28 Days Later... (2002)

Four weeks after a mysterious, incurable virus spreads throughout the UK, a handful of survivors try to find sanctuary.

Director:

Danny Boyle

Writer:

Alex Garland

Stars:

Cillian Murphy, Naomie Harris, Christopher Eccleston

10 wins & 32 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Alex Palmer	...	Activist
Bindu De Stoppani	...	Activist
Jukka Hiltunen	...	Activist
David Schneider	...	Scientist
Cillian Murphy	...	Jim
Toby Sedgwick	...	Infected Priest
Naomie Harris	...	Selena
Noah Huntley	...	Mark
Christopher Dunne	...	Jim's Father
Emma Hitching	...	Jim's Mother
Alexander Delamere	...	Mr. Bridges
Kim McGarrity	...	Mr. Bridges' Daughter
Brendan Gleeson	...	Frank
Megan Burns	...	Hannah
Justin Hackney	...	Infected Kid

Storyline

Animal activists invade a laboratory with the intention of releasing chimpanzees that are undergoing experimentation, infected by a virus -a virus that causes rage. The naive activists ignore the pleas of a scientist to keep the cages locked, with disastrous results. Twenty-eight days later, our protagonist, Jim, wakes up from a coma, alone, in an abandoned hospital. He begins to seek out anyone else to find London is deserted, apparently without a living soul. After finding a church, which had become inhabited by zombie like humans intent on his demise, he runs for his life. Selena and Mark rescue him from the horde and bring him up to date on the mass carnage and horror as all of London tore itself apart. This is a tale of survival and ultimately, heroics, with nice subtext about mankind's savage nature.

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Plot Keywords:

virus | military | london england | zombie apocalypse | laboratory | 

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Taglines:

Day 1: Exposure - Day 3: Infection - Day 8: Epidemic - Day 15: Evacuation - Day 20: Devastation

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Genres:

Drama | Horror | Sci-Fi | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for strong violence and gore, language and nudity

Did You Know?

Trivia

All of the mansion scenes that involved upstairs rooms were filmed downstairs because the mansion's owner lives upstairs. When Jim jumps through the window in the roof, he is actually jumping through a hole in the corridor upstairs down to the ground floor.

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Goofs

The recording about the "answer to infection" mentions the M602, 26 miles outside of Manchester. The UK uses Imperial measurements for distances, so the use of "miles" is correct.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Activist: [the three animal activists arrive to the laboratory] Bingo.
Activist: [when seeing all of the caged apes] Fucking hell.

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Crazy Credits

Other than the Fox Searchlight logo, there are no opening credits whatsoever. The title of the movie, 28 Days Later, only appears as a descriptive subtitle.

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Alternate Versions

Fox Searchlight attached an alternative downbeat ending to all 1400 US prints of the film, while it was still in U.S. release. The revised ending was the one that appeared in the original script, but the script's ending was ditched in favor of a happy ending after it did not test well. Director Danny Boyle decided "We can't do this to people, because it was such a tough journey anyway."

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Connections

Referenced in The Amazing World of Gumball: The Joy (2014)

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Soundtracks

In Paradisium for Requiem
Composed by Gabriel Fauré / Jean-Michel Nectoux
Used by kind permission of Editions Alphonse Leduc, Paris and United Music Publishers, Ltd. London
Performed by Dr. Richard Marlow and The Choir of The Trinity College
with the London Musici
Licensed courtesy of BMG U.K. & Ireland Ltd.

User Reviews

this movie broke my thumb!!

No, I'm not kidding. I've been a horror fan for years, but few movies scared me, until one of my friends told me about this one. I rented it, wondering if it was any good, and I watched it. Well, I was very impressed...so impressed that I freaked out during one of the scenes and reached for a pillow, and my thumb snapped back, breaking the bone. Sad, isn't it? This movie is that good. If you can find a movie that can cause you to react and break a bone, then you've found a movie worth watching. 28 Days Later had an amazing plot, great actors, a great director, and most of all, it wasn't like all of the other horror movies. It's now one of my favorites, and one of the best horror type films I have seen.

Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

UK

Language:

English Spanish

Release Date:

27 June 2003 (USA)

Also Known As:

28 Days Later...

Filming Locations:

Pinewood Studios, Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire, England, UK

Box Office

Budget:

$8,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$10,061,858, 29 June 2003

Gross USA:

$45,064,915

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$85,720,385

Company Credits

Production Co:

DNA Films, British Film Council

Technical Specs

Runtime:

113 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1