28 Days Later… (2002) – 3/5

20 Years Later…

This is the movie „28 Days Later…“ from 2002, 20 years ago and I am not sure if this anniversary was the reason why the film was shown again as a one-time occasion on the big screen the other night. Probably not. In any case, it was part of a film series with focus on horror films, also older ones, so a good inclusion and I was not surprised at all that the relatively big room where this was shown was packed and there was almost not a single free seat anymore. The number of ratings this movie has on imdb is also self-explanatory, namely over 400,000. But let’s look at the basics. The film runs for 113 minutes, so it is on the long side, but not extremely long. The director is of course Danny Boyle and at that point he had already been in the industry for 15 years. Not a rookie at all. And also directed other films that are still fairly famous today. Many people perhaps nowadays think of „Slumdog Millionaire“ when they hear the name, but that film is not representative at all when it comes to Boyle’s career, especially not in style. This film we have here would be a better pick to represent the man. Of course, this is a British film here that is mostly in the English language. The writer is Alex Garland and he has worked with Boyle on several occasions. By now, he is having a pretty interesting career himself. Just look at „Ex Machina“, which was his first directorial effort and also brought him an Oscar nomination for writing. His very first writing credit was for the Leonardo DiCaprio movie „The Beach“, also directed by Boyle, and this film here was Garland’s second writing credit. Quite a way to launch your career with these two really big projects, although I am not sure how big „28 Days Later…“ was considered back then. The cast includes a handful names that every film buff will still recognize in 2022. And not just film buffs. At least when we are talking Cilian Murphy because of his work with Christopher Nolan and also if we are talking Naomie Harris, an Oscar nominee now too, most probably think of Daniel Craig’s 007 movies when they hear her name. This of course also means that they were still pretty young back then. Even now, they are not old at all.

I don’t wanna go into detail about the film „28 Weeks Later“ as there is another place and occasion to do so for sure, but let me say that I just saw that in Alex Garland’s upcoming projects there is a mention of „28 Months Later“ and we can be curious when that happens. If it does, then there will for sure be also occasions to see the two older films again and movie theater owners should listen up anyway and realize how badly people want to see these old films that are now by many considered classics in a way. Maybe it is better to show stuff like this more often instead of showing new movies that are mediocre at best, often really poor. But now, finally let us take a look into the details of this film here: There is a fairly clean structure with this one. We have a short prologue that shows us the initial event that triggered the catastrophe. And we have an even shorter epilogue that shows us how the fight continues for the protagonists, even if not a lot is at risk anymore there and it is an ending that could not have been happier given the general background there. It felt light even. To me the idea of the two protagonists also growing closer romantically and then the inclusion of the older man and his daughter reminded me of Zombieland. Not gonna lie. I mean I think there the supporting characters are not father and daughter, but still. That one, just like the sequel are in need of a (re)watch anyway. Oh, I must totally mention Brendan Gleeson here. Just love the actor in almost everything he is in and I liked him here too. He brought in some alright comedy and was almost the only character to do so, for example when they are all at the supermarket and he makes it obvious that a good whiskey or scotch or what it was really means something. Maybe Murphy’s character will appreciate this too when he grows older. So I was also a bit sad to see Gleeson go. Not gonna lie.

He is also the one character where we really see the transformation from human to evil zombie. Or „zombie“ I could also say. Of course, I am sure this film here served also at least as a bit of an inspiration to the ones behind „The Walking Dead“ several years later. There are so many parallels. The obvious one is of course the people who are pretty much dead, but still exist in a way between the extremes. Then, there is another major parallel that the human antagonists are massive monsters themselves too with what is on their minds. I will not talk in detail about „The Walking Dead“ now, but we had survivors fight each other constantly there and this group of soldiers living in a fairly fancy house here turn out to be the real antagonists, which you maybe would not have thought right away, probably also because they come to the main characters‘ rescue when they are attacked by Gleeson’s character. Things do get really dark though in the second half of the film when rape and the abuse of minors become a serious subject and possibility. He promised them women. That says it all, even if the elaboration on humans fighting humans, also long before this kind of apocalypse, is an interesting one. Also how tables turned there. We have this guy at the table who seems as if he lost his marbles, but turns out the one who has maybe really gone insane was the leader of the soldiers. Some of the soldiers too of course, even if the degree of how willing they were to be a part of all this truly differed. One was totally crazy, the others were just ready to follow orders basically and may even have had a bit of a guilty conscience there, but their sexual drive would not let them decline and maybe they would also be scared then that they become victims themselves. Of course, there is a great comedic irony to the fact that it is the one soldier who „died“ not too long ago and who they pretty much used as a science experiment that in the end manages to get loose and kill almost everybody. This made it at least a little bit more realistic that it was not Murphy’s character himself who defeated a group of trained soldiers all on his own with nothing but a bike courier background while topless and slightly injured out there during a really cold time of year.

That was admittedly not the most realistic thing and the happy ending did feel a bit forced and not too authentic. But other than the moment of real bad luck with what happens to Gleeson’s character, there were not too many unrealistic moments there and I guess wrong place, wrong time can always happen. This was also true by the way for Harris‘ character’s first buddy who got attacked and injured and had to be killed as a consequence. This way, Murphy also had no problem to become the number-one alpha male in this film and there were enough other characters anyway as the film went on. If you have seen some of Boyle’s other works, you have understood that he always like to use violence in almost all his films and he also likes to use drug-related content. Call it abuse, call it addiction, call it whatever you like. „Trainspotting“ is of course a great example there. Or the recent sequel. If I can call it „recent“ still. Years have passed since then. Anyway, in this film from two decades ago, you will find the girl character being under the influence and the reason behind this was to kinda sedate her to make sure the upcoming rape will not hit her totally hard. Of course, the rape did not happen thanks to the main character, but this inclusion of how she is not sober was also almost on the funny side, definitely very dark humor in this context how the girl acts and what she says. Some will probably call this the best the film had to offer in terms of comedic inclusions and it is not meant in a derogatory way at all. I had to smile as well. Maybe I would even agree with those who think so.

So yeah, all in all it is a film that has its moments, but I would not say there is real greatness to it. I am still glad I went to see it, even if perhaps in general I would say it is a bit overrated and also not a classic or anything. It is also enough I suppose to see this film on the small screen and seeing it once may suffice too. Perhaps I would think otherwise if I was a bigger Murphy or Harris fan, but I am not. And Gleeson was not in it long enough to really make me adore the film. So yeah, I would put other films from Boyle over this one in terms of what you should check out first, but he does have a pretty respectable, if not formidable body of work for sure and I am curious about upcoming projects. I would definitely say the same about Alex Garland, but I don’t mean „Ex Machina“ with that because I was not too impressed there the way many others were, but he wrote the screenplay from one of my favorite touching films of all time and here I am talking about the adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro’s „Never Let me Go“. But we will talk about that one too on another occasion and now a few final words on „28 Days Later…“. Brainstorming style. At the end of the film, it is even 56 days later by the way. I also wonder if they will ever make maybe not just a „28 Months Later“, but a „28 Hours Later…“. Or a „28 Years Later…“. That would be something for 2030 then, wouldn’t it! It has to happen. One thing that confused me a bit was the inclusion of the plane at the end, the saviors basically or that was how the survivors perceived them. What they could be. They must be from abroad and there was talk about Britain being some kind of prison island under quarantine and Manchester (was it Manchester?) was in flames, but they also said that in other cities like New York, there was similar devastation? Might have to rewatch to fully understand, but I have no intention to do so right away. I give this film a thumbs-up overall. It is worth it. Just don’t expect too much.