28 Days Later:A Look at Our Present, From The Past

If I told you I rewatched a classic piece from the zombie genre where a man wakes up from a coma to find out the world has devolved into a zombie apocalypse, you’d probably say something along the lines of:

“Yeah, I love The Walking Dead too.”

But nay-nay, about 23 years ago the zombie genre was changed forever when Danny Boyle delivered 28 Days Later to the masses. A movie where the virus of rage ravishes through the United Kingdom.

About five minutes in we’re introduced to Jim. A man who is like Rick from The Walking Dead, only you don’t have to worry about his story declining after about the 5th season. Because it’s an actual movie that can cover things in about two hours.

Rewatching this film as an adult in 2025 is scary, but in a different way than when I was fourteen. Primarily because it feels like I’m living in it, and also—less hormones.

Like most classics from around the new millennium, it starts with the most toxic drug for a millennial: nostalgia. It takes us back to a time where most civil disobedience revolved around the treatment of animals. As opposed to now, where the rights we’re fighting for are… well, all of them.

To sum it up quickly: animal activists break into a big scary lab to help free chimpanzees from what seems to be a mad scientist. A mad scientist who becomes nerve-racking as he warns of the virus known as rage. Activists release angry chimps, chimps do what chimps do to human faces, and we finally get good ole Jim!

Cillian Murphy’s character—oh, that’s the tail end of the nostalgia high. Since you realize this man has been a boss actor for two decades. But I digress.

Jim wakes from his coma right into some product placement for a BDS-listed company. He then walks out into the world to find ruined buses, war murals, and other essential services torn to bits.

You would’ve thought DOGE ran a monster truck through London.

The action first picks up in, of all places, a church. One with an ode written to a classic Monty Python line: “The end is nigh.” It’s not like we all think that when we look at the Middle East, you know? Like there totally isn’t religious ideology and symbolism based there that are barreling us toward an environment reminiscent of this film.

After Jim’s first encounter with a zombie via priest ends, he wanders. You never do this in a post-apocalyptic world unless you want friends who save you.

He’s chased by a group of infected before Selena and Mark save him. Yay, our zombie survival group forms. They explain to Jim what’s happened in the safety of their abandoned store. Jim decides he needs to go look for his parents. So the group goes to the suburbs of London.

Upon arrival Jim goes into the house to find his parents have committed suicide. A hard hit for anyone watching. Especially in the age of a mental health crisis gone unchecked. Not just with the suicide, but a world engulfed in rage.

The group hunkers down for the night. Jim’s late-night nostalgia for wanting to be back with his parents with a job as a bike courier leads to an ambush by infected. Selena and Mark come to his aid. Mark gets infected and—almost without blinking—Selena cuts him down. We’re down to a duo.

Selena and Jim return to London where she warns Jim that she’d do the same to him. Especially since infection takes hold in a ten count. At this point, Jim spots a signal lamp from a residential high rise.

Of course this journey wouldn’t be anything without a zombie chase to what seems like the top floor. Where a man in full riot gear saves the day.

Our man in riot gear is cab driver Frank. Who has a young daughter, Hannah. And just like that our duo has doubled in size. Frank shows Jim and Selena a radio message coming from an army outpost in the north. Though hesitant at first, Jim convinces the others it’s worth the risk for a post-apocalyptic road trip.

That road trip starts with a demolition derby to get out of a tunnel. Where thousands of rodents run away from a horde of infected as the group finishes putting on a spare tire. We get beautiful countryside, a joyful raid on an abandoned grocery store, and Jim killing a zombie boy. Seemingly changing into a new version of himself. This leads to bonding amongst the group to the point Jim views Frank as a father figure.

Selena does what every sane person should do in this world and secures narcotics. Valium to be exact. The group wakes up on a new day, where their hope leads them to the outpost.

The thing about hope in both this film’s world and ours is that it can be a destination where dreams go to die. In this case it comes in the form of a completely empty outpost.

Frank’s exhaustion and disappointment is directed at a crow, eating up the remains of a dead zombie that was gored by a pole. Frank goes to kick the pole and a drop of infected blood lands in his eye.

In a matter of seconds Frank tells Hannah he loves her before falling to the infection. Selena yells at Jim, telling him to take out Frank. Before he does though, Frank is shot. By soldiers hiding in the bush. Death by irony.

Brief pause here. See, my brain has been uplifted and dazed by marijuana, magic mushrooms, and a small amount of acid. So maybe it’s a far-reaching analysis to write out this next part.

But what if that sequence, and Jim’s parents dying by suicide, applies to us with social media? What if the chimps harboring rage are a representation of what would become of Facebook, Twitter, etc? When you think about it, it is the older generation that has succumbed most to this era's group-induced rage. Just think of the favorite relative who turned MAGA or even “woke,” just from online consumption. Which leaves the next generations to fend for themselves.

See? A little whacky… but it made you think, didn’t it?

The third act of our story happens faster than breaking news in our current day-to-day lives. Our heroic soldiers are actually occupying a fortified country house. One of their own, Private Mailer, has turned into a zombie and is kept in that state so they can research him.

Any hope of our hesitant group’s hope dies when the commander in charge informs Jim the radio signal was meant to draw in female survivors and turn them into sex slaves. Jim and another soldier refuse to go along with this. They are chained up. Hannah and Selena are now imprisoned.

Not like anyone in today’s world is capable of such a thing. Oh, you guys remember the Tate brothers?

After waking up into consciousness, Jim is told by the imprisoned soldier that Great Britain is the only place on lockdown. Quarantined from the rest of the world.

Hey, didn’t we have a quarantine that traumatized most of us and helped usher in an era of societal unease? Touché, Danny Boyle and Alex Garland (writer).

Jim and the soldier are ushered to the woods to be shot and disposed of. Jim spots a jet flying high above, seeing there is life out there. Jim’s assassins kill his fellow captive but get into an argument on how it happened. Allowing our hero to escape.

Back in the house Selena and Hannah are mentally tortured and abused by their hosts. Selena sneaks Hannah a valium before they’re both physically restrained. A group of soldiers prepare them with a wardrobe for their entertainment that evening.

Jim lures the commander and his second-in-command away from the house by setting off an alarm. He stealthily kills the second-in-command before drawing in the commander to a broken down car. Leading him into an ambush of zombies who heard the alarm.

Sneaking his way back to the house, Jim shoots the chains of Private Mailer. Jim and his zombie counterpart unleash hell on the soldiers keeping Selena and Hannah captive. Jim’s transformation into this new world is complete. In sequences so brutal it almost leads to Selena killing him, thinking he has turned. They find a high-off-valium Hannah and lead her out.

The final dramatic sequence is getting into a car that’s surprisingly occupied by the commander. Jim takes a hit, Hannah—who’s driving the car—reverses all the way to Private Mailer who was waiting for his meal.

After 28 days the story does give some actual hope. Jim is a new person and recovered. They signal a military plane that flies over them. On a blue sky, sunny day.

Hopefully we’ll be as lucky as they were…