28 Days Later

28 Days Later...
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Directed by	Danny Boyle
Written by	Alex Garland
Produced by	Andrew Macdonald
Starring	Cillian Murphy Naomie Harris Brendan Gleeson Christopher Eccleston Megan Burns
Cinematography	Anthony Dod Mantle
Edited by	Chris Gill
Music by	John Murphy
Distributed by	Fox Searchlight Pictures
Release dates	1 November 2002 27 June 2003
Running time	113 min.
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Budget	£5,000,000

28 Days Later is a 2002 British post-apocalyptic science fiction horror film directed by Danny Boyle and starring Cillian Murphy, Naomie Harris and Christopher Eccleston. Set in early 21st century England, the story depicts the breakdown of society following the accidental release of a highly contagious virus known as "Rage" (which renders people mindlessly violent) and focuses upon the struggle of four survivors to cope with the ruination of the life they once knew.

A critical and commercial success, the film is widely recognized for images of a deserted London, and was shot almost entirely on digital video. The film spawned the 2007 sequel, 28 Weeks Later.

Plot

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Jim (Cillian Murphy) walks across Westminster Bridge on his journey through London.

The film opens with British animal rights activists breaking into a science laboratory to free chimpanzees being used for medical research. The chimps, dosed with the "Rage virus", attack and infect the activists and a researcher.

Twenty-eight days later, a bicycle courier named Jim (Cillian Murphy) awakens from a coma in a deserted hospital. Upon leaving, he discovers that London has been completely abandoned and is rife with signs of catastrophe. After taking refuge in a church, Jim is chased by strangely fitful, sick-looking hellions, but is rescued by two survivors, Selena (Naomie Harris) and Mark (Noah Huntley), who rush him to their hideout in a section of the London Underground. They tell Jim that while he was comatose, a virus spread uncontrollably among the populace, turning them into vicious, mindless, blood-spewing monsters (referred to as "The Infected"), resulting in societal collapse, possibly on a global scale.

Jim takes Selena and Mark to his parents' house, but they discover that his parents have committed suicide. That night, they are ambushed by more of The Infected, and upon realising that Mark has been slashed in the attack, Selena quickly kills him. She explains to Jim that infection is spread through blood, and takes only seconds to overwhelm its victims and render them deadly to others. She warns that should he become infected, she will kill him too, "in a heartbeat."

Journeying through the derelict city, Selena rules out the idea that she and Jim could fall in love, asserting that nothing remains but the fight to survive. Still, Selena, a chemist, continues to help the recovering coma patient, feeding and advising him. Soon, they encounter two more survivors, cabbie Frank (Brendan Gleeson) and his teenage daughter Hannah (Megan Burns), still residing in an otherwise abandoned apartment tower. Invited to spend the night, Jim and Selena privately debate whether they should stick with Frank and Hannah. Selena states that if they slow her down, she will abandon them, while Jim says he wouldn't because they're good people; Selena warns Jim that caring about others more than personal survival is a sure way to get killed.

The next morning, Frank informs Jim and Selena that supplies, particularly water, are dwindling, and has them listen to a prerecorded, looped radio broadcast transmitted by soldiers at a blockade near Manchester, who claim to have "the answer to infection". Despite initial reservations, the four survivors decide to take Frank's cab in search of the blockade. The quartet form a bond during the trip, and Selena's steely resolve against feeling anything for her companions begins to soften. Conversely, Jim's experiences on the trip begin to toughen him up; he slays an infected child.

When they reach the seemingly deserted blockade, Frank becomes infected and is immediately shot by soldiers, who commandeer the cab and take Selena, Jim and Hannah to a fortified mansion under the command of Major Henry West (Christopher Eccleston). Hannah is in shock, and a distraught Selena and worried Jim reach out to each other romantically. Jim soon learns that West's "answer to infection" entails waiting for The Infected to starve to death (for they never eat, only kill), while giving hope for community survival to his men by forcing sexual servitude on female survivors. Shocked by this violent plan, Jim attempts to escape with Selena and Hannah, but is subdued, along with "resident philospher" Sergeant Farrell, who had tried to help. While Jim and Farrell are tied up for the night, Farrell theorises that there is no world wide epidemic, but rather that Britain has been quarantined. The next day, the two prisoners are led off into the woods to be executed. Meanwhile, Selena and Hannah are trapped as the soldiers circle, wanting to begin the rapes - albeit under a veneer of politesse - and Selena manoeuvres to stall for time, secretly giving young Hannah a sedative.

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Selena (Naomie Harris) and a bloody Jim are reunited

While escaping his captors after Farrell is shot, Jim spots an airplane flying overhead and realizes that indeed, someone in the outside world is still functioning. He then improvises a plan to rescue his friends, first luring West out to the blockade, then running back to assault the soldiers' headquarters. He unleashes Mailer, an infected soldier that West kept chained outside for observation. While Mailer attacks and infects many of the soldiers, Jim kills others. Covered in blood, Jim viciously attacks the soldier detaining Selena, leading her to believe that he may be infected. Machete at the ready, Selena hesitates before striking Jim. He quips, "That was longer than a heartbeat," and the two passionately kiss. With Hannah in tow, they run to Frank's cab, but West appears, shooting Jim in the stomach. West is then killed by Mailer, allowing the trio to escape.

In a series of rapid edits, Selena and Hannah are shown rushing the wounded Jim into a deserted hospital, where Selena performs life-saving emergency procedures. Then, after another twenty-eight days, a bandaged Jim is shown waking up in recovery again, this time on one side of a double bed in a remote cottage. He goes downstairs, where Selena is sewing large swaths of fabric. At Hannah's alert, the three of them rush a huge cloth banner outside, adding a letter to the word "HELLO", an attempt to signal a military jet which was previously observed flying overhead. As the approaching jet flies over the landscape, The Infected lay in the streets dying of starvation. After the jet zooms past the three waving survivors and their distress sign, Selena wonders aloud, "Do you think he saw us this time?"

Alternate endings

Return to hospital

The first alternate ending was completely filmed and edited, and appears on the DVD extras. In this ending, Jim is mortally wounded while escaping the soldiers, and is rushed by Selena and Hannah to a local hospital. After Jim dies, the two women leave his body at the hospital, completing a circle for Jim, who starts and finishes in the film's time frame in bed in a deserted hospital. Selena and Hannah, armed with guns, walk through a pair of operating room doors, which gradually stop swinging. This was the official ending of the first cut, which was tested with preview audiences. It was ultimately rejected for seeming too bleak; the final exit from the hospital was intended to imply Selena and Hannah's survival, whereas test audiences felt that the women were marching off to certain death.

On the DVD commentary, Garland and Boyle expressed a preference for this alternate ending, calling it the "true ending". It was added in the theatrical release of the film beginning on 25 July 2003, and was placed after the credits and prefaced with the words "...what if." This ending appears on some television broadcasts of the movie, such as those on Channel 4.

Modification of rescue ending

An unpolished alternate coda is included on the DVD, which is quite similar to the released version's final scene of potential rescue from the air. In this scenario, Jim has died from his gunshot wounds, so this time, only Selena and Hannah are seen waving to the jet flying overhead in the final shots. And in the scene immediately prior, where Selena is sewing one of the banner letters, she is seen jokingly talking to a chicken instead of Jim.

"Radical Alternative Ending"

The "Radical Alternative Ending" was not filmed and is presented on the DVD as a series of storyboards with voiceovers.

The story picks up when Frank is infected at the military blockade near Manchester. This time, however, there is no subplot involving the soldiers. In a radical turn, Jim, Selena and Hannah are somehow able to restrain the infected Frank, hoping they will find a cure for the virus nearby as suggested in the radio broadcast. Taking Frank along, the three soon discover that the blockade had protected a large medical research complex, the same one featured in the first scene of the film where the virus was developed.

Inside, the party is relieved to find a scientist self-barricaded inside a room with food and water. He won't open the door because he fears they will take his food, although he does admit that the "answer to infection is here." Unfortunately, he refuses to talk anymore with the party- he doesn't want to make an emotional attachment to people who will soon be dead. After hours of failed attempts to break through the door or coax the man out, Jim eventually brings Hannah to the door and explains Frank's situation. The scientist reluctantly tells them that Frank can only be cured with a complete blood transfusion, and supplies them with the necessary equipment. After learning that he is the only match with Frank's blood-type, Jim nobly sacrifices himself so that Frank can survive with his daughter.

Just as his journey began, Jim is left alone in the abandoned medical facility, and Selena, Hannah and Frank move into the room with the man as a horde of the infected breach the complex. Strapped to the table as the chimp had been in the opening scene, the computer monitors showing death and destruction come to life around a thrashing, infected Jim.

On the DVD commentary, Garland and Boyle mention that they conceptualised this ending in post-production to see what the film would be like if they did not expand the focus beyond the core four survivors. They ultimately decided against the ending because the idea of a total blood replacement as a cure was not credible.

Cast

In the DVD's special features section, it is explained that, with the aim of preserving the suspension of disbelief, relatively unknown actors were cast in the film. Male lead Cillian Murphy had at the time starred primarily in small independent films, while female lead Naomie Harris was a former child actor on British television. However, actors Christopher Eccleston and Brendan Gleeson were somewhat well-known character actors. Eccleston, who went on to greater notoriety for his portrayal of the Ninth Doctor in the 2005 series of Doctor Who, had already appeared in films such as The Others, Gone in 60 Seconds, eXistenZ and Shallow Grave (another film directed by Boyle). Likewise, Gleeson had appeared in several films, including Braveheart, Lake Placid, and The General.

• Cillian Murphy – Jim
• Naomie Harris – Selena
• Noah Huntley – Mark
• Brendan Gleeson – Frank
• Megan Burns – Hannah
• Luke Mably – Private Clifton
• Stuart McQuarrie – Sergeant Farrell
• Ricci Harnett – Corporal Mitchell
• Leo Bill – Private Jones
• Junior Laniyan – Private Bell
• Ray Panthaki – Private Bedford
• Christopher Eccleston – Major Henry West
• Sanjay Rambaruth – Private Davis
• Marvin Campbell – Private Mailer

Production

28 Days Later features scenes set in normally bustling parts of London such as Westminster Bridge, Piccadilly Circus, Horse Guards Parade and Oxford Street. In order to depict these locations as desolate, the film crew closed off sections of street for minutes at a time, usually in early morning to minimize disruption. Portions of the film were shot on a Canon XL1 digital video camera. DV cameras are much smaller and more manoeuvrable than traditional film cameras, which would have been impractical on such brief shoots.

The scenes of the M1 motorway completely devoid of traffic were also filmed within very limited time periods. A mobile police roadblock slowed traffic sufficiently to leave a long section of carriageway empty while the scene was filmed. The section depicted in the film was actually located at Milton Keynes, nowhere near Manchester. For the London scene where Jim walks by the overturned doubledecker bus, the film crew placed the bus on its side and removed it when the shot was finished, all within 20 minutes.

Filming took place prior to the September 11, 2001 attacks, and in the audio commentary Boyle notes the parallel between the "missing persons" flyers seen at the beginning of the film and similar flyers posted in New York City in the wake of 9/11. Boyle adds that his crew probably would not have been granted permission to close off Downing Street for filming after the terrorist attacks in New York.

While travelling around London at the beginning of the film, Jim picks up a copy of the Evening Standard. The front page created by the filmmakers carries a single headline printed in large font: "EVACUATION", with the sub-heading "Mass exodus of British people causes global chaos." Above the main headline, there are three small subheadings with page numbers- "Who will stop them?", "Refugee Crisis Looms" and "Dangerous Animals". Below the headline, the front page contains a list of London's boroughs with evacuation information on the left side with the main body containing the following smaller headlines, in order:

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Christopher Eccleston as Major West

• "Blair declares a state of emergency"
• "Military ordered 'shoot to kill'"
• "Government Check points overrun"
• "UN to build giant refugee camps"
• "Chaos at all London airports"
• "Government call for calm"
• "Military patrol waters around Britain"
• "All roads around London grid-locked"

The character Jim was English in the original script, and several scenes were actually shot with Cillian Murphy using an English accent. Due to Murphy's request, he continued the shoot using his own Irish accent, dubbing over his English-accented lines in post-production.

The mansion used in the film was Trafalgar Park near Salisbury. Many rooms in the house, including the Cipriani-painted music room and the main hall, were filmed with minimal set decoration. The scenes occurring upstairs were actually filmed downstairs, as the mansion's owner resided upstairs.

One month before the film was released in cinemas, various newspapers included a short panel comic book style promotion for the film, in which various scenes showed a chaotic London during those 27 days with people trying to escape the city en masse.

Style and inspiration

On the DVD commentary, Boyle and Garland frequently call it a post apocalyptic, horror and zombie film, commenting on scenes that were specific references to George A. Romero's original Dead trilogy. However, during the initial marketing of the film Boyle did try to distance the film from such labels. Boyle identified John Wyndham's The Day of the Triffids as Garland's original inspiration for the story.

Although 28 Days Later and its sequel 28 Weeks Later are often categorized by many as a film of the zombie genre, the infected portrayed in the film fit few if any aspects of the traditional zombie archetype. While zombies are generally slow, unintelligent, hungry for human flesh, and are almost universally undead, the infected are merely living human beings overcome with senseless rage brought on by a highly infectious virus. They can be killed like any human being and possess no superhuman abilities, apart from an arguably increased resistance to pain and heightened, manic strength. At the same time, the infected demonstrate several zombie-like characteristics, including a bite-transmitted condition that results in the affected individual's loss of personality, impaired cognitive function, murderous rage and discoloured eyes. Although highly aggressive, they nevertheless eventually die of hunger and/or thirst as they lose any desire for food or water, and demonstrate no natural instincts to hunt or forage for same.

Reception

The film was a considerable success at the box office and became highly profitable on a budget of about £5 million ($9.8 million). In the UK, it took £6.1 million ($12 million), while in the US it became a surprise hit, taking over $45 million despite a limited release at fewer than 1,500 screens across the country. The film garnered around $82.7 million worldwide.

Critical views of the film were very positive (with a rating of 89% at RottenTomatoes ) the L.A. Times describing it as a "stylistic tour de force", and efilmcritic.com describing it as "raw, blistering and joyously uncompromising".

Soundtrack and score

Main article: 28 Days Later: The Soundtrack Album

The film's score was composed by John Murphy and was released in a score/song compilation in 2003. A heavily edited version of the song "East Hastings" by the post-rock band Godspeed You! Black Emperor appears in the film, but the track is excluded from the soundtrack, because Boyle only got the rights to use it in the film.

28 Days Later: The Soundtrack Album was released on 17 June 2003. It features most of John Murphy's original score and tracks from Brian Eno, Grandaddy and Blue States.

Sequels

A sequel, 28 Weeks Later, was released on 11 May 2007. Danny Boyle and Alex Garland took producing roles alongside Andrew Macdonald. The plot revolves around the arrival of American troops about seven months after the incidents in the original film, attempting to revitalise a nearly desolate Britain. The cast for this sequel includes Robert Carlyle, Rose Byrne, Jeremy Renner, Harold Perrineau, Catherine McCormack and Idris Elba.

Fox Atomic Comics, in association with HarperCollins, is publishing a graphic novel bridging the time gap between 28 Days Later and 28 Weeks Later, entitled 28 Days Later: The Aftermath, written by Steve Niles.

In March of 2007, 28 Days Later director and 28 Weeks Later executive producer Danny Boyle was interviewed by an Irish radio station. He announced plans for a third film in the series, 28 Months Later .

Parodies

The film has inspired a number of spoofs:

• Comedy short film 48 Hours Later (2003) follows the same plot of a man waking to a plague-infested world.
• Malaysian comedy short 28 Hours Later (2005) relocates the basic plot of 28 Days Later to Kuala Lumpur.
• "Team Tiger Awesome" created a series of videos called 28 Day Slater. Whilst the title is clearly a play on 28 Days Later, the plots actually parody Saved by the Bell and feature a fictional representation of Mario Lopez, who believes that he is Slater, his character from Saved by the Bell, during the month of February (a 28-day month).
• At the conclusion of the 2004 film Shaun of the Dead, a television broadcaster can be heard stating that reports that the zombies were caused by rage-infected monkeys were absurd.
• In the popular online game The Kingdom of Loathing a virus infected the players. The Council of loathing made a temporal rift to Seaside town, 28 days later where players could get items to cure the virus.

See also

• 28 Weeks Later
• List of zombie films

External links

• Official 28 Days Later Web site
• 28 Days Later at IMDb
• 28 Days Later at Metacritic