28 days later analysis

28 Days later is a post-apocalyptic science fiction film directed by danny boyle.

Scene 1: The film starts with a series of disturbing scenes of rioting and violence on a series of televisions with a chimpanzee strapped to a bed with a series of electrodes and monitors attached to him and then focuses in on another sereis of chimpanzees in small glass lined cages running from side to side and some are hammering on the cages and screaming.  We then see a group of animal rights activists breaking into this medical testing facility, obviously with the intention of freeing the chimpanzees and when they are about to do so they are halted by a scientist who tries to alert security but is thwarted, he warns them not to release the chimps as they are infected with a  highly infectious disease called "Rage" they dismiss this claim and relase one of the chimps which promptly attacks one of the activists biting her savagely he is dragged off and the woman starts coughing up blood and coughs blood into the face of another activist who then starts screaming and whos eyes turn red and we see the scientist running and then a loud scream from him ends the scene.  This is an immensely dark opening sequence with lots of close-ups and obvious uses of Film Noir as this scene is very dark and takes place in a sinister animal testing lab.  There are lots of close up shots in this scene with closeups of the chimps and the infected faces of the animal rights activists as they start coughing blood and their eyes seemingly fill with blood.  The music in this scne is slow and creepy at first but becomes faster and faster as the scene progresses and comes abruptly to a halt at the end of the scene.  The characters in this opening scene are wearing black and all are dark haired and serious looking and there are on bright clothes or props in this scene.

Scene 2: This scene is based around the character Frank (Cillian Murphy) who wakes from a coma 28 days after the infection hit hence the name "28 days later" and shows him inside a hospital waking from a coma and removing intravenous tubes and has a scar, exactly where the previous monkey had his electrodes tied in.Danny Boyle is alluding to the fact that both man and monkey in this movie are being exposed to vast amounts of violence through everyday media and it is harmful.  Frank then exits his hospital room and we hear him frequently shouting "Hello!" and he then exits the hospital and begins walking around a completely deserted London rife with signs of catasthrophe and the camera zooms in on newspaper cutting bearing various catastophy related titles such as "Apocalypse" and "Judgement day", As well Jim notices a postcard that reads "it will be your grave for you are vile -Nahum 1: 14 this is a verse from the bible that predicted the destruction of a city called ninevah because the inhabitants were wicked, later in the movie we see Manchester burning like the city of ninevah.  Jim soon finds his first infected in a church as he walks in and eerie slow music kicks in and he once again says "Hello!" and two people stand up suddenly staring at him as if infatuated and he turns to see a priest staggering in through a door.Danny Boyle uses religious symbolism throughout "28 Days Later" in the form of crosses, religious text and with a priest to relay his spiritual message. In fact Jim's first encounter is with an infected priest, who swats at the air as if possessed.There is a reference to the book of Revelations with the phrase, "The End is Extremely fucking nigh," written upon the walls of an inner city church. He is then seen running from the church in a series of fast moving shots showing Jim running for his life from some extremely fast infected and then he is aided by 2 survivors who burn the infected who seem unaffected by the fire which adds to the films catastrophic nature, showing that these infected do not respond to any kind of pain.  The infected are then blown to pieces by the survivors and the camera again follows the characters as they run through a mall to their place of hiding inside a shop with metal shutters, they are shown running through the mall in an aerial view as if from a security camera inside the mall.  This is then followed by a series of close up shots of jims rescuers.  Almost all fo the shots of deserted london were digital

Scene 3: This scene shows Jim, Selene (Naomie Harris) and Mark (Noah Huntley) walking to Jims parents house and Jim runs upstairs to find his parents dead on their bed seemingly from a drugs overdose as the camera shows a close-up shot of a table with wine and pills and Jim takes a photograph of himself that his mother was clutching and it says "With endless love we left you sleeping, now were sleeping with you, dont wake up.  the music in this scene is slow and sad and sets the tone for the scene.  We then see a close up of jims face with tears falling down his face as he weeps for the loss of his parents, this kind of camera shot fully shows how he is feeling.  The survivors decide to stay in the house and Selene tells jim to have no lights on or to make any noise but jim decides to light up a candle and look around the house, we see close up shots of jim looking at his parents possessions when the music speeds up and we hear a crash as an infected, later identified as Jims neighbour crashes through the window and selene and mark rush in and kill the infected but mark has been wounded and Selene thinks he has been bit although i personally think the cut on his arm looks like it came from her Machete as she was swinging it through the air as the cut is straight and deep yet Selene doesn't hang around, she sets upon Mark with her Machete killing him swiftly and tells Mark that if he gets infected she would "kill him in a heartbeat". again focusing on her face with a close up shot to see the hatred in her face as she focuses only on her own self preservation.  This scene is full of blood on the walls, again dark clothing worn by all of them and the end of the scene is Selene and Jim leaving the house after she tells Jim that more infected are on the way as "They always do" according to Selene.

Scene 4: This scene starts with Jim and Selene see flashing lights in a tower block and decide to investigate, they go into the flats and climb a stack of shopping trolleys to reach the stairs and then shows them running up the stairs. they are talking as they take a break when the music speeds up and they look down and see several infected climbing the trolleys and they begin to run upstairs.  Again the camera looks from the air as if it is a security camera in the flats as it sees Selene and Jim running up the stairs.  The camera then snaps to the top of the stairs to a large anti-riot gear clad figure with a plastic shield stepping aside for them to pass and then he kills the infected as we see a series of close up shots of the blows he deals to the infected as Selene and Mark scream at the mans daughter to open the door.  She opens the door and once again the camera goes close to the mans face as the watcher waits to see him and then we see him remove his mask to show a man seemingly of good nature who invites them to stay although it is evident from the start that he has other plans that the needed other people alive for.  The tone of this scene radically changes extremely fast, from the tense chase up the stairs to sitting inside a flat drinking Creme de Month in celebration as frank calls it takes no more than 30 seconds and features very fast camera work.  Frank tells Jim the next ay that they are running low on supplies especially water and cant stay for long so they decide to go to an army blockade that may not have been overrun so they get in franks taxi and head to Manchester.

To be continued...