Four weeks after an incurable virus spreads throughout the United Kingdom, a handful of survivors try to find sanctuary. A film by Danny Boyle, starring Cillian Murphy, Naomie Harris, Christopher Eccleston, Megan Burns, and Brendan Gleeson.

One night, an animal rights activist group (Alex Palmer, Bindu De Stoppani & Jukka Hiltunen) secretly infiltrate a laboratory to free the animals. Unbeknownst to them, a new viral strain has been developed in this research facility. The virus, named Rage, causes infected individuals to completely lose their sanity, becoming violent and aggressive with an uncontrollable urge to harm others. At the time, there is no known vaccine.

During their mission, a female activist recklessly frees a chimpanzee despite the desperate warnings of a scientist (David Schneider) about its dangerous infection. She is bitten by the chimpanzee and quickly succumbs to the virus, becoming patient zero of the epidemic as she attacks the others.

Twenty-eight days later, bicycle courier Jim (Cillian Murphy) awakens in St. Thomas’ Hospital in London, after being in a coma following an accident. He attempts to call for staff, but the hospital is completely deserted. All the phones are dead, with no dial tones.

Jim eventually exits the hospital and wanders the streets of London, which are now mysteriously empty. Passing an abandoned newspaper stand, he picks up a newspaper with a bold “EVACUATION” headline.

At Piccadilly Circus, he stops by the Eros fountain, now boarded up with bulletin boards covered in missing person posters, drawings, and notes. Slowly, Jim begins to grasp the magnitude of the catastrophe.

Jim enters a church and climbs to the second-floor interior balcony, where he discovers a large group of people lying motionless on the floor below. Confused by the scene, he calls out “Hello,” hoping for a response. Suddenly, two men abruptly stand up, fixing their intense gaze on him without uttering a word.

Startled, Jim is drawn to a banging noise behind a closed door. His fear grows as the doors burst open and a priest approaches with an unnatural, jerky gait, making bizarre, guttural sounds.

Jim flees the church, racing through the streets with a horde of infected people in pursuit. Just as they’re about to catch him, Jim is rescued by two survivors, Selena (Naomie Harris) and Mark (Noah Huntley), who guide him through the subway and bring him to safety in an abandoned store.

Selena explains to Jim what happened during his unconsciousness: an unknown virus had rapidly spread and overwhelmed Britain. By the time authorities attempted to evacuate the cities, it was already too late. The infection was everywhere, triggering a massive exodus. The day before broadcasting stopped, there were reports of the infection reaching Paris and New York. However, both Selena and Mark are uncertain about the current situation.

Directed by English filmmaker Danny Boyle and written by Alex Garland, 28 DAYS LATER is a brilliant post-apocalyptic horror film. The movie centers on a protagonist who awakens in a hospital to find himself in a world devastated by a deadly epidemic. The virus has infected most of the population, transforming them into zombie-like beings that relentlessly hunt down survivors, spreading the contagion.

What sets this film apart is the introduction of fast-running infected individuals, a radical departure from the slow-moving zombies of previous horror films. While the characters appear zombie-like, the film’s creators explicitly define them as infected humans rather than traditional zombies. This distinction is crucial, as the “infected” in 28 DAYS LATER are living humans driven to extreme violence by a virus, not reanimated corpses.

This fresh take injects a surge of adrenaline and excitement. Their rapid, frenzied movements and ability to sprint after victims created a new paradigm in the zombie genre, fundamentally changing how audiences perceived post-apocalyptic horror narratives.

28 DAYS LATER premiered in London on 16 October 2002. It was theatrically released in the United Kingdom on 1 November. The film grossed over $84 million worldwide against its $8 million production budget.

The impact of 28 DAYS LATER reignited mainstream interest in zombie films, inspiring numerous subsequent movies. This includes titles like Shaun of the Dead (2004) and Black Sheep (2006), as well as the highly popular novel World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War, which was published in 2006. The film’s innovative approach to the zombie genre, particularly with its fast-moving infected, played a crucial role in this revival and has influenced many works in horror cinema since its release.

A Blu-ray of 28 DAYS LATER was scheduled for release on 9 October 2007. The Blu-ray release offers a comprehensive set of special features, many carried over from the DVD, including an audio commentary by director Danny Boyle and writer Alex Garland, deleted scenes, alternate endings, animated storyboards for unfilmed sequences, a Jacknife Lee music video, and high-definition trailers.

The film is presented in 1080p resolution with an AVC MPEG-4 transfer in its original 1.85:1 aspect ratio. However, the video quality suffers from a soft image and significant grain, a result of being shot on a Canon DV camcorder. Despite some improvement over the DVD release, the film lacks fine detail, appearing blurry in many scenes. The audio track, a DTS-HD MA 5.1 lossless mix, excels by effectively capturing ambient sounds, delivering clear dialogue, and providing impactful sound effects during intense moments.

22 years since its release, 28 DAYS LATER is finally returning to digital after horror fans have struggled for years to get their hands on it.
The iconic movie 28 DAYS LATER is finally getting a digital release after being almost completely unavailable. The film will be made available on digital rental and purchase on 18 December 2024.

The Oral History Of 28 Days Later, Danny Boyle’s Genre-Redefining Masterpiece
The production was always operating on barely enough money to get by. Christopher Eccleston, who appears in the later part of the film, agreed to an emergency pay cut. The terrorist attacks of September 11 happened in the middle of filming, putting nerves on edge. And, by the end, the film didn’t have an ending because there was no money left to film one.Nevertheless, 28 Days Later came out fighting and punched well above its weight. It made stars of Cillian Murphy and Naomie Harris and it is now considered to be one of the best British horror films of all time.

How 28 DAYS LATER Filmed Its Empty London Scenes
The empty London in 28 DAYS LATER didn’t use any CGI, and the scenes were achieved using a simple technique — waking up earlier. The crew needed to begin work in the early hours of the morning and wait for dawn to break to start filming before the city got busy. The film used many small, easily maneuverable cameras, allowing the crew to gather footage quickly and with a realistic texture, with the early hours of the morning providing the eerie silence that makes these scenes so chilling.