Line #26 YMMV/TwentyEightDaysLater


1	* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation:
2	** Is Major Henry West really [[spoiler: a ManipulativeBastard, or is he a good man driven insane by the situation surrounding him?]]
3	** The rest of the soldiers too. [[spoiler: Are they really driven mad and gone monstrous enough to rape innocent women? How many of them would have actually gone through with it? Some theorise that they may have raped Selena but would have stopped [[EvenEvilHasStandards short of raping Hannah too]]]]. Notably one of the soldiers is seen shaking his head sadly as they leave Hannah and Selena to change.
4	* {{Applicability}}: The last part of the film involves an Irish man massacring a number of British soldiers portrayed as [[HumansAreTheRealMonsters the real monsters of the story]]. He also does this to save a black woman and a working class girl (all three examples of oppressed people within British society, though there is a black soldier too). In an upper class mansion no less! The TokenGoodTeammate of the soldiers is also Scottish.
5	** Although this would overlaps with DeathOfTheAuthor, but [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55qijQ4UqCA YouTuber Huntress X. Thompson]] gave an absurdist interpretation of the somewhat BrokenAesop FocusGroupEnding, where Jim, Selena, and Hannah waves their hands at a Finnish fighter jet flying above for the rescue even after they faced some abuses from their own country's military, as FullCircleRevolution after the hierarchical status-quo has fallen down. It raises a question to the viewers: "Wouldn't it be fucked up if people didn't learn from history or from their own past experiences?"
6	* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: "In the House, In a Heartbeat," a steadily increasing anxiety attack of a song that perfectly matches the climax.
7	** The film also uses "East Hastings" by Music/GodspeedYouBlackEmperor to haunting effect in the beginning, as Jim wanders the deserted streets of London.
8	* BrokenBase:
9	** Fans generally debate whether or not ''28 Days Later'' is a zombie movie. This has largely died down as most categorize the infected in ''28 Days Later'' as {{Technically Living Zombie}}s to distinguish them from [[TheUndead their undead counterparts]].
10	** The third act revolving around the soldiers. Some fans hate the fact that the film takes a break from the infected to [[spoiler: focus on Jim trying to stop Hannah and Selena from being raped]] - while others feel that it's a great direction to take the story in. A large amount of Creator/DannyBoyle's films - ''Film/TheBeach'', ''Film/SlumdogMillionaire'', ''{{Film/Sunshine}}'' feature a seemingly insignificant plot element coming into the forefront to be the main conflict of the third act - so fans can't agree on whether it works or not.
11	** Fans tend to go overboard blaming either the activists or the scientists ''completely''. The scientists are the ones who created a deadly virus that ended up causing a nationwide catastrophe, and kept it contained in a facility with very poor security. By contrast, the activists are both violent and very poorly informed about what they're actually doing, and refuse to listen to the scientist at all. And they are the ones who let the virus loose.
12	** Is Jim a CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass? Or just a moron of a chav thrown into an extreme flight or fight response that [[BewareTheNiceOnes makes him snap]] in a [[EyeScream vicious fashion]]? It doesn't help his character as his idiocy gets ActionSurvivor Mark killed, requires constant babysitting, and very nearly drags [[TheLoad Selena down with him]]. Hero or Villain, everyone [[DoomMagnet dies around him]]. This is one of the reasons why some fans prefer the [[DownerEnding alternate ending]] where he dies, and the film poetically ends where his journey all started - in a hospital.
13	* CatharsisFactor: After watching for half hour as [[spoiler: the soldiers are anywhere between plain jerks to willing rapists and murderers]], the finale, in which [[spoiler: Jim kills or cause death of all of them in quick succession while saving Selena and Hannah]] is immensely satisfying. On top of it all, the two worst of the lot get the most gruesome and unpleasant deaths possible.
14	* CommonKnowledge: It's common for people to believe (with good reason) that Jim's walk through central London is a direct reference to the fallout from [[UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror 9/11]], where it was common to see a lot of public missing posters of those who died in the attacks (as well as its depiction of urban destruction) in central New York. However, the 9/11 attacks actually occurred during filming and did not affect that part of the story.
15	* DelusionConclusion: The presence of a deleted ending in which [[spoiler: Jim dies from the gunshot wound inflicted in the finale]] has led some viewers to theorize that the happy canonical ending is just a DyingDream or perhaps even an afterlife.
16	* EndingFatigue: For "surviving the apocalypse" movie fans, this movie starts off great but then makes a hard left midway through, sticking the main characters with the soldiers who take the forefront as antagonists and carries a different tone to match.
17	* EnsembleDarkhorse:
18	** Frank, full stop.
19	** Sergeant Farrell, the [[spoiler: TokenGoodTeammate]].
20	** Jones as well, from his {{Adorkable}} scenes in the frilly pink apron. There are many that [[spoiler: view his death as AlasPoorVillain]].
21	* FanonDiscontinuity: Not the movie itself, but rather the sequel tie-in comic book series by BOOM! Studios. A lot of the fandom likes to ignore the comic book series' events, even if fanfictions like ''Fanfic/DeathOfANation'' still make mythology gags to it, primarily because of the massive (and illogical) HappyEndingOverride the comics pulled with Jim getting arrested and sentenced to death by firing squad for the justified killings of Major West and his men. It probably didn't help that the comics had an original character supplant Jim as Selena's love interest. This is, however, a matter of BrokenBase - the comics themselves were pretty well received by the fandom. It's just that Jim's fate wasn't.
22	* FirstInstallmentWins: ''None'' of the sequels, be it [[Film/TwentyEightWeeksLater the film]] or two different comic book series, managed to achieve the success or acclaim of the first film.
23	* GenreTurningPoint: Most prior film depictions of zombies had followed the template set down by ''Film/NightOfTheLivingDead1968'' and its sequels, where zombies were slow and shambling, had little-to-no capability for thought, and {{Zombie Infectee}}s could last for days before succumbing to their infection. This film's template of fast, extremely aggressive zombies who can turn other victims in much faster timescales (hours at best, ''seconds'' at worst) became more the norm in the decades ahead, though by no means universal. Most notably, when ''Film/DawnOfTheDead1978'' got [[Film/DawnOfTheDead2004 a remake]] mere year later, it used fast runners, knocking down society within a few days, rather than months.
24	* HarsherInHindsight:
25	** Jim [[spoiler: savagely beating Corporal Mitchell down before gouging his eyes out]] leads to Selena briefly mistaking him for an infected before he manages to assure her it's really him. Pretty harsh, but awesome. [[Film/TwentyEightWeeksLater But in the sequel]], [[spoiler: Don delivering an even more brutal beatdown to his wife Alice and gouging her eyes out]] is even more horrifying considering [[spoiler: Don is indeed infected by this point.]]
26	** Selena's cold and cynical attitude is explained in a backstory that Creator/NaomieHarris and Creator/DannyBoyle came up with together: she had to kill her whole family in one afternoon, including an infected little brother. Knowing this makes [[spoiler: her reaction to Frank's death even harder to take, as she's suddenly going through it all over again]].
27	** Acknowledged by Creator/DannyBoyle, who noted that the setup of the "missing" posters throughout central London was very reminiscent of the aftermath of the September 11th attacks in New York. The "hindsight" part is also much more recent, since the attacks themselves occurred during the movie's filming, though after that part had been filmed.
28	** The iconic scenes of Jim wandering around a deserted London are eerily prescient of the COVID-19 outbreak of 2020 which saw London streets largely empty as a result of lockdown (brought on by a virus, no less).
29	* HeartwarmingInHindsight: There is something heartwarming about three then-unknown actors playing people trying to survive in an AfterTheEnd scenario - now with the hindsight that all three are now established in the film business.
30	* HoYay: Henry seems really fond of Jim, constantly touching him, and while he [[spoiler:promises women for his soldiers, he himself doesn't seem that interested in them beyond some vague rambling about "The Future"]].
31	* ItWasHisSled: [[spoiler: The message is a fake and the soldiers are just looking for a chance to rape the women]].
32	* MoralEventHorizon: [[spoiler: Major Henry West reveals that he put the announcement on the blockade solely to attract female survivors - and that he's going to allow his men to do whatever they want with Selena and Hannah. This [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil of course]] solidifies him as the new antagonist]].
33	* OlderThanTheyThink:
34	** The idea that [[HatePlague a contagion]] could turn the populace into [[RedEyesTakeWarning red-eyed]] murderous [[AxCrazy psychopaths]] was around since ''VideoGame/Quarantine1994''. Both experiments had GoneHorriblyWrong from their original purposes as rage suppressors, into something quite the opposite of an inhibitor. The only difference is the film uses a virus whereas the game uses a behavior altering chemical.
35	** Similarly, Creator/GeorgeRomero's ''other'' zombie movie ''Film/TheCrazies1973'' featured a man-made virus that turned the infected into homicidal killers.
36	** While this movie popularized fast zombies, it was not the first to do so as earlier zombie films, like ''Nightmare City'' and ''Film/TheReturnOfTheLivingDead'', had zombies fully capable of running.
37	* RetroactiveRecognition: The film's four leads went on to bigger things.
38	** Creator/CillianMurphy is now known as Scarecrow in ''Film/BatmanBegins'' and ''Film/TheDarkKnight''. He also played Robert Fischer Jr., the physical MacGuffin of ''Film/{{Inception}}'', Jackson Rippner from ''Film/RedEye'', Damien O'Donovan from ''Film/TheWindThatShakesTheBarley'', Pieter in ''Film/GirlWithAPearlEarring'', Capa from ''Film/{{Sunshine}}'', Thomas Shelby in ''Series/PeakyBlinders'', J Robert Oppenheimer in ''Film/Oppenheimer''... let's just say that while the role of Jim didn't make him a star overnight, it still kick-started his career, as he received a big push after this movie.
39	** Creator/NaomieHarris played Tia Dalma in the [[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanDeadMansChest second]] and [[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanAtWorldsEnd third]] ''Franchise/PiratesOfTheCaribbean'' films. She portrays [[spoiler:Moneypenny]] in Creator/DanielCraig's ''Film/JamesBond'' films (specifically, ''Film/{{Skyfall}}'' and ''Film/{{Spectre}}'') and received an Oscar nomination for her role in ''Film/Moonlight2016''.
40	** Creator/BrendanGleeson (the father who joins the first two midway through the film) is a well-respected character actor whose first major role was in ''Film/{{Braveheart}}'' and went on to play Alastor 'Mad-Eye' Moody in the ''Film/HarryPotter'' films and Ken Daley in ''Film/InBruges''. Gleeson, an Irishman, also played UsefulNotes/WinstonChurchill in the HBO TV movie ''Into the Storm''.
41	** Creator/ChristopherEccleston (who was also featured in Creator/DannyBoyle's first film ''Film/ShallowGrave'') went on to play the [[Series/DoctorWho Ninth Doctor]] and is known as this for British audiences/Who fans. Americans would know him as Destro in ''Film/GIJoeTheRiseOfCobra'', Claude from ''Series/{{Heroes}}'', and Matt Jamison in ''Series/TheLeftovers''.
42	* SignatureScene: Jim wandering [[GhostCity a deserted London]] shortly after waking up is easily the most memorable scene of the movie.
43	* SpiritualLicensee: This is a pretty good adaptation of ''Literature/TheDayOfTheTriffids'', don't you think? Both are set AfterTheEnd and start with the protagonist waking up alone in a hospital and emerging into an abandoned London.

Context YMMV / TwentyEightDaysLater