected to the house. Geoff opts to stay behind and hold the door closed, arguing with Alice and telling her to go with Jacob, as he prepares to climb up into the loft. Don finishes off the Infected in the kitchen, when more break in. Upstairs, Alice frantically tries to find the boy, while Don rushes up there himself.

The Infected are just on the other side of the door leading into the barn and easily break through both it and the walls around it. Geoff is immediately overcome, much to Alice's horror, and though Jacob tries to help pull her up onto the loft with him, she gets grabbed and pulled out of sight. One of the Infected tries to climb up after Jacob and he slams the trapdoor down on him; down below, Geoff rears up as one of them, while Jacob climbs out of the loft's window. Don rushes into the

upstairs bedroom, locking the door behind him, as more Infected chase him down the hall. Alice tries frantically to find the boy, who's hiding in the closet, while Don tells her to leave him. Just as she spots him and runs to his aid, an Infected breaks down the door, right in-between the two of them and where Don is in the bathroom. Alice yells for Don to help them, but her yelling causes the Infected to turn and see him hiding in the open doorway. He lunges for Don, who slams the door in

his face, much to Alice's horror. While the one Infected tries to break into the bathroom, others pour in and chase Alice and the boy into another room. Alice slams the door in their faces, while Don rips the curtains off the bathroom window, climbs out, and tumbles across the bit of roof outside and hits the ground roughly. He runs around to the front of the house, with more Infected coming and now chasing him. Alice bangs on the upstairs window and yells for Don to help, 

as he runs down the driveway. The Infected break into the room and when Don looks back, he sees her get grabbed and pulled back into the darkness. He runs like mad off the cottage's property and through an open field, with a huge group of Infected on his heels and more joining them on the sides. He finally reaches a dock on the side of a small river, where Jacob is already preparing a motorboat. He unties it from the dock and Don runs and jumps into it, before trying to start the motor. The Infected start wading through the water

to get to them, and when Jacob jumps for the boat, he tumbles off into the water. He swims for it and Don tries to help him in when he reaches him, but the Infected in the water grab him and pull him under. The water fills with blood and Don starts the motor, when Jacob pops up as an Infected and grabs onto the bow. The boat goes in circles as Don attempts to kick Jacob off, while he climbs along the side of the boat, swiping at him. He finally manages to kick him off and unintentionally slices him up with the outboard motor when he turns the

boat around, turning the water all the more red. He heads down the river, away from the ravenous Infected, breathlessly saying, "Oh, shit," four times in a row. He looks back at the cottage, specifically the window where he last saw Alice, and then heads on down the river. (Though opinions on the film overall vary, most agree that this opening is absolute cracker.)

After some time spent establishing District One and the different sets of characters, we get a moment where the screen goes to black and we suddenly see Alice standing in a black void. She looks up, only to rip her face off, accompanied by a nightmarish screech and a close-up of her eye. This is a bad dream Andy is having. Frightened, he climbs into bed with Tammy and tells her that he's worried he's going to forget what Alice looked like, as he doesn't even have a picture of her. Tammy

promises him that he won't forget and thus, the next day, they slip past security and sneak across a bridge to get into London. However, they don't go completely unnoticed, as Doyle spots them through his sniper scope and radios it in, calling them two "stray puppies." They run wildly down the streets, coming upon a set of abandoned mopeds in front of a takeout diner. Tammy goes inside, thinking the keys might be in there, and, shielding her face due to the foul smells, creeps into the back, where she

finds the decayed body of a delivery boy. Sure enough, the keys are attached to his belt buckle, and she yanks them off as fast as she can, only to recoil and shriek when a bunch of cockroaches pour out. She then takes his discarded helmet, runs out the door, and tosses it to Andy. The two of them take off on the moped, crossing a bridge, swerving their way around some crashed vehicles in the streets, passing an old cemetery, and finally reach the neighborhood they used to live in. They arrive at their house, find the key is still underneath

a loose stone in the yard, and go inside. There, Tammy takes a photo of Alice and Andy off the refrigerator and gives it to him. The two of them proceed to grab some more keepsakes, including a different pair of shoes for Andy, who's then seen bouncing happily on the trampoline in the backyard. He excitedly calls for his sister, but gets no response from inside the house.

Andy heads back in and goes upstairs to look for Tammy, when he sees an ajar door slightly close from the other side. Thinking Tammy's playing a game with him, he walks in, calling for her, only to find the room is filled with bowls of food that have long since rotted, half-empty bottles of liquor, and crosses drawn on the back wall, at the bottom of which are his and Tammy's names with a circle around them. He walks over to a vanity mirror on the wall and sees someone duck out of sight in the

glass. Walking towards the head of the bed, he tells "Tammy" that it's not funny, when the person hiding behind the bed reveals themself to be none other than Alice. She crawls across the floor towards him, while he excitedly hugs her, saying he knew she wasn't dead. She returns the hug and the two of them sit there, embracing each other, when she hugs him too tightly, hurting him. Also, when he tries to pull away from her, she refuses to let go of him and yells for him not to leave when

he does break away and runs out of the room. He rushes downstairs, meeting up with Tammy, and they rush out the door, only to be confronted by soldiers in bio-hazard suits, with a helicopter circling overhead. Onboard, Flynn radios to Doyle, telling him, "We got your puppies." The soldiers find Alice as well, and in the next scene, she's put through a rather traumatic and demeaning decontamination process, yelling frantically throughout it. Following that, she's examined and interviewed by Maj. Scarlet, who asks her how she

managed to keep alive for so long and if she knows of any other survivors. She doesn't answer either of these questions, so Scarlet goes to take a blood sample, only to find a bite mark on her arm. She asks Alice, "Have you come into direct contact with the Infected?" We see a quick glimpse of her escape from the cottage, with the sounds of Infected chasing after her (alone, by the way, meaning the boy didn't make it), but she only says she wants to see her children. Scarlet simply answers, "Of course," while she proceeds to take the sample.

Following Don's tense reunion with his children, he heads into the medical facility that night, while Scarlet discovers Alice is carrying the Rage virus. He uses his all-access card to get into the room where she's strapped down and awakens her by speaking softly. He apologizes for abandoning her, saying he got scared, and asks for her forgiveness; at the same time, General Stone decides not to take any chances and heads to exterminate Alice. Don and Alice reconcile and kiss lovingly, only for Don

to immediately become infected. After recoiling, vomiting, and groaning in pain, he goes into violent spasms, slamming his head against the wall and shaking it in pain. He falls to the floor, fumbles and writhes around, gets up, throws a tray to the floor, pulls himself up in front of the window, and bangs on it wildly, flailing his head, screaming, and spewing blood all over it. Alice yells at him and when he looks at her, the overwhelming feeling of the Rage prompts him to rush at her. Absolutely

defenseless and unable to get away, she turns her head and screams, while he grabs her by the hair and punches her repeatedly in the face, to the point where her mouth is filled with blood. He then grabs her face by its sides, bites into her neck, ripping a chunk of flesh out, and as if that weren't enough, he brutally jams his thumbs into her eyes, all while she screams in agony and despair. Even when she expires, that's still not enough for him, as he slams her head down and beats on it several more times. Finally satisfied, he runs out of the lab and begins a

bloody rampage, attacking and biting into several soldiers in the parking lot who try to stop him. Stone arrives and finds the aftermath of this. He then follows the trail of blood to Alice's cell, where he finds her body, and contacts the control room, telling them to prepare to execute a Code Red. He also orders all weapons to be switched off of safety.

The Code Red goes out to the soldiers and snipers, with both Doyle and Flynn wondering if they heard it right. Stone, meanwhile, returns to the command center and watches as District One is slowly put into blackout mode. In the building where they're held in isolation, Tammy and Andy notice how the lights are blinking crazily. The soldier guarding them assures them everything is fine and goes to see what's happening. As he walks out the door, Tammy tells Andy that it probably isn't anything to

worry about, but he isn't so sure. Just as the guard walks out the front door, he's jumped by an infected soldier. Back inside, the kids walk up to the window and look out into the room, while the lights keep blinking. There's a long beat of silence, when the guard, now infected himself, bursts through the door and runs to the window, banging on it and snarling at them. Suddenly, his head explodes, coating the window with blood. It turns out to have been a shot from Scarlet, who takes the

kids out of the room and rushes them down the hall. An alarm sounds and they pass by the body of another dead soldier, before they enter the line of civilians who are being hustled into quarantine. Scarlet gets into an argument with one soldier, who says the kids need to go into the containment area with the other civilians. She, in turns, tries to tell him that they're with her and goes to show him her ID, when she loses her grip on Andy. He gets pulled along by the throngs of people, and though Scarlet and Tammy try to catch up, he's pushed into

one of the safe rooms, which is filled to the brim with people. They're then locked in, despite their protests, while Scarlet and Tammy try to find where Andy ended up. While a number of the people clamor at the doors, screaming their protests, Andy pushes his way through them to the back of the room to get away from the crowd and the noise. The entire district goes into lockdown, followed by a complete blackout (which is such a bad idea, as it adds to the confusion and panics everybody all the more). Emergency lighting is switched on, the snipers are told to get into their positions, and the ground forces move in as well.

Back in the safe room, Andy is sitting up against the wall, when he hears a pounding noise on the other side of a set of double-doors to his right. The sound also catches the attention of a guy with a flashlight, who illuminates Andy's walk to the door. When he's almost on it, Andy sees his infected father appear on the other side, his eyes blazing red and his face covered in blood. Snarling and whipping his head around, he smashes the doors open and seethes at the sight of Andy. The

kid turns to run and Don charges, only to grab the guy with the flashlight. He pins him to the floor, blood oozing out of his mouth and all over him, and proceeds to brutalize him. Andy pushes his way through the crowd, yelling for help, but Don has already begun attacking his next victim, while the first one becomes an Infected himself. All hell breaks loose, as people run through the dark in a panic, as more are attacked, become infected, and turn others into Infected themselves. In the midst

of the carnage, Andy manages to climb up, open a hatch into the ventilation system, and crawl in there. He watches as the throngs of people push open the locked doors and spill into the hallway. The outside staircase becomes filled with chaos as well, and when those outside hear the screams, they prepare to take action, while Scarlet and Tammy run for it. The carnage continues in the safe room, and the screams become so loud that Andy has to cover his ears up in the ventilation. He starts climbing through, as the civilians pour out of

the stairwell and make for the doors leading out of the building. The containment team is reminded to only target the Infected, but things quickly get out of hand when it spills outside. The snipers do their best to follow their orders, but because of the thickness of the crowd and the confusion, they have a hard time making out who's infected and who isn't. Doyle manages to take out some who attack in groups of three or more, but for the most part, he and the other snipers are overwhelmed. He runs to another side of his rooftop to try another

vantage point, but it does no good. Seeing how it's all coming apart from the command center, General Stone orders, "Abandon selective targeting. Shoot everything. Targets are now free." As the units begin enacting this order, and Andy continues making his way through the ventilation system, Scarlet, who's taken shelter with Tammy, tries to put out an alert for Andy. Tammy frantically tells her they have to find her brother and Scarlet assures her they will, promising to get them both out.

Andy reaches the hatch at the end of his ventilation tunnel and flings it open. He climbs out onto a rooftop and down to the ground, as the snipers continue picking off the Infected. They then receive the order to shoot everyone, which shocks Doyle so much that he asks for it to be confirmed. When it is, he lets out a frustrated yell and does pick off a few people, and the others reluctantly do the same, but he can't deal with it. Down on the street, a man yells for Andy, trying to get him over

to a storage area he's taken shelter in, when an Infected comes running at him. Fortunately for Andy, Doyle, who's been watching him ever since he crawled out of the roof, quickly shoots the Infected down. His blood splatters on Andy's shirt and a little bit on his face, and it's enough to get him moving to the safe area. Doyle watches him through his sniper scope until he's safe, only to then hear that one of the snipers is being attacked. Doyle tries to help, but when he shoots, he only

manages to shoot the sniper, sparing him from being an Infected himself. While a soldier on a turret down below unloads on the civilians, Doyle yells, "Fuck!", in frustration and abandons his post. He also gets rid of his sniper rifle, instead grabbing an assault rifle with a scope, and climbs down. Meanwhile, as they board up the makeshift safe room, Andy wanders through it, seeing a number of scared and traumatized civilians hiding in various spots. He happens to come across Scarlet and Tammy, and the two siblings are reunited. He

then has to break it to her that their father is one of the Infected, while Scarlet explains to several civilians why the soldiers are shooting everybody: "It's Code Red... Step 1: Kill the Infected. Step 2: Containment. If containment fails... Step 3: Extermination. Now, they won't stop until everyone is dead." The civilians discuss what to do, when Doyle shows up from the back of the storage room, telling them the dark won't protect them from the snipers' scopes but that they can find limited cover from the Infected. He then introduces himself to

Scarlet, and when she asks him why he's not at his post, he responds, "Why aren't you?" He adds, "Look, you guys do what you want, but I'm gonna get the fuck out of here. Comin'?" Everyone opts to follow him as he heads out the back door.

They exit out into an alleyway, with Doyle leading the way, as helicopters fly overhead. He stops briefly, telling the two kids to keep their eyes on him and run when he does, before continuing on. Him and the kids reach a corner up ahead, which he peeks around with his sniper scope, and he then motions for the others to join them. He heads down the sidewalk next to the road and ducks into an alcove in the buildings. Flynn, hovering above the district in his helicopter, contacts him and Doyle responds while motioning for the others to rush to

his position. He tells Flynn where he is and closes his frequency. As they join him, Flynn tells him that he's in big trouble, that they're preparing to firebomb the entire place. Moreover, the jets are already on their way and will be there in four minutes. Flynn then tells him there's some clear landing ground at Regent's Park and he'll pick him up there. He flies off, as Doyle promises to keep in touch with him. Doyle tells the others they need to run fast and stay low. They run out of their hiding place and straight down the road, but when they

round a corner, a shot rings out and one of their group drops. Realizing they're being sniped, they turn and run back to the corner, but not before two more are shot and Scarlet gets a bullet in the leg. As they take cover, Doyle gives her something for the pain, then removes a small piece of reflective metal and sticks it around the corner to try to pinpoint the sniper's position. He sees him on the rooftop straight ahead of them, before he shoots the metal out of his hand. Doyle notes he's panicked

and isn't a marksman, then quickly peeks around the corner and sees him before ducking back in. He tells the last of the civilians with them, Sam, to run to a doorway across from them. Sam, however, isn't keen on being used as bait, despite Doyle explaining that, when the sniper shoots, he'll expose his position and give Doyle a chance to pick him off. He reminds him that they're going to all be dead in just two minutes, when Andy, having overheard his plan, breaks free from his sister's

grip and runs for the door, zig-zagging as he does. Sure enough, the sniper fires at him and Doyle quickly takes the opportunity. He manages to score a hit and kill the sniper, while Andy makes it to the doorway. But while he's catching his breath, he looks to his right and sees Don standing across from him. The others, not noticing him, join Andy and continue their escape.

As the bombers close in, the group reaches a fence and gate. Doyle cuts the barbwire lining the top and helps everyone over, when the jets pass right above them. They rush down the road and head to a staircase leading down into a tunnel, as the bombing begins. Explosions and flames erupt throughout District One, as Flynn watches from his helicopter, not knowing if Doyle made it out or not. Down in the tunnel, the survivors listen as the explosions rip through the streets, wiping out any civilians left behind, while those in the command

center watch silently as, one by one, the surveillance cameras are destroyed. The explosions also tear into the medical facility, destroying the blood samples Scarlet took from Alice, immolating Alice's body, and burning the photograph of her and Andy. Elsewhere, a burning Infected grabs a person and wrestles them to the ground. Eventually, the explosions reach down into the tunnel, chasing the survivors up to the other side of the Thames, where it explodes up into the sky just

seconds after they make it to the street. With the task done, everyone in the command center stands and sits in silence, when Stone sees on a still functioning monitor that a number of Infected have escaped the firebombing and manage to tear their way through the gate and get out into London. At the same time, the survivors slowly and wearily make their way across the very bridge Andy and Tammy sneaked across before and through the London streets, unaware of the danger nearby. The Infected are shown completely overrunning the abandoned city, while the survivors head through a gate and make it outside the city limits.

Once the sun's up, the survivors take a breather at an abandoned park, where Scarlet tells Doyle how important Tammy and Andy are. Doyle is contacted by Flynn, who tells him that he's coming to pick him up in just one minute, and also warns him about the escaped Infected. The group rushes to a field, only for Doyle to stop and make everyone get down. He motions for them to be quiet and they crawl through the tall grass, as Flynn approaches. They look and see a large group of Infected up ahead, just as Flynn comes in.

Seeing that Doyle has people with him, Flynn comes in low and hovers. Doyle runs up to him and Flynn tells him that he can't take the others; Doyle, in turn, tries to convince him to take them over the channel and away from the area altogether. As they argue, Sam sees the nearby Infected and panics. He runs to the helicopter and grabs onto one of its landing legs. Flynn flies upwards and then violently veers back and forth, trying to force Sam off. This commotion catches the attention of the Infected, who come running. Doyle tells Flynn

they're going to die if he doesn't do something and Flynn, in turn, flies at the Infected, aiming downwards at them and slicing up a ton of them with his rotary blades. Doyle gets everyone to their feet and they take off running, while Flynn slices up dozens and dozens more Infected. However, a number of them get after the survivors. Doyle tells them to keep going and not look back, as he picks several off while running backwards. By this point, Sam has become infected himself after being

slathered in all the blood, but he falls off the helicopter, to his death. Flynn flies back up into the sky, while the others still have plenty of Infected hot on their heels. Flynn contacts Doyle and tells him to get to Wembley Stadium, as well as, "Ditch those people. I'm not takin' 'em!" The survivors make it out of the field and into a small park. Andy falls to the ground but Doyle takes care of some Infected that get through. He then contacts Flynn again, telling him, "Fuck the Code Red. Fuck the

chain of command. I'm stuck out here and need an extraction, goddammit. You better fuckin' be there, because we will be." After checking on Andy, they hear more Infected coming and everyone starts running again, back into the city streets. They run like crazy, until they see a big wall of gas at the end of a street. They quickly turn around and take cover inside an abandoned car, as the Infected come at them from the front. Climbing inside, they lock the doors and close the vents, before covering

their faces to keep them from breathing the gas. The Infected surround the car from all sides, banging on it, clawing at the windows, and vomiting blood on it. But when the gas envelops them, they quickly succumb to it and drop dead. Things get eerily quiet, and the survivors try to start the car, but the engine refuses to turn over.

From the cloud of gas filling the street emerge soldiers in bio-hazard suits, armed with flamethrowers. Scarlet keeps trying to to start the car but it's no use, while Doyle sees the soldiers in the rear-view mirror, as they begin burning the corpses of the Infected. He tells her to, instead, pop the clutch when he tells her to, and to get the kids to the stadium. He says, "I'll meet you there," then jumps out of the car, rushes to the back, and starts pushing on it. It slowly goes down the road, and when Doyle sees the soldiers are almost on him, he

yells for Scarlet to pop the clutch. She does and the car rolls away, just as one of the soldiers blasts Doyle head on with a flamethrower. The kids watch through the back window as Doyle flails around in the street, completely engulfed in flames, before collapsing. The car zooms out of the gas and Scarlet swerves to avoid another cloud emerging from a corner on the left. Seeing another cloud up ahead, she floors it and then turns to the right, swerving back and forth along the road, as more

and more gas pops up. As if that weren't enough, an attack helicopter begins chasing and firing at them, hitting the road behind them. Scarlet has to do some fancy driving to avoid the shots and goes down a ramp that transitions into some steps leading down into the subway system. She drives for as long as she can before the car gives out and they're forced to abandon the car. Scarlet grabs Doyle's rifle, which he left, and the three of them head on into the depths of the subway. They come upon the deactivated escalators leading down into the darkness and Scarlet makes use of the rifle's night-vision scope to see what's ahead of them.

Down at the bottom of the escalators, she has the kids move along the walls, when they come to another set of steps. She instructs them to hold onto the rails while they make their way down the stairs, continuing to use the scope to see what's ahead of them. She yells for Tammy to stop and tells her to get onto the left side of the escalator, as there's a corpse in her path. There's a moment where she steps on something that snaps with a loud crunch that freaks Tammy out, making her reluctant to go on. Scarlet is able to get her to move back over to

the right and instructs them on where to step to get around some long decayed corpses lying on the steps. Tammy loses her footing in the dark and tumbles down the steps, followed by Andy, and they fall out of sight. Scarlet frantically looks around, seeing nothing but a bunch of corpses, and yells for the kids. She goes on down, making it to the bottom, and heads down a hallway, when she sees someone walk across the width of it and disappear around a corner. Tammy calls for Scarlet in the darkness and Scarlet manages to find her

with the scope. She approaches her and helps her to her feet, promising that they'll find Andy. There's a sound behind her, and when she swings around, Don lunges at her. He knocks her to the floor, grabs the rifle, and pummels her to death with it. Things go completely black for a few seconds, while Tammy staggers about in the dark, yelling for Andy. Don disappears, and she takes the opportunity to grab the rifle and use its scope herself. Among the rubble and corpses, she finds

Scarlet's brutalized body. Elsewhere in the system, Andy wanders about, when he hears a noise in the distance. He calls for Tammy and Scarlet down a dark corridor, but goes on when he doesn't get an answer. Don emerges from the dark behind him and, after Andy turns around and sees him, he rushes at him and knocks him to the ground. He pins him there, blood dripping out of his mouth, and though Tammy shows up with the rifle, she's unable to stop him from biting into Andy's neck.

She screams as she watches Andy writhe under Don's body, and this gets his attention. He looks up at Tammy and, seething with hatred and thinking of Alice, rushes at her. She shoots him in the torso, which momentarily slows him down, but it takes two more shots to finally end him. She drops the rifle and cries over having to kill her own father. She walks past him and moves over to her brother, who's getting up on his feet.

Tammy reminds Andy of their promise to stay together, no matter what, when he panics and runs off out of fear changing and attacking her. Unable to bear losing him, too, Tammy chases after him and tearfully screams for him as he disappears into the darkness of the subway tunnel, her pained screams echoing throughout the system. She starts following him, when she sees him collapse on the tracks. As he sits up, Tammy walks over to him and sits down in front of him. He asks, "Am I one of them?", and she looks at his left, brown eye,

which has blood surging through it, indicating that, like his mother, he's become an asymptomatic host. Tammy simply tells him that he's not one of the Infected, and they head on down the tunnel, towards the light at the end. They reach Wembley Stadium and head inside the arena, where Flynn is waiting on the field in his helicopter. Seeing the kids approaching, he points his rifle at them, orders them to stop, and asks where Doyle is. Tammy shakes her head and answers, "It's just us." Hearing

this, and seeing Andy hiding behind her, Flynn lowers his rifle and tells the two of them to get in the helicopter. Once they do, Flynn lifts off out of the stadium and flies over the abandoned London, as well as the still smoldering remains of District One, before heading out over the countryside and the actual edge of the country. The screen goes to black and then, we get the familiar caption of, "28 DAYS LATER." An S.O.S. from France is heard, as the camera trails over the cockpit of Flynn's abandoned helicopter, both his and the kids' whereabouts unknown. The movie ends on frenzied shots of Infected running rampant, the last shot showing them running for the Eiffel Tower.

Remember how, when talking about the score for 28 Days Later, I said that, as beloved a piece of music as In The House - In A Heartbeat is, and as effective as it was for the climax, I couldn't tell you what it sounded like just from memory? That's not the case anymore, as this film uses it three times, each in a major scene (Don's flight from the cottage, the snipers being ordered to shoot everyone, and Flynn flying the kids out of London), as if to make sure I would never forget it. In any case, composer John Murphy returned for the sequel and, like everything else about it, went for a more straightforward approach. This time, it's all score, with no songs whatsoever on the soundtrack, and while that is something from the first movie I do kind of miss, the music itself works just fine. Like before, it hits the right notes when it needs to, be it terror, atmosphere, or sorrow, but, again, there aren't that many pieces from the score that I can recall straight from memory. Those that I do remember are this bit of harsh electric guitar that plays when Karen becomes infected and attacks Jacob; an airy and eerie piece that plays over the beginning, when the movie gets us up to speed on what's happened since the events of the first one; a memorable, yet subtle beat when the refugees are taken to District One via the monorail; the low, tragic music that plays when Don is first infected and kills Alice; a truly sad, somber piece that plays when District One is firebombed; and this constant but melancholic piece that plays when the group of survivors make their way into London, at the same time it's being overrun by the Infected.

Maybe it's a hot take, which I'm no stranger to anyway, but I don't care, I prefer 28 Weeks Later to the first one. It may not be as iconic or revolutionary as its predecessor, and I can understand some feeling that, without Danny Boyle's direction, it feels more run-of-the-mill, but it appeals to me more on a personal level. I like the characters more, I prefer this particular story, I think the scenes of horror and emotion are more effective, I find the Infected themselves to be all

the more frightening, especially in Don's case, the makeup and gore effects are absolutely horrific, the music score works, and overall, I think it's very well directed and shot by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo. I still wish they wouldn't get so crazy with the camerawork and editing whenever the Infected attack, it would've been nice if they explored the Rage virus more or had the authorities admit that they still don't know where it came from, and there are some visual effects sequences that are badly dated, but other than that, I think this is a damn good sequel. 28 Days Later will likely always be the fan favorite but, unless a third movie comes along and bests it, I myself will go with Weeks every time.