28 Years Later
The “28 ___ Later” franchise kicked off the recent trend of fast zombies, rather than Romero’s slow-moving variety, and it also offered a fascinating hook for a series- each movie would be a designated time after the moment when the Rage virus found exposure with humans. In Danny Boyle’s original film, it was 28 days after exposure, and followed a young man who wakes up to a radically different world than he was unconscious for before. In 2007’s “28 Weeks Later,” what does the world look like seven months after exposure, and what does this world expose about humanity? The inevitable next film was to look at the world a over a quarter of a century after exposure. Returning to the franchise, Boyle and screenwriter Alex Garland follow in the footsteps of the earlier entries, but also forge their own path into fascinating questions of life, death and survival at the end of the world.
“28 Years Later” benefits greatly from Garland’s own work as a filmmaker now, in particular “Civil War” and “Warfare.” In both films, he is looking at battle-torn worlds where morality is murky, and humanity at its most inhumane are revealed. In “Years Later,” we follow survivors on an island off of the coast of Scotland. A father and son (Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Alfie Williams) are about to go to the mainland, which can be reached by a causeway that is only capable of being walked at low tide; if you are not back by the time high tide hits, you have to wait it out on the mainland. The father, Jamie, is taking Spike, his son, on his first hunt. He starts by finding slow-moving ones for Spike to kill, but the longer they’re out, the more they are besieged by the faster zombies. They must stay the night, and Spike sees a fire in the distance. Jamie doesn’t let on the truth about the maker of the fire, however; he’s just wanting to make sure they get back alive.
Spike’s mother, Isla (Jodie Comer), is back on the island, in bed. She is very sick, but Spike does not know why. We remember in “28 Weeks Later” one of the characters was infected, but didn’t show signs of the Rage, but that does not seem to be what this is. She is weak, frail. When Spike is given some information about the fire maker, he finds an opportunity to take his mother to the mainland, in hopes of helping her. This journey makes up a large portion of the second half of the film, and it is deeply affecting to see the ways in which Williams and Comer play this dynamic. As we watch them makes this trek, and all the dangers it presents, we see a son grappling with being a caregiver in a way his father seems to have forgotten, and I’m not going to lie- it was a surprising element that impacted me deeply, given the recent passing of my mother, and my role as her caregiver over the past few years.
Their travels to the man who has created the fire illustrates the haunted world they exist in, and the ways the Rage virus has adapted over the years. We see packs of victims emerge as threats, as well as a gigantic man who seems to be a leader of sorts. I hope you are not squeamish about nudity, because you’re going to get a lot of disgusting, rotting nudity in this film, as well as a shocking development that makes us feel as though life- as it always seems to do- will find a way. When they do arrive to the man, it is Dr. Kelson (Ralph Fiennes), and what we witness is a man who appears to be modeled after Col. Kurtz in “Apocalypse Now,” someone driven seemingly mad to do the unthinkable by the world, but who values life and death, even when the latter has taken over. His scenes are striking and beautiful, and make for an emotionally compelling close to one part of life for Spike, and the beginning of a new one. Boyle and Garland are not interested in returning to this franchise strictly for financial reasons- and Boyle continues the relatively low-tech cinematic language he began with the first film- but in looking at the flaws that keeps humanity from coming together, even when we need to most. In a post-COVID world, that message has never been more clear.
