28 Days Later

28 Days Later
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Danny Boyle
Produced by	Andrew Macdonald Line Producer: Robert How
Written by	Alex Garland
Starring	Cillian Murphy Naomie Harris Megan Burns Christopher Eccleston Brendan Gleeson
Music by	John Murphy
Cinematography	Anthony Dod Mantle
Editing by	Chris Gill
Studio	DNA Films British Film Council
Distributed by	Fox Searchlight Pictures
Release date(s)	United Kingdom 1 November 2002 (2002-11-01)
Running time	113 minutes
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Budget	£5,000,000
Gross revenue	$82,719,885
Followed by	28 Weeks Later

28 Days Later is a 2002 British horror film directed by Danny Boyle. The screenplay was written by Alex Garland, and the film stars Cillian Murphy, Naomie Harris, Brendan Gleeson, Megan Burns, and Christopher Eccleston. The plot depicts the breakdown of society following the accidental release of a highly contagious "rage" virus 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 recognised for images of a deserted London, and was shot almost entirely on digital video. The film spawned a 2007 sequel, 28 Weeks Later, a graphic novel entitled 28 Days Later: The Aftermath, which expands on the timeline of the outbreak, and a 2009 comic book series 28 Days Later.

Plot

British animal rights activists break into a laboratory and are caught by a scientist while trying to free some chimpanzees being used for medical research. Despite the scientist's warnings that the chimps are infected with a disease (which he calls "Rage"), the activists let loose a chimp, which immediately attacks and infects the group.

28 days later, a bicycle courier named Jim awakens from a coma in a deserted hospital. As he leaves, he discovers London abandoned and rife with signs of catastrophe. Jim is soon discovered and chased through the streets by infected people before being rescued by two survivors, Selena and Mark, who rush him to their hideout. There they reveal that while Jim was comatose from his accident, a virus spread uncontrollably among the populace, turning most people into rabid, psychotic "Infected," resulting in societal collapse that possibly spread worldwide. Selena and Mark accompany Jim to his parents' house the next morning, where he discovers that they committed suicide. That night, two of the Infected attack the survivors, and when the fight ends Selena is forced to kill Mark after he reveals he had been cut and possibly exposed; she explains that the infection is spread through the blood and overwhelms its victims in seconds. After leaving, they discover two more survivors, Frank and his teenage daughter, Hannah, holed up in a flat block, and are invited to spend the rest of the night.

Frank informs them the next day that supplies, particularly water, are dwindling, and plays them a pre-recorded radio broadcast transmitted by soldiers at a blockade near Manchester, who claim to have "the answer to infection." The survivors board Frank's cab in search of the signal source and during the trip bond with one another. When the four reach the deserted blockade, Frank is infected when a drop of blood from a dead body falls into his eye. Before succumbing he is killed by the arriving soldiers, who then take the remaining group to a fortified mansion under the command of Major Henry West. Jim quickly discovers that West's "answer to infection" involves waiting for the Infected to starve to death, and forcing female survivors into sexual slavery to rebuild the population. Jim attempts to escape with Selena and Hannah, but is captured by the soldiers, along with Sergeant Farrell, who disagrees with the Major's plan. During their imprisonment, Farrell theorizes to Jim that there is no worldwide epidemic, but rather that the island of Great Britain has been quarantined.

The next day, as two soldiers lead Jim and Farrell to execution, Selena and Hannah are being prepared for rape. Jim manages to escape while his escorts quarrel after killing Farrell, and notices the contrail of a jet aircraft flying high overhead, proving Farrell's theory. After luring West and one of his men to the blockade, Jim runs back to the soldiers' headquarters where he unleashes Mailer, an infected soldier that West kept chained outside for observation. Mailer attacks the soldiers in the mansion, while Jim sets out to rescue the girls, who had been split up in the chaos. Selena, held hostage by a surviving soldier, is then rescued by Jim, who arrives and savagely kills her captor. The two share a kiss, reunite with Hannah, and run to Frank's cab, only to encounter a vengeful West, who shoots Jim in the stomach. Hannah commandeers the cab and backs it up to the front door, where Mailer drags West out through the rear window and kills him. She then drives away with Jim and Selena.

Selena and Hannah rush Jim into a deserted hospital, where Selena performs life-saving emergency procedures. 28 days later, Jim is shown waking up in recovery again, this time at a remote cottage. Downstairs, he finds Selena sewing large swaths of fabric when Hannah appears. The three rush outside and unfurl a huge cloth banner, adding the final letter to the word "HELLO" laid out on the meadow. As a military jet flies over the landscape, the Infected are shown lying by the road, dying of starvation. After the jet zooms past the three waving survivors and their distress sign, Selena jokingly wonders if the plane saw them this time.

Alternate endings

The DVD extras include three alternate endings, all of which end with Jim dying. Two were filmed, while the third, a more radical departure, was only presented in storyboards. On 25 July 2003, cinemas started showing the alternate ending at the end of the film.^[1]

Jim dies at the hospital

In this ending, after Jim is shot, Selena and Hannah still rush him to the deserted hospital, but the scene is extended. Selena, with Hannah's assistance, attempts to perform life-saving procedures but cannot revive Jim. Selena is heartbroken, and Hannah, distraught, looks to her for guidance. Selena tells Hannah that they will go on; they pick up their guns and walk away from Jim's lifeless body. Selena and Hannah, fully armed, walk through the operating room doors, which gradually stop swinging.

On the DVD commentary, Boyle and Garland explain that this was the original ending of the film's first cut, which was tested with preview audiences. It was 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. Boyle and Garland express a preference for this alternate ending, calling it the "true ending". They comment that this ending brought Jim full circle, as he starts and finishes the story in bed in a deserted hospital.

This ending was added in the theatrical release of the film beginning on 25 July 2003, placed after the credits and prefaced with the words "what if..."^[1]

Rescue coda without Jim

This ending, for which only a rough edit was completed, is an alternate version of the potential rescue sequence shown at the very end of the released film. Here, the scenes are identical, except that this ending was intended to be placed after the first alternative ending where Jim dies, so he is absent. When Selena is sewing one of the banner letters in the cottage, she is seen facetiously talking to a chicken instead of Jim. Only Selena and Hannah are seen waving to the jet flying overhead in the final shots.

"Radical Alternative Ending"

The "Radical Alternative Ending" was not filmed and is presented on the DVD as a series of illustrated storyboards with voiceovers by Boyle and Garland. This ending would have taken the story in a radically different direction from the film's midpoint. When Frank is infected at the military blockade near Manchester, the soldiers do not enter the story. Instead, 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. They 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 will not 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 further because he does not 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 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 scientist as a horde of the infected breach the complex. The computer monitors show death and destruction come to life around a thrashing, infected Jim, who is strapped to the same table as the chimp had been in the opening scene.

Garland and Boyle explain that they conceived this ending to see what the film would be like if they did not expand the focus beyond the core four survivors. They decided against it because the idea of a total blood replacement as a cure was not credible. As Boyle said in the DVD commentary, it "didn't make much sense" since the film had already established that one drop of blood can infect a person. "What would we do? Drain him of blood and scrub his veins with bleach?"

"Hospital Dream"

The "Hospital Dream" ending is an extended version of the theatrical alternate ending where Jim dies at the hospital. It is revealed by the director during the optional commentary that this was the full version of the original ending. Jim dreams while unconscious and remembers the final moments on his bicycle before the crash. The footage cuts back and forth between the scene with Selena and Hannah trying to save his life and the dream sequence. As he gets hit by a car in his flashback, he simultaneously dies on the operating table. This ending was not seen until the film's release on Blu-ray.

Cast

On the DVD, Boyle explains that, with the aim of preserving the suspension of disbelief, relatively unknown actors were cast in the film. Cillian Murphy had starred primarily in small independent films, while Naomie Harris had acted on British television as a child. However, Christopher Eccleston and Brendan Gleeson were well-known character actors.

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.^[2] DV cameras are much smaller and more maneuverable 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 double-decker bus, the film crew placed the bus on its side and removed it when the shot was finished, all within 20 minutes.

Much of the filming took place prior to the September 11 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 Whitehall for filming after the terrorist attacks in New York.

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 apocalypse and horror film, commenting on scenes that were specific references to George A. Romero's 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.^[3]

Reception

28 Days Later was a considerable success at the box office and became highly profitable on a budget of about £5 million. In the UK, it took in £6.1 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. Based on 199 reviews collected by the film review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, 89% of critics gave 28 Days Later a positive review.^[4] On Metacritic, it received a 73 (out of 100) based on 39 reviews.^[5] The Los Angeles Times described it as a "stylistic tour de force," and efilmcritic.com called it "raw, blistering and joyously uncompromising."

Bravo awarded it the 100th spot on their "The 100 Scariest Movie Moments."^[6] In 2007, Stylus Magazine named it the second best zombie movie of all time.^[7] The film also ranked at number 456 in Empire magazine's 2008 list of the 500 greatest movies of all time.^[8] Bloody Disgusting ranked the film seventh in their list of the 'Top 20 Horror Films of the Decade', with the article saying "Zombie movie? Political allegory? Humanist drama? 28 Days Later is all of those things and more – a genuine work of art by a director at the top of his game. What's so amazing about the film is the way it so expertly balances scenes of white-knuckled, hell-for-leather horror with moments of intimate beauty."^[9]

Awards

• Best Horror Film (U.S. Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films — Saturn Award)
• Best British Film (Empire Award)
• Danny Boyle (Grand Prize of European Fantasy Film in Silver)
• Best Director — Danny Boyle (International Fantasy Film Award)
• Best International Film — Danny Boyle (Narcisse Award)
• Best Breakthrough Performance — Naomie Harris (Black Reel)
• Best Cinematographer — Anthony Dod Mantle (European Film Award)

Soundtrack and score

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 could only obtain the rights to use it in the film.^[10]

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.

A modified version of the soundtrack 'In The House - In A Heartbeat' was used as the character Big Daddy's theme in the 2010 film Kick-Ass. A short version of the soundtrack 'In The House - In A Heartbeat' was also used in the 2010 film The Losers. A short version of the soundtrack 'In a Heartbeat' was used in a scene for the first episode of the anime series Highschool of the Dead.

Sequels

A sequel, 28 Weeks Later, was released on 11 May 2007.^[11] 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, Imogen Poots, Harold Perrineau, Catherine McCormack, and Idris Elba.

In March 2007, Danny Boyle was interviewed by an Irish radio station, where he claimed to be interested in making a third film in the series, 28 Months Later.^[12]

Comic books

Fox Atomic Comics, in association with HarperCollins, has published 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.

28 Days Later, a comic sequel also linking Days and Weeks and produced by Fox Atomic (until its demise) and Boom! Studios, begun production in 2009. The series focuses on Selena and answers questions about her in the film and her sequel whereabouts.^[13]

See also

• I Am Legend, a similarly themed novel (1954)

References

External links

• Official website
• 28 Days Later at the Internet Movie Database
• 28 Days Later at Allmovie
• 28 Days Later at Box Office Mojo
• 28 Days Later at Rotten Tomatoes
• 28 Days Later at Metacritic
• Naomi Harris Interview
• Filming Locations Guide

Cinema of the United Kingdom Films A–Z · Actors · Directors · Cinematographers · Production designers · Editors · Producers · Score composers · Screenwriters · Home Video Charts Production companies and studios Aardman Animations · BBC Films · British Lion Films  · Denham Film Studios · Ealing Studios · Elstree Studios · Film4 Productions · Gainsborough Pictures · Goldcrest Films · Hammer Film Productions · HandMade Films · Leavesden Film Studios · Palace Pictures · Pinewood Studios · Rank Organisation · Shepperton Studios · Working Title Films · S4C Films Organisations BAFTA · British Board of Film Classification · British Film Institute · BFI National Archive · BFI Southbank · Children's Film Foundation · National Film and Television School · National Media Museum · Northern Ireland Screen · Scottish Screen · UK Film Council See also British New Wave · Carry On · Documentary Film Movement · Eady Levy · Free Cinema · Harry Potter · James Bond · London Film Festival · Quota quickies Films by year Pre 1920 · 1920s · 1930s · 1940 · 1941 · 1942 · 1943 · 1944 · 1945 · 1946 · 1947 · 1948 · 1949 · 1950 · 1951 · 1952 · 1953 · 1954 · 1955 · 1956 · 1957 · 1958 · 1959 · 1960 · 1961 · 1962 · 1963 · 1964 · 1965 · 1966 · 1967 · 1968 · 1969 · 1970 · 1971 · 1972 · 1973 · 1974 · 1975 · 1976 · 1977 · 1978 · 1979 · 1980 · 1981 · 1982 · 1983 · 1984 · 1985 · 1986 · 1987 · 1988 · 1989 · 1990 · 1991 · 1992 · 1993 · 1994 · 1995 · 1996 · 1997 · 1998 · 1999 · 2000 · 2001 · 2002 · 2003 · 2004 · 2005 · 2006 · 2007 · 2008 · 2009 · 2010 · 2011 · 2012