So in 2002 we had 28 Days Later, which changed the way we look at zombie movies or at least that's what everyone though about it, you see a bunch of people trying to bite others you call them zombies but no even the director Danny Boyle didn't call them zombies, even though technically these aren’t zombies but a rage virus infected people, which makes it scarier to consider, they are alive just like you but for some reason have no control over themself, are fkn fast and want to rip you apart, has to do with that sensation of destroying and the brutality in the act that they were probably after. The movie shows us empty streets of London, a world where a virus has wiped you out and made everything silent, very similar to when Rick wake up in the hospital with no idea what was going on in the original series The Walking Dead. I got a say walking around those empty streets with Cillian Murphy hits different, especially when you know they filmed those scenes early in the morning to make it that gloomy. Not only did Danny Boyle really know what he was doing when he made the decision to shoot the whole thing on digital video, making everything look raw and real, almost like its a blog with old tech, as if we’re right there in this messed up world with the characters, but he made it great.
- IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0289043/
- Platform: AppleTV+
Rottentomatoes Rating
Jim, played by Cillian Murphy, wakes up from a coma to discover that London and the rest of the world have been left abandoned, its all empty streets, old newspapers in the wind, no people, no cars around, no nothing. Selena played by Naomie Harris and Mark played by Noah Huntley, fill him in on what has been going on while he has been out, a full blown rage virus has turned most people into violent infected beings that attack anything that moves, attracted by movement and sound. The movie doesn't spend any time with long explanations, it just tosses you right into this nightmare along with Jim. This movie brought for the first time the concept of been infected in an exact amount of time, it only took 20 seconds after fluids contact, it could be blood or saliva, after 20 seconds you turn and then you trying to kill your friend next to you.
Cillian Murphy is absolutely on point as Jim, taking us on this journey from lost and helpless to the person that must be strong enough to survive. It all feels real and earned, especially after what he goes through, waking up from a coma to find out there is no one around and then having to face Major West who order his execution after Jim refuse to join him. Naomie Harris also gave us a great performance as Selena, making the way in which her character evolves from hardened survivor to someone who learns to trust again, feel completely natural. This wonderful father figure is Brendan Gleeson’s Frank who brings a little warmth to all this darkness but eventually had a tragic ending after they get to Manchester he gets infected by just a single drop of blood from a dead body that falls into his eye but not before saying "I love you" to his daughter Hannah and then kept saying "Keep away from me" until soldiers put him down and took care of him as he was already turning.
It is an interesting way that everything closes in a circle at the end. The soldiers have to be saved, and so Jim goes full rage mode himself to save Selena and Hannah, although he is not infected, and they find peace in the countryside. When the movie ends, they’re living in this isolated house waiting for the infected to starve to death and making a massive HELLO sign for passing planes. It's such a dark movie, but it's a surprisingly hopeful ending and maybe humanity can rebuild itself but on a smaller, more personal scale. At the moment I don't remember a movie or series that has extensively gone into details of how society could rebuild after such events, its always dark and not even The Walking Dead with its many hours shows a modern society rebuild rather than the same close isolated group of people making their way out, but its satisfying that at the end of the movie at least some order has been restored.
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