There is something magical happening in the 28 Days Later franchise. Each movie points out that one man can ruin everything. But both Danny Boyle and Alex Garland show that one man can prove the others wrong.
In 28 Years Later, we are thrown back into Boyle’s vision after 23 years. 28 Days Later was released in 2002 and now, with 28 Years Later, Boyle is back in the driver’s seat telling a story that is, at its core, about how compassion can lead us. It was a moving film and the emotion behind it surprised me. I didn’t cry while watching Days and the subsequent 28 Weeks Later films. Yet with Years, I found myself moved by the story.
Spike (Alfie Williams) is a young boy going on an adventure to the mainland with his father Jamie (Aaron Taylor-Johnson). They have to leave his sick mother, Isla (Jodie Comer), behind and it is all so Spike can get his first kill. But Spike learns the hard way what life is like outside of the bubble of his home island. Jamie teaches his son defense and fighting back and leading with violence first to protect himself.
It’s a normal strategy, especially with the apocalypse, but what I love about Garland’s screenplay is that it changes the importance of survival. Yes, defending yourself is part of it but it doesn’t have to be with violence first. You can still lead a compassionate life and the other men around Spike teach him that and the contrast between Spike’s time with Jamie and Spike’s time with Isla is so drastically different that it moves you to tears by the end of the film.
It’s still that rough feel we’ve come to love
The original 28 Days Later feels like it was shot on a digital camera. That’s part of the charm of it in the modern age. But 28 Years Later feels similarly in that it was shot on an iPhone and while beautiful, does have that lived in quality to it. I don’t think that movies about an infectious disease taking over and running through society should look “beautiful.”
What Boyle does with this story, Garland’s setting being in the Scottish Highlands, is make the landscape so captivating that when the darker parts seep in, you’re shocked by what you’re watching. Did I need to see an Alpha infected rip the spine out of a deer? No but I was captivated by it because of the use of contrasting beauty and horrifying scenes.
But there is one part of this movie that, without spoiling anything, truly touched me. Boyle and Garland manage to take something that would otherwise be horrific and turn it into a beautiful story of hope and compassion and having kindness for your fellow man and I think that’s beautiful.
We have more films from this franchise coming out but it really is wonderful to see something like 28 Years Later and know that there is still life left in these films and that at the end of the day, having compassion is how we can all thrive.
(featured image: Sony Pictures)
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