28 Days Later… (2002)

In Cambridge, three animal liberation activists break into a medical research laboratory. A scientist in the lab desperately warns them against releasing the captive chimpanzees, which are infected with a highly contagious rage-inducing virus. Ignoring his pleas, the activists release a chimp, which infects a female activist. She then attacks and infects everyone else present.

28 days later, in London, Jim—a bicycle courier—awakens alone from a coma in St Thomas’ Hospital. He wanders the streets of London, finding the city deserted with signs of catastrophe everywhere. Jim eventually encounters some infected humans and is pursued, but survivors Selena and Mark rescue him. At their shelter, the two explain to Jim that while he was in a coma, a virus had spread quickly among the populace, resulting in societal collapse. They claim the virus had been reported in Paris and New York City as well, suggesting the infection has spread worldwide.

The next day, Selena and Mark accompany Jim to his parents’ house in Deptford, where he discovers they had committed suicide. That night, the three fend off a pair of infected; Mark is bitten, and Selena kills him. She explains to Jim that the virus spreads through blood and saliva and overwhelms its victims in 10 to 20 seconds. After leaving the house, the two see some blinking Christmas lights from Balfron Tower. There, they discover two more survivors: cab driver Frank and his daughter Hannah, who allow them to take shelter. The next day, Frank informs them that their supplies (particularly water) are dwindling; he plays them a pre-recorded radio broadcast from a military blockade near Manchester, claiming to have “the answer to infection” and promising protection to any survivors that can reach them.

The group board Frank’s cab and head to Manchester, bonding with one another during the trip. At the deserted blockade, Frank is infected when a drop of blood falls into his eye. He is killed by arriving soldiers, who take the remaining survivors to a fortified mansion under the command of Major Henry West. West reveals to Jim that his “answer to infection” entails waiting for the infected to starve to death and luring female survivors into sexual slavery to repopulate the world. The group attempts to flee, but Jim is captured and chained next to Sergeant Farrell, a dissenting soldier. Farrell shares with Jim his speculation that the virus has not spread beyond Great Britain and that the country is being quarantined.

The next day, the soldiers prepare the girls for gang rape, while two others lead Jim and Farrell to execution. While his executioners argue after killing Farrell, Jim escapes. Jim lures West and another soldier to the blockade, where Jim kills the latter and leaves West stranded for arriving infected. He runs back to the mansion and releases Mailer, an infected soldier West kept for observation. Mailer infects another soldier and they wreak murderous havoc throughout the mansion. In the confusion, a soldier drags Selena upstairs, where Jim ambushes and kills him. The two reunite with Hannah and run to Frank’s cab; Jim is then shot by West, who has been waiting inside. Mailer grabs West through the rear window of the cab and kills him, and the trio finally leave the mansion.

Another 28 days later, Jim is recovering at a remote cottage. Downstairs, he finds Selena sewing large swaths of fabric when Hannah appears. The infected are shown dying of starvation. Hannah says she hears it and the three rush outside and unfurl a huge cloth banner, adding the final letter to the word “HELLO” laid out on the meadow. A lone Finnish fighter jet flies over the three survivors and the pilot calls in a muffled radio transmission.
Alternative endings

The DVD extras include three alternative endings, all of which conclude with Jim dying. Two were filmed, while the third, a more radical departure, was presented only in storyboards. On 25 July 2003, cinemas started showing the alternative ending after the film’s credits.[5] Jim dies at the hospital

In this ending, after Jim is shot, Selena and Hannah still rush him to the deserted hospital, but the scene is extended. Selena, with Hannah’s assistance, attempts to perform life-saving procedures but cannot revive Jim. Selena is heartbroken and Hannah, distraught, looks to her for guidance. Selena tells Hannah they will go on; they pick up their guns and walk away from Jim’s lifeless body. Selena and Hannah, still dressed in ballgowns and fully armed, leave the hospital.

On the DVD commentary, Boyle and Garland explain that this was the original ending of the film’s first cut, which was tested with preview audiences. It was rejected for seeming too bleak; the final exit from the hospital was intended to imply Selena and Hannah’s survival, whereas test audiences felt the women were marching off to certain death. Boyle and Garland express a preference for this alternative ending, calling it the “true ending”. They comment that this ending brought Jim full circle, as he starts and finishes the story in bed in a deserted hospital. This ending was added in the theatrical release of the film beginning on 25 July 2003, placed after the credits and prefaced with the words, “what if…”[5] “Hospital Dream”

The “Hospital Dream” ending is an extended version of the theatrical alternative ending, wherein Jim dies at the hospital. In the optional commentary the director states that this was the full version of the original ending.[citation needed] Jim dreams while unconscious and remembers the final moments on his bicycle before the crash. The footage cuts back and forth between the scene with Selena and Hannah trying to save his life, and the dream sequence. As he gets hit by a car in his flashback, he simultaneously dies on the operating table.
Rescue coda without Jim

This ending, for which only a rough edit was completed, is an alternative version of the potential rescue sequence shown at the very end of the released film. Here, the scenes are identical, except that this ending was intended to be placed after the first alternative ending wherein Jim dies, so he is absent. When Selena is sewing one of the banner letters in the cottage, she is seen facetiously talking to a chicken instead of Jim. Only Selena and Hannah are seen waving to the jet flying overhead in the final shots.
“Radical Alternative Ending”

The “Radical Alternative Ending”, rather than a bare ending, is a radically different development of the film from the midpoint; it was not filmed and is presented on the DVD as a series of illustrated storyboards with voiceovers by Boyle and Garland. When Frank is infected at the military blockade near Manchester, the soldiers do not enter the story. Instead, Jim, Selena, and Hannah are somehow able to restrain Frank, hoping they will find a cure for the virus nearby as suggested in the radio broadcast. They soon discover that the blockade had protected a large medical research complex, the same one featured in the first scene of the film where the virus was developed. Inside, the party is relieved to find a scientist barricaded inside a room with food and water. He will not open the door because he fears they will take his food, although he does admit that the “answer to infection is here”. Unfortunately, he refuses to talk further because he does not want to create an emotional attachment to people who will soon be dead. After hours of failed attempts to break through the door or coax the man out, Jim eventually brings Hannah to the door and explains Frank’s situation.

The scientist reluctantly tells them Frank can only be cured with a complete blood transfusion and supplies them with the equipment. After learning that he is the only match with Frank’s blood type, Jim sacrifices himself so Frank can survive with his daughter. Just as his journey began, Jim is left alone in the abandoned medical facility, and Selena, Hannah and Frank move into the room with the scientist, as a horde of the infected breaches the complex. The computer monitors show death and destruction come to life around a thrashing, infected Jim, who is strapped to the same table as the chimp had been in the opening scene. Garland and Boyle explain that they conceived this ending to see what the film would be like if they did not expand the focus beyond the four survivors. They decided against it because the idea of a total blood replacement as a cure was not credible. Boyle said in the DVD commentary that it “didn’t make much sense”, since the film had already established that one drop of blood can infect a person. “What would we do? Drain him of blood and scrub his veins with bleach?”

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