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28 Days Later was a surprise hit with critics, audiences, and the box office alike because it came out of nowhere and felt like no film ever before it. An astounding feat all on its own, but even more so when you consider it did all this as a zombie movie. Well, they aren’t zombies. But you get what I mean. When it was over, and that plane flew over Jim, Selena, Hanna, and their handmade HELL sign… nope… HELP sign, everyone wanted to know what happened next. Not only to them… but to the rest of the world. Which left director Danny Boyle and company in quite a predicament. How do you follow up a one-of-a-kind hit film that feels like no other when there is no surprise element anymore, your lead actors, and even you yourself aren’t available due to scheduling issues? It’s a hard ask to make lightning, or in this case, mass infection, strike twice. Especially on a reasonable budget. It sounds like a recipe for disaster. But it wasn’t. This is what happened to 28 Weeks Later.
When you have a wide-scoping story like 28 Days Later with so many possible stories to tell, making the choice of what to follow it up with can be difficult. A sequel is inevitable. Probably a franchise. But the wrong direction could lead to a sophomore slump and kill that potential franchise. Just look at Sinister 2 as one of many examples. One idea, according to producer Allon Reich, was a film called 29 Days Later that would pick up right where the first film ended. Another featured a prequel that told the story of the first 28 days and a group of British Marines trying to save the Prime Minister and the Queen. In 2005, Danny Boyle announced he would NOT be returning to direct because of his schedule directing Sunshine with Cillian Murphy. But that he would stay on the project as an Executive Producer. Boyle hired Spanish director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo for the job after being impressed by his 2001 film Intacto; a Max Von Sydow starrer based in a world where luck can be stolen with a touch from someone even luckier. Boyle wasn’t the only one impressed with Intacto, as it led to Fresnadillo being hailed as a new talent in Hollywood. The director had offers for multiple American remakes of foreign films, including The Eye (later remade in 2008 starring Jessica Alba), and an earlier version of The Departed (which we all know Scorsese turned into a classic). Rather obsessive about what projects he chose and the work that went into them, the director instead spent the next five years doing a filmmaker’s version of “this and that.” He directed TV commercials and a short film before Danny Boyle came calling.
Boyle and 28 Days Later producer Andrew Macdonald sent the director and his writing partner Enrique López-Lavigne the first draft of a script written by Before I Go to Sleep writer Rowan Joffe. At the time, neither of them came away feeling as though the original script had reached its full potential. The pair offered to rewrite the script, homing in on the idea of a family trying to start over after the horrors of the pandemic. Writer Jesús Olmo joined the writing team, with Garland and Boyle providing their expertise when needed. One particular early draft of the script, though unclear at what point in the writing process it was exactly, seems to have multiple changes that reflect this. Instead of the film opening with Don abandoning his wife at the countryside cottage, the script shows a group of survivors escaping a horde of infected via boat, only to be killed by a military missile strike. Another major difference is that the virus in the script had gone airborne, meaning throughout the film, characters would turn infected on a whim. Which is quite frightening to consider but does change the rules set in place by the original quite a bit. The final film we received definitely focuses more on ethical dilemmas and personal responsibility, more so than the original, more action-oriented script. The choice, in the end, was to tell this daunting story through the eyes of a small family and a select few thespians with the ability to relay the humanity of their characters to the audience. Even though they were participating in a bigger, more action-packed sequel than its predecessor.
Actor Robert Carlyle was offered the role of Don after working with Danny Boyle on Trainspotting and The Beach. He accepted the role, thinking Boyle would be directing the project. But stayed on anyway because of how impressed he was with Fresnadillo after the two had a conversation where the director explained his empathy for the infected, which ultimately, his character would become. Don as a character has to do some despicable things: he leaves his wife behind to save his own ass, lies to his kids about how she died, and ultimately restarts the apocalypse by trying to gaslight his half-infected wife with some tongue. But these were the very types of moral dilemmas and WTF moments in the script that finally persuaded Carlyle to join the film.
A pre-Hurt Locker Jeremy Renner was cast in the role of American military sniper and ultimate shepherd for our half-immune survivors. We don’t learn much about Doyle as a person, but it’s his actions that mostly translate his humanity and bravery to the audience. He’s a total badass here, and this is likely the first time for many of us that we sat up and took notice, “Hey, this guy could be a leading man in a lot of cool movies.” The role was a challenging one because with everything going on, no one had an especially large amount of screen time to hash out their characters. The talents of Rose Byrne, Idris Elba, and Harold Perrineau also make appearances in the film as members of the American military trying to help stabilize the new disinfected zone. They all feel a touch underutilized, if only because we all now know how talented they are.
Our two possibly immune kids saddled with a father with loose morals at best, Andy and Tammy, are played by newcomer with a cool name Mackintosh Muggleton and Imogen Poots (who would later star in another kick-ass horror movie called Green Room). You might remember Don’s extremely unimpressed wife Catherine McCormack as William Wallace’s love interest in Braveheart. Talk about two completely different sides of the spectrum. William Wallace wouldn’t have run from her. He would’ve single-handedly Liam Neeson’ed every last infected using nothing but rocks from the ground if needed. Anyway.
It was important to the director to have a Spanish-speaking cameraman, and The Faculty director of photography Enrique Chediak was chosen. The job was a difficult one and featured a myriad of challenging shots, from shooting London at night to trying to keep the frenetic energy of the original while also capturing it on a larger scale. Filming began on September 1st of 2006 in London. Whereas the original film had an “old London” feel to it, 28 Weeks Later was quite the opposite and mostly filmed with a newer, cleaner vibe meant to portray a fresh start.
Most of the filming took place at Canary Wharf on the Isle of Dogs, which was the disinfected area in the film where England was to try and start anew. This was before they moved production to various other locations, including 3 Mills Studios and Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium, which stood in for Wembley when it wasn’t available due to restorations. The airport shown is the Stansted Airport, which is also featured in Spider-Man: Far From Home and The Dark Knight Rises. The underground scenes were filmed at Charing Cross Station in an area with unused escalators and platforms. The site is not in use for commuters but instead used to try out new design ideas and train buskers, making it an ideal location for films such as The Bourne Ultimatum, Skyfall, and of course, 28 Weeks Later.
Visual effects supervisor Sean Mathiesen (who also worked with Boyle on Sunshine) oversaw the special effects on a film that, though it had a modest budget, featured over 400 VFX shots with a ten-week prep time and four months of post-production.
Though Danny Boyle was not able to direct 28 Weeks Later, he was clearly a hands-on producer and even helped direct the pivotal opening sequence of the film. The sound was a major necessity in a believable return to this dark world, as they were able to bring back John Murphy for the sequel. As well as his full-on banger In the House – In a Heartbeat from the original. In pure sequel fashion, the song is used much more often here, and you won’t hear us complaining. It’s killer.
The downer ending of 28 Weeks Later features Flynn’s apparently abandoned helicopter with a French distress call coming out of his radio. It’s unclear what happened to the helicopter or where our survivors are. Next, we see the infected running like crazed Black Friday shoppers and descending on the Eiffel Tower in Paris. Which might as well be a giant sign that says, “We’re all f*cked.”
The signifying of a global pandemic wasn’t always the case. The original ending was to take place as Andy and Tammy are whisked away in the helicopter. A bittersweet but ambiguous ending because Andy and Tammy survive but could be carriers of the rage virus. The decision to add the final ending, of the horde descending globally, wasn’t made until they were editing the film and wanted a more effective ending. So, they took a group of extras to Paris and filmed the scene guerrilla-style at 5 AM. This scene is shot in such a way as to bring the feel of the story back to its original, with the nastiness of the infected descending on another iconic and previously peaceful area.
A graphic novel written by Steve Niles detailing the events between 28 Days Later and 28 Weeks Later was released by Fox Atomic in 2007. The story featured four interconnected stories that detailed how the rage virus spread beyond the initial outbreak. The graphic novel gives interesting detail into the origins and escalation of the virus and is a nice link-up point between the intimate horror of the first film and the national catastrophe in the sequel.
As far as marketing goes, the film didn’t need much considering the hit that 28 Days Later was. But still, in a moment of marketing ingenuity, they projected a giant biohazard graphic onto the White Cliffs of Dover in Kent with the words “Contaminated: Keep Out” underneath.
28 Weeks Later was released on May 11th, 2007, and proved itself to be a concept folks were still fascinated by four years later. Opening up against Spider-Man 3 in its second week, the sequel still managed to land a number two spot. With nearly $10 million in its opening week, on its way to a worldwide finish of $64 million. Obviously, this was enough to prove the franchise could use another sequel with its previous creators in tow. Even if it did take what felt like 28 years to come to fruition. However, not eye-bulging enough for them to approve all three films Boyle now has planned. Financiers are waiting to see the box office numbers for 28 Years Later this June before greenlighting the follow-up to its companion, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple in 2026. We’ve got a pretty good feeling it will. Spider-Man 3 may have won the day at the box office, but it was taking a Red Foreman-sized boot in its ass in the papers. Unlike 28 Weeks Later, which received a mostly positive reception, despite being the bigger budget follow-up to a breakout indie film. And it’s arguably even more respected as a sequel today than upon its initial release.
Though it seems as though 28 Years Later and its follow-ups aren’t set to acknowledge the events of 28 Weeks Later, the film works as a standalone storyline and still holds up quite well. Not only does it provide the audience with several interesting moral questions, but also some interesting ideas when it comes to military intervention and a society in a rush to get back to normal life after a cataclysmic event. There are some genuinely scary set pieces such as the night vision holy-shit-fest in the tunnels, and intense chase sequences involving both the infected and the army. Both collide during an all-time moment when Floyd turns a helicopter’s rotors on a horde of infected and a glorious mess ensues unlike anything you’ve ever seen. Like someone took a weed whacker to a bowl of spaghetti.
It’s official. This movie is quite different from 28 Days Later, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a certified banger. And that, my friends, is what happened to 28 Weeks Later.
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