28 Weeks Later (2007) Review

”Am I one of them?”

THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.

28 Days Later was a great zombie movie without even being a legit one of its kind. The response to it? A sequel with a much different tone.


PLOT


28 Weeks Later takes place in the titular timespan following the outbreak of the fictional Rage virus. Most of the infected have died of starvation and NATO has taken control of Great Britain in order to help it rebuild. US Brigadier General Stone (Idris Elba) brings in settlers & refugees under the order of the military. Among the many are two young siblings, Tammy & Andy Harris, who were out of the country during the outbreak. They reunite with their father Donald at a guarded safe zone on the Island of Dogs, dubbed District One. Don, now working as a section officer that manages electricity, tells his kids that their mother Alice (Catherine McCormack) died during the outbreak, overran by an infected herd as they were hiding in a cottage at the time. What he doesn’t tell them is that he left her as she was trying to save another boy wanting to hide. When the kids start to miss her, they sneak out to get a photograph from their old home. Sergeant Doyle reports this and they get sent back, but little would they expect to find Alice to have survived. She gets quarantined and is tested by medical officer Scarlet, who confirms her to be an asymptomatic carrier of the virus, since she is bitten but has no symptoms. After the kids call out their dad for lying, Don makes an unauthorized visit to see his wife. He pleads for forgiveness and she forgives him, but when he kisses her, the salvia causes him to turn and brutally kill her before going on a rampage. As he instigates a domino effect of rapid infections by killing many refugees & military personnel, Scarlet picks up the kids as they might carry the same genetic immunity to the virus that could lead to a cure. Stone orders to end the chaos by ordering snipers to shoot everyone indiscriminately. Doyle refuses and ends up tagging along with Scarlet and the kids. After they evade the whole zone to be firebombed by the Air Force, the remaining horde of infected storm Stone’s bunker. Doyle contacts his colleague Flynn (Harold Perrineau) to pick him up at Regent’s Park, but he tells them to abandon his group. When another survivor named Sam (Raymond Waring) hops onto the helicopter, it draws the attention of another herd, which in turn causes him to retreat as he uses the rotor blades to kill them. Flynn then changes the plan to meet at Wembley Stadium and still have Doyle leave his group, but he doesn’t intend to keep that promise as he still takes Scarlet and the kids with him. They take an abandoned car and Doyle pushes it to get it starting. But due to nerve gas being dropped in the area, he gets burned alive by nearby soldiers carrying flamethrowers. Scarlet would reach London Underground with the kids, but would be quickly killed Don who also evaded the firebomb. He then targets Andy and bites him, only to be put out of misery by his daughter. As Tammy checks on Andy, it’s deduced he is asymptomatic like their mom. They do reach Wembley Stadium and fly to France, but the film ends in a cliffhanger that 28 days later, the virus had spread to mainland Europe.


THOUGHTS


If there is anything quite challenging for any franchise, it is maintaining a vision and it did feel such with the fact Danny Boyle did not return to the director’s chair until doing 28 Years Later in 2025. This doesn’t bother me really because due to writer Alex Garland still involved, we were in just good hands. Director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo picks up the momentum Boyle left behind and is able to make a bigger yet grounded scale of a narrative since we get to see an attempt at starting over from a rough epidemic. Every chase and onslaught is still well edited and you're still hooked in adrenaline like shock of all the mayhem that goes down. Even when you know these infected are not actual zombies, they're still damn scary for their relentless in unleashing said emotion the virus is fueled of. It even makes sense for there to be a vaccine related adventure because in the most trying times there can be hope. At the same time however, we see exactly a frightening example of how fast a societal structure can crumble under pressure and unintentional consequences of compassionate actions. You pick up on all of this when following a new set of characters that have their own journey much worse than what the preceding characters went through. What many fans have come to agree is that Robert Carlyle is at first a big coward as for abandoning his wife. When looking back though, Carlyle still expressed shame of his actions when living on. With such pressure going on in that bold of a cold open, he didn't think he had the time to save others when he had to save himself as well. As much as he wanted to, he felt that he didn’t have the time to be a hero and a survivor. Even when it was reckless of him to see her without knowing what happened to her, you also can’t blame him for wanting to set things right by apologizing for his tough call before a horrifying comeuppance. In the long run, they would understand how important it is to survive. And of course, there’s no way he was gonna tell his kids because they would never understand his predicament of a choice. You can’t exactly blame them the way you can blame Don for their mistakes because while they should’ve not left the safe zone, there’s no way they could’ve known they’d see their mom again. Imogen Poots was able to be a more protective guardian to her brother who got homesick and wanted him happy however she could. Since she’s older than him, she knew it was her responsibility to have his back and she sure could when it came to eliminating their dad by the time he was infected. As for Andy, Mackintosh Muggleton does succeed in playing him as a boy who is realistically still confused with the world around him that he was bound to be more irrational than how others see his dad. It may become a burden for him to be a carrier like his mom, but at least he is aware of the blessing that can come from it. If he and his sister are not in France by the time of the spread, there can be enough chances for a vaccine to be possible. Hell, the idea of one doesn’t even get thought of without the self awareness of Scarlet. Rose Byrne does a good job portraying her as one who doesn’t hesitate in speaking of the greater good that can come from vaccinating a murderous outbreak. She ain’t gonna hesitate making that possible when seeing the door for that possibility to open. She ensured for that to happen in her dying efforts to protect the kids. Even with her gone, there has to be enough doctors to do whatever needed to make it so. If there really isn’t, then boy does that suck. The only other person to respect here is Doyle. Jeremy Renner made him likable because he had his limits in the greater good. Sniping people that weren’t infected was what crossed the line for him and he wasn’t gonna forgive himself if he ended up killing the kids. He protected them because it was the right thing to do, without even knowing their potential. If they did survive France, then his death isn’t in vein. If not, then god help this world. This movie still works for what it is, but decent stuff like this have its handful of problems. Like for instance, why exactly was Scarlet left under the loop that kids were joining the rebuild, particularly Tammy & Alex? If Stone trusts her to do her job, she should be up to date. And if Don didn’t want his kids to go to their old home, he should’ve arranged extra security. That honestly bothered me more than the fact there weren’t any cameras in Alice’s room. Doyle even came off nitpicky when he expresses disappointment over lack of combat when he knows the infected have died of starvation. I know he’s bored on the job, but he should’ve been grateful at that point he didn’t have to kill anybody for a while. And there was no point for him to not tell Flynn of the kids being carriers like their mom if he wanted to make sure they can get on the chopper. It also felt awkward seeing the kids walk through the memorial. Even if there was a pathway for them to walk through, that doesn’t mean they should have. Flynn is even overreacting to call Britain when it still has enough to get the place back in order before Don fucks that up. If you ask me, a pub would not make me speak bad of Britain after a virus outbreak. Had he been strict to his kids, they would’ve not known what he did. Also if Alice had been there within the past two months, how has no one found her before? I understand the infected got wiped from starvation, but not double checking for survivors like her is crazy. And how exactly did she get out of the house after she got bit? The rage virus doesn’t make infected people stop attacking you, so she had to have ditched the boy if she wanted to escape like Don did. If all her screams in agony at the time were enough to make them think she had turned like them, that should’ve been much more clear. I was already irritated Flynn hesitated in taking the kids, but why did the other chopper shoot at the car? Infected don’t drive, so that one should’ve known he was targeting friendlies. And was Don even using the key card to spread the infection to others or did he find doors that didn’t need one? If it’s the latter, that should’ve been clear as well because he’s lucky to move and spread the infection so fast. Lastly, how long was Don at London Underground? He has no guarantee his kids will be there, so the odds are uncanny for him to be there. Ignore this, then you’ll still enjoy this movie overall. In short, 28 Weeks Later is still a compelling zombie flick for having its own depiction of paranoia and then some. If you loved the first one, it’s a given you’ll like this as well.