28 Days Later is the Perfect Example of What Happens to Humanity During the End of the World

 

Credit to 28 Days Later (2002) | The Definitives | Deep Focus Review

I have seen so many films that focus on the downfall of humanity during the end of the world, and I think the first film in the franchise of 28 Days Later, is one of the best. We get a small glimpse of how the ‘zombie’ virus spread, and it quickly infected the entire world.

Only very few people survived, and we meet our main character of the story, a young man named Jim, who wakes up in a hospital. He wanders an empty London, finding only the infected, along with several survivors that he quickly befriends. He travels with a young woman, along with a father and daughter, who are determined to search for any sign of hope in the world.

They do find this certain hope, when they run into a small group of soldiers who save Jim and his crew from the father in the group, who unfortunately becomes infected. Right when you start to think that they are probably safe, Jim learns a disturbing truth about the soldiers.

The soldiers are secretly monsters who lost their minds during the end.

Credit to 28 Days Later (2002)

This part of the film truly caught me off guard. I knew that something fishy was going on with the soldiers, but the way that the twist is delivered, disturbed me so much. The main soldier in charge, Henry West, appeared so trusting upon first meeting. He was also the most composed, compared to the other soldiers, who were constantly horsing around or bad mouthing one another.

Then he drops the ultimate bombshell to Jim, revealing that since the world has ended, he wants the world to repopulate. And in order to do so, he must use the two women in Jim’s group, his friend and the daughter that had witnessed her father die. This twist was terrifying, and my heart dropped when Jim ran toward the two women, determined to save them. 

I got so scared when Jim was taken out by the soldiers, failing to save the women during that scary moment. He is left to die, as the two women are forced to put on dresses, getting ready for a dark purpose that these soldiers prepare the women for. Jim is able to break back into the military base, killing each of the soldiers in an act of rage, becoming a monster to save the people that he cares about.

This was one of the best parts of the film for me, since we really got a peek into the two different kinds of humanity at play here. Jim is fighting for his family, while the soldiers are vile monsters, who gave up on the world a long time ago.

This scene really proved to me that humans can sometimes be far scarier than a virus spreading throughout the world. Situations like this can change people, and it’s scary to imagine how bad these ‘changes’ can be.

I was so relieved to see Jim and his family escape from these monsters, as the soldiers all pay the price, getting killed by the one thing that made them all crazy in the first place. After a risky escape, we get a sneak peek of the aftermath for our main characters.

Jim and his family are seen living happily in the middle of nowhere in a nice cottage, the three of them spotting the military in the distance. They try to signal the military, and the three of them wonder if they had seen their signal, giving us a bittersweet ending for the group.

Jim was the true hero in this film, the sign of hope for a broken world.