28 Years Later picks up twenty-eight years after the Rage Virus ravaged the UK. Having been pushed out of continental Europe, Britain and the surrounding area remain a permanent quarantine zone, with those inside left on their own to survive. Lindisfarne Island is one such place, where humans live in relative safety due to the limited access of a tiny land bridge, which goes away with the tide.
Spike, a twelve-year-old boy, is finally old enough to leave the island for the first time. Accompanied by his dad, he’s expected to make his first kill. On the mainland though, things rarely go according to plan and soon they are both fighting for their lives against a horde of infected, including a seven-foot-tall infected Alpha.
This movie does a lot to expand the world and the ideas introduced in 28 Days Later. The choice to canonize 28 Weeks Later’s controversial ending raised some eyebrows, but the film bats it away almost immediately, implying the French took care of things off-screen. The most interesting choice though is the evolution of the Rage virus, not just including the Alphas, but the infected acting as individuals rather than a mindless horde. It seems to hint at the idea that these creatures aren’t as mindless as we may have assumed, and there may be much more to learn as the trilogy progresses.
While I’m still not completely sure everything works, this movie is ambitious. The haunting reading of Rudyard Kipling’s poem Boots is in the film as well as the trailer, along with footage from Henry V and other historical footage. This is combined with the fact that the entire film was shot on an iPhone, which creates a mood that just feels intimate. Just about nothing this film does feels safe or expected for the genre, and while I’m not sure how to feel about some of the choices, it’s certainly a fresh take on the genre.
The trailer tees up a father-son dynamic and while we do get that, it’s rather short-lived. Instead, we get Spike pulled between two worlds: the world of his father and the world of his mother. Aaron Taylor-Johnson’s Jamie is pure testosterone, all blood and nothing soft. Jodie Comer’s Isla is sick and often weak, but displays a tenderness that Spike doesn’t receive from any of the other characters. It’s a struggle between life’s relationship to death, and how we deal with the death that’s all around us.
Though Alfie Williams, who plays Spike, is an impressive 14-year-old actor who competently carries the movie, I predict it’s Isla that audiences (and the academy) will remember. Comer is so believable here, and portrays illness in a way that doesn’t make her seem incapable or weak. She’s barely in the trailers, which left me surprised and stunned by her vital role in the story. I’m predicting a Best Supporting Actress nod for her, but these days it’s hard to say.
While I’m trying to avoid spoilers, the movie’s ending is strange. I understand its utility as they’re setting up the next movie, but it’s a shift in tone so drastic that it’s almost funny. If you’ve seen it, you know exactly what I’m talking about.
Overall, this is a good but weird movie. I think how it’s viewed in time will depend on the success of the trilogy, but it is a solid starting point. There’s a lot to explore in terms of the infected and the world expansion, but the ending left me a little uneasy about the sequel. Hopefully though, there’s still a lot of good stuff to come next year.
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