Film

Londoners have been subjected to a series of posters on underground escalators over the past 28 days. On day one the poster was titled “Exposure,” on day three “Infection,” and on day eight “Evacuation.” Given the current political climate, commuters gave each other sideways glances, wondering if this was some bizarre public health warning or even anti-war propaganda.

The posters were actually a clever advertising campaign for a new film. I thought it was going to be about bioterrorism. In fact, 28 Days Later is about the consequences of a leak of a nasty virus, called “rage,” from a laboratory in Cambridge. The leak occurs when animal rights activists break into the lab and free the lab's chimps. Within 28 days almost the whole UK population has succumbed to the virus, either through infection itself or by suicide to avoid its horrifying effects.

This film is definitely medical fiction. To begin with, the film's main protagonist, Jim, who is knocked off his bicycle by a car and sustains a head injury a day before the virus breaks out, wakes up in a hospital bed “28 days later” despite having had no fluids, catheter, food, or even a blanket to cover him. The bloodborne virus is highly contagious, and it takes a mere 20 seconds for someone to be taken over by the virus after swallowing infected blood or getting a splash in the eye. The rage virus turns its victims into zombie-like monsters: hungry for flesh, strong, and fast, they stop at nothing to infect as many people as they can.

Alex Garland, author of The Beach, wrote the screenplay and injects a lot of social comment into the dialogue. Survival is the name of the game for the film's characters. They must kill their friends, families, and children to stay alive. An uninfected army sergeant glibly comments, “In the last 28 days I have killed men so that they would not kill me first. That is no different to the 28 days before that, or even before that.” It questions the very meaning of life and what we do in order to preserve it.

The opening shots of the film brilliantly show a deserted London. For the first 20 minutes Jim wanders around the streets shouting “Hello?” albeit rather calmly. He crosses a deserted Westminster bridge and walks past a red London bus on its side before he stumbles across any other survivors. The shots of the M602 “somewhere near Manchester” are also spellbinding, as the whole area is completely deserted.

I loathed this film. It makes too much of the human condition and creates a reality devoid of hope. If you can watch this and think that it's fantasy then it may be up your street. It's certainly well made, clever, and gripping. All it did for me was make me decide that, if this did ever happen, I'd make sure I didn't survive.