Trivia for
28 Days Later... (2002) Plus avec IMDbPro »

• For the scenes in London, poilce would close the roads at 4am and filming would begin immediately. It would last for one hour, and at that time the police would reopen the roads. As well as having to deal with traffic, the producers also had to ask clubbers to find alternative routes home. In terms of the traffic, the producers correctly predicted that asking drivers to either wait for up to an hour or find another way might cause some considerable consternation. As such, they employed several extremely attractive young women (one of whom was Danny Boyle's daughter) to make the necessary requests. This plan had the desired results, as the drivers responded quite amicably to the young girls.
  
  
• The plane used in the film flew from Blackpool to the location in the lakes. It took the crew hours to make the same journey, but it took the pilot less than four minutes and cost £6,000 in fuel.
  
  
• The hospital in the film is a real day hospital and is not open at weekends. The trust managers of the hospital hire out the building to filmmakers for weekends, and the productions pay the hospital directly, meaning the money from the filming goes directly to the trust fund of the hospital.
  
  
• The tower block where Hannah and her father lived was condemned and has now been demolished.
  
  
• The tunnel scene was filmed in a new tunnel extension which the filmmakers had special permission to use.
  
  
• For the scenes on the motorway, the production got permission to shoot on the MI on a Sunday morning between 7.00am and 9.00am. The police gradually slowed traffic in both directions, and using 10 cameras, the filmmakers managed to capture a total of one minute of usable footage.
  
  
• The decision to film on DV (using Canon XL1 cameras) was both an aesthetic and a logistic choice. On the aesthetic side of things, Danny Boyle felt that the harshness of the DV imagery suited the post-apocalyptic urban landscape and the grittiness of the film in general. In the production notes of the movie, Boyle points out that "the general idea was to try and shoot as though we were survivors too," and as such, a pristine 35mm widescreen image would have been antithetical to this notion. In terms of logistics, producer Andrew Macdonald claims that it would have been impossible to shoot the film on anything other than DV, especially some of the exterior scenes in London. As MacDonald points out in the production notes, "The police and the local authorities were quite happy to assist us because we could set up scenes so quickly. We could literally be ready to shoot with a six-camera set-up within minutes - something we would not realistically have been able to do if shooting under the restrictions of 35mm which takes a good deal more time to set up a single shot."
  
  
• The last scene (the scene at the cottage in the lakes) was shot in standard 35mm.
  
  
• Christopher Eccleston and the other soldiers in the film had a three-day training programme with real soldiers to help them learn how to carry themselves believably.
  
  
• Horror novelist Stephen King bought out an entire showing of the film in New York City.
  
  
• Danny Boyle explains on the DVD commentary that he shot all the scenes of the Infected in a particular style - using a type of slow motion feature on the Canon XL1 DV cameras with which the film was shot. Boyle explains that the cameras allow filming at up to 1600fps (normal speed is 24/25fps), but that shooting at such a high speed on a DV camera doesn't produce the same effect as it would on a 35mm camera. Shooting at that speed on a film camera gives basic slow motion, but doing so on a DV camera produces the kind of staccato effect seen in scenes involving the Infected. As Boyle explains it, it almost looks as if every third or fourth frame is trimmed insofar as the image has a 'jumpy' quality. Boyle also explains that during the climax of the film, as Jim runs around the mansion, all the scenes involving Cillian Murphy were shot in the same way - thus setting up for the audience a psychological parallel between Jim and the Infected.
  
  
• The surnames of Jim, Selena, Mark, Frank, and Hannah are never revealed, either during the film or in the credits. Likewise, the names of Jim's parents are never revealed.
  
  
• The Bible verse on the postcard that Jim is so interested in is from the Book of Nahum. Nahum was a prophet who predicted the destruction of the great city of Nineveh, the capital of the great, and at that time flourishing, Assyrian empire. It was to be utterly destroyed as a punishment for the great wickedness of its inhabitants.
  
  
• Scriptwriter Alex Garland acknowledges several sources as inspiration for his screenplay, notably John Wyndham's The Day of the Triffids (1962), George A. Romero's "Dead" trilogy (Night, Dawn and Day) and The Omega Man (1971). Direct homages include Jim waking up in the hospital from The Day of the Triffids (1962), the chained infected being studied from Day of the Dead (1985), and the scene in the grocery store (people in the mall from Dawn of the Dead (1978)), the stop for supplies that saw a run-in with infected children (also Dawn of the Dead (1978)), and the military holing up against the plague with outsiders partially to deliberately include females (also Day of the Dead).
  
  
• Robert Carlyle was offered the role of Major Henry West.
  
  
• A back-story was developed by director Danny Boyle and actress Naomie Harris to explain her character's hard-natured, ruthlessly pragmatic outlook on life. Apparently, the character had been forced to kill her entire family in one afternoon, starting with her infected mother and father to save her baby brother, only to discover that her brother was also infected.
  
  
• The symbol used for this film is the international symbol for blood-borne biohazard.
  
  
• The fighter jet pilot speaks Finnish. He asks "Lähetätkö helikopterin?" ("Could you send a helicopter?").
  
  
• The flashback scenes of Jim's parents were shot on Super 8mm film.
  
  
• The word "fuck" is used 61 times throughout the whole film from the beginning to the end of the mansion scenes.
  
  
• In the scene where Jim escapes from the two soldiers who're about to execute him, the shots of the jet flying overheard were shot by director Danny Boyle. During filming, Boyle took one of the Canon XL1's being used and shot planes for about two days flying over his home in London and simply filmed them through the trees in his backyard.
  
  
• This is Brendan Gleeson's second role in films about deadly viruses. The other was Mission: Impossible II (2000).
  
  
• All of the scenes in the mansion that involved upstairs rooms were filmed downstairs as the mansion's owner lives upstairs. When Jim jumps in through the window in the roof, he is actually jumping through a hole in the corridor upstairs down to the ground floor with rain effects upstairs.
  
  
• While filming the mansion scenes, the crew's favorite place was The Wooden Spoon in Downton, Wiltshire. They liked it so much that they gave them one of the dead bodies from the execution pile. This can no longer be seen at the pub as it now has new owners.
  
  
• The crew filed all of the necessary papers to destroy the petrol station in Canary Wharf, but the police were unintentionally not notified. When the explosives were detonated, police responded as if a petrol station had really exploded and sent fire brigades (although there was already one present). Danny Boyle finally resolved the manner after several hours.
  
  
• Funded by the British Film Council, which in itself is funded by the National Lottery. As a result of this, there are prominent advertisements for the National Lottery throughout the film, for example in the newsagents near the beginning of the film and in the supermarket (in the background while Jim and Frank are discussing whisky).
  
  
• If you did actually travel 27 miles North East of Manchester as stated in the movie, you would end up in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire.
  
  
• Alex Garland and Danny Boyle did a great deal of research into social unrest, drawing ideas from things that had happened in Rwanda and Sierra Leone (such as the piling of bodies inside churches), but drew the line at using any actual footage from such incidents in the opening montage. All footage featuring dead bodies/desecration of bodies was faked.
  
  
• Ewan McGregor was the original choice to play Jim. After that didn't work out, the role was offered to Ryan Gosling, but although he was interested, he could not commit due to a scheduling conflict.
  
  
• The angelic song that plays in the background, particularly during the car trip, is called "In Paradisum" by Gabriel Fauré.
  
  
• The primary idea behind Rage was that every generation gets the zombies it deserves, and Alex Garland and Danny Boyle felt that the notion of the living dead wanting to eat peoples' brains was outdated. One of the original impetuses behind zombie movies was a fear of nuclear power and the possible ramifications it might have on humanity. As such, Garland and Boyle looked at what this generation is afraid of, and concluded that one of the biggest fears in modern society is a fear of diseases, a fear of a viral apocalypse, such as Ebola or Marburg. Indeed, Garland and Boyle were specifically inspired by such incidents as the recent anthrax and bioterrorism scares in London as well as the recent spread of mad cow disease and foot-and-mouth disease in the UK. As such, they decided to base their zombies on this fear of viruses.
  
  
• Another aspect of rendering the zombie movie more contemporary was the idea that the virus didn't necessarily affect people physically (it doesn't kill them as in traditional zombie movies), but psychologically. Both Alex Garland and Danny Boyle felt that the idea that the virus renders people zombie-like due to uncontrollable rage was a good metaphor for the contemporary phenomenon of social rage (such as road rage, air rage, hospital rage etc). They liked the idea that the virus simply amplifies something already in each and every man and woman, rather than turning them into something entirely Other, as is the traditional route in zombie movies.
  
  
• The film has engendered some confusion as to whether or not the virus is a worldwide phenomenon or whether it's confined to Britain. This is clarified on the DVD commentary however. When shooting began, Danny Boyle and Alex Garland intended to reveal that the virus had spread worldwide, which is why Selena mentions outbreaks in Paris and New York early in the movie. However, as filming progressed, they changed their minds and decided to render the spread of the virus more ambiguous. As such, they wrote the dialogue spoken by Sergeant Farrell (Stuart McQuarrie) when he is tied to the radiator as a counter-theory to Selena's claims, as he hypothesizes that Britain would have simply been quarantined at the first sign of trouble and that there was no way the virus could have reached America or mainland Europe. Obviously, the sequel 28 Weeks Later (2007) confirms that Farrell was entirely correct.
  
  
• The 'design' for the symptoms of Rage was based on Ebola, which is communicable in all primates (including humans), and is transmitted through the blood. Ebola is a hemorrhagic fever which leads to a rash, red eyes and both internal and external bleeding. Indeed, in 28 Days Later: The Aftermath (a graphic novel set between 28 Days Later and 28 Weeks Later (2007), it is explained that the Ebola virus was being used by the scientists as a carrier for the inhibitor which mutated into Rage.
  
  
• The shot of the notice board at Piccadilly Circus, with the missing persons flyers, created a degree of controversy when the filmed was first shown, with some saying it was insensitive to what was happening in New York after the 9/11 attacks. However, the film was shot prior to 9/11, although it was released after it. In any case, Danny Boyle has stated that he based the shot on a photograph he had seen from an earthquake in China, but he also acknowledges that had he made the movie post 9/11, he would not have shot the scene.
  
  
• The film was shot almost entirely in sequence; only pickups and a few reshoots were shot out of sequence.
  
  
• Athletes were cast as the Infected because of how important physicality is to them. Danny Boyle felt that generally, athletes can do things other people can't, and he thought this would be interesting when translated into the movements of the Infected.
  
  
• The news footage which begins the film was based on footage shot by the journalist Sorious Samura in Sierra Leone.
  
  
• The scene when Jim finds the money on the steps and picks it up, was based on a photograph Danny Boyle had seen of Cambodia after Pol Pot had been driven out.
  
  
• The scene where Jim, Selena and Mark shelter from the explosion by hiding between the windows was based upon a photo Danny Boyle had seen of a bomb blast in Northern Ireland.
  
  
• The scene where Jim and Selena celebrate with Frank and Hannah was shot on September 11. Danny Boyle has said it felt extremely strange to be shooting a celebratory scene on that particular day.
  
  
• The shot where Jim sees the dead mother holding onto her dead baby is based on a photograph Danny Boyle saw of a mass of Kurd bodies after they had been gassed.
  
  
• The scene when Major West reveals his plans for Hannah and Selena to Jim was written by Cillian Murphy, Christopher Eccleston and Alex Garland the night before it was shot. A different scene had been scripted and shot, but no one was happy with it, especially the two actors.
  
  
• The single malt whisky that Frank is discussing with Jim in the supermarket is from the Lagavulin distillery. The whisky is part of the Classic Malts series and is known to be one of the smokiest and peatiest scotch whisky around. Frank appears to be a connoisseur considering his comments on the whisky when he says "peaty aftertaste" and "takes out the fire but leaves in the warmth".
  
  
• The 2008 video game Left 4 Dead (2008) (VG) is almost a direct homage to this movie. Some of the most noticeable points in common are:
  - Referring to the "zombies" as "Infected".
  - The fact that the "Infected" do not eat the people they kill, they simply attack them.
  - The presence of apocalyptic graffiti in bold, black capital letters.
  - The speed at which the decease spread (14 days on Left 4 Dead, 28 days on 28 Days Later).
  - The general abandonment of all environments in both the movie and the game.
  - The speed and relentlessness with which the "Infected" move.
  - The presence of Molotovs and the Gas Station explosion (No Mercy campaign).
  - The dead bodies in Jim's house appear almost verbatim in the No Mercy campaign.
  - In the No Mercy campaign, the elevator at Mercy Hospital stops at the 28th floor.
  - Survivors move in small groups.
  
  

• SPOILER: The execution pit scene near the end was filmed outside a church off Witherington Road connecting Salisbury to Downton. One of the props teams didn't pick up the fake bodies after filming and a local hairdresser from Downton saw the massacre from the road. She panicked, crashed her car and phoned the police who came to investigate and interrogate the crew.
  
  
• SPOILER: Prominently featured in the soldiers' mansion is a statue of Laocoon, the Trojan priest who attempted (in vain) to warn his countrymen that they had something to fear from the horse, just as Jim, Selena, and Hannah have something to fear from the soldiers.
  
  

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