28 Days Later - Plot

Plot

British animal liberation activists break into a laboratory in Cambridge and are caught by a scientist while trying to free some chimpanzees being used for medical research. Despite the warnings of the chief scientist that the chimps are infected with a virus dubbed "Rage," which he claims is highly contagious and only takes one bite to spread, the activists open the cages anyway and release the chimpanzees. A chimp attacks a female activist and immediately infects her, and she in turn infects the other members of the group, including the chief scientist when he attempts to kill her.

28 days later, a bicycle courier named Jim (Cillian Murphy) awakens from a coma in St Thomas' Hospital in London. He finds the hospital deserted and seemingly empty. He finds a medical suit and dresses. Outside, he discovers the city completely deserted with signs of catastrophe everywhere. Jim then wanders into a seemingly abandoned church, only to alert a small group of Rage-infected people who were hiding there. As he tries to approach a priest who's been infected, they spot him and try to attack him, giving chase. At the last minute, he is saved by Selena (Naomie Harris) and Mark (Noah Huntley), who throw Molotov cocktails at Jim's pursuers, resulting in the blowing up of a petrol station.

Afterwards, they rush him to their hideout in the London Underground. There, they reveal that while Jim was comatose from his accident, an unknown virus spread uncontrollably among the populace, turning most people into rabid, psychotic "infected," resulting in societal collapse. They also explain that infection has been reported in Paris and New York City. The next morning, Selena and Mark accompany Jim to his parents' house where he discovers that they have committed suicide. That night, two of the infected see a candle Jim lights in the kitchen and attack. Mark is badly cut and covered in infected blood; Selena quickly kills him, later explaining to Jim that the Rage virus overwhelms its victims in no more than 20 seconds. This necessitates the immediate killing of people who may have been infected. She also assures him that, should he get infected, she would kill him "in a heartbeat." After leaving, they discover two more survivors, Frank (Brendan Gleeson) a cab driver, and his teenage daughter, Hannah (Megan Burns), holed up in a block of flats, and are invited to spend the rest of the night with them.

Frank informs them the next day that supplies, particularly water, are dwindling, and plays them a pre-recorded radio broadcast apparently transmitted by a military blockade near Manchester, who claim to have "the answer to infection" and invite any survivor to try to reach their safe haven. The survivors board Frank's cab in search of the signal source and during the trip bond with one another in various situations. When the four reach the deserted blockade, Frank is infected when a drop of blood from a dead body falls into his eye. As he succumbs, he is killed by the arriving soldiers, who then take the remaining group to a fortified mansion under the command of Major Henry West (Christopher Eccleston).

After settling in the mansion, West promises the three protection from the infected. However, Jim eventually discovers that West's "answer to infection" involves waiting for the infected to starve to death, and his broadcast of the radio message was launched to attract female survivors into sexual slavery to rebuild the population with his platoon's members. Jim attempts to escape with Selena and Hannah, but is captured by the soldiers, along with a Sergeant Farrell (Stuart McQuarrie), who disagrees with the major's plan and tried to stop the other soldiers from imprisoning the group. During their imprisonment, Farrell theorizes that there is no worldwide pandemic, and that only Great Britain has been quarantined, which is proved when a NATO plane scouts the land.

The next day, Selena and Hannah are made to dress in evening wear and prepare for rape, as two soldiers lead Jim and Farrell to be executed. After his escorts quarrel after killing Farrell, Jim manages to escape. After luring West and one of his men to the blockade and ambushing them, Jim runs back to the soldiers' headquarters where he unleashes Mailer, an infected soldier whom West kept chained outside for observation. Mailer attacks the soldiers in the mansion, while Jim sets out to rescue the girls, who had been split up in the chaos. Selena, held hostage by Corporal Mitchell (Ricci Harnett), is then rescued by Jim, who arrives and savagely kills Mitchell with his bare hands. Selena mistakes Jim for an infected and raises her machete to kill him, but when she hesitates, Jim remarks, "That was longer than a heartbeat." The two kiss, reunite with Hannah, and run to Frank's cab, only to encounter a vengeful West, who shoots Jim in the stomach. Hannah commandeers the cab and backs it up to the front door, where Mailer drags West out through the rear window and kills him. She then drives away with Jim and Selena.

Selena and Hannah rush Jim to a deserted hospital, where Selena performs life-saving emergency procedures, but to no avail, as he falls into the coma again. They take his body to the cab and leave Manchester.

28 days later, Jim is shown waking up in recovery again, this time at a remote cottage. Downstairs, he finds Selena sewing large swaths of fabric when Hannah appears. The three rush outside and unfurl a huge cloth banner, adding the final letter to the word "HELLO" laid out on the meadow. As a lone U.S Hawker Hunter T.7 fighter jet flies over the landscape, infected people are shown lying by the side of a road, dying of starvation. The jet flies past the three waving survivors and their distress sign and calls in a rescue helicopter. As it flies away Selena says with a smile, "Do you think they saw us this time?"