We Recommend: A Movie Podcast
We Recommend is a movie podcast where every week Jesse and Jason discuss a movie that they love and recommend you to watch and then come back and listen to their podcast!
We Recommend: A Movie Podcast
28 Days Later
Rage spreads faster than reason—and that’s only half the story. We dive into 28 Days Later to unpack why Danny Boyle’s fast-infection nightmare still feels terrifyingly current, from its blood-borne rules to the way it frames survival as a moral stress test. We open with that eerie, empty London prologue and the church sequence that flips quiet into chaos, then break down how the film’s grimy digital look and a pulse-raising score build momentum without cheapening the dread. The style shakes by design, mirroring the jitter of panic and the feral energy of the infected.
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Music produced by Joey Prosser. X @mrjoeyprosser
Hello and welcome to the We Recommend Podcast, a movie podcast where every week we recommend a movie for you to watch, and then come back here and listen to us discuss. I'm Jesse. I'm Jason. This is what I've seen in the four weeks since infection. People killing people, which is much what I saw in four weeks before infection. And the four weeks before that, and before that, as far back as I care to remember, people killing people, which to my mind puts us in a state of normality right now. Cause this week we recommend 28 days later.
SPEAKER_01:Hell yeah. It's about four weeks, my man. I hope that quote really ampts you up and it doesn't remind you of anything right now.
SPEAKER_00:Jason, 28 Days Later, is my favorite uh air quotes zombie slash infection movie, probably. Not really. Um, because that still might be Dawn of the Dead. But watching it this time, I was like, damn, this actually might be the best one. It kicks so much ass. It's uh Danny Boyle, hell of a great filmmaker.
SPEAKER_04:It really is. And I love how disgusting this virus is. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:It sucks so much. And it it has the great like um people just getting surprised faces by all the the zombies have like the greatest, like, oh like when they're in when they're in the church, when he gets in the church and then all like he makes he says hello, they're all like they just have their mouth wide open, like no way.
SPEAKER_03:Is that Celia Murphy?
SPEAKER_04:He just says some shit in the library. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:I can't wait to throw up all over his face. It's weird. It's like, what do you think of the um how those all right? Um, so do you like the fact that they're like infectious zombies more than like I'm dead and I'm alive now? Or uh give a preference of each other.
SPEAKER_04:It's interesting that uh it's a rage virus. Uh it's just like every morning when I wake up. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:I get this virus from watching TikTok. And I feel like whenever he made 28 years later, um, like he's like, oh shit, 28 days later was very relevant all the time. So let's make like 28 years later, where it's more of almost like accepting like, you know, love and like death and things like that. And I was like, it's kind of wild to see how where this movie was until like where it like 28 years later. And I was like, damn, like he had a change of heart about things. But yeah, I feel like uh this movie is really just like, you know, instead of just like, oh no, some monkeys bit me and now I'm a rage virus, it's more like I woke up and got on Facebook, and now I'm just ready to go on the streets and murder.
SPEAKER_04:That would have been so funny if that's what the chip was watching. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Just scrolling, June scrolling forever. Just what looking at Elon Musk like X page, like, yeah!
SPEAKER_04:I know, it reminded me of um God, what's the what's the the movie where they hold the hold his eyes open and make him watch horrible shit? Oh yeah, uh clockwork orange. Yeah, yeah, the old clockwork orange. I was trying to, I was like, what is that word? Anyway, clockwork orange, what do you think is gonna happen when you clockwork orange and chimp?
SPEAKER_00:It's like, are you a little bum that we don't get a little bit more about the infection? Like, are that did we just make those chimps watch rage rage bait videos? And then it's like now they're infected. It's like, are you sure you didn't do that?
SPEAKER_04:It wasn't even like the rage bait, it was just like random clips of war. Yeah. Like the stuff that the chick saw in the fifth element for like five seconds.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. And I guess I guess like Danny Boyle didn't want to uh he thought it would be inappropriate to show like real like uh riots and things like that, so I guess they were faked or whatever. I don't know. Um yeah, it's a movie. Danny Boyle rules. Well, you know, he could have like used like real life live footage of actual riots and protests and stuff. Um what do you think about the style of the movie? Um like did you ever watch 28 Years Later? Yeah. Um I feel like Danny Boyle has like this really like almost kind of grittiness, uh jittery style of filmmaking. And it also has that like real like British TV and movie feel to it. Like you're gonna see some butts. Well, no, it's just well you definitely sell some hangling angs and some dangle bones. Some dangling angs. Uh but like you know, and I guess it's because it's a di it's filmed on digitals and is like one of the first movies to do digital, but it has that like like whenever I watch Sherlock, the Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman one, it has that same like feel to it, which is weird. And it just gives me a very British feel.
SPEAKER_04:I don't know. And I kind of love it. It is a very unique style, and I but I really enjoy it. Uh I like I kind of like that it looks kind of shitty, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:In a way, it's because it's like, hey, it's a shitty time. It's a shitty time.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, I think it's really cool. And I love like his the way that he uses music to accentuate the the scenes.
SPEAKER_00:Bro, the ending, whenever you know, like the song's like slowly amping up and Zillion Murphy's like, I'm fucking raged up right now. It's like I should have listened to it before so I could be like, Bono no, but I didn't. But it's like it's one of my favorite like little pieces of music in film because it it gets in my head, even though I I'm too hung over to remember it right now.
SPEAKER_04:The only other the in recent memory, anyway, the only other uh media I've seen that has really done this well with that is the Westworld show on HBO. Like the first season was incredible. Yeah. And um I just remember that like that's that's kind of what it reminds me of in a way. Yeah. Which is kind of weird, but I don't know. It was just super suspenseful. Yeah. But the the jitteriness I think lends a lot to giving you the feeling of what the infection is doing.
SPEAKER_00:I was literally just getting ready to be like, hey Jesse, make sure you say this. And I was just about to say it. Uh yeah, because you know, they're always like, it is so great. Yeah, and it like because it's like I feel like he's always like kind of shaking the camera and stuff, and it like it's very effective.
SPEAKER_04:It's like one of the infected is filming. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Just here by the camera just throwing up all over it. Um so uh did you when did you first like watch 28 Days Later? And then did you think that there would be a total of like five movies that are gonna come out about it?
SPEAKER_04:I'm not really sure. I don't think I saw this in theaters, but I was too young, I wouldn't have been able to. Yeah, me me neither. I was definitely not um twenty two thousand two. Oh well, I was uh I was in college then, but No wait. No, it wasn't it wasn't high school. Anyway.
SPEAKER_02:Oh yeah, you probably wouldn't have been able to get in.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, but like I don't even think it was on my radar.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:I do remember it being one of the scariest like fucking zombie movies I'd ever seen. Yeah. Because it's so different. Like with the fast moving assholes and the blood. That will joke. I hate blood. Ugh. Fucking hate blood. I hate getting my blood drawn.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:So like having a drop of blood fall on your face or in your eyeball. Yeah, that would have ended my life.
SPEAKER_00:Really? Uh definitely my eyeball, I'd be like, uh, do I just remove the case? Yeah, you pop it out immediately. You squish it, I think. Do I like repay the favor and throw blood at them? Like, what do I do here? Um, yeah, I I remember renting it when it like first came out, and then I watched it and I was like, oh, this might be my favorite movie ever. Like, you know, especially being like young at that point. I haven't watched as many movies. But I was like, this is like one of my favorite movies I've ever watched. And then rewatching it for the pod, I was like, this still might be one of my favorite movies I've ever watched.
SPEAKER_04:It holds up so well.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, and I think the actors are also good. I mean, Celia Murphy, uh, no Naomi Harris, I believe, right? Picky Blinder. Pinky Blinder. But and then it's also just like Brendan Gleason just like comes in and says, Hey, by the way, I'm probably the best actor in this movie. And then Alec, uh, what's it? Yeah, Christopher, I don't know, Esselton? Uh Major Henry West. Uh you you see him and you're like, I know I'm not gonna be able to trust all these guys. But him, it's he's just like, it's like, oh, we might have a chance here. They might survive with it. And then he's just like, hey, those girls, we want them.
SPEAKER_04:And it's like, oh no. But I really love the the young actress, uh Hannah, or I don't know her name, but she kicks so much ass after in the end of it.
SPEAKER_00:I love what she's just like like one of my favorite parts is when she's just like the appeals kick in and she's just on the couch. It's like, y'all fucking gonna die.
SPEAKER_04:It's gonna be sick, dude. Yeah, she's like, these pills are dudes.
SPEAKER_00:Just like pulls out a blong, bong and takes a big rip. Starts following the infected here, take a rip. What would happen if you got the infected high?
SPEAKER_04:I don't think they'd be very chill about it.
SPEAKER_00:Just be like, here, take these gummies. Maybe it'll work. They'll be like, you know what? I'm actually just I'm just hungry now. Thank you. It's like, give them a snicker.
SPEAKER_04:All we really want is for someone to care just a little bit about our situation.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Um, so you know, like on most zombie movies, like they're good ones, like the really good ones. Um, they're usually like about something and about something about humanity. Do you think this is probably the best at delivering that message?
SPEAKER_04:I think so. It's really fucking good. Especially the part that really hit home for me was when Hannah was hiding behind the mirror. Yeah. And he goes and he looks in the mirror and he's like, Holy shit, I'm a fucking monster. Yeah. And then he turns around and like, I don't want to think about that.
SPEAKER_00:Well, back to infection. Back to killing. But yeah, maybe as a society we should take a good long look in the mirror. But only if there's a child behind it. Yeah. Who's hiding from an adult? Apparently you have to do that now. Um, so I really want one of those mirrors because I thought it was gonna like fall. Yeah. Yeah, that was a tough mirror. She was pretty strong. She's hanging. Yeah, you did a great job. I meant to like text you this and to like have you think about it. Um, but give me your zombie survival plan.
SPEAKER_04:Oh, geez. If you have one. That's interesting. I um I know this has been everyone always talked about this. And there's books about it. I used to have a book. I didn't read it. Yeah, the uh It was like knock out the stairs and then they can't get up the store.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, that's like the Zomble, the zombie survival guide. Yeah, I had that book too. Everybody had that book. It's like that Max, I think Max Brooks, the guy that I think eventually wrote World War Z. Um I think that was his book. That's awesome.
SPEAKER_04:I really thought about it. Um I'd be I'd be fucked. Yeah for sure.
SPEAKER_00:Um I guess just loot. Yeah, right. In college, um, you know, when I worked at Home Depot for like those like seven years.
SPEAKER_04:Oh man, you got so many things to think about there. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Many of our days we spent thinking about stupid shit like that. And yeah, I feel like so, first of all, I want to go to a mall uh based off my favorite zombie movie, Dawn of the Dead. It's just uh the original.
SPEAKER_04:Have a shopping montage?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. I mean, it's all it's just like you got everything you need. You got weapons there, you got food there for a while. And then it's just like it's like, or my our idea was when we were in college, we're like, all right, we we gear up, we because you know, we had like propane tank forklifts, so we had like all the propane we needed. Nice. Um, which is propane? Yeah, forklifts, the outside ones, yeah. That is wild to me. Is that we work flame? Is it like a propane flame-powered fork? No, you just like you hook up the nozzle to it and it just runs off uh propane. Okay. Propane. That was propane and propane accessories. Um damn it, Bobby. I like propane and propane accessories, and I don't like them zombies. Uh, but like our so like w where I live then uh and where the home depot was, it's very close to Walmart. So we're like, we fucking cage up the uh forklift, we tie, we put a little trailer on it because we have all that stuff at Home Depot. And then we're like, we just drive to um Walmart, break in there with our forklift, grab a bunch of food, take it back to Home Depot, and then we're set, baby. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Like the chainsaw sticking out the sides like the bus on the case.
SPEAKER_00:Exactly. Like in like in the remake, yeah. Oh, that scene fucking rolls in that movie. Their plan immediately does not work. Um, but yeah, that would be mine. And then it's like, because you know, we'd have enough pro band we could just drive around, and those things are heavy as fuck. So got lawn mowers that can just mow them down. Do you ever play um uh Dead Rising? Yes. I could love that game. Yeah, and it's just malls are the best place for zombies and psychopaths. The best. I don't think I ever beat that game, but I love that game.
SPEAKER_03:I did beat it.
SPEAKER_04:It took it's it's very intense.
SPEAKER_00:And I when you find the katana, it's like I'm unstoppable.
SPEAKER_04:No, it's when you get the um the double chainsaws from the clown guy.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, that was.
SPEAKER_04:That was my go-to.
SPEAKER_00:Um, mine, I think uh I probably my favorite weapon of that is like the the tiller, and you just put it and you like you stick it into the zombie and they just kind of spin around on it and you just kind of hit everybody with it.
SPEAKER_04:It's so fun. I remember driving around in like the underground area for hours, just back and forth, just mowing them down.
SPEAKER_00:I love getting the car, and then I'd always be like swarmed by zombies and it broke. And I'm like, no. Well, that's video games. So uh for the scenes on the motorway, the production got permission to shoot on the M1 on a Sunday morning between 7 a.m. and 9 a.m. The piece gradually slowed traffic in both directions using tin cameras. The filmmakers managed to capture a total of one minute of usable footage. But like uh yeah, it's like you fucking shut down the road and you got one minute. But it's probably because there are so many people everywhere like trying to watch them film. But uh this movie captures probably like my favorite version of waking up during a zombie apocalypse and nobody's there. It was it's like I think I put in my notes like, is this like one of my favorite 20 minutes of a movie? Just like him walking around, it's being so and like the monkey shit before was also terrifying because monkeys scare the hell out of me.
SPEAKER_04:They're so unpredictable.
SPEAKER_00:Um and I guess they used athletes to cast the infected because how important physicality is to them. Danny Boyle fed that since athletes can do things other people can't, they would be interesting when translated into movements of the infected.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, and a lot of people like to use dancers. Yeah. I guess they're considered athletes, huh? Yeah, because they can move. Yeah. But they did the same thing in the very first Walking Dead, like the series. Oh, did they? I think he wakes up in a hospital.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:I definitely felt like the beginning of the That's just like a cool thing. I think like a trope, I guess. And that like that first episode's like probably also one of my favorite zombie hours. It kicks out when he has to shoot that little girl. Yeah, it's great. And just like I remember, so like my dad, he had when the when I first watched The Walking Dead, um, started watching it, like my dad had cancer, and like he had like a setback, so it was like we're at a hospital, it's like 12 a.m. in the morning, and I'm just like on my phone watching the first episode because like they all fell asleep, and I'm just watching the first episode of The Walking Dead, and I'm like, just looking around on a hospital, I'm like, oh, I'm kind of scared. But the whole like chaining the doors and like don't leave or something like that.
SPEAKER_04:It's got like dead inside, yeah, written on the door.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, fucking goes. Um, too bad that series sucked immediately after season one. Oh man, it really went downhill. I watched a lot of it. I think I watched four seasons and I was just like, man, nothing ever getting crazier and crazier. It's like, yeah, you guys ruined this.
SPEAKER_04:Best moment is when Carl gets his ass kicked by Negan. Like he like murders everybody.
SPEAKER_00:Spoiler. My favorite part of that whole show is let me ask you something, Rick. Let me ask you something. I love him. Uh so the scene where Jim and Selena celebrate with Frank and Hannah was shot on September 11th, 2001. Danny Boyle said it felt extremely strange to shoot a celebratory scene on that particular day. Wonder why. So um, so most movies aren't shot in sequence. Um, they're kind of like, you know, because of budget reasons, and it's like more financially better to shoot like a certain time.
SPEAKER_04:You've got to shoot all the weird shots in one place.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. So this film was shot almost entirely in sequence. Only pickups and a few reshoots were shot out of sequence. I just don't know.
SPEAKER_04:Do you have to tell the actors don't worry it'll make sense later when you see the film?
SPEAKER_00:Uh that's kind of like famously um what happened with Mad Max Shury Road. Like all the actors, like, what the fuck are we doing? We're just in this desert constantly driving back and forth. And then they all see the movie and they're like, oh shit. That was that was a brutal shoot, but man, he made a good movie. Fuck yeah, it did. So Alex Garland, uh ex mochin of fame. Nice uh Civil War, men, Annihilation. That's who wrote this film. Nice. Um, Alex Garland and Danny Boyle did a great deal of research into social unrest, drawing ideas from things that happened in Rwanda and Sierra Leone, such as the piling of bodies inside of churches, but drew the line at using actual footage from such incidents in the opening montage. All footage featuring dead bodies and desecration of bodies was faked.
SPEAKER_04:That's probably a good call.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:I wouldn't want to see that shit.
SPEAKER_00:Oh shit. Yeah, I forgot. This is good stuff. Like where the symptoms of rage virus and what they got their idea. So the design for the symptoms of rage was based on Ebola, which is communicable in all primates, including humans, and is transmitted through the blood. Ebola's hemoglobin fever, which leads to rash, red eyes, and both internal and external bleeding. Indeed, in 28 days later, um the aftermath, a graphic novel set between 28 days later and 28 weeks later, it is explained that the Ebola virus was being used by scientists as a carrier for the inhibitor which mutated into rage. So now we fucking know what it is. I didn't even think about like going back and reading like the graphic novel. I didn't know there was a graphic novel. I want to read it. Yeah. Did you ever watch Twenty Eight Weeks Later? Yes, but I don't remember a whole lot about it. Oh man, it has like a great 15-minute opening. It has like some like overall the movie's worse than this one, but man, it's got some dope ass fucking scenes.
SPEAKER_04:I remember the first I remember that in the very first scene, aren't they like running to a boat?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, because it's um it's fucking heartbreaking because they're like living quietly, and then all of a sudden, like the zombies start attacking, and then like he has to leave his wife. So it's like he has the chance to go back and save his wife, but he's like, Fuck you, bitch. And then runs off, and then he's just like crying the whole time. And then like later they find his wife, and if she has like a one blue eye, one like brown eye, like situation. And I guess so she's not she's infected, but she's not oh, so she's like uh immune. Yeah, and so like he the husband goes and sees her and is like apologizing, and then it's up to the case. And she kills him, right? Yes. No, she he kisses her and then he gets infected and she's tied down. And then she does the he does the eyeball thing, yeah, and just like fucking kills her, and it's like brutal as I remember that now. It's insane. Yeah, I want to watch that so bad. Yeah. Um, it also has Jeremy Renner in it. So the crew file all the necessary papers to destroy the can't Canary Wharf Patrol uh station, but the police were unintentionally not notified. When the explosives were detonated, police sent fire brigades, although there was already one there. Danny Boyle resolved the aftermath after several hours. The explosion cost 250 euros. Thousand euros. Oh, thousand. That's what I said. Um, so uh bottle rockets. Ewan McGregor was a big uh at the start of Danny Boyle's career. He was like his main actor um and was the original choice to play Jim. But he and director Danny Boyle had a falling out at the time over the movie The Beach, which it starred Leonardo DiCaprio. He was supposed to be in that movie, but was replaced by Leonardo DiCaprio. Um and so they have since reconciled.
SPEAKER_04:Don't worry, even you wouldn't have made it much better.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, right. Um, but after that didn't work out, the role was offered to Ryan Gosling, who but he had a scheduling conflict, would not have worked for me. I I mean as much as like Ryan Gosling's one of my favorite actors, like I couldn't think of this movie having Ryan Gosling in it.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:I'd be like, all the zombies would be like, we actually just kind of want to fuck this guy.
SPEAKER_04:They get it real closely.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Um I'll just um all right, I'll just do two more. I have so many like notes. I just kept finding things and be like, that's interesting, I'm gonna say it. So Alex Garland and Danny Boyle fet felt that the notion of the living dead wanting to eat brains was outdated. It's true, but it's also hilarious.
SPEAKER_01:Sorry, man. Yeah, hell apologists.
SPEAKER_00:One of the original factors behind zombie movies was a fear of nuclear power and its possible effect on people. Garland and Boyle concluded that one of the biggest fears in modern society is fear of disease, especially a viral apocalypse such as Ebola or Marburg. Garland. And Boyle were specifically inspired by such incidents as anthrax and bio ter bioterrorism scares in London and the spread of mad cow disease and foot and mouth disease. It sounds like I have a foot in my mouth every time I do this damn podcast. Really? Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:That sucks.
SPEAKER_00:They're testing it on you.
SPEAKER_04:No, they don't test it. Hey Jason, eat this. I want to see what happens. It's like a flu shot. They give you a shot.
SPEAKER_00:Gotcha. And you're like, now you're safe. It's funny. Um, especially now watching it after COVID. And like people did not like half half the people are like, we didn't give a shit about that. Infectious disease, whatever. Um, but like what kind of comes out of this movie is like, I don't know, people are still angry about it's like the rage is almost like what resonates most now, more than like a virus situation, I feel like. Because everybody's just having to be uncomfortable for a couple of years with wearing masks. Yeah. So uh another aspect of rendering the zombie movie more contemporary was the idea that the virus didn't necessarily affect people physically. It doesn't kill them as the traditional traditional zombie movies, but psychologically, both Alex Garland and Danny Boyle felt that the idea the virus renders people zombie-like due to uncontrollable rage was a good metaphor for contemporary contemporary phenomenon of social rage, such as road rage, air rage, hospital rage, uh, and now social media rage, which didn't exist then.
SPEAKER_04:And it does kind of make them seem a little ADD. Yeah. They're always looking around. It's like they're eating somebody and they're like, oh shit, squirrel.
SPEAKER_02:Exactly. Um uh let's see. Um, like, I don't know.
SPEAKER_00:Oh yeah. All right, this is gonna be the last one. So the last scene, the scene at the cottage in the lakes, was shot in a standard 35mm and was actually a tagged-on ending. Money ran out during filming, so for a while director Danny Boyle considered an open end, concluding with a freeze frame of Jim, Jim, Selena, and Hannah as they escaped from the mansion and crashed through the gate. So it's supposed to end there.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, it looks like it.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. But after securing some additional budget, a scene was filmed in the hospital with Jim dying of his gunshot wound. However, Tess audience didn't like this ending, and Boyle felt they couldn't do this to people because it was such a tough journey anyway. When the movie turned out to be a hit in USA, the studio gave Boyle budget to film the semi-happy ending at the lakes, which was added to all 14,000 US prints of the film while it was still in release. Writer Alex Garland still called the ending somewhat ambiguous as it's never made clear if the pilot actually spots the survivors, but in Finnish they say send a helicopter. So, like whenever they're talking and it's an there's a Finnish language or whatever. Oh. And it's essentially saying, Hey, there's somebody here, let's send a helicopter. So they do technically get rescued. Um, and he was flying very close to the ground. Did you not see him? Um but yeah, I I You mean the jet? Yeah. Okay. But like I guess that's the guy the pilot's like, hey, send a helicopter. There's some there's some dorks down here. I barely hear him say anything. Um so what do you think of the ending? Do you would you prefer like the uh um the freeze frame or seeing Jim die in a hospital?
SPEAKER_04:I think freeze frame is always a bad idea.
SPEAKER_00:Freeze frame. It would have been a great, like uh very un-American um ending to a movie, because you know, like I don't think it would have been bad, but just not with a freeze frame, just maybe like Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Although it is it was nice to see him survive and then like I absolutely love the ending we got. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:I love them all coming out and they're all like we're a little cheerful. You got the zombie like starving to death on the side, and it's like really rad. And then you know, like whenever they're kind of doing like the ending, he does like a little flash, like um, and where it's like they show like a slight scene of like where they're at in the lakes before he even gets them to the hospital. We see like the little tiny microsecond of the hospital, but it just we just see the words hell, and it's like, oh fuck, that sucks. And then it's like, oh no, it's hello. Yay!
SPEAKER_04:So they just moved to the country and retired.
SPEAKER_00:Eat a can of peaches. All right, Jason. I think we should hop into the plot since we almost spent 30 minutes talking about it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Hell yeah. Right. I think we're kind of getting to the point where we could we're getting so comfortable at podcasting, we almost don't even need to do plot stuff anymore. Which I'm thinking about doing. Hell yeah. Um, so before we get into it, um, even though we kind of spoke on like what maybe the point of the movie is a little bit, uh, we'd like to hear what you think the point of the movie is. Uh and at the end of the movie or podcast, we go through what the point is. If you want to look at god damn, I got that foot and mouth syndrome right there.
SPEAKER_03:And foot mouth and foot mouth is disgusting. I don't even know what that is. It's just this is a kid thing.
SPEAKER_00:Oh. Well, um, in the description, you there's a link you can click at the top. You can text us at the bottom, there's an email we recommend mailbag at gmail.com. Uh send us stuff.
unknown:Come on.
SPEAKER_00:All right. 2002, 28 days later. We start with flashes of violence in streets around the world, then we transition to a bunch of TVs with a monkey tied up and watch it. It's like silly monkey. Get off you lazy butt.
SPEAKER_05:Do some work.
SPEAKER_00:Um, then British animal rights activists break into a laboratory to free chimpanzees being used for medical research, disregarding the warnings of the laps after the activists ultimately free the rage virus subjects, which attack and infect the activists. Uh scientists infect the activists and scientists, the infection seems to spread very quickly through its victims, turning them into uncontrollable monsters in seconds. I mean, maybe say something other than they are infected with rage and I don't know.
SPEAKER_04:If you're going to rescue some animals and some science together in a lab coat says, hey, they're infected. Yeah, maybe take it take a second.
SPEAKER_00:But whenever they're like, hey, they're infected. Infected with what? Rage. Be like, what the fuck is he talking about?
SPEAKER_04:A horrible disease. It's very communicable.
SPEAKER_00:Just be like, actually, these are monkeys that we're not testing on. They we're captured them because they're hella contaminated with like a brain-eating disease. And they'll be like, oh, all right, well. We'll get out of here then. It's like make it sound like it's something that's not doesn't sound ridiculous. Just be like, if you touch them, you'll die in that moment.
SPEAKER_04:Don't use sciencey jargon on us.
SPEAKER_00:And also, hey, activists, maybe don't open up a cage to like a marker.
SPEAKER_04:I can just rip your face off. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Because, you know, as I put in my notes, monkeys be scary. They are. And they're so hella strong. Yeah. Even though they're tiny. And just like in in movies when like, you know, they do have caged monkeys, and like with be their like screams are so they're like, they're horrifying. It's like it just uh it's scary. And then like they're constantly always hitting shit, and because it's metal and glass, it is I'm like, this is not the scariest part of the whole movie, honestly. For me, it's like the rest of the movie, I'm like, hell yeah, we're all calling this movie. I'm like under a blanket, like, are the monkeys coming?
SPEAKER_04:Expecting a hug?
SPEAKER_00:Like, no, it's like these guys are riled up. Why are you trying to just let them out like that? At least, like, take I know you don't want them to be in cage, but like tranquilize them or transform into a portable cage.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, I feel like these guys tend to think a lot of things through. Yeah. Except save the chimps.
SPEAKER_00:And it's which is oh, that's always something that's kind of frustrating in movies when like the activists or something, they like they do the dumbest stuff. It's like, uh.
SPEAKER_04:You think other activists are watching this and you're like, what the fuck are y'all doing? Y'all deserve this.
SPEAKER_00:It's like then like their friend comes in who's like, guy, her face face bitten off by a chimp. It's like, we did that. So it's 28 days later. A bicycle carrier named Jim awakens from a coma in a deserted hospital after he was treated for injuries. He sustained from the on the job. Boy, hang and dang. He looks really comfortable. Yeah, and he gets up pretty uh fast and is able to walk around pretty quick for being in a coma for 28 days. For four weeks, yeah.
SPEAKER_04:I think so. No atrophied or anything.
SPEAKER_00:It is weird that I watched this movie and I'm like, that's the most unbelievable part of that too. Um free healthcare, what? Dang, some of they even left him a key under the door. That's so polite. Americans would be like, fuck you.
SPEAKER_04:They go they kind of were.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:It left them there to die.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. I mean, hey, at that point, they probably did like, I mean, they're just being overrun, I'm sure, at that point. Um, so um, as he leaves the hospital, he discovers London is completely deserted and rife with the signs of catastrophe. So good. All the all the free Pepsi Cola you want. Yeah. And I do oh, all right, we'll get to that. So he wanders the streets calling out for anyone who might still be around. He finds uh he kind of it's just like the streets are empty, there's nothing. Um, then he goes to kind of like this area where there's this giant round thing with a bunch of people's faces of like missing people and things like that. And it's just kind of like, oh, scary.
SPEAKER_04:That was pretty terrifying.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. And then uh he went, he goes calling out for people, he finds a church where a large group of group of people have gathered, uh, dead people. He quickly discovers that the people are raging monsters who attack him. Hey, the preacher. Yeah. Then he's like, he hits up with some cans, he's like, oh cross. Crikey. Forgive me, Father, if I have sinned. It's like, uh no, I think you're all right, Doc.
SPEAKER_03:Um, is there he goes to the confession booth? Yeah. It's been five days since my last confession. I I've masturbated.
SPEAKER_00:He's like, what? Bro, I ate like five people today. That's what you're confessing at right now. Um, but yeah, uh, I don't think there's really anything better than just like empty streets. It's just so eerie.
SPEAKER_04:It is terrifying. Do you think you'd ever call out if you're in that situation? Like after seeing this, you're like, I'd be like, man.
SPEAKER_00:Well, because they all kind of look like they're just sitting there sleeping. So it's like, what y'all doing?
SPEAKER_04:I don't know. I guess it's just always been my thing to never get attention ever.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. I'm sure. Literally at work, there's someone that calls me the invisible man because I am low-key trying to lobby out of the shadows. Trying to make sure nobody's noticing me ever. Um, the score, this is where like the score like first really starts to like ampo because it's kind of like this guitar that and on like you know, I don't know, just fucking rocks. Um, and I love that there's some graffiti on the wall. The end is extremely fucking nice.
SPEAKER_04:It's so fucking British.
SPEAKER_00:And uh there's a guy doing like Macbeth over there. Yeah. Um, and uh I love that McKellen. Like when we first see them, they kind of turn they kind of appear to be almost monkey-like, right? Like the with the way they just like animalistic. Yeah, like the way they're like they're throwing their hands up and stuff, you know, because monkeys are very like I'd say we are the greatest apes. The greatest apes, the great ape escape. I don't know. I'm saying words that I like. So he's chased through the streets by the infected people before being rescued by two survivors, Selena, Naomi Harris, and Mark, Noah Huntley, who rush him into their hideout in the linen underground using explosive charges attached to gasoline pumps to cover their escrape. Gate, great looking shot of the uh gas station exploding. Yeah. Right? I mean you gotta have a lot of things. Like the wide shot and it just explodes and it's like all night, and because it's digital, it has that really like grainy effect. Just like as much as like I prefer film, I'm just like, man, sometimes like the people that used digital filmmaking at the start were really good at it. And they they made their movies look like uh collateral, made the movies make look very interesting.
SPEAKER_04:I think this it makes this movie seem very dreamlike in a way.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Yeah, I can see that. And then he like amped it up to like a hundred and twenty-eight years later, where it's just like, what I didn't realize this was like a mushroom-induced movie. I fucking love 28 years later. We should just do the all three of them straight right now. Um, so they revealed that while Jim was comatose, the virus spread uncontrollably among the populace, turning most people into vicious murderers. The infected. And resulting in societal collapse possible on a global scale. Selena, it started as rioting, and right from the beginning you knew this was different because it was happening in small villages, market towns, and then it wasn't on the TV anymore. It was in the streets outside. It was coming through your windows. It was a virus, an infection. You didn't need a doctor to tell you tell you that. It was the blood. There was something in the blood. By the time they tried to evacuate the cities, it was already too late. The infection was everywhere. The army blockades were overrun. That's when the exodus started. The day before the TV and radio stopped broadcasting were the reports of the infection in Paris and New York. We didn't hear anything more after that. I wasn't actually supposed to read that whole quote. I was supposed to stop soon. I was like, this is going on directly.
SPEAKER_04:I thought this was a very interesting line of dialogue because I thought this was centralized only like in London. I didn't know that. No, it is. It did spread to New York and Paris. It didn't do that. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:But they said that was she they think that. Um and it's not to the end where he sees the plane in the sky where he's like, shit, people made it. Like it's not everywhere.
SPEAKER_04:But yeah, but even the soldiers are talking about how it didn't affect anybody but them. Yeah. They're like, whoa, is us.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. It's always gotta be a little bit more.
SPEAKER_03:There were some girls.
SPEAKER_00:Um, but like I just the reason I wanted to say that is because like my favorite part, it wasn't on TV anymore. It was in the street outside, it was coming through your window. It's like that fucking that's a metal ass line. It's 3D glasses. And I mean, that was like if you think about COVID, it's like, oh, it was just like this thing where kind of like, oh, somebody in China has this disease. And then it's like five minutes later, the first the first person in like uh America got it. You're really watching it, and then the next thing you know, it's like, oh, he people at work have it. Yeah, and it's like, oh my god. Now it's in me. That's a and that's really why I like a lot of these. Like, I love virus and zombie movies, like, even just like virus movies, like contagion. I love that fucking movie, even though it's like a bummer of a movie, but there's just something about like societal collapse with these movies that really just interests me and probably is very scary.
SPEAKER_04:It is really interesting and eye-opening because it's our society is so frail.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. And we didn't think it, and then we lived it, and it's like, wow, we're all we all suck. Yeah, we are not prepared for this. We are not mentally as this country, like ready for anything like this ever, apparently. Um, but movies like this make them want to buy a gun. For sure. Yeah. So Jim insists on going to his parents' house. Though they think it's a bad plan, Selena and Mark accompany him. He discovers that his parents committed suicide. Oh, yeah. And then they have a little note. Jim, with the endless love we left you sleeping. Now we're sleeping with you. Don't wake up. It's like, oh like another note.
SPEAKER_04:I got a little cheaper. What if it was the note was like, We always hated you?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Goodbye. Bro, we actually loved you, and then you got hit, and then we're like, damn, our son's a bitch ass. You're in a coma, what a loser. I want a son that doesn't get hit by cars from bicycling. You're dead. Yeah. Goodbye. Just put a peace sign, smiley face. So that now Jim has a flashback of his family, um, which is kind of like this just kind of gives you that dream like state. And it's funny watching 20 28 years later, because like, oh man, this stuff was kind of in 28 days later, and it's um, it's not really as much in 28 weeks later, and but it's not the same director. So um, but yeah, and it's kind of like a pretty great emotional effect. And then he likes as he's dreaming, they're like, Do you want any orange juice? He's like, No, and he's like saying it out loud in like his real like life, not in his dream head. Dreamhead. Oh, I got some dream head last night. But uh, and then I guess it's like you know, for some dreamheads, some infectious uh people just walking the streets at night, you know, just uh neighborhood infection watch and just come bursting through the house um attacking the survivors. And when the fight ends, Mark is bleeding from a nasty slash on his arm. Spot is pleased, Selena immediately hacks him to death with a machete. Oh, yeah. Explaining to Jim that infection is spread through contact with contaminated blood and overwhelms its victims in seconds, rendering them deadly to the others.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, she kicks so much ass.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, when she didn't immediately dead. And it's like the movie does a great job at not just be like, because sometimes it'd be like in movies like that, where you're just like, stop being like that. You know, like you're being obnoxious. It's like you could have given him a second just to see if he just accidentally cut his arm on something, but instead you're like when you see her do it, and it's like she fucking knows what she's doing.
SPEAKER_04:She's not taking any chance.
SPEAKER_00:She's surviving. She doesn't, she probably didn't know this guy that long. It's like, I'm fucking killing him. You're expendable, sir. I'm gonna do it to you. And then she warns that should Jim become infected, she will kill him in a heartbeat. Yeah. Which is uh just a little line while they're walking, and it becomes like a very big little line in the whole baby.
SPEAKER_04:Just get it right out of there.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, exactly. And then like they're the the next one, she's like immediately it's like in this little like scene here where they talk about she'll kill him in a heartbeat. She also says um as they're journeying along in the city, Selena rules out intimacy between her and Jim, declaring that only the fight for survival remains. It's like it's getting like they did a great job like developing her character and like how much she's gonna change later. And uh, I don't know. Fucking this movie has great character development, and I love it. It really does. Yeah. Um, because as we go through, Jim kind of starts becoming more like Selena from the beginning of the movie, and Selena's becoming more like Jim from the beginning of the movie, and it's just like fucking Danny Boyle, man. Love it. He goes full infectious Rambo. So they see clear Christmas lights blinking in a high-rise uh place and go to check it out. About halfway up the stairs, Jim has to stop because he has pounding headaches. Selena explains to him that he's crashing from the sugar because that's all they've been drinking for a few days. Eating sugar and drinking Cokes. And yeah, it's like as an adult, you can't do that anymore.
SPEAKER_04:As a kid, I did it a lot. Yeah, but they're like in their maybe mid-20s.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, probably like I I was late twenties.
SPEAKER_04:Remember surviving on like three-day hikes with just ramen and goddamn water. Yeah. Well, I mean, you have that water though. Yeah, but like dry noodles and water.
SPEAKER_00:But you know that feeling, like whenever you're just like let's say you go to like a cookout or something, and you've just been like pounding back uh cokes and things like that, and it's eating very and then like when you take that first drink of water, it's like, oh shit, I needed this. It's like I could I don't know. It's just like it's very relatable, I feel like. So then they hear sounds of approaching infected and race up the remainder of the stairs where a man in a police riot gear directs them to his apartment and fends off the infected. It's Frank, Brendan Gleason, and his teenage daughter, Hannah, Megan Burns, have holed up in their flat. They're invited to spend the night. They also um have like a little drink and stuff. They seem like very nice people. Uh Selena and Jim privately debate whether they should remain with Frank and Hannah. Jim says they seem like good people while Selena fears that they will slow them down. Warning Jim to put others ahead of one's own personal survival is a sure way to get killed.
SPEAKER_04:Um What do you think Hogwarts thought about him taking all that time off work?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, right. It's like, damn it, we're the Mad Eye movie. Ah, he's you know, even though we could fix this whole zombie episode, we're actually he he just decided to hang out with some people. Quarantine the muggles. Yeah. And I I love one of the things, lines in this thing, it's like, um, it's like it's obvious that they that we that they need us more than we need them. Um, and I thought that was a very good line. And it's gonna show like her hers when she softens up, she's gonna be like, actually, you kind of needed them. Um so next morning, Frank informs Jim and Selena that supplies, particularly water, are dwindling. There hasn't been any rain for several weeks, despite all the collection receptacles they've placed on the tower's roof. Doesn't it rain constantly in over there? Yeah. Yeah, it's like that's like the thing they're known for. Shitty weather. But also, like he kind of explains that like he had a method that he saw on TV where collecting dew. Um, and but he's doing it on like an asphalt roof, and like the whole way that works is because of the soil underneath rises up. So that's why he's not even able to do that. Um thank you. All the survival shows hello. Uh Frank also shows them a pre-recorded radio broadcast loop transmitted by soldiers near Manchester who claim the answer they have the answer to infection. Frank tells Selena.
SPEAKER_04:It's definitely not rape. Yeah, promise.
SPEAKER_00:Even though as soon as you kind of walk into this place, you're like, these are a lot of immature dudes. Uh Frank tells Selena and Jim that he and Hannah need their help to get out of the city. And Selena's like, no, we're not fucking going all the way over there. That's forever away. And then Hannah's just like, if we stay here, we're gonna die. If we go, we might die. So we might as well take our chances. And it's like, okay, Hannah, you haven't really talked at all, but way to leave a banger of a lunch. Yeah. Good idea. Um, so on their way out, they pass through a tunnel blocked by a pile up of cars. Their tunnels have got them worse. Yeah, I know. I just love it. Um uh and one of the cab's tires go flat when they realize that a horde of infected are on their way because of rats, they frantically change the tire and race out. Um, Celia Murphy's character has such a great line. This is a shit idea. You know how I know? Because I know it's a really shit idea. Idea.
SPEAKER_04:I know shit when I see it.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. And it's like, it really is like, man, Frank, why'd you fucking go through that tunnel, man? That was a terrible idea. That was like the worst idea ever. Let's go in this dark hole. And Danny Boyle's like, yeah, but it's gonna be a fucking red scene. It'll be worth it, I promise. And it's funny because you know, like recently I broke down on the side of the road and we're changing tires. I'm like, man, if there were zombies chasing me, would not have been able to do that. We struggled for a minute changing that tire. But it was also raining and lightning around us. Worst possible time to change your tire. Yeah, a little scary. It's slippery. Yeah. So on the other side, they find an abandoned store and stock up on provisions and bonding at the same time.
SPEAKER_01:Love it.
SPEAKER_00:Always love a good, like, hey, let's collect supplies and have a good time type thing. Because you see Selena kind of starting to bond with Hannah, and she's like, This is your first time you really see her smiling. And it's like, oh yeah, everybody's having a good time.
SPEAKER_04:A little, what do they call it? Uh something therapy when you go shopping.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:You know what I'm talking about. Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:What do you call it though? I don't know. Cause it's the opposite effect. Yeah. I don't know. For me, I walk into Walmart and immediately like my blood pressure raises. I'd rather peel my skin off than get it. It's like, I'm just like, if you if you were to watch me on the cameras, it's like, is he running through the store to get out of here? Shaking and jittering while I'll throw up a little bit. Um, but and then you have like Frank just uh it's like Jim goes to get some liquor and he's like, no, no, no, no, no. If you're gonna get if we're staking all this liquor, we're gonna get the good stuff, dude.
SPEAKER_04:I guess. Yeah, that is true. But like, do you really want to like make like a pen give your opinion on people's choices on in this situation?
SPEAKER_00:It just goes, it's just like one of those things they use for his character of being like, oh, this like, oh, this is a man like when before the infection, like he had like great taste and like you know, really like things like that.
SPEAKER_04:That makes a lot of sense when it comes to alcohol and it's all there, it's available, and you just get it.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I would have taken as much as possible to make Molotovs. Hell yeah. I'm like, no, like, well, we're taking the cheap stuff still because we're gonna throw them at people. Yeah. Might as well. Maybe drink a little too. Yeah. Um, but also one of the things, like, if water's not readily accessible, I would not be grabbing liquor.
SPEAKER_04:He's like, don't touch that. He reaches for the natural light.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Get some coors, it's it's the Gingabies. No, it's not. No, no, no, no. It's the champagne of beers. That's no, that's Miller High Life. Oh. What's Coors then? Coors is uh Taste the Rockies. Taste the Rockies. Okay. I haven't had beer in a while. It's mainly wine. So um they uh they load up their car with a bunch of shit. They drive off into the country where it looks like a painting. You remember that weird little shot where I'm like the the car looks normal, but all like the flowers and stuff are like uh like a Van Gogh painting. Oh, pastel. Yeah, I was like, what the fuck is this? I try to look for notes on it, like I didn't find anything. I was like, this was a very random thing, but it kind of goes to what you said about the dreamlike state of the movie. A grainy dreamlike. And then it's just like re-watching him, like, shit, man, he really is kind of just like a trippy director, and that's why he did it all with 28 years later. So on the other side, they find an abandoned Ooh. So the group overnights in a pasture. Uh they find some horses and they like have a little moment with them. Frank like kisses them and waves them goodbye because they're free and happy. Something that they probably can't be anymore. Yeah, yeah. They I mean they they are an offense, so they still kind of are. And I love like Hannah's like, are they infected?
SPEAKER_04:And he'd be like, are they just flapping their tongues around?
SPEAKER_00:I I am a little bummed we didn't get an infection infected horse.
SPEAKER_04:Infected horse.
SPEAKER_00:No way, that would be insane. Yeah. Trying to ride it, it's just like bite. Horses will already bite you, so um, yeah. So uh Selina tells Selena and Jim talk. Selina tells Jim that she was wrong about the idea of staying alive as as good as it gets, and then kisses him on the cheek. Awww. They try to go to sleep, but Hannah and Jim can't. But Selena's out cold. They wake her up and she reveals that she has Valium. After falling asleep, Jim has a nightmare that they left him. Then Frank wakes him up, tells him he's sleeping, and then uh Jim says, Thanks, Dad. And it's like, fuck off. This movie is manipulating me emotionally. Calls him a softie. Yeah. Then he is abruptly awoken by them honking the horn at him. This is like, y'all couldn't have woke him up a little earlier. Like he's having a nightmare that he woke up late for school, and then this happens. Fuck. So while driving, they see that all of Manchester is on fire and exploding, and it's there's like there's nobody out, there's nobody anymore to put out the fires. So it's just a whole city burning. I let it burn. And uh I loved it. I loved that shot. Yeah, it kicks fast. When the four reach the deserted blockade, Frank is infected by blood. Um so they get to the place. I'm kind of passing through it too fast, and they're like, nobody's there at this military outpost. And it's Frank's getting like really pissed off. He like yells at like Selena and them. Um and then he walks off. Yeah, it's like this bird's like pecking at like a human's face. So he's just like, fuck off, burden. Drops great fucking shot, drops right into his eye, and it's like that was no. No, I wasn't ready. Yeah, I didn't want it. He's a good guy. So knowing that he's doomed, he tells Hannah that he loves her one last time, and then he harshly tells Hannah to stay away from him and becomes infected in seconds, nearly killing her. He is quickly shot by hiding soldiers. Hey, fucking sh soldiers hiding. How about you come out a little earlier? You know, when they're like obviously looking for you. Oh, great. Survivors. Wait, hold on, don't say anything. Especially since we know that like they're probably just probably just masturbating in the fucking bush or something. It's like women having a wink. Um, and then uh yeah, it's like putting my notes, couldn't come out a little earlier, guys. Um, who then so then they like commandeer the cab and take Selena, Jim, and Hannah to a fortified mansion under the commander of Major Henry West. He tells them that they have a clean bed and hot water for a shower. Like you could you guys think shower is deep on, yeah. But I mean, like in their like situation that they're in, it's like, man, that sounds like the best possible situation. Yeah. A hot shower. A kill for a hot shower.
SPEAKER_03:We got one. I won't kill you. Oh, thank you.
SPEAKER_00:Maybe I will. So as Hannah struggles with uh the loss of her dad, Selena and Jim reach out to each other romantically. Selena doesn't want Hannah to have to cope. She wants her to just have a nice life. And it's like, ah, Selena, like her character's like completely come around now. Like, she's not thinking of herself or anything. She's not even thinking about survival. She's just like, I wish Hannah could have a nice life. Like you know, when we were younger, and now she doesn't have a dad.
SPEAKER_04:Um and then Jim's like, stop talking, kiss me.
SPEAKER_00:Kiss me. And like Selena's like, yeah, I like this. Wait a second. You damn eye, you pretty ass eyes, Celia Murphy. You got me. So Jim talks and takes a walk with Wes. Wes shows him the grounds and the corridors. We see pet humans. Yeah. We see some of the soldiers are a bit immature. Wes shows Jim uh when they're like driving around in circles. Yeah. With the cab, and it's just like, that's immediately where it's like, uh oh. I don't trust these guys. This commander has uh not got control of the situation as much. And he does, but he doesn't at the same time. Uh Wes shows Jim, Mailer, and an infected, he's an infected that is chained up so that they can see how long it takes for them to starve to death. Jim discovers that the that Wes' answer to infection involves waiting for the infected to start to starve to death. And it's like, well, can you just put that on the message and we will just stay somewhere else?
SPEAKER_04:We're gonna wait it out. That's the big plan. It's like it takes a long time to I don't know. I mean, it takes like a few weeks.
SPEAKER_00:I mean, like, does the infected drink water? No, they're just drinking blood, I guess. Is that work?
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, but they like it.
SPEAKER_00:Because like you die like after like three days if you have no water.
SPEAKER_04:So it had to be.
SPEAKER_00:Or if they're just doing like turkeys in the rains, they're like well, they kind of constantly have their mouth open, so I'm sure when it's raining, they just cops get it. So while eating together, they all talk about life. Wes says that everything still seems normal to him because people are still just killing people. Um, that's the line I got from that.
SPEAKER_04:That's the way it's always been. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Hannah doesn't want to eat, she just wants to bury her dad. Uh then the zombos arrive on the property. They are taken out by the soldiers. Fucking hell. One soldier's like, I got one. Yeah.
unknown:Okay.
SPEAKER_00:It's like, well, there's a bunch. You should have got one. Keep going. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:I mean, they did have the place pretty fortified. It was sweet when the one of them tripped on the mine. Because you uh the whole time I was thinking, like, when when is one gonna step on one? And then one lands on one and bounces to another one. Yeah, it's like, hell yeah. Is that why they call them bouncing bags?
SPEAKER_00:I um I do kind of wonder about like the zombies. I mean, what was it just like as some zombies that's like walking together through the forest, or did they like hear the noise, see the light? Like kind of was curious about how the zombies kind of constantly keep popping up and finding people. Like they because they run with like, you know, like a purpose. Like let's say whenever they went up into the um the like the apartment buildings like where Frank is, like they were like halfway up. So what made the zombies be like, I know where they're at?
SPEAKER_04:I don't know, maybe they smelled them. They smelled that good home cooking they were making inside. It's like I guess it could just be like, hey Jesse, shut up at the movie. I mean, once they hit the once one kind of trips the alarm and it starts making all that racket, they probably get pretty excited, I would say.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. So the soldiers come in all tough guyed up. Uh one of the guys immediately gets very rapey with Selena. Jim tries to stop him, but is subdued. Luckily, one of the soldiers hits the rapey one to stop everything.
SPEAKER_04:Right.
SPEAKER_00:Wes comes in and tells the men to walk the perimeter, and he tells one guy to slow down. Yeah, take your time. Yeah, we're trying to smooth. We're trying to, we're we're really trying to be like, maybe if we're nice enough, we'll be like, hey ladies, do you want to have sex with all of us?
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, they were having a nice romantic dinner with.
SPEAKER_00:It's like we cooked you shitty eggs. Don't you want to have sex now? Um so Jim and Wes You should smile more. Yeah. Right. It's like, hey, honey, won't you smile a little bit? Okay. It's just a zombie apocalypse. So Jim and Wes uh talk about survival. Wes brings up that he promised the men women, tells a story that one of the soldiers had a gun in his mouth because what's the point of surviving if you don't have a future? And it's like, um, I don't know, but maybe your immediate plan shouldn't be it's time to raid.
unknown:Right.
SPEAKER_00:That's like plan C. It's like I don't I don't know. As just like a commander, I mean, like, I get like he like loves his like, hey, these are my guys, these are my this is my family, because I'm and I'm their leader, so I have to just I have to keep morale up, but it's like the most toxic wingman ever. It's like don't fucking lose your humanity though, commander. Okay, come on. So uh shocked, Jim's like, oh yeah. He attempts to escape with Selena and Hannah, but is captured by the soldiers along with Sergeant Farrell, the guy that hit the guy on the head, um, whenever the one guy was getting rapey, uh, who disagrees with the major's plan. While Jim and Farrell are in prison, Farrell theorizes that there is no worldwide epidemic. The infection takes hold of its victims so rapidly that it would have been impossible for any infected to escape the British Isles, leading the rest of Europe and perhaps the world to impose a strict quarantine on the British Isles. He's just like kind of going crazy. Uh oh yeah, it's like stuck to a radiator the whole night. And it's just like, hey, you know what? This guy's probably the smartest character in the whole movie.
SPEAKER_04:And I'll just fucking kill him. It's the slightest bit of introspection.
SPEAKER_00:It's just like I like whenever like they end up killing him, I'm like, I actually kind of fucking like that guy. I really wish he didn't die. He was a nice guy. He was like, wow, the only non-shitty person here. Cool. Um, so as two soldiers lead uh Jim and Farrell into the woods to be executed, the two executioners fight about how to kill Farrell. Because uh the super rapey guy is like, I'm gonna knife him because uh turns out he's just a fucking psychopath. And then you got like the cook guy just being like, just fucking shoot him, what are we doing? And then it's just like, well, at least he's like halfway decent, but it's like, no, you're still gonna be a rapist too.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, I thought he was gonna say, like, if we just knife him, it won't draw a bunch of more people.
SPEAKER_00:Which would make more sense, right? But it's like they didn't they didn't take that direction with the movie. They have a lot of bodies out there. So they just like That's where they I think they take their infected that they kill. Or I thought it was just like more people like them. Yeah, uh I think it was supposed to be infected. Uh I think that if anybody actually came there, they would have like let him live with them, I'd assume. Um, and then so they kill Faral.
SPEAKER_04:Uh the one guy this guy's completely unripeable. Yeah, get him out of here.
SPEAKER_00:Because that one guy's about to stab him and the other one just like shoots him and then like this upsets the one guy, and then this gives Jim a chance to run off. And they run after him. However, Jim has hidden himself among a pile of corpses where uh they were going to throw him and feral upon. He observes the contrails of a jet aircraft flying high overhead and realizes that someone in the outside world is still functioning. Hell yeah. Yeah. There's hope. It's also like, and the way that that's shot where it's just like apparently Danny Boyle just spent like uh a couple days in his backyard, like trying to get perfect shots of airplanes in the sky.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, just waiting for an airplane to go.
SPEAKER_00:And he's just trying to get like the perfect amount of like leaves in the way. And it it really is kind of like a it's like shit, hope.
SPEAKER_04:It's hope. Um, I got lost in the woods once, and I was I was like, where do we go? And I was like, I knew there's a waterfall nearby. We got looking around, saw just the faintest glimmer of water falling through the leaves. I was like, Yes, yes, we are found. I am one with nature now. I have I definitely got us lost, but now I got us lost. I beat nature.
SPEAKER_00:So Selena and Hannah are trapped as the soldiers start circling, wanting to uh, you know, begin the raping. And Selina asks to be left alone briefly with Hannah to prepare her. Selena tells Hannah she'll give her one of her sedated sedatives so the experience will be less traumatic. Um, and then like like they uh one of the guys runs in and tries to stop her from doing it. And after learning West is he probably thought she was gonna kill herself. Yeah, that's what I was thinking. That's what I would have done. Yeah. I'd be like, eat all of them, girl.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, she's like it. Yeah, because she says, like, are you trying to kill me? It's like no. No, but it's just eat all of them.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, but I guess you want to leave yourself the chance to be like, all right, after it's done, maybe we can sneak out or something now. Yeah. But I would just been like, nah, dude, this I would just I'd just die. Starts crushing them up into a line. So um after alluring West and one of his men to the blockade, but like running the Yeah, those old timey alarms. Hell yeah. Um, Jim kills one of the soldiers, and then Jim runs back to the soldiers' headquarters where he unleashes Mailer, an infected soldier that Wes kept chained outside the observation. Mailer attacks the soldiers in the mansion while Jim stealthily skulks around, killing a soldier and maneuvering around the growing number of infected. Like I love all the one of my favorite shots of the movie is uh they kind of turn around and Mailer's outside of the window, and he's like then like breaks through the window and starts attacking. Like Kool-Aid Man. Yeah. Which is in like the whole, I'm assuming the whole reason they did that is because like throughout the rest of the scene, you have um Jim kind of doing the same thing, being outside windows, just being like looking around. I'm like, what? Who's the one that's infected? It's like, oh wait, even humans can just have this rage, right?
SPEAKER_04:That was sick though, when he the guy pops his head up from the stairs and he comes by with the crowbar, just whack.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Oh, so uh Selena and Hannah try to escape, but the soldiers don't let them because they're fucking dicks. They uh take them upstairs where Hannah slips away to receive a picture of her family, and then an infected comes into the bathroom where she hides behind a mirror. The infected looks at himself in the mirror and then runs off.
SPEAKER_04:He like he like scratches his tooth a little bit and like looks at a little out of uh I had somebody's scalp in my teeth.
SPEAKER_00:Why didn't anybody tell me? Dang it. It's like I had that one guy's nipple stuck right there. Uh great little um great scene though. Uh and then like you just see her getting down, like her little feet like cut down, and it's just like tense. Um Selena being held hushes by the last uninfect uninfected soldier uh is horrified when Jim, covered in blood, bursts into the room and savagely kills the soldier, leading her to believe that he may be infected. Raising her machete, she hesitates before striking. He quips. That was longer than a heartbeat. And the two kiss passionately, and it's like he's got a lot of blood. He's covered in blood. He's got a lot of blood. He might be infected. Hannah finds them in the trio, run to Frank's cab, only to encounter Wes who shoots Jim in the stomach, fucking dick.
SPEAKER_04:No, that was awesome, though. Whatever, after they're they're kissing, and then Hannah runs up and smashes him on the head. Yeah, he's so good.
SPEAKER_00:He's attacking you. It's like, you don't have you ever seen anybody kiss? Guys, get a Renim. But yeah, so Jim gets shot in the stomach. Hannah commandeers the cab and throws West to the infected mailer by driving a cab up back to the door. Mailer's grabs him out. Yeah, sad as hell. Then escapes with Jim and Slana by blowing through a great gate. Um, and then just do it. Yeah. And then 28 days later. Uh Selina and Hannah are rushed Jim into a deserted hospital where Selena performs life-saving emergency procedures, I'm assuming. And then after a further 28 days pass, and a bang bandaged Jim is shown waking up in a recovery again. This time, oh crocky. Let me guess, still no tea and crumpets. I'm sorry, British people. I'm so fucking sorry. It's just so funny to talk like you to be so stereotypical with you guys. I'm so sorry. Um, and uh so he's in recovery.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:This time uh on one side of a double bed in 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. Yeah, they must have gathered like every bed sheet for miles.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, right.
SPEAKER_00:Huge. And they like kind of like lay it out on the meadow, and as an approaching jet flies over across the landscape, the infected lie in the streets dying of starvation. He flies by. He's like, What's up? Not coming back for you though. Just as like the shock of bra. And then after the jet zoom past the three waving survivors and in the dis and their distress signs, Selena wonders out loud, do you think he saw us this time? Do you think he saw us? And then 28 days later. Oh that's the movie, Jason. I can love it. What's the point?
SPEAKER_02:Uh I think the point is that aren't we the the monsters?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. We all it's like we all have that rage, man. We all got that dog in us. If you poke us enough, like that that evilness inside of us will come out, and hopefully you're like Jim and you got to use it for a good thing and not like these soldiers who have all this bottled up rage and testosterone and are gonna take it out on the women, essentially. Um ultimately, I think it ultimately I think the movie is about how you choose to live your life. Selena starts off as a hard and tough soldier almost, willing to kill anybody at the sign of infection. She has no hope for the future of just survival. Then in comes Jim. And almost like a newborn baby, his lack of seeing society break down gives him hope that they can still have humanity.
SPEAKER_04:Then they meet Frank and a stupid little baby. Yeah, it is.
SPEAKER_00:I mean, he wakes up naked in a hospital, like almost like a baby. Yeah, you're right. I didn't think about that. That's funny. Uh, and then he gets that sweet, sweet milk, Pepsi, Pepsi Cola baby. Then they meet Frank and Hannah and see that good people and time still exist, and that even in the darkest time, if if you are with the people that you love, you can still have light in the darkness. Then it can't get any worse from here. Then with like the soldiers, they decided to choose violence and want to use their power to get what they want, all in the name of survival. But really, they're just animals with no one to tell them to stand down. But what do people do when you're uh corner them? They choose survival, which leads to Jim to fucking kill everybody and becomes a rage-infected human, essentially. You take away our peace and happiness, your own gain, we will always stand up and take it back.
SPEAKER_04:Fuck yeah. So excited right now, I just want to hurt.
SPEAKER_00:Ooh. Yeah. And I wish I could say little paragraphs without stuttering all the time. But yeah. You're getting that. Um I just think like in terms of zombie movie. This is like the best with a message, I feel like. Even though obviously, like not a living dead and like the Romero, like the first three Romeros, uh have great signs, like great things about to say about humanity. Well, not great things, but like do a great job at saying things about humanity. But I just feel like this is like number one. That movie had nothing to say except fucking punk rock zombie. So we're gonna hit up our next category. Uh let us know what you think the point of the movie is. I don't even think it was really can you really call them zombies though? Yeah, that is also a big debate. Like zombies are considered like um well, to be honest, they don't fucking exist. You can just call everyone a zombie right. Okay, fine. Um but like you know, they have like the zombie-like uh signs and like things, you know, they run around. Uh if that made any sense. So chase it, we're gonna hit up a nice next category. The good, the bad, the ugly, the fine. It's where we discuss the good of a film, something we liked, the bad, something we didn't like, the ugly, something that didn't age well, the fine, something that did age well. Um, for the good for me, uh, the whole damn thing, one of the best zombie fucking movies ever. Zombie fucking movies?
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, some fucking zombie movies.
SPEAKER_00:That that's the porn parody.
SPEAKER_04:No, I really love 28 combs later. Oh man, he's so tired now. He's so tired now.
SPEAKER_00:No, you get comb in your eye, you just turn into like a double porty zombie.
SPEAKER_04:I really like I thought the pacing was really good. Um, I mean, and it kind of starts out the way a lot of these post-apocalyptic movies do, and kind of slow and lonely, and then wild.
SPEAKER_00:Then you start seeing survivors, and then it's like wild, and then that like at the kind of the perfect time, it gives you that like peacefulness of like them happy, and like there's horses. And it's like, oh, these people can do it. And then at that point, you're like, I love these characters, I want them to all to survive. Oh no, they're not all gonna survive. Man, I want to see more horses in these movies.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, I want to I want to get I don't even want to see them get killed. I want to see them be on the on the side of the the warriors.
SPEAKER_00:Here's what I want I want zombie horse being ridden by a zombie. Yeah, make that movie. Hell yeah. That's what he's gonna do in the next one. I mean, my bone temple because they're kind of they're kind of like pack animals now in the new ones, like and they're evolving, they have their own society, essentially. Yeah, they're gonna evolve to use horses and then you know eventually it's essentially just gonna end up going the direction of Planet of the Apes at that point, yes, which is another great infection movie.
SPEAKER_04:Everybody's got a huge dick.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. All that blood rushed to it. I don't know. That's where all the rage is hell. Yeah. For most men, yes. The bad, uh, I got nothing.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:It wasn't really much bad except for all the rapey stuff. But that's that made it good.
SPEAKER_00:Um uh let's get to that. The ugly, rapey. Too rapey, don't like rape in movies.
SPEAKER_04:A little rapey. But I mean, spot on, that's what people are gonna do. They're gonna when shit hits the fan, you're gonna have people that kind of when society gathered their resolve, and then you're gonna have some that like, well, I guess it's time to rape.
SPEAKER_00:It's especially when you got like young men with their guns, it's like, I have power. Yes. I I demand what I want.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, I feel like everything was it was so spot on to what humans would actually do in these situations. I thought it was really good.
SPEAKER_00:But and something about the movie, I also think like obviously like the the shitty soldiers were shitty, but like they all still had like their everybody still had their humanity a little bit.
SPEAKER_04:And they were even a little bit disciplined when it came to like their own protection.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Um, which I think was smart, even though they're gonna be like the shitty people in the movie, and they all deserve to get mailered together. Um, but I thought Danny Boyle did a good job at even like, oh, they're really shitty people, like they're still got that humanity, and they're just like taking and they're just not choosing the right things to do with their humanity.
SPEAKER_04:And it's like fuck off. I think that for me, that's what aged the best is like really showing humanity and like in it in its extremes. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:I think that is always gonna be murderous extremes, and then it's just like they they give us hope by seeing them have hope, and then it's just like you meet these shitty ass soldiers.
SPEAKER_04:Let's strip all that hope away and give you some something to be afraid of.
SPEAKER_00:But then they left us a little bit at the end. Yeah. Um, so the find, I put the style and directing uh and uh movie with no bad sequels. Um I love 28 weeks later. Not like love, love, like, but I like it a lot.
SPEAKER_04:I really love it. 28 years I love I cannot wait for the next one. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:The the I just want to see what all those goofy blonde boys are gonna do. No, when they got all of a sudden the weird sound effects start popping up. I'm like, is this like a comedy now?
SPEAKER_04:I kind of hoped that they would be the uh teletub. They would be like human teletubbies.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Kind of in a way. Like, you know how they they whenever they finish killing them, they did that little stance so they all like give a holler of victory.
SPEAKER_00:It's like almost like a Power Rangers. Yeah, yeah, exactly.
SPEAKER_04:And I was like, I want more of that weird shit.
SPEAKER_00:If you go back and watch it, uh Rimick from Sinners is one of those guys. Oh, hell yeah. Yeah. Nice. Great.
SPEAKER_04:Um yeah, what do you got for the fine?
SPEAKER_06:Anything else?
SPEAKER_04:Oh, my find was that uh the humanity, yeah, the the extreme. Humanity in the in the extremes, because there's a a really great uh podcast that you seem to listen to called uh was it Dark History or uh I have heard a podcast called that. Maybe not I don't know, but it's all about like the Great War, like world wars, uh and like humanity in its extremes. Yeah, like the way people react to the I would love to listen to that.
SPEAKER_00:Cool. Well let's hit up our next category. Double feature. A it's where we recommend a movie that goes alongside this movie. All of the other ones. All of the other ones, yeah. Um I actually put another um shit. Uh I put another Alex Garland movie. Uh I put Civil War. Oh, I couldn't f I didn't finish that. I mean to it's uh kind of like a obviously it's about uh, you know, a movie about like the times that we're living in where like half the people hate the uh the other half of the people. Um but yeah, it's just like essentially what it is, is like there's a civil war right now, like in in America, but uh like you know, a now time, a present time. It's or I guess it's more of like a dystopian future for journalists travel across the United States during a nationwide conflict while trying to survive. They aim to reach the White House to interview the president before he is overthrown. Um but yeah, it's like in terms of like a movie about like humanity and stuff, it's uh it doesn't really create there's a lot of there's a lot of similar themes between 28 Days Later and Civil War. So I think it's kind of a perfect movie in it.
SPEAKER_04:Mine would be um it's not a movie, but it's a cinematic video game. Yeah. The Walking Dead Telltale series.
SPEAKER_00:Ah, yeah. That was one I've always wanted to play, but it's like you can get all of them for like 15 bucks, I think, right now. My thing with those games is like I want to play a game.
SPEAKER_04:Sure. But I think I do the writing is especially the in the first uh season. Because I don't really play the other ones, but the writing is so good. And uh I don't know, you just got you gotta check it out sometime.
SPEAKER_00:It's I I remember um just you know, like all the YouTubers were playing it, and like like if you ever watched any of them, like their thumbnail was always them crying. So like I always I always heard that it was like a really emotional great movie.
SPEAKER_04:It is, and like you make the you make decisions uh uh to like help or save someone. You had to like you play as like a little girl, don't you? Yeah, that when that's kind of the stories of in the first season of your little girl and the guy who rescues her from her house. So she's sitting there waiting on her parents to get back from Atlanta and like they don't come back. And so he's like, just come with me. Yeah, you know, and then it's just heartbreaking.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. It's so good. I have an ad for Depends Depends male uh diapers. You just shit yourself. I don't know. I didn't know it had to be. All right, um, so I forgot to tell you the next movie I wanted to do, um, but it's a fucking banga. It was actually nominated for Best Picture in like I think 2017 beginning. Yeah. Um it's Hell or High Water. Have you ever seen it? I don't know. The movie fucking rolls. It's got uh Chris Pine, um, Ben Foster, he's great in it, Jeff Bridges. I love Jeff Bridges. Yeah, and in one of his most absolutely can't understand him roles, best ones he does. Uh but it's just kind of like uh it's a movie like Toby's divorced father, he's trying to make a better life. His brother's an ex-con with a short temper and a loose trigger finger. Together, they plan series of heists against the banks. Like fucking idiot in the bank. Oh my god. It's uh it's written by Taylor Sheridan who wrote Sicario, but is now known for his uh uh TV shows like Yellowstone, Landman, stuff like that. Um, you know, where he's like, hey, I'm making really good movies. I shouldn't make mediocre TV shows that people at our job. Everybody's doing it. Um but yeah, it's a really good movie. And I was kind of talking about it with my wife, and I was like, we should fucking do that next. Hell yeah. That's what we're gonna do next. It's uh it's like a five-star fucking movie. It really is. Um very good. Yeah. Can't wait to talk about it. Yeah. So that is the episode. We have concluded 28 days later. Um, so we're gonna also uh, you know, do the next movie, which also isn't super hopeful. There's actually probably less hope in it. Um, but yeah, join us next week for Hell or High Water, and thank you for listening. Leave us some fan mail. We already told you how to do it, baby. Um, and leave us some good reviews and subscribe. Also, we did get a comment on YouTube, Jason, and it was a nice one. Okay, good, and not a stupid one, like some of the other people were like, podcast dumb. Um, but the comment was left, oop, that's the wrong thing, was left by Gaudi8592, and it says, Y'all are hilarious. Oh, thanks, Coley. And that was on our Roadhouse uh episode, and that is a very funny episode that we did. So thank you for that comment if you're still listening to us, or if you just decided I want to listen to one random podcast about Roadhouse. Um, but I'm assuming you're still listening because why would you comment on it, right? But yeah, so leave us comments. It makes us feel good. Like I'm so happy right now. You can't see it, but I'm fake smiling. Oh, I got all my teeth out. I'm smiling. But yeah, um, so like, comment, subscribe, follow, rate, review, uh, whatever stuff we're we have to say at the end. And I'd like to thank Joey Proster for our intro and outro music. You can follow him on X at Mr. Joey Proster. And this has been the We Recommend Podcast. I'm Jesse. I'm Jason. Oi! Governor, there's some damn zombies. There's no government. Bye. I don't know.
SPEAKER_01:I had no quote.
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