28 Days Later, a 2002 drama/horror film, not to be confused with the movie made in 2000 with Sandra Bullock (called simply
28 Days). A literal
hate plague begins taking over England after animal rights eco-terrorists set loose an Infected chimp in a lab at Cambridge University. The
Rage virus was an attempt at neutralising violent impulses carried in virus form, but apparently has achieved the opposite effect- and the animal commences to maul the instigators of this plan messily. Cue the cut-away.
Spoilers ahead. Be warned.
Main character Jim, played by Cillian Murphy, has woken from a coma just after the titular period of infection- waking naked in a totally deserted hospital, in the middle of an eerily abandoned London, with a scarred-over head wound, an impressive growth of facial hair and no idea of what's going on. He wanders around the city, plastic bag of Pepsi cans in hand, while suspenseful music plays, meets some
non-shambling,
angry-ass Infected pseudo-zombies, teams up with fellow survivors and kicks some ass in search of the escape and cure promised by the radio broadcasts from a distant barricade. Right?
Well, not really. The promised 'cure' is far from what it seems, and the scale of the infection has yet to be realised.
Survivor Selena (Naomie Harris, of
Pirates Of The Caribbean fame) is a realist, considering survival the only option and Jim's naiveté a hindrance. Frank (Brendan Gleeson!) and Hannah, father and daughter, see things less bleakly and suffer for it.
Christopher Eccleston is in it, too.
You know, the Ninth Doctor.
The premise is played for drama, and manages to avoid not only
ever actually saying 'zombie' but the usual zombie tropes, depicting the Infected as they are called as agile and mindlessly violent rather than hungry, and the infection itself as devastating, capable of toppling a society and basically causing a small scale apocalypse due to the panic caused and ease of transmission. Expect nerdy backdraft on whether it's a zombie movie, nevertheless. The film did fairly well at the box office and has spawned several comics exploring the lacuna of time in between the initial outbreak of infection and the film, as well as a
sequel certain fans would rather pretend didn't happen, 28 Weeks Later (which has a
Just Bugs Me page, just in case... you know), and another film in the works for
2009 2011 (
damn Fox..).
This film provides examples of:
- Abandoned Hospital - Where Jim wakes up. If one of the Alternate Endings had been implemented, this would have had been a Book End - he dies in an abandoned hospital.
- Action Survivor: Jim and the other survivors.
- Animal Wrongs Group: The cause of Britain going to zombie hell? Activists releasing infected monkeys.
- Badass Normal: Before the outbreak, Selina was an ordinary pharmacist. Afterwards, she's a machete-chopping, motolov-flinging badass.
- Beware The Nice Ones: After being subject to a few too many rounds of cruelty and knowing Selena and Hannah are going to get raped by West's men, Jim proves why the cute ones are the ones to watch out for.
- Break The Cutie: Jim. He wakes up from his coma, naked and alone in an abandoned hospital and it keeps going downhill from there, right up until the inevitable snap.
- Complete Monster: The soldiers with the exception of Farrel and well...Mailer.
- Cosy Catastrophe
- Crazy Survivalist: Although Selina isn't exactly crazy (yet), she's incredibly ruthless and will leave anyone behind if they can't catch up, distrusts others, and openly mocks any plans for salvation. "Staying alive is as good as it gets." She warms up once she's spent some time with the others, though.
- Driver Of A Black Cab: Frank avoids this stereotype, but a deleted scene shows Selena, Mark and Hannah taking turns driving his black cab and doing their best London cabbie impersonation, much to his annoyance. The DVD commentary mentions that you can't drive a black cab without experiencing an irresistible urge to do this.
- Death By Pragmatism: Subverted.
- Downer Ending: Danny Boyle has stated that the "true ending" has Jim dying in the hospital after being shot by the soldiers.
- Dyeing For Your Art: The actors playing soldiers attended a three-day boot camp to ensure that they'd carry themselves properly.
- Eye Scream: Jim does this to one of the soldiers.
- Ghost City
- Hazardous Water
- High Pressure Blood
- Late To The Party
- Law Of Conservation Of Detail
- Looping Lines: Cillian Murphy rerecorded all of his lines Post Production.
- According to the DVD commentary, there were a lot of scenes where dialogue was added or altered in post. Some scenes were even shot with the intention of making the inevitable ADR easier (ie, the speaking character offscreen or in shadows).
- Nice Job Breaking It Hero: Nice job breaking out those lab monkeys.
- Not A Zombie - Jim's first encounter with a zombie is a former priest. He is naturally reluctant to kill the zombie.
- Officer And A Gentleman: Played with in Major West, who uses it to sucker in the women as sex toys for his men to keep up morale.
- Only One Name
- Scenery Gorn - The directors in their commentary were amazed at how they achieved a sense of ruin by blocking traffic for a few seconds.
- The film also has some really beautifully framed and executed shots... that they shot with DV cameras to give it a really gritty feel.
- Shirtless Scene
- Took A Level In Badass: Jim
- What Do You Mean Its Not Symbolic: Jim's most harrowing moment of despair is when he dreams he's been abandoned.
- Your Mileage May Vary: This is a fairly polarizing film for some. Weeks even more so.
- Zombie Apocalypse - Only for Britain.
- Zombie Infectee: The Rage Virus is too fast acting for this to last long, but the man traveling with Selina is one, begging for his life despite being infected. The father averts this, knowing he's been infected and trying to get his daughter to stay away.
