28 days later

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Movie
German title 28 days later
Original title 28 days later
28-Days-Later-Logo.svg
Country of production United Kingdom
original language English
Publishing year 2002
length 113 minutes
Age rating FSK 18
JMK 14
Rod
Director Danny Boyle
script Alex Garland
production Andrew Macdonald
music John Murphy
camera Anthony Dod Mantle
cut Chris Gill
occupation
chronology

Successor  →
28 Weeks Later

28 Days Later , and 28 days later , is a 2002 turned British end time - horror - thriller by Danny Boyle from a screenplay by Alex Garland . The film thematizes the collapse of society caused by the spread of a highly contagious and deadly virus in England at the turn of the millennium and shows the escape of four survivors from London, which is populated by infected people .

The film opened in German cinemas on June 5, 2003. The sequel 28 Weeks Later was released on August 30, 2007.

action

prolog

The film is set in England today. In the prologue, there are some TV screens with various violent content such as street battles and police operations. A surveillance camera shows how a group of activists break into the medical department of a university in Cambridge at night in order to free chimpanzees who are apparently shown the television scenes mentioned for experimental purposes. A researcher surprises them during the rescue operation and sets off the alarm, but is arrested. He tries to prevent the activists from opening the cages because the animals are infected with "anger" , a highly contagious, dangerous and deadly virus. The infection transforms the person concerned within ten to twenty seconds into a man who is incapable of speaking and who is mad without human reason and who immediately attacks anyone who is not infected and thus also infects. Shortly afterwards, an activist frees a chimpanzee, who attacks her and infects her with the virus, which immediately turns her into such a beast. A few seconds later she spits blood in the face of another activist, transmitting the virus to him.

Main storyline

28 days later, bike courier Jim woke up from a coma after an accident with a truck in the abandoned intensive care unit at London's St Thomas' Hospital . Amazed, he wanders through the hallways and rooms in search of other people. As if after a robbery, overturned furniture, hospital utensils and rubbish are lying on the floor. Completely disturbed, the young man walks into the street, but London seems to be deserted; Pigeons are the only living things visible.

As dusk falls, Jim, who is still suffering from the consequences of his bicycle accident, seeks shelter in a church. To his horror, mountains of corpses pile up on the floor. A sudden noise alerts him to the presence of a priest. Its lightning-fast movements, bloodshot eyes, pathological convulsions and murderous screams make Jim flee back onto the street. More and more infected people are attracted by the noise and Jim walks through the streets in panic and confusion, pursued by a growing crowd .

The sudden explosion of a gasoline bomb heralds the arrival of Selena and Mark, two other uninfected survivors. After a daring rescue operation, in which many of the pursuers and an abandoned gas station go up in flames, they take Jim to a small shop with a rolling grille in a London Underground station and begin to explain to him how the infection works: it will get through transfer the blood and affect the entire organism within seconds . The epidemic has now spread across the whole of Great Britain , Selena reports on incidents in Paris and New York . Nobody knows whether the end of all humanity is not even threatening.

Selena and Mark reluctantly agree to take the shocked Jim to Deptford to find his parents. Jim discovers his father and mother dead on an upstairs bed, where they have committed suicide using sleeping pills . In their suicide note, they wish Jim never to wake up from the coma. When they stay there, they are attacked by infected neighbors. Mark suffers an open wound while defending himself. Although he shows no signs of infection yet, Selena immediately kills him with her machete. Jim is shocked, but Selena explains that there is no other way in such cases.

They flee from Jim's house, since according to Selena there will soon be more infected people, and discover colored lights in a high-rise window, to which they go. After they have overcome a protective wall made of shopping carts, they find the widowed Frank and his daughter Hannah, who have made makeshift arrangements. Since their water supplies are almost used up, they are also urgently looking for a new shelter.

The next morning Frank shows them a radio signal that is repeated over and over again using a crank receiver. Near Manchester , a troop of soldiers led by a certain Major Henry West claims to have found the answer to the gruesome infection and invites all survivors to join them. Frank didn't want to leave alone with his daughter because he didn't want Hannah to be alone if something happened to him. Since they have no way out, their London companions set out on the dangerous journey north in Frank's taxi. The refugees get supplies for free in a supermarket and then drive through a tunnel, which Jim speaks out against. When Frank drives over the cars blocking the way, his car suffers a flat tire. During the wheel change, rats suddenly flock to them, fleeing from infected people. Before the infected reach the group, they can attach the spare wheel, get in and continue driving.

You rest in a safe place by a lake in a park. Here there is a first physical approach between Selena and Jim: She kisses him on the cheek. While spending the night outdoors, Jim is startled in the morning - alone. The others seem to have left him behind. This sequence turns out to be a nightmare shortly afterwards when Frank wakes him up. Jim thanks him spontaneously: "Thank you Dad". The motif of fear of being abandoned is then repeated: When Jim really wakes up in the morning, he again sees himself alone. But the car is nearby with the engine running. The others have already packed and are waiting for him.

When they finally arrive on the outskirts of Manchester, their hopes are dashed: the entire city is on fire. At a roadblock, where there are also some dead infected people, Frank is infected when a drop of blood falls into his eye from a dead infected person. Desperately he tries to warn his daughter Hannah, pushes her away, but after a few seconds he wants to attack the others - including his daughter. At that moment Selena tells Jim to kill Frank. After a short hesitation, Jim wants to comply, but at the last moment Frank is shot by soldiers who suddenly appear. Hannah is devastated and is comforted by Selena.

Jim, Selena and Hannah are brought by the soldiers in a military vehicle to a villa in the country, in which some surviving military personnel have holed up. Thanks to a minefield and a fence, an attack by a large horde of infected people can be repulsed. The soldiers have enough supplies and seem to offer exactly the place of refuge the group has been looking for. An infected person chained is observed on the premises; the aim is to find out how long it takes for infected people to starve. When a soldier sexually molested Selena, Major Henry West explains to Jim that he had promised his men wives to give them hope.

Jim tries to escape with Selena and Hannah, but is overpowered by the soldiers and later taken to the forest to be executed. However, he managed to escape - albeit to the area beyond the protective wall populated by the infected - for him, in fact, a death sentence. Desperate and exhausted to death, he sags to the floor and lies on his back. Looking up into the sky, he sees a jet plane at great altitude - apparently a line jet. Jim draws new strength from this sight and believes he can now hope for a future again. He returns to the villa and finally succeeds in killing the soldiers with the help of the infected person, whom he frees from a safe distance. The infected person kills or infects a large part of the soldiers directly at high speed.

After Jim has hugged Selena and kissed her, the three manage to escape by taxi. But they are surprised by Major Henry West who suddenly appears, lurking in the taxi and shooting at Jim. This sinks into Selena's arms. Hannah, who has already got behind the wheel, drives at full throttle to the rear where the infected is lurking. This breaks through the rear window of the car and pulls Major Henry West out of the car. Selena and Jim escape into the car. The three break through the steel gate in front of the driveway and flee from the site. The next sequence shows how the trained pharmacist Selena tries to save Jim's life with a syringe and resuscitation attempts in an empty room.

epilogue

The film ends with an epilogue another 28 days later.

Again Jim wakes up seemingly alone. The refugees live in a house in the country. They have spread out a huge lettering sewn from fabric that says "Hello". This is spotted by a reconnaissance plane that apparently flies past regularly, which is on its way to search for survivors. The pilot calls in a helicopter to rescue the refugees. In this end sequence, scenes appear in which infected figures die of hunger.

There is a difference between the English original and the German dubbed version: When Jim and the two women spread the words "Hello" on the meadow and the reconnaissance aircraft ( Hawker Hunter type , but with Royal Air Force signs ) from Finland flies over them , the pilot says from the off in his radio in German "The search was worth it". In the English version he radioed in Finnish "Lähetätkö helikopterin?" ("Can you send a helicopter?").

Alternative ending

In addition to the theatrical version, there is an alternative ending in which Jim does not survive his gunshot wound. Selena and Hannah take the wounded man to an abandoned hospital, but despite their best efforts, they are unable to save his life. After a short mourning the women take their weapons and leave the hospital through a long corridor, the doors of which close slowly in the foreground until the scene fades into black.

As Boyle and Garland report in the DVD comments, this ending was too gloomy for the test audience, whereupon it was replaced by the one ultimately used.

The alternative ending was shown in US cinemas from July 25, 2003 behind the credits and the fade-in “… what if” and was previously released on the British DVD version.

background

The film shows in drastic pictures the dangers that a virus epidemic could pose. The film was particularly explosive and topical, as at the time of its premiere the first cases of the lung disease SARS appeared and caused headlines and uncertainty among the population. SARS is transmitted through droplet or contact infection .

The symptoms of the infected people shown in the film also show similarities with those of the disease rabies . This disease is also transmitted through contact with blood or saliva, and those infected are unable to speak after the onset of the disease. The greatest similarities in relation to the "anger virus" from 28 Days Later are symptoms of those infected with rabies, such as easy irritability and increased aggressiveness. However, the incubation period for rabies is usually three to twelve weeks, which is much longer than that of the disease from the film.

Director Boyle calls in the DVD commentary The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham as a source of inspiration for the screenwriter Garland.

With an estimated production cost of $ 8 million, the film grossed around $ 83 million in cinemas worldwide, including around $ 45 million in the UK .

Reviews

“If you read this film politically, then it offers young escapism the chance to identify with a barbaric and completely free market competition through an aestheticized warrior type. The logic of the preventive and the long-term suspicion of the epidemic are the very current codes in which the competitive relationship is inscribed like a natural law. It is translated into a fight of all against all , in which the most important thing is to quickly find the infected person and kill him just as quickly. [...] Only where civilization has ceased completely, in the eternal slaughter of a competitive logic liberated to barbarism, does the good intensity of warlike life prevail. "

- Diedrich Diederichsen

“Dark-depressing horror film that creates a radical end-time scenario far from any ironic break. Consistently staged formally, the dull, color-reducing and coarse-grained aesthetics of the DV camera used reinforce the visually oppressive impression. "

- Lexicon of international film

Awards

music

The music was composed by John Murphy . Characteristic for the film music is the style reminiscent of rock music and the rather simple execution of the pieces. The frequent use of the electric guitar with constantly repeating note and chord sequences is particularly striking. The piece In The House - In A Heartbeat pursued this style very distinctive and has been for the continuation of 28 Weeks Later than 28 theme titled, since it has a high recognition value. The music as such represents a contrast to the conventional film music, since here an orchestral arrangement is completely dispensed with and the mood of the pieces partially contrasts with the plot of the film.

  • CD release: 28 Days Later. Original motion picture soundtrack . Music by John Murphy. Xl / Beggars (Indigo) 2003

DVD publications

The German-language first release on DVD from 2004 contains a German and English soundtrack in Dolby Digital 5.1, subtitles in both languages, an audio commentary by director Boyle and screenwriter Garland, a making-of and the alternative ending as well as a few other features.

Sequels

  • On August 30, 2007, the sequel 28 Weeks Later started in German cinemas.
  • No specific production or publication dates exist for a possible final part of the trilogy; 28 Months Later is set to play in Russia . Garland stated in an interview in October 2010 that a third part is unlikely due to disputes between rightsholders.
  • Fox Atomic Comics published a graphic novel by Steve Niles under the title 28 Days Later: The Aftermath , which was published in Germany by Cross Cult Verlag under the title "28 Days Later: The Time After".

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Release certificate for 28 Days Later . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , June 2003 (PDF; test number: 93 145 K).
  2. ↑ Age rating for 28 Days Later . Youth Media Commission .
  3. ↑ 28 days later. In: reference-global.com. August 27, 2009, S. artechock.de , accessed on November 23, 2011 .
  4. ↑ imdb.de: start dates for 28 days later (2002). March 23, 2002, accessed November 23, 2011 .
  5. ↑ filmspiegel.de: 28 days later. July 11, 2009, accessed November 23, 2011 .
  6. ↑ already viewed.de: 28 days later. September 11, 2005, archived from the original on November 28, 2011 ; Retrieved November 23, 2011 .
  7. ↑ videoload.de: 28 days later. September 11, 2011, archived from the original on March 14, 2013 ; Retrieved November 23, 2011 .
  8. ↑ 28 Days Later ( Memento from June 10, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
  9. ↑ More Filming News 10/30/02. In: Tony Bianchi Aviation. October 30, 2002, archived from the original on December 30, 2012 ; accessed on January 9, 2016 .
  10. ↑ Plotting alternative film endings. August 15, 2003, accessed August 25, 2009 .
  11. ↑ Jens Lubbadeh: "28 Weeks Later" - anger in the head. August 30, 2007, archived from the original on April 5, 2010 ; Retrieved August 25, 2009 .
  12. ↑ Mark Kermode: A capital place for panic attacks. May 6, 2007, accessed August 25, 2009 .
  13. ↑ 28 Days Later ... In: boxofficemojo.com . IMDb , accessed on January 3, 2020 .
  14. ↑ Diedrich Diederichsen: Everyone can be the zombie. Retrieved August 25, 2009 .
  15. ↑ 28 Days Later. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film Service , accessed December 19, 2010 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  16. ↑ worst previews . October 3, 2010. Retrieved October 5, 2010.