28 Weeks Later
Directed by	Juan Carlos Fresnadillo
Produced by	Andrew Macdonald Allon Reich Enrique Lopez-Lavigne Danny Boyle Alex Garland
Written by	Juan Carlos Fresnadillo Enrique Lopez-Lavigne Rowan Joffe Jesús Olmo
Starring	Robert Carlyle Rose Byrne Jeremy Renner Harold Perrineau Catherine McCormack Idris Elba Imogen Poots Mackintosh Muggleton
Music by	John Murphy
Cinematography	Enrique Chediak
Editing by	Chris Gill
Distributed by	Fox Atomic
Release date(s)	11 May 2007 October 2007 (DVD) 7 September 2007[1]
Running time	99 min.
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Preceded by	28 Days Later
Followed by	28 Months Later
Official website
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

28 Weeks Later is a 2007 British post-apocalyptic science fiction horror film, and sequel to the 2002 film 28 Days Later. The film was directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, and was released in the United Kingdom and in the United States on May 11, 2007.

[edit] Plot

Don and his wife Alice are living with a group of survivors in a heavily reinforced cottage somewhere in Rage-infected Britain. They are eating a meal when a young boy is heard outside. Against his better judgment, Don opens the door to let the child in, who has been running from the infected. The infected discover the hideout and break in, quickly overwhelming the group. Don abandons his wife and the child, and escapes down a river in a boat, emerging as the sole survivor.

Over the course of 28 weeks, Britain is declared relatively safe again and an American-led NATO force begins repopulating the country, amongst them Doyle, a sniper; Flynn, a helicopter pilot; and Scarlett, an army medical officer who is wary of two children, Tammy and her younger brother, Andy, who have just arrived with other British expatriates. Scarlett is frustrated that her superiors did not inform her of minors arriving, and when she examines Andy she notices that he has heterochromia, a trait he inherited from his mother.

Andy and Tammy are moved into District 1, a fully functional section of London, located in the Docklands area known as the Isle of Dogs. They are reunited with their father, Don, now head caretaker of the district. At their new penthouse, Don tearfully recounts his escape and Alice's fate, and that he could do nothing about it. The next day, the two children slip out of the safe zone and return to their old home to collect some personal effects, where they discover Alice, alive and suffering from her ordeal. Andy and Tammy are recaptured, and Alice is decontaminated. A blood test reveals that she is infected but immune, and that she is a carrier, as evidenced by her bloodshot eye.

Don learns about his wife and visits his children, who are being detained. He then makes his way to the room where Alice is held. They reconcile, kiss, and Don becomes infected, killing Alice. He then breaks into District 1, attacking and infecting soldiers. Scarlett rescues Tammy and Andy from containment, fleeing together as chaos spreads to the streets. Doyle and the soldiers are ordered to take out as many of the infected as possible, which escalates into an extermination of the populace. He leaves his position and escapes with Scarlett and the children as District 1 is incinerated by napalm. Meanwhile, large numbers of the infected escape the bombardment, occupying the city once more.

Stopping at a derelict park, Scarlett informs Doyle that the key to curing infection is in the children, who may have the same immune system as their mother. Flynn arrives by helicopter to pick up Doyle, but refuses to take anyone else. The infected begin to give chase, forcing the group to flee. Flynn then flies away, after slicing dozens of infected to pieces with the helicopter's rotor blades. He then designates Wembley Stadium as the new rendezvous.

The group enters an abandoned car to escape the infected and the clouds of poisonous gas venting into the city, but the car will not start. Doyle gets out to jump-start the engine upon seeing approaching soldiers with flamethrowers. As the car drives away he is set aflame, sacrificing his life to save Scarlett and the children. To evade a pursuing helicopter, Scarlett drives into the London Underground, after which she and the children continue on foot, using the night vision scope on Doyle's rifle for guidance. The trio get separated in the darkness, and as Scarlett attempts to find Andy and Tammy, she is disarmed and beaten to death by Don, who then bites Andy. Tammy is forced to kill Don with Doyle's rifle.

Though bitten, Andy remains symptom-free like his mother, and has the same bloodshot eye. The children continue on to Wembley Stadium, and are picked up by a reluctant Flynn, who flies them across the English Channel and out of Britain.

Another 28 days later, the remains of the helicopter are seen, while someone is calling for help in French-accented English over the helicopter's radio. A large group of infected are seen running through a subway tunnel, through the Palais de Chaillot towards the Eiffel Tower.

[edit] Cast

[edit] Production

[edit] Pre-production

In 2003, plans for the film were conceived after the enormous international success of 28 Days Later. Danny Boyle, Andrew Macdonald and Alex Garland stated that they felt the time was right to make a sequel.^[3]

In March 2005, the director of 28 Days Later, Danny Boyle, said in an interview that he would not direct the sequel due to commitments to Sunshine, but he would serve as executive producer. He also revealed that the film would deal with a great deal of the aftermath from the first movie.^[4] It was also revealed that the film would revolve around the "US Army declaring the war against infection had been won, and that the reconstruction of the country could begin."^[5] After seeing the 2001 thriller Intacto, Danny Boyle chose to hire Juan Carlos Fresnadillo to helm the project.^[6] Fresnadillo stated that he was "thrilled working on his first English language film alongside such an exciting international cast and talented production team."^[7]

Both Fresnadillo and film director Lopez-Lavigne were involved in the writing process of the script which the story revolved around a family and what happened to them in the aftermath of the original film which the producers "liked a lot".^[8]

[edit] Casting details

28 Days Later director Danny Boyle said in March 2005 that the sequel would feature a new cast, since previous cast members Cillian Murphy and Naomie Harris were occupied with their own projects.^[4] On 23 August 2006, Jeremy Renner was announced to portray Doyle, one of the principal characters for 28 Weeks Later.^[9] On 31 August 2006, Harold Perrineau was announced to portray a US Special Forces pilot for the film.^[10]

[edit] Filming

On 1 September 2006, principal photography for 28 Weeks Later began in London.^[11] Locations used in London include: Isle of Dogs, Canary Wharf, Charing Cross, Charing Cross tube station, CityPoint, Greenwich Foot Tunnel, Hyde Park, Wembley Stadium, Millennium Stadium, Parliament Square, Shaftesbury Avenue, Therapia Road and Three Mills Island Studios and also White Cliffs of Dover,.^[12] The film's final scene was filmed on Palais de Chaillot in Paris.^[13]

The film was shot on 35mm film^[14] and concluded late November 2006. Scenes involving Andy and Tammy running away from District 1 were filmed early in the morning.^[15]

[edit] Promotion

Promotional poster

[edit] Biohazard warning

On Friday 13 April 2007, 28 days before the release of the film in UK cinemas, a huge biohazard warning sign was projected against the White Cliffs of Dover.^[16] The sign contained the international biological hazard symbol, as well as stating that Britain was "contaminated, keep out!".

[edit] Graphic novel

In July 2006, Fox Atomic Comics and publisher HarperCollins announced that they were publishing a graphic novel titled 28 Days Later: The Aftermath in early 2007 to bridge the gap between 28 Days Later and 28 Weeks Later.^[17]

[edit] Viral advertising

Removable graffiti was sprayed in locations around London featuring the web address 'ragevirus.com'. However, the web address was found to be unregistered and quickly snapped up by a b3ta reader. The advertising agency who made the mistake agreed to purchase the rights to the domain for an undisclosed but significant sum.^[18]

[edit] Prop Giveaway

In April 2007, Bloody-Disgusting.com promoted the film by giving readers a chance to win a prop from the film. The props were included in a "District 1 Welcome Pack”, which featured an actual ID card and an Evening Standard newspaper with an evacuation headline. The giveaway was only open for North American residents and entries closed on May 9th 2007.^[19]

[edit] Reception

Prior to the film's opening the MPAA gave 28 Weeks Later an R for strong violence and gore, language and some nudity. The film has been rated 18 in the UK. The film has opened in 2,000 cinemas across the United States.^[20]

28 Weeks Later garnered generally positive reviews.^[21] The film has been praised for being "exciting, action-packed and superbly directed thriller that more than lives up to the original film"^[22] and "28 Weeks Later is brutal and almost exhaustingly terrifying. It is also bracingly smart, both in its ideas and in its techniques".^[23] The film has generated a rating of 71% on Rotten Tomatoes with 98 positive reviews and 42 negative reviews.^[24] The film made $9.8 million in its opening weekend, coming in second place at the box office. The film has grossed $28,638,916 in the USA and $26,572,472 in other countries, bringing the worldwide total to $55,211,388.^[25]

Reviewers have commented on parallels between the film's plot and the U.S.-led 2003 invasion of Iraq and the September 11, 2001 attacks in New York.^{[26][27][28][29][30][31]}

[edit] Sequel

In March 2007, plans were announced by Danny Boyle to create a "third chapter" of the film franchise, which may be given the title 28 Months Later with a 2009 release date,^[33] thus creating a trilogy. Whilst the action would expectedly take place in France, picking up where the second film left off, Boyle has stated that his thoughts are to set the movie in Russia.^[34]

In June 2007, it was announced that if DVD sales of the film did well Fox Atomic would consider producing the third film.^[35]

In July 2007, while promoting the film Sunshine, Boyle revealed that he has a story formulating for the next film "There is an idea for the next one, something which would move [the story] on. I've got to think about it, whether it's right or not." Boyle also revealed that he would return as the director.^[36]

[edit] DVD and Blu-ray

DVD box art

The film was released on DVD on September 10, 2007 in Region 2 territories, and will be released on October 9, 2007 in Region 1 territories.^[37] The film will be available in anamorphic widescreen and will include deleted scenes with optional commentary, and theatrical trailers. Other extras will include audio commentary and various featurettes including: Making Of 28 Weeks Later, Make-Up Effects, Getting Into The Action and a 28 Days Later: The Aftermath Flash-Animated Graphic Novel.^[38]

The Blu-ray release has been confirmed to include a AVC MPEG-4 encode as well as DTS-HD Lossless Master Audio 5.1 surround audio on a BD-50 disk. It is due for release simultaneously with the DVD version.^[39]

[edit] Soundtrack

Main article: 28 Weeks Later Soundtrack

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Official Site
• 28 Weeks Later at the Internet Movie Database
• 28 Weeks Later at Rotten Tomatoes
• 28 Weeks Later... at MetaCritic
• 28 Weeks Later Trailer at Apple.com
• Production photos at Yahoo!