31 Days of Horror Movies - 28 Days Later

In almost every zombie movie I've seen, the zombie apocalypse is in full swing as the movie starts.  The cause of said apocalypse is never given - it just "happened."  Not so with 28 Days Later.  It all started with animal rights activists breaking into a lab where experiments are being conducted on chimps.  These activists are discovered by a lab employee.  As the activists begin their task of releasing the animals, the lab employee tells the activists that the animals are infected with "Rage."  This virus can be spread by contact with blood or saliva of the infected.  One activist is bitten immediately after she released one chimp, and almost as quickly she shows the symptoms of this "Rage."  She then attacks her fellow activists.  

The scene shifts to a London hospital, where we see some guy named Jim emerging from a coma.  This was 28 days after the incident at the animal testing lab, hence the name of the movie.  When he awakens, the hospital is deserted.  He checks himself out and finds all of London is deserted as well.  He stumbles into a church where he finds many people who appear to be dead.  Out of the shadows emerges an infected cleric.  He starts to run after several infected people wake up and go after him.  Unlike zombies in other movies, these zombies don't stumble around - they can run!  As the zombies give chase, two people (Selena and Mark) rescue Jim by throwing Molotov cocktails at the infected.  This results in blowing up à gas station, and so the fun begins. 

Selena and Mark take Jim to their hideout, which was a snack bar in a tube station.  Jim convinces them to go to his house to check on his parents the following day.  Once they arrive the Jim finds his parents committed suicide.  The three of them are attacked by infected people.  Selena and Jim survive unscathed, but Mark gets cut up, and he's infected.  He knows he's doomed, and Selena kills him almost immediately.  She tells Jim the same thing will happen to him "in a heartbeat."   So our two heroes start walking the streets of London when they find some blinking lights coming from a block of flats.  Since the do-gooders released the monkeys and the Rage, civilization collapsed.  There's no electricity, no running water, little food, not many people around.  The people who are around are infected with the Rage and want to puke blood all over you.  The thing about these zombies is that when they die, they stay dead.  You don't have to bash their brains in.  Shooting then is sufficient to kill them.  But I digress...  Selena and Jim go to the block with the blinking lights, where they get chased upstairs.  They're rescued by a cab driver named Frank.  He lives there with his daughter Hannah.  After spending the night, Frank plays them a military broadcast.  It says to come to a blockade northeast of Manchester to find a haven and the 'answer to infection.'  So off they go... 

The four travelers reach the blockade.  When they arrive (after a detour around a burning Manchester), they blockade is deserted.  Frank is soon infected, and soldiers come out of the woodwork to kill him.  The three survivors are taken to a secluded mansion that been fortified.  One notices very quickly that Serena and Hannah are the only females there.  As the major in charge shows Jim around the mansion, they meet Mailer, an infected soldier who is chained up in the back yard.  The 'answer' is to find out how long it takes for Mailer to starve to death.  The other part of the answer is to repopulate with any females attracted by the radio broadcast.  Uh oh... 

Our three travelers try to escape, but are caught.  Jim is taken away with an NCO who disagrees with the major's plan.  The NCO opines that the infection is limited to Britain while the rest of the world goes on living.   As the soldiers shoot their NCO, Jim gets away.  After he gets away from the soldiers, he sees an airplane flying overhead.  The NCO was right – Britain has been quarantined from the rest of the world.  As he tries to make his way back to the mansion, Selena and Hannah are being readied for a gang rape.  But after they try on the clothes that the soldiers provided them, zombies attack the mansion.  The soldiers beat back the attack, but in the ensuing chaos Jim manages to sneak back into the mansion.  One by one he’s able to kill some of the soldiers [and arm himself in the process].  Jim found Mailer, shot his off his chains and set him free.  Mailer begins to run around the house and kill off those soldiers that Jim hadn’t gotten to yet.  Jim found one last soldier who was in the room with Selena and Hannah.  Jim jumps him and starts to bash his head into a wall.  For good measure, Jim gouged out his eyes.  Selena thought the violence Jim showed to be so unlike him that she thought he was infected.  Just as she was about to kill him, she paused.  Jim pointed out that Selena took more than a heartbeat to try to kill him, at which time she realizes Jim is ok.  So as Jim, Selena and Hannah try to get away, they come face to face with the commanding officer, who shoots Jim in the abdomen right before the zombies get to him.  While the zombies are occupied with the British officer, our three heroes make their escape. 

Another 28 days later, approximately 61 days after the initial outbreak, we see Jim recovering from his injuries at a remote cabin.  The landscape suggests they are in Scotland.  Selena is sewing lots of bed sheets together.  When she is done, she Hannah and Jim spread out the bed sheets to spell out “HELLO.”  A fighter jet flies overhead the survivors and sees the “HELLO.”  He calls for a rescue helicopter, at which point the movie ends.