History Film / TwentyEightDaysLater

** Furthermore, the zombies never think to eat each other, and [[RealityEnsues they starve to death en masse within a couple weeks.]]

* FailedASpotCheck: The unnamed animal rights group intruders were so busy documenting "animal abuse" that they completely failed to register how agitated the chimpanzees were, [[TooDumbToLive so the woman apparently leading the group opens one of the cages against the advice of the researcher]]. [[RealityEnsues So naturally, she gets attacked by the chimp she unleashed,]] [[{{Hypocrite}} which she then tells the rest of her group to beat to death.]]

* RealityEnsues: Unlike traditional zombies the infected still have basic human needs, but are too crazy to address them. Left alone all the infected die of hunger and dehydration within a few weeks.

* UnbuiltTrope: Of the TechnicallyLivingZombie. While they're faster and smarter than the usual "shambling corpses", they also have all the weaknesses of regular human beings: they can be killed with regular bullets at center mass, and RemovingTheHeadOrDestroyingTheBrain is not at all required. And because they're still alive, they still need to ''eat'': the film makes clear that because the Rage virus suppresses the hunger and sleep functions, all the zombies [[RealityEnsues will starve to death in a matter of weeks.]]

* ArtisticLicenseGeography: The radio message says that the blockade is to the northeast of Manchester. When Jim breaks back into it, you see signs for Blackpool, Fleetwood, Lancaster and the Lake District. These signs are only seen on the M6, which runs west of Manchester.

** When Farrell hits Mitchell to protect Jim and Selena from him, West calls him out but instead of questioning him why he did it, he just stares at him and orders him very coldy to move the bodies off the lawn instead of asking him why he hit Mitchell hinting that [[spoiler: West knows why Farrell did it because he did not like Mitchell raping one of the girls though he does tell them all to slow down clearly telling them to wait for the right time and the order he gave out to Farrell was a punishment for stopping Mitchell.

* AFatherToHisMen: Major West is friendly and sociable with his troop, even comforting one of them as they die.
* {{Foreshadowing}}: [[spoiler:[[RoaringRampageOfRevenge "Mitchell, I swear to god this is going to end badly for you..."]]]]

* KickTheSonOfABitch: Jim surprise-attacks Mitchell, brutally killing the soldier by ''[[TheresNoKillLikeOverKill gouging his eyes out and beating him to death]]''. Don't feel bad for [[AssholeVictim him]] [[KarmicDeath though he more than had it coming.]]

* TokenGoodTeammate: [[spoiler: Sergeant Farrell, again. The fact that only one of the soldiers isn't either a psychotic {{Manchild}} or ''insane'' is a fairly significant spoiler.]]

[[TitleDrop Twenty-eight days later]], Jim (Creator/CillianMurphy) awakens from a coma; he finds himself naked in a totally deserted hospital (which sits 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 happened in the past month. Jim wanders around the city, plastic bag of Pepsi cans in hand, before he meets some non-[[ZombieGait shambling]], [[HatePlague angry-as-hell]] Rage-infected [[TechnicallyLivingZombie pseudo-zombies]]. After escaping their wrath, Jim teams up with a group of fellow survivors to kick some ass in search of an escape -- and a cure, promised by radio broadcasts from a distant barricade.

Survivor Selena (Creator/NaomieHarris), a realist, considers survival the only option and thinks of Jim's naiveté as a hindrance. Frank (Creator/BrendanGleeson) and Hannah, father and daughter, see things less bleakly -- and both suffer for it.

''28 Days Later'' avoids using the word "[[NotUsingTheZWord zombie]]", and it also avoids a number of common zombie tropes: once the Rage virus takes over, those infected with it become fast-moving, mindlessly violent killers (without a hunger for brains). Infectees are "transformed" almost immediately, preventing them from hiding their condition. The Rage infection itself devastates society and causes an apocalypse due to the ease of transmission and the overall panic. Despite precautions to avoid the appearance of a zombie movie, the film ended up getting pigeonholed as a zombie movie anyway. It did fairly well at the box office, received several comic prequels (which explore the period of time between the initial outbreak and the film), and managed to spawn a sequel (''Film/TwentyEightWeeksLater''). The creators has planned a third instalment in the series called ''28 Months Later'', but it has been stuck in DevelopmentHell ever since the release of ''Weeks''.

* AbandonedHospitalAwakening: Jim wakes up in an AbandonedHospital the eponymous twenty-eight days after the ZombieApocalypse begins. [[spoiler:He winds up in an abandoned hospital again after being shot during the climax]].
* AbsurdlySharpBlade: Subverted as it's shown to take numerous violent hacks for Selena to chop off her first partner's arm with a machete before finally killing him.

* AnonymousBenefactor: Right at the start of the main story, once Jim wakes up, someone, maybe a doctor or a nurse, covered the blinds, locked his hospital room door and shoved the key under the door, so that he could get out if he woke from his coma.
* AxCrazy: Those infected by the Rage Virus go completely and homicidially bonkers and as a result attack and kill everything that moves.

** Arguably applies to Hannah as well. Her father initially joins forces with Jim and Selena so that they can take care of her if something happens to him. [[spoiler: But she ends up saving ''them'' at the end when she kills Major West.]]
* AffablyEvil: [[spoiler:Major West]]. From the start there's something ominously odd about [[DissonantSerenity how imperturbable the character seems to be.]]

* AntiVillain: [[spoiler:[[AffablyEvil Major West]]]] is perhaps the most visible example of a villain in the entire movie. And the movie itself heavily implies that [[SanitySlippage he's just gone completely insane.]] Of course, with the total exception of [[spoiler: [[TokenGoodTeammate Sergeant Farrell]], the rest of the soldiers are really just complete scumbags, with [[SmugSnake Mitchell]] being the most outright villainous.]]

* ApocalypseHow: [[spoiler:Regional/Societal Disruption]]. Despite radio reports that the virus has reached Paris and New York, it turns out to be confined to Britain as they realise on seeing an airplane flying over at high altitude, so either the reports were wrong or the virus was successfully contained. At least [[Film/TwentyEightWeeksLater in this movie]].

** The animal rights activists who got the whole zombie-apocalypse going in the first place may count as well, considering that they weren't above roughing up a mild mannered scientist who was only a PunchClockVillain at best. They also ignored his countless pleas, and didn't think it was odd that nearly all the monkeys were in completely sealed cages.
* BadassAdorable: Hannah certainly by the end. She's still a very cute teenage girl, but she takes it on herself [[spoiler:to man the getaway car and get rid of West herself.]]

* BatheHerAndBringHerToMe: A variation. [[spoiler: The soldiers dress Selena and Hannah up in fancy gowns before they intend to rape them]].
* BattleInTheRain: Jim's [[spoiler: RoaringRampageOfRevenge.]] in the final act takes place during a thunderstorm; any outside scene has him and the others drenched within seconds.
* BewareTheNiceOnes:After being subject to a few too many rounds of cruelty and knowing Selena and Hannah are going to [[spoiler:get raped by West's men]], Jim proves why the cute ones are the ones to watch out for. The same applies to Hannah, who backs the cab containing [[spoiler:West straight into the entryway of the house knowing his infected soldiers will get him]].
* BilingualBonus: In the end of the film, the pilot of the plane is speaking Finnish on the radio. The very last words he says are, [[spoiler: "Lähetätkö helikopterin?" which means "Will you send a helicopter?"]]

* BrokenBird: Selena has this attitude. According to Naomie Harris, she and Danny Boyle came up with a backstory to explain it: Selena apparently had to kill her entire family in one afternoon due to the infection - including a baby brother.

* CerebusCallBack: Inverted. At the end [[spoiler: Jim says to Selena "you looked alright in this, you know" as she's sewing the Help sign. She's using the dress the soldiers made her wear to get raped in]].
* ConvenientComa: Played with. Jim went into a coma somewhere around the outbreak. When he wakes up, he is very weak, malnourished and dehydrated. Most likely a week or two more and he would simply expire. [[spoiler:Subverted in the case of his parents. They were almost sure he was dead, so they committed suicide.]] However, whatever his injuries were that landed him in the coma in the first place, they don't impede him on his journey to becoming a badass.

** Selena is a chemist or pharmacist. It helps to sleep, [[ItMakesSenseInContext it helps to get stoned]] [[spoiler: and more or less saved Jim in the end]].

** [[spoiler: The infected boy from the roadside bar. While being extremely dangerous, he's not even 10. After easily subduing him, Jim openly struggles with himself if he should kill the kid, especially when he ''speaks'' - the only infected to do so in the entire film]].
** Hannah, due to being given valium right before a zombie attack. She's this for the soldiers in universe - asking who will be the replacement if Henry is killed, right in the middle of the night. She sobers up a little before Jim finally gets into the mansion.
* CreepyCrows: A distressed Frank sees a crow pecking at the corpse of someone at the station they were all meant to find refuge in. Angrily, Frank tries to wave it off...only for the movement to cause [[spoiler: infected blood to drop into his eye and infect him]].

** The infected attack just as much in the day as they do at night - makes sense, them being normal humans and having relatively poor night vision.

* DeconstructedTrope

* TheDogBitesBack: After [[spoiler: losing her dad in a staged situation and almost getting raped]], Hannah [[spoiler: drives a cab containing West right into hands of Mailer]], giving him [[KarmicDeath a painful, agonizing death]].
* DoorClosesEnding: The original ending ended with the door closing as [[spoiler:Selena and Hannah left Jim's body behind, going into an uncertain future.]]
* DownerEnding: Danny Boyle has stated that the "true ending" — as opposed to of the FocusGroupEnding of the final cut — has [[spoiler: Jim dying in the abandoned hospital after being shot by the soldiers]]. You can imagine why this was reduced to a mere alternate ending. Downplayed — it's much more of a BittersweetEnding in that [[spoiler:Selena and Hannah survive and are presumably rescued.]]

* EarnYourHappyEnding: The ending as released. [[spoiler:Jim survives, all the main characters survive the mansion assault at the end, the infected begin to die off from starvation, and a passing jet sees their distress message laid out in the grass and radios in a rescue]].

* EvenEvilHasStandards: [[spoiler: Jones is fully on board with the plan to rape the women and is fine with killing Farrell for refusing to participate. However, he balks when Mitchell wants to kill Farrell slowly with a bayonet]], and [[MercyKill shoots him]] to spare him that fate.

* EyeScream: Jim himself does this to [[spoiler:Corporal Mitchell, shoving his thumbs into his eye sockets.]]

** Jim spends about third of the film shirtless or outright naked. Let's just say that he was in a coma and didn't eat for about a month. In third act the disservice is even stronger - Jim is not only shirtless, but [[spoiler:also covered in blood and going around killing everyone]].
** When you get to see Selena in her underwear it's because [[spoiler:the soldiers stripped her and are planning to rape her as well as Hannah]].
** Numerous infected are naked including a topless woman.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: [[spoiler: [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge "Mitchell, I swear to god this is going to end badly for you..."]]]]

* HappyEndingOverride: ''Each'' sequel (so [[Film/TwentyEightWeeksLater the movie]] and both comics continuity) have various degrees of it, most importantly [[spoiler: the virus getting outside Britain]]. But aside that, in two of those, [[spoiler: Jim is put in prison for murder of British army personnel]]. You know, what he did in more than justified self-defense and to rescue his beloved ones, while the victims [[spoiler: were AWOL at best, {{Dangerous Deserter}}s at worst]].

* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler: Intentional or not, Sergeant Farrell ''does'' buy Jim enough time to escape while Jones and Mitchell bicker over how they'll kill the sergeant; Jones thinks just shoot him while Mitchell wants to do it slow with a bayonet. Then they bicker when Jones shoots Farrell as a twisted form of mercy.]]

* HumansAreTheRealMonsters: [[spoiler: Major West]] has [[MaddenIntoMisanthropy come to this conclusion]].
--> [[spoiler: '''Major West''']]: 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'', and as far back as I care to remember. People killing people... Which to my mind, puts us in a state of ''normality'' right now.

* ImprobableInfantSurvival: Oh how averted. Both the church and roadside bar are probably the most {{Squick}} places in the whole film thanks to the aversion of this trope. But at the same time [[spoiler: Hannah survives]].

* CreepyChild: Hannah, due to being given valium right before a zombie attack. She's this for the soldiers in universe - asking who will be the replacement if Henry is killed, right in the middle of the night. She sobers up a little before Jim finally gets into the mansion.

* CreepyCrows: A distressed Frank sees a crow pecking at the corpse of someone at the station they were all meant to find refuge in. Angrily, Frank tries to wave it off...only for the movement to cause infected blood to drop into his eye and infect him.

* ApocalypseHow: [[spoiler:Regional/Societal Disruption]]. Despite radio reports that the virus has reached Paris and New York, it turns out to be confined to Britain as they realise on seeing an airplane flying over at high altitude, so either the reports were wrong or the virus was successfully contained. At least [[Film/TwentyEightWeeksLater in this movie]].]]

* EstablishingCharacterMoment: Frank has absolutely fantastic one, in the very same scene explaining how he managed to survive for so long, [[PapaWolf what motivates him]] and what kind of person he really is. All within the span of about 90 seconds.

* BadDreams: Jim dreams that he wakes to find the others have abandoned him.

* EstablishingCharacterMoment: Frank has absolutely fantastic one, in the very same scene explaining how he managed to survive for so long, [[PapaWolf what motivates him]] and [[{{Adorkable}} what kind of person]] he really is. All within the span of about 90 seconds.

* ApocalypseHow: [[spoiler:Regional/Societal Disruption]]. It's implied that any survivors [[spoiler:have been lied to about the extent of the infection]], which turns out to [[spoiler:be confined to Britain despite alleged radio broadcasts that said that it had reached Paris and New York]].

* TheLoad: Jim is for the first-half of the film a [[TheDitz complete airhead]]. In his defense he's come out of a coma to find the whole world flipped upside down, but his bumbling gets Mark killed and nearly Selena as well. He gradually gets more competent by the end.

* LoopingLines: According to the DVDCommentary, 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).

* WhamLine:
** [[spoiler:"I promised them women..."]]
** [[spoiler:"Starting the world again when the rest of the fuckin' world hasn't even stopped! Just imagine... just think about it. How could infection cross the oceans? How could it cross the mountains and the rivers? They already stopped it! Right now, TV's are playing, and planes are flying in the sky, and the rest of the world is continuing as fuckin' normal. Think! Actually think about it. What would you do with a diseased little island? They quarantined us. 'There is no infection. Just people killing people.' He's insane!"]]

* WhamLine: [[spoiler:"I promised them women..."]]

* TooDumbToLive: Let's start with the scientists who decided to use chimpanzees, which are incredibly strong and can get pretty damn aggressive already, as guinea pigs for the Rage virus. Then the animal rights activists who release said infected chimpanzees ''after being warned that they're contagious.'' Additionally said scientists use a facility that doesn't even incorporate the most basic of quarantine procedures. (And apparently, decent security systems.)

* TechnicallyLivingZombie: The Infected are a poster-child for this trope, and in many ways ''28 Days Later'' started the wave of interest in this new "zombie" (really, Crazies). Anything that will kill a human can kill them, i.e. riddling their chest with bullets that are *not* expertly aimed. They've got a strong "mind-over-matter" adrenaline rush, though, so don't wait for them to get right on top of you. They're not smart enough to use weapons, and aren't explicitly trying to "eat" people (though they do animalistically bite people to attack). The real danger is that they'll easily infect you from close contact, what with all of their mucous membranes disintegrating into a bloody mess and puking up torrents of blood with little or no provocation.u

* NothingLeftToDoButDie: [[spoiler: Major West explains to Jim this is what his soldiers were starting to think after no contact from HQ and no relief ever came to them - even if they were to somehow make it, there is just noting for them to do after the infected starve to death, noting to achieve and no reason to continue living at all. So West [[WhamLine "promised them women"]]]].

** The animal rights activists who got the whole zombie-apocalypse going in the first place may count as well, considering that they weren't above roughing up a mild mannered scientist who was only a PunchClockVillain at best. They also ignored his countless pleads, and didn't think it was odd that nearly all the monkeys were in completely sealed cages.

''28 Days Later'' avoids using the word "[[NotUsingTheZWord zombie]]", and it also avoids a number of common zombie tropes: once the Rage virus takes over, those infected with it become fast-moving, mindlessly violent killers (without a hunger for brains). The Rage infection itself devastates society and causes an apocalypse due to the ease of transmission and the overall panic. Despite precautions to avoid the appearance of a zombie movie, the film ended up getting pigeonholed as a zombie movie anyway. It did fairly well at the box office, received several comic prequels (which explore the period of time between the initial outbreak and the film), and managed to spawn a sequel (''Film/TwentyEightWeeksLater''). The creators has planned a third instalment in the series called ''28 Months Later'', but it has been stuck in DevelopmentHell ever since the release of ''Weeks''.

In this 2002 post-apocalyptic horror film directed by Creator/DannyBoyle, a literal {{hate plague}} begins taking over Britain after animal rights activists set loose an infected chimp in a lab at Cambridge University. While scientists had designed the [[TheVirus "Rage" virus]] as a way of neutralizing violent impulses, it ended up having [[GoneHorriblyWrong the opposite effect]]: once freed, the chimp starts to excarnify its would-be rescuers. Cue the cut-away.

* EvenEvilHasStandards: Jones is fully on board with the plan to rape the women and is fine with killing Farrell for refusing to participate. However, he balks when Mitchell wants to kill Farrell slowly with a bayonet, and [[MercyKill shoots him]] to spare him that fate.