My Favourite Danny Boyle Movie – 28 Days Later (2002)

28 Days Later is a perfect film in many ways and set the template for the modern revival of the zombie genre. It’s a fantastic little potboiler of a cinematic experience playing with lofty ideas presented in a bleak, frills free way. At the heart of the film is a simple story of survival.  Like all good apocalyptic fiction, the movie gives us a hapless group of survivors desperate to make their way out of the hellish remains of London. 

Jim (Cillian Murphy) wakes up in an empty hospital after weeks of unconsciousness.  The streets are barren, a wonderfully staged introduction that manages to make one of the world’s largest cities feel abandoned. Before Jim can make heads or tails of his predicament, he runs into some fellow survivors who have become all too familiar with the current status quo. The vast majority has been infected with the Rage virus and have transformed into ravenous killing machines, travelling in packs, and hell bent on destroying the last remnants of humanity. Selena (Naomie Harris) has adapted quickly to this new world, having no issue hacking a fellow survivor to death after they become infected. The two wayward travellers encounter a Father and Daughter in a tenement building, and the four leave the city after hearing a radio message promising a cure for the infected. When they arrive, they find a group of soldiers who have transformed a manor house into a base of operations and quickly discover that their saviors might be anything but.    

28 Days Later is a classic for many reasons. It’s contributions to the genre are numerous, including the popularization of the fast running zombie, something that wasn’t quite as common when the film was released in 2002. It was a pioneering movie for digital cinema which was in its infancy and not taken seriously by many in the industry. Oh how things have changed.  

Yes, the film was progressive in a number of ways, but at the heart of 28 Days Later is one of the most thrilling and intriguing pieces of post apocalyptic cinema ever to be produced. Boyle masterfully manages to keep the movie tense, but allows moments for the characters to breathe. There’s a scene where the four survivors round up supplies at a grocery store that is wonderfully light and airy. Where some filmmakers may have used an empty grocery store as a tension builder, Boyle is smart enough to give the audience a moment of levity before delving into the brutal violence that lays ahead.  He also displays impressive filmmaking skills in the second act when the film radically changes gears. The entire set up is based on the last remnants of mankind trying to survive the infected, but Jim and company soon learn that they have as much to fear from the living as they do the dead. Equal credit is due to an exceptionally tight script from writer Alex Garland.