28 Weeks Later

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28 Weeks Later
UK Promotional film poster
Directed by	Juan Carlos Fresnadillo
Produced by	Andrew Macdonald Allon Reich Enrique Lopez-Lavigne Danny Boyle Alex Garland
Written by	Juan Carlos Fresnadillo Enrique Lopez-Lavigne Rowan Joffe Jesús Olmo
Starring	Rose Byrne Jeremy Renner Mackintosh Muggleton Imogen Poots Harold Perrineau Robert Carlyle Catherine McCormack Idris Elba
Music by	John Murphy
Cinematography	Enrique Chediak
Editing by	Chris Gill
Studio	Fox Atomic
Distributed by	20th Century Fox
Release date(s)	11 May 2007 (UK, US)
Running time	100 min.
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Gross revenue	$64,227,835 £32,113,424 (worldwide)
Preceded by	28 Days Later
Followed by	28 Months Later

28 Weeks Later is a 2007 British post-apocalyptic horror film, and sequel to the 2002 film 28 Days Later. The film was directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, and was released in the United Kingdom and in the United States on 11 May 2007. It was mostly filmed in London, England with some scenes also being filmed in the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, Wales.^[1]

Contents 1 Plot 2 Cast 3 Production 3.1 Pre-production 3.2 Casting details 3.3 Filming 4 Promotion 4.1 Biohazard warning 4.2 Graphic novel 4.3 Viral advertising 4.4 Prop giveaway 5 Reception 5.1 DVD sales 6 Sequel 7 Soundtrack 8 References 9 External links

[edit] Plot

Don (Robert Carlyle) and his wife Alice (Catherine McCormack) prepare dinner in the heavily-reinforced cottage they share with four others, somewhere in rural Great Britain. During their meal a boy bangs on the door, begging to be let in. After arguing amongst themselves Don lets the child inside, who says he is from Sandford and has been fleeing his infected parents. Moments later, a pack of the infected attack and enter the house, quickly overwhelming the group. Alice refuses to leave without the boy; Don abandons Alice and escapes in a boat, emerging as the sole survivor.

Over the course of 28 weeks following the original outbreak, the infected have all starved to death, Britain has been declared relatively safe, and re-population has begun.

An American-led NATO force, under the command of Brigadier General Stone (Idris Elba), begins repopulating the country with both old and new residents. The chief medical officer of District 1, Major Scarlet Ross (Rose Byrne), is surprised by the inclusion of adolescents and children, amongst whom are Tammy (Imogen Poots) and Andy (Mackintosh Muggleton), Don and Alice's children who were in Spain during the initial outbreak.

At 12 years old, Andy is the youngest person in Britain, and during their subsequent medical inspection, Scarlet notes Andy's heterochromia, a trait he inherited from his mother. Andy and Tammy are subsequently admitted to District 1, a heavily-reinforced, fully functional section of London on the Isle of Dogs guarded by the United States Army, including a detachment from Delta acting as a rooftop observation team. With them are a sergeant, Doyle (Jeremy Renner), and an observation helicopter pilot, Flynn (Harold Perrineau). The children are reunited with their father Don, who is now head caretaker of the district. Don tearfully recounts his escape to them, saying that Alice was killed by the infected, but states that he witnessed Alice's death to hide the fact that he abandoned her.

The next day the two children slip out of the safe zone to return to their old home, where Andy discovers Alice, disheveled but alive. Andy and Tammy are recaptured by the US Army while Alice is decontaminated. A blood test reveals that she is infected with the Rage virus, but displaying few symptoms, labeling her an asymptomatic carrier, as evidenced by her bloodied eye. Though Scarlet wants to keep Alice alive to seek a possible vaccine or cure, she is overruled by Stone, who wants Alice killed to prevent a possible further outbreak of Rage.

Don visits his children in a holding room, where they confront him about his version of Alice's death. He then makes an unauthorized visit to Alice in her isolation cell, using his caretaker passcard to bypass security, and asks for forgiveness. When they kiss, the Rage virus in her saliva immediately infects Don, who brutally kills her and goes on to attack and infect soldiers in District 1.

The outbreak forces the area into lockdown. All the civilians are quarantined in safe rooms, which Don forces his way into, and begins to infect them. Scarlet manages to rescue Tammy from containment but Andy gets separated from the group. Doyle and the soldiers are initially ordered to shoot the infected, but as the chaos escalates this is upgraded to a "Code Red": a general extermination of the populace. Doyle, unable to bring himself to comply with the order, abandons his post and escapes with Scarlet, the children, and others through an underground tunnel. Stone then orders that District 1 be fire-bombed. Although this causes massive devastation, large numbers of the infected, including Don, escape the bombardment and occupy the city.

Hoping to rendezvous with Flynn's helicopter at the derelict remains of Regent's Park, Scarlet informs Doyle that the children may have the same immunity as their mother, and must thus be protected at all costs. Flynn arrives by helicopter to pick up Doyle, but refuses to take anyone else as they would be shot down if in breach of the Code Red protocol.

Flynn tells Doyle to head to Wembley Stadium but to leave the civilians. Ignoring the latter instruction, Doyle heads to Wembley with the group, breaking into an abandoned car to escape the infected and chemical weapons now being used to blanket the city. In the process of push starting the car, Doyle is killed by soldiers with flamethrowers. Now pursued by an Apache helicopter, Scarlet drives into the London Underground where she and the children continue on foot. Although they are able to navigate using the night sight on Doyle's rifle the group become separated, whereupon Scarlet is ambushed and killed by Don, who has followed them. Don then attacks and bites Andy, but is shot by Tammy before he can kill the latter. Although now infected with the Rage virus, Andy remains symptom-free like his mother, albeit with a bloodshot eye. The children continue to Wembley Stadium and discover and are picked up by a reluctant Flynn, who flies them across the English Channel to France as previously instructed by Doyle. At this point only Tammy knows that Andy is a carrier of the virus, having hidden this fact from Flynn.

Another 28 days pass. Calls for help and people's screams can be heard over the radio of Flynn’s now abandoned helicopter. A swarm of Infected are shown running through a subway exit, toward the Eiffel Tower, revealing the Rage Virus has spread to mainland Europe.

[edit] Cast

Actor	Role
Robert Carlyle	Don Harris
Jeremy Renner	Doyle
Rose Byrne	Major Scarlet Ross
Imogen Poots	Tammy Harris
Mackintosh Muggleton	Andy Harris
Catherine McCormack	Alice Harris
Harold Perrineau	Flynn
Shahid Ahmed	Jacob
Emily Beecham	Karen
Garfield Morgan	Geoff
Amanda Walker	Sally
Idris Elba	Brigadier General Stone

[edit] Production

[edit] Pre-production

"We were quite taken aback by the phenomenal success of the first film, particularly in America, We saw an opportunity to make a second film that already had a built in audience. We thought it would be a great idea to try and satisfy that audience again".

— Danny Boyle on 28 Weeks Later.[2]

In 2003, plans for the film were conceived after the enormous international success of 28 Days Later. Danny Boyle, Andrew Macdonald and Alex Garland stated that they felt the time was right to make a sequel.^[2]

In March 2005, Boyle said in an interview that he would not direct the sequel due to commitments to Sunshine, but he would serve as executive producer. He also revealed that the film would revolve around a great deal of the aftermath from the first movie.^[3] It was also revealed that the film would include the "US Army declaring the war against infection had been won, and that the reconstruction of the country could begin."^[4] Boyle hired Juan Carlos Fresnadillo to helm the project after seeing Fresnadillo's 2001 film Intacto.^[5] Fresnadillo stated that he was "thrilled working on his first English language film alongside such an exciting international cast and talented production team."^[6]

Both Fresnadillo and Lopez-Lavigne were involved in writing the script, which revolved around a family and what happened to them in the aftermath of the original film, which the producers "liked a lot".^[7]

[edit] Casting details

Boyle said in March 2005 that the sequel would feature a new cast, since previous cast members Cillian Murphy and Naomie Harris were occupied with their own projects.^[3] On 23 August 2006, Jeremy Renner was announced to portray Doyle, one of the principal characters for 28 Weeks Later.^[8] On 31 August 2006, Harold Perrineau was announced to portray a US Special Forces pilot in the film.^[9]

[edit] Filming

On 1 September 2006, principal photography for 28 Weeks Later began in London^[10] with much of the filming taking place at Canary Wharf.^[11]

[edit] Promotion

[edit] Biohazard warning

On 13 April 2007, 28 days before the release of the film in UK cinemas, a huge biohazard warning sign was projected against the White Cliffs of Dover.^[12] The sign contained the international biological hazard symbol, as well as stating that Britain was "contaminated, keep out!".

[edit] Graphic novel

In July 2006, Fox Atomic Comics and publisher HarperCollins announced that they were publishing a graphic novel titled 28 Days Later: The Aftermath in early 2007 to bridge the gap between 28 Days Later and 28 Weeks Later.^[13]

[edit] Viral advertising

Removable graffiti was sprayed in locations around London and Birmingham featuring the web address 'ragevirus.com'. However, the web address was found to be unregistered and quickly snapped up by a cybersquatter. The advertising agency who made the mistake agreed to purchase the rights to the domain for an undisclosed sum.^[14]

[edit] Prop giveaway

In April 2007, Bloody-Disgusting.com promoted the film by giving readers a chance to win a prop from the film. The props were included in a "District 1 Welcome Pack”, which featured an actual ID card and an Evening Standard newspaper with an evacuation headline. The giveaway was only open for North American residents and entries closed on 9 May 2007.^[15]

[edit] Reception

The film opened in 2,000 cinemas across the United States.^[16]

28 Weeks Later garnered generally positive reviews.^[17] View London called the film an "exciting, action-packed and superbly directed thriller that more than lives up to the original film"^[18]. The New York Times wrote that "28 Weeks Later is brutal and almost exhaustingly terrifying. It is also bracingly smart, both in its ideas and in its techniques",^[19] as well as "best horror film of the year".^[20] The film has generated a rating of 71 percent on Rotten Tomatoes with 98 positive reviews and 42 negative ones.^[21] The film made $9.8 million in its opening weekend, coming in second place at the box office, behind Spider-Man 3. The film has grossed $28,638,916 in the U.S. and $35,586,549 in other countries, bringing the worldwide total to $64,225,465.^[22]

[edit] DVD sales

About 1,327,461 DVD units were sold gathering a revenue of $24,222,064.^[23]

[edit] Sequel

"Well, I didn't want to do the second one, because I was involved in Sunshine. But I went out and I helped them [with 28 Weeks Later]. I did some second-unit shooting on it. And I really enjoyed it, actually. There's something about doing something trashy that's great. Where basically you just come in the door and you just kill them. That was rather refreshing."

— Danny Boyle on directing.[24]

In June 2007, it was announced that if DVD sales of the film did well Fox Atomic would consider producing the third film.^[25]

In July 2007, while promoting Sunshine, Boyle revealed that he has a story formulating for the next film. "There is an idea for the next one, something which would move [the story] on. I've got to think about it, whether it's right or not." Boyle also revealed that he would return as the director.^[24]

In October 2008, Boyle discussed with Karmalooptv the high possibility of a 28 Months Later.^[26]

[edit] Soundtrack

The trailer for this film featured the song "Want" by Witchman. "Shrinking Universe" by Muse (from the Hullabaloo Soundtrack album) was used in the second part of the trailer.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Official website
• 28 Weeks Later at the Internet Movie Database
• 28 Weeks Later at Allmovie
• 28 Weeks Later at Rotten Tomatoes
• 28 Weeks Later at Box Office Mojo
• 28 Weeks Later at Metacritic
• Fan Forum

v • d • e The films of Juan Carlos Fresnadillo Intacto (2001)  · 28 Weeks Later (2007)  · Wednesday (2007)

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