History Film / TwentyEightDaysLater

Despite precautions to avoid the appearance of a zombie movie, the film ended up getting pigeonholed as one anyway. It did fairly well at the box office, received several comic-book prequels (which explore the period of time between the initial outbreak and the film), and managed to spawn a sequel (''Film/TwentyEightWeeksLater''). A third installment in the series titled ''28 Months Later'' was planned, but it was stuck in DevelopmentHell ever since the release of ''Weeks'' and eventually scrapped. In 2024, the development of a separate third film titled ''28 Years Later'' was announced; it has been reported as the first of a potential trilogy, with Danny Boyle returning to direct the film and Alex Garland returning to write the trilogy.

Despite precautions to avoid the appearance of a zombie movie, the film ended up getting pigeonholed as one anyway. It did fairly well at the box office, received several comic-book prequels (which explore the period of time between the initial outbreak and the film), and managed to spawn a sequel (''Film/TwentyEightWeeksLater''). The creator has planned a third installment in the series called ''28 Months Later'', but it has been stuck in DevelopmentHell ever since the release of ''Weeks''. It was eventually scrapped, with Danny Boyle and Alex Garland reuniting to make ''28 Years Later''.

* ImpromptuFortress: Frank and Hannah are holed up at the top of a block of flats, barricading the stairs with shopping carts, and Frank has procured a set of police riot gear to fight the infected off.

Despite precautions to avoid the appearance of a zombie movie, the film ended up getting pigeonholed as one anyway. It did fairly well at the box office, received several comic-book prequels (which explore the period of time between the initial outbreak and the film), and managed to spawn a sequel (''Film/TwentyEightWeeksLater''). The creator has planned a third installment in the series called ''28 Months Later'', but it has been stuck in DevelopmentHell ever since the release of ''Weeks''.

* AlternateHistory: Various indicators for the time, including tax disc on Frank's car dated February 2002.
* AnonymousBenefactor: Right at the start of the main story, once Jim wakes up, someone, maybe a doctor or a nurse, covered the blinds, locked his hospital room door, and shoved the key under the door, so that he could get out if he woke from his coma.
* AxCrazy: Those infected by the Rage Virus go completely and homicidially bonkers, and as a result attack and kill everything that moves.

* ConvenientComa: Played with. Jim went into a coma somewhere around the outbreak. When he wakes up, he is very weak, malnourished, and dehydrated. Most likely a week or two more and he would simply expire. [[spoiler:Subverted in the case of his parents. They were almost sure he was dead, so they committed suicide.]] However, whatever his injuries were that landed him in the coma in the first place, they don't impede him on his journey to becoming a badass.

* LateToTheTragedy: Jim after waking up in the hospital from his coma.

* NothingIsScarier: One of the freakiest moments in the film is actually towards the beginning, when Jim wanders through a desolate and silent London.
** The quiet but gradually climaxing song that plays in that scene? It is there because after about five minutes of abject silence, the [[spoiler: car alarm]] almost killed the test audiences. Yes, they had to ''tone down'' the NothingIsScarier because of [[GoneHorriblyRight how well it worked]].

* TooDumbToLive: Let's start with the scientists who decided to use chimpanzees, which are incredibly strong and can get pretty damn aggressive already, as guinea pigs for the Rage virus. Then the animal rights activists who release said infected chimpanzees ''after being warned that they're contagious.'' Additionally said scientists use a facility that doesn't even incorporate the most basic of quarantine procedures. (Or, apparently, decent security systems.)

* MissingMom: It's never explained what happened to Hannah's mother and it's actually left quite ambiguous.

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* DaylightHorror:
** The infected attack just as much in the day as they do at night — makes sense, them being normal humans and having relatively poor night vision.
** Jim wakes up alone in a desolate hospital in the middle of the day.
** Jim [[spoiler:fighting the soldiers at the road blockade]].

[[caption-width-right:300:''[[TagLine His fear began when he woke up alone.\\

In this 2002 post-apocalyptic horror film directed by Creator/DannyBoyle and written by novelist-turned screenwriter Creator/AlexGarland, a literal {{hate plague}} begins taking over Great Britain after animal rights activists set loose an infected chimp in a lab at Cambridge University. While scientists had designed the [[TheVirus "Rage" virus]] as a way of neutralizing violent impulses, it ended up having [[GoneHorriblyWrong the opposite effect]]: once freed, the chimp starts to excarnify its would-be rescuers. Cue the cut-away.

Survivor Selena (Creator/NaomieHarris), a realist, considers survival the only option and thinks of Jim's naiveté as a hindrance. Frank (Creator/BrendanGleeson) and Hannah, father and daughter, see things less bleakly — and both suffer for it.

The small group continues forth out of London in search of the promised cure, but when they arrive at the source of the radio broadcasts, their promised land turns into another nightmare...

''28 Days Later'' avoids using the word "[[NotUsingTheZWord zombie]]", and it also avoids a number of common zombie tropes: once the Rage virus takes over, those infected with it become fast-moving, mindlessly violent killers (without a hunger for brains). Infectees are "transformed" almost immediately, preventing them from hiding their condition. The Rage infection itself devastates society and causes an apocalypse due to the ease of transmission and the overall panic. Despite precautions to avoid the appearance of a zombie movie, the film ended up getting pigeonholed as a zombie movie anyway. It did fairly well at the box office, received several comic-book prequels (which explore the period of time between the initial outbreak and the film), and managed to spawn a sequel (''Film/TwentyEightWeeksLater''). The creator has planned a third installment in the series called ''28 Months Later'', but it has been stuck in DevelopmentHell ever since the release of ''Weeks''.

* [[ManOnFire Zombie on Fire]]: Some of the infected in the city keep right on chasing their prey at full speed even after being set ablaze by Molotov cocktails.

''28 Days Later'' avoids using the word "[[NotUsingTheZWord zombie]]", and it also avoids a number of common zombie tropes: once the Rage virus takes over, those infected with it become fast-moving, mindlessly violent killers (without a hunger for brains). Infectees are "transformed" almost immediately, preventing them from hiding their condition. The Rage infection itself devastates society and causes an apocalypse due to the ease of transmission and the overall panic. Despite precautions to avoid the appearance of a zombie movie, the film ended up getting pigeonholed as a zombie movie anyway. It did fairly well at the box office, received several comic-book prequels (which explore the period of time between the initial outbreak and the film), and managed to spawn a sequel (''Film/TwentyEightWeeksLater''). The creators has planned a third installment in the series called ''28 Months Later'', but it has been stuck in DevelopmentHell ever since the release of ''Weeks''.

* OurZombiesAreDifferent: Though the filmmakers tried to avoid making a "zombie movie", many consider the Infected to simply be another archetype of "zombie". Unlike typical zombies up to that point, the Infected were intelligent, extremely fast, and while they did bite and tear people apart, they didn't actually ''eat'' them.

* UnbuiltTrope: Of the TechnicallyLivingZombie. While they're faster and smarter than the usual "shambling corpses", they also have all the weaknesses of regular human beings: they can be killed with regular bullets at center mass, and RemovingTheHeadOrDestroyingTheBrain is not at all required. And because they're still alive, they still need to ''eat'': the film makes clear that because the Rage virus suppresses the hunger and sleep functions, all the zombies will starve to death in a matter of weeks.

[[caption-width-right:300:''[[TagLine Be thankful for everything.\\
For soon, there will be nothing.]]'']]