With the release of 28 Years Later (Danny Boyle) being another massive success in the zombie trilogy, the popularity of the first film, 28 Days Later (Danny Boyle) has resurged. The relevancy of this movie is more present than ever, but not just because of the worldwide love for zombie flicks, but for something much more representative of us as a society.
The 2000s was the decade for zombie movies. Classics like Shaun of the Dead, Dawn of the Dead, Zombieland, and others were big hits. While the public has always had an interest in mythical creatures and monsters, the surge in zombie movies can be attributed to one film: 28 Days Later.
The 2002 film follows Jim, a man who recently woke up from a coma, finding London completely devoid of life. After learning that an infection called “rage” has spread rampant across the UK, Jim and a few survivors he meets have to dodge the infected as they make their way to a promise of safety and shelter.
Despite the movie’s budget being $8 million, which is low for a film, it grossed about $82.8 million worldwide, making it one of the most profitable zombie movies and a box office hit.
But what was it that made this movie so different compared to the others in its genre? On the film aspect, it was the first movie to make zombies run. Not only did this add to the film’s notoriously stressful chasing and fighting sequences, it added a level of humanness to the dead. On top of this, the zombies also looked very human. With the exception of a blood covered and decaying body, often the zombies looked eerily similar to our main characters. The zombies were no longer seen as supernatural creatures, but rather something closer to us.
It’s exactly this human quality to the infected that terrified audiences. The virus was created by a group of scientists testing on chimpanzees by forcing them to watch videos of manmade atrocities. After the chimps had been exposed to the horrifying extents humanity has gone to, the scientists claim they were infected with “rage”. After a group of animal rights activists break into the lab in an attempt to free the chimps, they are bitten and infected, which then leads to the massive outbreak.
The videos the chimps were exposed to was not the only time the movie referenced historical human disasters. The most famous scene from the film is Jim walking around an empty London and scavenging for food, which was actually a direct reference to what Cambodia looked like after Pol Pot was driven out of Panampen in the late 70s. Another scene where Jim enters a church only to find piles of bodies that had succumbed to the infection mirrored the tragedy in Rwanda where a church would become the sight and makeshift mortuary of a mass killing.
The film references tragedies all throughout its course, but a tragedy that the film encapsulated for all viewers was how people felt after September 11th. The film came out a little under a year after the 9/11 attacks, and despite it being made and shot in London, it showed its American viewers how this fear and anger emanating from the tragedy will affect us.
Brian Cushing, O’Dowd history teacher who saw the movie when it came out says “What I found most sobering about the movie was the realization that the uninfected humans were more monstrous than the infected. The movie is a chilling warning of how easy it is to lose our humanity.”
One of the biggest takeaways from the film was what happens when rage boils over. The infected are not zombies, they are extensions of ourselves. They represent our inherent desire for revolt and violence. When a society experiences a tragedy, humans tend to group together and look for someone to blame. It’s easy to get lost in the anonymity that being a part of a large group provides, making violence an easier act to commit. With the division in America today between Republicans and Democrats, it seems as though violence has become more normalized.
Rage is intoxicating, but that doesn’t mean it’s not necessary. Rage has been the reason why so many historical revolts and uprisings have occurred, rage is necessary in order to have change, but it must be balanced. Rage needs to be balanced with something positive, like love, because on its own rage is all consuming, but unfortunately it seems like many of us are losing sight of this.
With social media being at the tips of our fingers, it’s almost impossible to not be exposed to such brutal realities, the assaination of Charlie Kirk being the most recent example. His killer was motivated by uncontrolled anger, and some who witnessed his killing have become similarly enraged, and the infection continues to spread.
With the film now being considered a cult classic, it continues to serve as a cautionary tale about the dangers of uncontrolled rage. While 28 Days Later may be a zombie movie, that doesn’t mean it’s not saying something about what’s happening to our brainzzzzzz!
