Talk:28 Days Later

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You have new messages (last change).
This article is part of WikiProject Films, an attempt to build a comprehensive and detailed guide to films and film characters on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, you can edit the article attached to this page, or visit the project page, where you can join the project and/or contribute to the discussion.
B
This article has been rated as B-Class on the quality scale.
Mid
This article has been rated as Mid-Importance on the importance scale.
Editing Guidelines
This article, category, or template is part of WikiProject Horror, an attempt to build a comprehensive and detailed guide to horror film and fiction on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, you can edit the article attached to this page, or visit the project page, where you can join the project and/or contribute to the discussion.
B This article has been rated as B-Class on the assessment scale.


Contents

[edit] Plot Summary

And then what happens? Is there supposed to be more after the text cuts off? - Puffy jacket 18:52, 7 Jan 2004 (UTC)

Watch the film! That is supposed to be more, it's just not finished yet. Add a note explaining that if you think it's warranted! --Sam

This is ridiculous. I bet this plot synopsis is longer than the treatment. One short paragraph is enough for just about any film. Can someone trim this? -R. fiend 03:06, 27 Sep 2004 (UTC)

  • Why? Yes it's longer than most other movie articles, but why does that bother you? It is very well-written and I find that its length detracts nothing from the article and in fact adds to it. I think its fine the length it is. -CunningLinguist 10:52, 9 Jan 2005 (UTC)
Nothing wrong with long articles - Omegatron 18:40, Jan 9, 2005 (UTC)
Agreed. And having not seen the film yet, I can tell you that it gives a very good, in-depth description that is easy for anyone to follow even if they haven't seen it. Runa27 22:49, 13 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Filming

The window of opportunuity for filming just after dawn was small? It was reported that the normal activity had been removed by computers.

Perhaps some was (though I'd not heard that) but it was definately filmed after dawn and before London got massively busy. violet/riga (t) 16:32, 10 Oct 2004 (UTC)
Apparently, the police were very helpful in closing streets for 5 mins at a time, and because they were filming digitally, they could set up and pack up quick enough for them to make this work. The police also slowed traffic on the M1 for them at the right moments to film those cool M1 shots. I expect if anything was edited out by computer, it would have been stuff in the background. --Nathan 19:48, 5 December 2005 (UTC)


[edit] "England"?

I think it's more appropriate to describe the film as being set in 'Great Britain', as the situation would have been the same across the whole of the island. Changed. 82.36.124.236 20:48, 17 Apr 2005 (UTC)

    1. Eh, that's me above. pomegranate 20:54, Apr 17, 2005 (UTC)

i think that the point of changing it to great britain is irrelivent, even if the situation is the same in the rest of the UK or whatever, does the film take place in any other county/nation except england.......? saying that it takes place in englind is perfectly fine and abouve all FACT, by actual fact it takes place in england, you cant really argue with that.

By the way, there is no such thing as the England island. Please check up on your geography. This is what drove me to make the above changes. Referring to Great Britian (the island) or the United Kingdom, as 'England', is very irritating, especially to Scottish and Welsh people. pomegranate 21:00, Apr 17, 2005 (UTC)

Though speaking as an Anonymous... I have to echo Pomegranate saying that "Set in England" is pretty damn annoying to those who aren't English (like myself) -Anonymous

But it's not SET anywhere outside England so surely set in England is correct, sure the same thing would likely occur across mainland UK but no action in the film take place outside England Mbthegreat 15:41, 8 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Spread Beyond the UK?

I should think the disease would have spread beyond England throughout the entirety of the land-linked continents: Europe, Asia and Africa. The problem is the English Channel Tunnel; the Infected could have crossed from there onto the continental mainland. From there, they would have spread througout the entire world, with only the Americas, Australia and the various islands of the world being beyond their reach. Ergo, the section limiting the plague to UK should be deleted, unless of course it was so limited in the film? Tom S.

It's never made clear in the film how far it's spread. They say at the beginning that the infection reached Paris and New York, but of course Jim sees the plane going overhead, the army guy espouses his quarantine theory, and the Finnish air force arrive at the end. We can speculate, as viewers, but here in the article we've got to stick to the facts - the article notes that it's ambiguous as to how far the virus spread but that the general suggestion is it was limited to the UK, and I think that covers the situation pretty well. Worldtraveller 21:13, 14 July 2005 (UTC)
I'm pretty sure the French would have quarantined the Chunnel pretty early, and then filled it in later on. Battle Ape 05:52, 1 December 2005 (UTC)

It isn't very feasible that the virus spread beyond the UK. As noted in the main article, the virus is triggered much too fast for an infected person to take a long trans-Atlantic flight and successfully land. Even if in some bizzare folly they made it to France (by Chunnel) or to New York, it would be fairly easy to contain them (shoot them, etc) by local police.

The main reason England is desoalte isn't because "everyone is dead", as is the common theme in "Dawn of the Dead" films, its because the majority of the population has been evacuated off the island.

The main article also makes a great point that a human could not run around with reckless abandon, let alone live, without water for weeks and weeks.

A question I would have, is if the infected are so filled with rage they attack anyone they see, why don't they attack each other?

However you can't pick apart the plot too much. This was a very good film with good acting and I think it was a direct inspiration for the "running zombies" in "Dawn of the Dead" (2004). This trait of fast moving zombies really gave the whole "zombie films" a refreshing twist. Recently I saw "Land of the Dead" and when compared with 28 Days Later and Dawn of the Dead (2004) the slow moving undead seem boring and less than threatening.

-- There is no explanation given *why* the infected only attack the uninfected, but one can easily assume that the virus causes them to attack only those who are not behaving the same way they do or who don't smell or look like them.


On balance, I would suspect that the virus remains in the UK mainland and perhaps has not travelled to all corners of the UK. Assuming that no mutated versions of the virus exist (e.g., a longer latent gestation period or a trans-species infection of birds or mammals), here's my rationale:

1)spread beyond the mainland UK by air travel is extremely unlikely. Armoured cockpit doors means it is theoretically possible to fly an aircraft long distances even if all inhabitants of the passenger areas were infected. However, if even one infected were on an aircraft, it would not take off. If an infected stowed away in a wheel arch, which is completely atypical behaviour for infected humans, then they would feeze to death as other stowaways do. There are only two feasible, if unlikely possibilities for air-based spread of infected beyond the mainland UK; (1) a specimen removed from the mainland UK for study breaks lose or infected others(seems highly unlikely, adn thus a very likely film plot); (2) an infected clings to the exterior of a hastily departing helicopter that he was chasing - he hangs on as long as it takes to get, say, from a collapsing pocket of non-infected humans in southeast England to France. Assuming the French don't shoot the chopper down or it crashes for obvious reasons.

2) spread beyond the mainland UK by sea transport is still unlikely but slightly more feasible. Once again though, ships theoretically wouldn’t leave harbour with infected aboard and there would be limited chance that infected would get aboard unnoticed. As in the above helicopter scenario, they might have leapt towards a ship or boat that is hastily pulling away as the dock is overrun by infected who are ostensibly in pursuit of the humans boarding it. The bridge of a ship or boat would be much harder to keep secure against the infected, and thus there might be little ability to control the ship’s destination. It might never get out of harbour, it might wreck, but there is a small chance it might drift across the France and be impossible to contain where it beaches. Or perhaps the boat could carry a specimen, as mentioned in the air travel section above. On balance, however, any of the above spread scenarios are low probability. And I think we can assume that the infected can’t swim, and would not be capable of the abstract thought required to attempt to swim the English Channel or the Irish Sea.

3) spread beyond the mainland UK by the Channel Tunnel. This could theoretically be aboard a train – a Eurostar – in which an infected once again clings onto a hastily departing or passing train (pursuing non-infected humans) and the infection spreads through the carriages. The train driver could theoretically be safe against attack but would surely know that the train was compromised. And assuming even a modicum of military and government authority remains, the train would be identified as compromised by the government and train operators (assuming power and other infrastructural breakdowns have not already killed off the service). Would we stop the train, would the French have automatically closed the tunnel (yes!) and suspended the service days before the virus got to London (yes!)? Same with air and sea travel probably.

Now, what about infected moving by foot through the tunnel? The first issue is motivation – why would the infected run down a 30 mile tunnel that is somewhat out of the way and hardly crying out for their attention? The only reason – a recurring theme in my scenarios – is because the infected are themselves “spreading through” a chain of refugees like a forest fire. If such a chain were leading from an imploding population center or survivor enclave to the Channel Tunnel, then maybe the infected would follow too and would spread through the queues of refugees tramping through the tunnel. But let’s do a reality check; would the French, or even the British for that matter, be allowing anyone to leave the UK? No-one would know whether some strand of the disease had a latent period, and hence NO-ONE would be allowed out until long after a 28 day observation period.

My model so far assumes that the main mechanism spreading the virus throughout the UK are refugee columns. The outbreak begins in the suburb of a northern city. It eats up the city and spreads through networks of semi-urban communities. But it would probably burn out as it hit sparsely populated areas or at least be contained in the north. As densely populated as Britain is, there is no continuous urban sprawl all the way to London, and the infected do not seem to aimlessly search for uninfected humans, they must be drawn to them by sight, sound, or smell. The only likely cause for the infected moving through depopulated areas is uncontrolled refugee columns. There are probably many areas of the UK that have never been visited by refugee columns and are outside the “stagger range” or the “sight/sound/smell interest zone” of the infected. Of course the dynamic of refugee columns is that they will aim for wherever is not infected, and thus increase the chance that it will become infected, but nonetheless there will be corners of Britain no-one thought to trek towards in huge numbers. And then there is N Ireland and the offshore islands, plus Royal Navy ships, which I’m guessing is where continuity of government is.

Taking what we see in the film as canon, how do we explain the lack of radio signals from elsewhere in the UK or the outer world? That’s tricky. I’d say there’s a couple of possibilities that can be used to support a “UK mainland only” theory. First, the UK government may wish to keep local communities locked-down and not forming new refugee columns to come towards the remaining survivor enclaves. This is problematic and hokey, but might be a reason for the lack of UK government signals. Second, the UK government may be paralysed or believe all are dead after almost all radio signals died out within 28 days. Again hokey but possible. Third, there may be great fear and uncertainty that the infected retain certain motor functions or are even fully intelligent. Yeah, super-hokey, I know, but worth a thought at least. Or maybe the two characters we see using radios – the taxi driver and the military guys – simply missed signals or ignored scattered ones? Would appreciate any thoughts out there. On why the world would be silent; God knows. I can only point to the above three ideas writ large.

On random thoughts, I would say the infected “know each other” in the way that primates know members of their own species. The cue to attack must have a visual element because the infected failed to find the girl hiding behind the mirror just a foot away. But it might be that they acquire a new target or curious activity visually or by sound, and aggressively move to investigate. On approaching they have some way of recognizing other infected – a strong pheromone, an instinctive psychic or psycho-electrical aura? I suspect they are drawn to another infected who is in a killer frenzy - like sharks drawn to a feeding frenzy. I also suspect that they have some sensitivity to strong daylight and prefer to huddle together when they are not pursuing prey.

On “28 weeks later” I have been thinking about roleplaying game scenarios for just this type of story. My frontrunners are based around UK or US special forces returning to the UK to bag two live specimens – male and female – and to check for any mutation in the virus. Reckon they’d take these prizes to Gruinard Island (our old anthrax testing ground) to a test facility. A key question one would need to know if whether the virus can mutate, and whether the infected are capable of abstract thought or self-care or, worse yet, of breeding ...

The outbreak doesn't begin in the "suburb of a northern city", it begins at the University of Cambridge. I doubt very much that there were "refugee columns" - this isn;t the Black Death in medieval England, it's a modern disease in a modern city. Everyone in the UK is within a few hours of an airport, so why would they need to form refugee columns when they could just get on a plane? There's a lot of things about the film which don;t make sense: the survivors can't pick up any radio signals even though the world is still alive and well, the outside world makes no effort to contact any survivors (at least until the very end), Selena says the disease spread through rural areas even though it started in a city, there's no way the British Army could cordon off even half of London, let alone every town and city in the country, Jim just glances at the newspaper he finds whereas any normal person would read it from cover to cover, etc etc. There's a lot of plot holes, but if you analyse them too much you stop appreciating the film for what it is - a very good piece of storytelling! Rusty2005 21:54, 19 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Significance of 28 Days

Is there any significance to the period of time 28 days? I have seen it used in different places, incuding the Australian punk band, 28 days.--Beano311 01:17, 20 October 2005 (UTC)

28 days is exactly four weeks, which is also the length of February, the shortest month. Battle Ape 05:53, 1 December 2005 (UTC)
except for during leap years (re:February).
Some believe that 28 days is the average amount of time it takes for one's body to completely starve to death. This idea is very inestimable due to the underlying fact that the amount of time it would take to starve to death depends on how much fat an individual's body comprises of. Audience Of Cycles 19:04, 3 June 2006 (UTC)
Also, it's three syllables long in English. :P That, and somebody above mentioned something about 28-day "observation periods" to insure that there weren't versions of it that took longer to infect a person.Runa27 22:42, 13 June 2006 (UTC)
This is merely quibbling, but 60 days without food is the "rule of thumb" [1]. Still, even with scientific research telling me that's the case I cannot imagine such a long time without! Ranieldule 13:27, 14 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Shaun of the Dead

Surely Shaun of the Dead was mainly inpspired by Dawn of the Dead (the remake of which came out a few months before Shaun...). Yes you can draw paralells between Shaun of the Dead and 28 Days Later, but you probably can with any zombie movie. I put forward a motion to have that bit taken out. --Nathan 21:28, 2 December 2005 (UTC)

I would say leave it in, Shaun of the Dead makes direct reference to 28 Days Later and I'd dare say it inspired Shaun in the sense that the success of 28 Days Later helped them get their UK zombie movie made and released as well... Also I wouldn't say that Shaun is mainly inspired by George A. Romero's Dawn of the Dead in particular (aside from the title of course) but then that's a question for the Shaun page...
You haven't convinced me, but unless anyone else says it should be taken out, I won't change it. --Nathan 19:48, 5 December 2005 (UTC)
It should be taken out. I haven't seen any interviews with the "Shaun" filmmakers to indicate they were at all inspired by "28 Days Later" but they have acknowledged a debt to Romero. (They were invited to be zombies in "Land of the Dead", and there's a special feature on the DVD that's basically a home movie of their experience on the shoot. It's quite clear that they were thrilled to meet George Romero, let alone work with him.)Skyraider 00:49, 19 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Satallite Communication

"Taking what we see in the film as canon, how do we explain the lack of radio signals from elsewhere in the UK or the outer world?"

If the rest of the world has been spared, the soldiers could of established satallite communication. Or Jim could have just tuned in to CNN on Sky.

Except for CNN on Sky being uplinked from the UK, which has no power ;) --Kiand 19:22, 2 April 2006 (UTC)
The soliders had power so why could they not use satallites? If they did not have a satallite dish, they could just commender one froma house. 19:47, 4 April 2006 (UTC)
They'd need a dish, box, television, and the know-how on how to align it. Although based on the purloined consumer electronics in the house I'm sure they had at least on decoder... The only channels on 28E, the normal UK satellite position, that are uplinked from outside the UK are RTÉ 1, RTÉ 2, TV3, TG4, Deutsche Welle, TV5 Monde and the Irish government-ownedf radio channels.... anyway, its a movie, its fictional, stuff doesn't have to be realistic. --Kiand 02:39, 8 April 2006 (UTC)
The soldiers seemed quite firm in their belief, other than the one soldier (Corporal?), that the rest of the world was annhialated. That is what caused the despair that lead to their mentioned suicidal tendencies and the officer's plan to offer them women as a hope for rebuilding society. The soldiers did not 'want' to try to contact anyone outside because they believed they were the only ones left.
Ever consider that the soldiers were happier pretending to be the last survivors of the human race? If they simply pretended to their "rescued" civilians that they were the last protective group in the world, they could (and apparently did) get up to whatever they wanted. They almost certainly know the world outside of Britain is alive, but pretend it's not so they can act in whatever way they want


[edit] The 'answer' to infection

Whoever wrote the synopsis screwed up on one major plot point: the 'answer' the soliders' message spoke of was not rape but waiting (i.e. waiting until the infected starved themselves to death).

This was quite clear in the movie and I fail to understand how anyone could make such a mistake.

Yes, you're entirely accurate; and the synopsis isn't. Although acquiring women was part of the equation; waiting for the infected to die was far more needed. Corrected, ish - its been a while since I've seen the movie and I'm not digging the DVD out to check exactly what Major West says. --Kiand 13:44, 9 May 2006 (UTC)
Although the waiting part certainly is important, it seems that more is made in the movie of the soldiers' desire to 'rebuild the species' (West says something along the lines of "We wait for the Infected to die; what's left for seven men to do except wait to die themselves?"). It certainly seems to have been the prompt for West to send out the message, in order to summon survivors (specificially women) to the mansion; whilst the specific 'answer' to infection seems to be just waiting to die, the soldiers intent (to sexually enslave any women who arrive) seems more significant plot-wise, and a more important part of the equation for them. Having said that, I fully agree with the edits that have been made, as they incorporate both points and as such are much more accurate.--Joseph Q Publique 09:22, 13 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] More info in the DVD section please

Who released the DVD, and in what regions? Were there any closed captions, subtitles or alternate language audio tracks? These should also be mention, especially who released it and where. Runa27 22:49, 13 June 2006 (UTC)

I firmly believe these questions should never be addressed in this article. In fact, I deleted the DVD section entirely. These types of items are not pertinent and border on irrelevant. There will always be various versions of retail releases. Anyone seeking this type of information can find it on the IMDB link, which would always be more current and accurate than Wikipedia. Abisai 00:15, 30 June 2006

[edit] The jet pilot

The article states that the pilot of the jet near the end of the movie speaks Finnish and requests a helicopter be sent in. However, it appears to me that the pilot is speaking English, with the appropriate accent, and says "Lads, let's get a helicopter in." The subtitles on the movie confirm this.

I thought this too, but if you listen to it a few times you can tell that the pilot's words don't match up exactly with any sort of English. It takes a minute to tell the difference, bit the lähetätkö doesn't match up with "Lad's, let's get a"--70.174.168.209 22:05, 21 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Sequel

While I beleive that 28 Days Later needs a sequel to answer alot of questions, it should be in the form of a number of short stories, like the Anamatrix. Alot could be explained this way, like how the soldiers got to where they were, or how Selena and Mark got to where they were. You could also throw in a heap of other stories about some survivors as well.

[edit] The infected

I changed a little bit in the infected section. Someone had written that they attack any living creature but if that were so I think the horses would have been attacked. Other than their speed they have no real means of self defense and since they are domesticated then they'll probably not fear humans enough to avoid all the infected they come across. I then added a note on intelligence which is all backed up by events in the movie. If anyone wants to reword it to sound better, feel free but if you want to question it please discuss it here first. Thanks!--DannyBoy7783 23:01, 9 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Kingdom of Loathing,28 Days later

There was a large event in Kingdom of Loathing a browser based RPG that was based around this film.I think there should be a referance to it.

As a KoL player myself I don't see the need for it. The game really isn't THAT popular yet. --Crazysunshine 03:17, 30 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] The Blockade

When the CO goes out the blockade, he only brings one soldier, the one with the funny hair that is shaved in random places. Jim kills only him, not two as the synopsis claims. I changed it accordingly, and edited out the bit that read "(understandably, as he was covered in blood)". That's opinion, and has nothing to do with the plot. Chewbacca1010 03:07, 3 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] OR and the need for refs

I placed {{OR}} and {{More sources}} tags on the article because it seems all of "Style and inspiration", "Plot", "Alternate endings", "Miscellaneous" and "The infected" are original research and the article as a whole desperately needs some more references. Mikker (...) 21:21, 11 December 2006 (UTC)

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../2/8/_/Talk%7E28_Days_Later_cb26.html"