In England in the middle of the night, three
animal rights activists break into the Cambridge Primate Research Centre, where chimps are being
experimented on with videos of human rage, violence, and destruction. As the activists start
taking pictures, a scientist finds them and rushes to call security. The group stops him just in time
and captures him, so the scientist begs them not to do anything because the chimps are infected
with a highly contagious and very dangerous virus called "rage
". However the activists don’t take
him seriously and release one of the chimps, who immediately attacks and bites a woman with unbound
fury before one of the others kills it. While the other chimps go crazy in their cages, the woman
begins vomiting blood on the floor and at his friend’s face. The scientist says they must
kill her, but it’s too late: she transforms into a zombie and attacks all the people in the
room. Twenty-eight days later, Jim wakes up from a coma in an empty hospital. H
e leaves the room and
wanders around looking for people, but he doesn’t find a single soul, just chaos everywhere. After
grabbing some drinks from a vending machine, he leaves the building to explore London, finding the
city in the same condition: no people at all, but lots of destruction. When he finds a newspaper,
he learns that Britain has gone through a mass exodus, and on a huge bulletin board he finds
thousands of missing people signs. Eventually Jim enters a church, where he finds cr
eepy messages
on the walls. When he reaches the main room, he’s shocked to see it’s full of rotten bodies.
He says “hello” and a few people suddenly move, staring at him with blank faces. At that moment
the priest comes out, but he’s a zombie and tries to attack Jim, who hits him with his bag full of
cans. The priest is unbothered and tries to chase him, so Jim runs away. The other zombies also
leave the church and start chasing Jim, who runs as fast as he can until he reaches a gas station
.
There, survivors Mark and Selena begin throwing Molotov bombs at the zombies to burn them up, and
once Jim is safe with them, they throw a bomb at the gas station to blow it up. Afterward the duo
takes Jim to their hideout, which is an abandoned sweetshop in the London Underground. When Jim
tells them he had been in a coma because of a car crash, Selena explains that a highly contagious
virus escaped from a research center and continues to spread uncontrollably, turning people into
zombi
es and collapsing British society. Most of the population is now dead or affected, the army
was overpowered, and the government doesn’t exist anymore. Jim wants to go to his parents' home to
check on them and ignores Selena's warnings that they most likely are dead, so she and Mark agree
to go with him to stick together. In the morning, the trio carefully makes their way across a very
empty London and safely arrive at Jim's old home, where a devastated Jim discovers his parents
self-deleted
to avoid becoming zombies. They even left a note for him saying “don’t wake up”. As
Jim cries, Selena and Mark tell him he should be grateful his family died peacefully, because they
had to watch their own families become monsters. They spend the night in that house but Jim can’t
sleep and decides to look at old family videos. The light he’s turned on gives his location
away and suddenly two zombies jump through the window to attack him. As Jim struggles to defend
himself, he screams and g
ets the attention of Mark and Selena, who immediately jump to action and
defeat both creatures with brutal yet efficient ferocity. Then Selena makes sure Jim wasn’t bitten
and didn’t get even a drop of blood in his mouth. Unfortunately the injured one is Mark, whose
arm wound is covered with zombie blood. Without hesitation, Selena hacks Mark to death with
her machete before announcing they must leave because more zombies will come. After washing up,
changing clothes, and gathering all the
supplies they can find in the house, Jim and Selena leave
the area, and Selena warns Jim that if someone is infected they must be killed immediately, no
matter if it’s a relative or a friend. Later they see flashing lights coming from an apartment
nearby and go to investigate. The building is in a sorry state and the lobby is full of trolleys, but
the duo just climbs over them to reach the stairs. There are several floors to climb, and when they
stop to take a break, they hear screeching fr
om zombies that have entered the building. They
also jump over the trolleys to take the stairs, so Jim and Selena begin climbing faster as
the zombies come after them. After going up a few floors, they freeze when they find the
way blocked by a man wearing protective gear, who gives them the number and location of his
apartment. The guy stays to fight the zombies, stopping them with a shield while he beats them
up with a bat. The duo makes it to the apartment, but the girl inside doesn’t op
en the door until
the man comes back in one piece. Once everyone is inside, Frank and his daughter Hannah introduce
themselves, giving the duo a warm welcome. This is the apartment with all the lights, and Frank
is glad his signal has finally brought over some company. The next day, Frank shows Jim all the
buckets he has on the roof, explaining that it hasn’t rained in a while. Resources get scarcer
every day and at this rate they won't be able to stay in this apartment for much longer. The
n Frank
shows Jim and Selena a repeating military radio broadcast that claims that soldiers are offering
other survivors protection outside Manchester and even promising "the answer to the infection".
Frank wants to travel there but Selena is skeptical, saying it’s probably a trap or an old
recording that doesn’t hold true anymore. Hannah offers a heartful speech and convinces everyone is
worth the risk. Then the group takes Frank's taxi to travel to Manchester, taking all the supplies
the
y can carry. As they travel through London, they see all the destruction and the bodies on
the streets. When they try to cross a tunnel, the way is blocked by bodies and crashed cars,
but Frank decides to just drive through it and push it away. They actually manage to cross the
mess, however the car suffers a flat tire in the process. When the group comes out to change the
tire, they hear a very weird sound and suddenly see hundreds of rats running toward them, which
makes them realize the
zombies are coming. There’s no time to use extra tools, so the adults lift
the car while Hannah changes the tire. They can see the shadows of the zombies approaching and
soon they’re jumping over the crashed vehicles, but the group finishes changing the tire just in
time and manages to drive away. Afterward they keep driving for a few hours and when they make it
to the countryside, they stop at a burger shack to take gas from an abandoned truck. Curious, Jim
decides to enter the building an
d finds a dead family. Suddenly he’s attacked by a zombie
child, and he has no choice but to kill him to survive. Then they continue to travel through
the countryside, which still looks beautiful. When they stop for dinner, they watch horses run around
without a care for the world. Selena admits that this was better than she expected, and even kisses
Jim on the cheek. That night, the group stays in an old castle in ruins. Hannah and Jim can’t
sleep and wake up Selena to ask how she does it,
so Selena shares her medicine with them. In the
morning, Jim wakes up and discovers he’s alone, so he begins panicking. However Frank wakes him
up, revealing it was just a dream. The next day, the group resumes their journey and can see
Manchester burning in the distance. Eventually they find the blockade from the message, but
while there are military trucks and equipment, it’s all empty. Selena thinks they should leave,
but Frank refuses to admit defeat and continues to search the area. H
e grows so angry that when
he hears a crow nearby, he kicks the wall it’s on to make it go away. The crow had been feeding on
a zombie and when it moves, it causes a drop of blood to drop into Frank’s eye. Knowing what’s
about to happen, he tells Hannah he loves her and asks her to stay away from him. Hannah still
tries to approach him, and as the virus reacts, a furious Frank pushes his daughter away. Then he
moves back as he starts transforming, so Selena tells Jim to kill him while she h
olds Hannah down.
Jim doesn’t want to hurt a friend and freezes, but luckily they’re saved by the sudden arrival
of some soldiers who shoot Frank down in seconds. Afterward the soldiers take Jim, Selena, and
Hannah to a secured mansion in the woods where a few surviving soldiers have set up a new base,
fortifying the place against zombies. The leader Major West welcomes them and offers them food and
a shower. Once they’ve settled down, Hannah is left napping and Selena has a breakdown in fr
ont
of Jim. He tries to comfort her with a kiss and at first Selena kisses back, but when she realizes
what’s happening she leaves the room. Then Jim goes to Major West to ask about the “answer to
the infection” that the radio message mentioned. It turns out they don’t have a cure, West
considers his answer to be all the extra security plans they’ve installed around the house and the
supplies in the kitchen. West also reveals he even has captured a zombie soldier, who is being kept
chained
up in the mansion's courtyard for study. Jim thinks it’s cruel, but West says he wants to
learn what it takes to starve a zombie to death, which may be the real answer they need. In the
evening, Jim’s group has dinner with the soldiers, and they’re a bit creeped out by their harsh
macho behavior. West wears his full uniform and insults the guy who made dinner for making
a mistake, he also assumes Hannah can take over kitchen duties. Suddenly the alarm rings, so all
the soldiers run outside
to defend the mansion from the incoming zombies. The men quickly
get to their assigned positions and open fire, killing dozens of zombies and creating some big
explosions with their weaponry that defeat their enemies in just a few minutes without breaking
a sweat. When the soldiers come back inside, Mitchell tries to take advantage of Selena, so Jim
tries to push him away. Because of his training, Mitchell easily overpowers him, and Sergeant
Farrell has to hit him to make him stop. At that
moment West arrives and tells everyone
to go clean the bodies, then he has a talk with Jim in private. West explains that a few
days ago, he found a soldier called Jones about to self-delete because there was no future. To
bring back hope, West promised his men he would bring them women to repopulate after starving
the zombies to death, that’s why he sent out the radio message. Horrified, Jim rushes to grab
Hannah and Selena and tries to leave with them, but they’re immediately knocked dow
n and captured
by the soldiers. Farrell tries to defend them because he disagrees with West’s plan too, only
to get captured as well. Jim and Farrell are locked up together, and Farrell mentions that
the infection couldn’t have crossed the seas, so most likely the rest of the world is just fine
and they’re only quarantining Britain to keep the infection on the island. Hearing this gives Jim
hope. In the morning, Mitchell and Jones take the prisoners to the forest to be executed next to a
p
ile of bodies. Farrell calls them out for turning on their own sergeant and an argument ensues:
Jones wants to shoot them to make this quick, but Mitchell wants to stab them and enjoy
it. A desperate Jones shoots anyway, killing Farrell but also hurting Mitchell in the
arm. While Mitchell jumps on Jones to yell at him, Jim uses the chance to disappear. As soon as
the soldiers notice they go looking for him, but it turns out Jim has been pretending to be a
body on the pile. Then Jim manages
to escape by jumping over the wall, leaving his shirt behind.
The soldiers see this and decide to leave him be, thinking he can’t survive the zombies that wander
beyond the walls. As Jim escapes into the woods, he suddenly trips and falls, causing him to look
up. To his surprise, he sees a jet flying by, meaning Farrell’s theory that the rest of the
world is fine is correct. In the mansion, the soldiers want to put Selena and Hannah in pretty
dresses to prepare them for a night of breeding.
Selena tries to fight against them to no avail,
so she changes tactics and kisses a soldier, flirting as she asks him to give them some privacy
to change in peace. The soldiers accept and after they leave the room, Selena gives Hannah some
of her medicine to make the experience less traumatic for her. The soldier overhears this and
rushes back inside, but before he can do anything, they hear the alarm going off again. It turns out
Jim is at the blockade and sounding the alarm on purpose. S
oon West and another soldier arrive and
start searching the area, so Jim carefully sneaks around and ambushes the soldier to knock him
down. When West realizes his partner is missing, he looks around and finds him dead in his jeep,
so he opens fire without aim just in case. Then he tries to leave in the jeep but it’s been
disabled, and at that moment a zombie jumps on top of the vehicle. West immediately shoots
him down before coming out of the jeep to also kill all the other incoming zombi
es. Once he’s
done, he runs back to the mansion. Meanwhile Jim also returns to the mansion and with the weapon he
stole from the jeep, he frees the chained zombie, who immediately jumps through the window to attack
the soldiers guarding the girls. While Selena uses the chance to drag Hannah away, the zombie vomits
blood on a soldier and then starts chasing after Jones. The first soldier now becomes a zombie as
well. Selena and Hannah try to leave the house, only to be blocked by Mitchell. S
uddenly
Jones runs by with the zombie behind him, so Mitchell sends a soldier after them while he
takes care of the girls. Jones manages to hide in the kitchen and when the zombie is about to
get him, Mitchell’s friend appears to shoot him, only to be jumped on by the new zombie and get
infected too. Jim happily watches all this through the window, and inside a cupboard, Jones cries
because he can’t help. After the zombies leave, Jones tries running away, however Jim finds him
and kills hi
m on the spot. Then Jim goes inside a secret door to hide from the zombies, who take the
stairs instead. Upstairs, Hannah manages to run away from Mitchell and enters the changing room
to find a picture of her dad among her things. When she hears a zombie coming, she hides behind
a mirror just in time. The zombie gets confused by his own reflection and leaves. Back to Jim,
he runs around the mansion looking for the girls and enters a room where he finds a soldier hiding
because he has no bu
llets. Jim ignores his begging for help and jumps out the window, leaving the
soldier to be eaten by the zombies. By running the roof, Jim sees the room where Mitchell is about
to take advantage of Selena and enters through the window. Mitchell immediately takes Selena hostage,
but Jim still jumps on him and makes him let go of Selena before attacking him quite furiously.
Mitchell doesn’t get to struggle much before Jim smashes his head against the wall and then throws
him on the floor to c
rush his eyes. Horrified by this violence, Selena grabs her machete and
almost kills Jim thinking he’s a zombie too, but her hesitation allows Jim to prove he’s fine
and the two of them kiss. Suddenly Hannah hits Jim with a vase, also thinking he’s infected.
Thankfully Jim is fine and the trio immediately runs out of the building, but when they approach
Frank’s taxi, they find West inside. Saying he wants revenge for his men, West shoots Jim, so
Hannah quickly drives the taxi backward into
the building. The previously chained zombie breaks
the back window and drags West out to get his own revenge, and Hannah immediately takes off picking
up Jim and Selena on her way out while the zombie kills West. The gates that surround the mansion
are locked, but Hannah just drives through them anyway. Jim’s memories of what happens afterward
are blurry, but he remembers Selena giving him CPR in a hospital and begging him to live.
Twenty-eight days later, it’s shown that the trio has been
living in a cottage in the countryside.
Selena has been working hard on sewing lots of fabric and when they hear a plane fly by, the
trio rushes outside with the fabric, revealing she made giant letters that spell “hello”. The
plane sees this and turns around to rescue them.
Comments
Younger people dont realize that this film single-handedly changed the course of and popularity of zombie films all over the world.
He runs pretty good for someone that was in a coma for over a month.
"HELLO" Pilot just answers "Hi" and flies away. 😅
1:14 one of the best and most unsettling scenes in any zombie movie ever
Mark’s story is one of my favourite parts of the movie. Gives a small glimpse of the chaos when the infection broke out. I like it when movies leave some aspects of the plot to our imagination.
This is the only movie that made me want to do cardio everyday.
imo this is one of the greatest movies of all time
Probably the most realistic Zombie movie!
The impact that this movie has in pop culture is just massive. Before this, all we got was Night of the Living Dead. This also made Cillian's talent mainstream.
Damn tommy shelby fighting zombies
Fun fact, this movie had 2 or 3 (can't remember correctly) different endings, the original one where Jim was supposed to die after the gunshot was so poorly received they instead chose to use this one. The 3rd ending never made it past sketches and I believe it was supposed to showcase a potential cure of some sorts. Regardless, it's an instant classic and one of the best movies ever made when it comes to zombies.
He finds London in the same condition. No people and full of destruction XD
Wait... Ain't that Cylian Murphy ??
There is an alternative unreleased ending for this film where after getting shot at the mansion, Jim is rushed into the hospital by Selina and given CPR in a longer scene, but her first aid fails and Jim bleeds out in the hospital. A devastated Selina walks away returning to a life of bare survival as an urban nomad. The airplane at the end is never seen, leading to the conclusion that nobody comes looking for survivors in Britain.
I can’t believe this dude just starred in Oppenheimer 😅 wild.
Commonality with zombie or any apocalypse movie: survivors are bigger threats. Maybe he was infected but could control it?
I saw this at the pictures, when it finished I was scared leave the cinema, half expecting zombies everywhere!! lol Loved it.
Damn it. They are NOT ZOMBIES! This annoys me because this movie, and story is above and beyond any "zombie" movie. They are living people infected with a "RABIES" type called the RAGE virus in the film. This means the infected are not dead, and can starve just feel certain things like uninfected humans. The reason it is so much more than a "zombie movie" is because it brings the story and viewer into the realm of much more plausibility than a typical work of fiction about "undead humans"...etc. Great movie. EDIT: Also, the part in the Church when Jim says "Hello" and a few of the infected stand up in an instant to stare at him IS EPIC! It was one of the creepiest and best jumpscares I've EVER experienced in a movie and kicked off the edge of my seat tension that I felt for the rest of the movie. Fantastic scene and perfectly shot.
These movie were absolute Gold!
I saw this in the theater. Such a refreshing take on the zombie genre.