What actually happens
Activists open a cage labeled 'rage'
Animal rights activists break into a laboratory in Cambridge to free chimpanzees that have been unusually aggressive. A scientist tells them the animals are infected with something called rage. An activist lets one out anyway. It attacks her, and within seconds she has the virus and turns on the others. The infection spreads across Great Britain quickly and the country collapses. The movie explains the outbreak here, and the rest of it is about the people who are left.
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London has been evacuated, and nobody told the priest
Twenty-eight days after the outbreak, Jim, a bicycle courier who was in a coma from an earlier traffic accident, wakes up in St Thomas' Hospital in London and finds the place empty. He walks out into streets with no traffic and old newspapers about an evacuation. He goes into a church and finds the aftermath of a massacre. An infected priest and a crowd of others notice him and give chase. Two survivors, Selena and Mark, rescue him and bring him to the shop in a Tube station where they are staying.
A candle in Deptford and a drive north
Jim asks to go to his parents' house in Deptford. They find that his mother and father died by suicide and left a note telling him never to wake up. Because it is getting dark, the group stays the night. Jim lights a candle while remembering his family, and the light attracts infected people from the neighbouring houses. Mark is infected while fending them off, and Selena has to kill him. Jim and Selena then follow a signal lamp up Balfron Tower to Frank, a cab driver, and his daughter Hannah. Frank plays a radio broadcast from soldiers promising safety at a blockade outside Manchester. The four travel there and find it empty. Frank kicks the gate, and a drop of blood falls into his eye from an infected body propped on it. Soldiers hiding nearby shoot him as the infection takes hold.
The soldiers have a plan for the women
The soldiers take Jim, Selena and Hannah to a fortified country house run by Major Henry West. There is a tour, a banquet and a chained infected soldier named Mailer who is kept for observation. Then West tells Jim the truth: the broadcast was bait to bring in women, so that his troops would have a reason to keep going. Jim and Sergeant Farrell refuse to take part and are imprisoned. Farrell tells Jim that the infection never left Britain, which has been quarantined by the rest of the world. Two guards shoot Farrell and argue with each other, which gives Jim a chance to run into the woods. He sees a jet's contrail overhead and understands that the outside world is still there.
Jim returns with a siren and a chained soldier
This is the scene people dread, and it is near the end. Jim draws West away from the house with a siren, goes back, and frees Mailer so he will attack the remaining soldiers. Corporal Mitchell tries to abduct Selena, and Jim kills him. Jim, Selena and Hannah escape in Frank's cab, but West is hiding in the back seat and shoots Jim in the stomach. Hannah throws the cab into reverse, and Mailer smashes through the back window, pulls West out, and mauls him until he dies. It happens while the cab is driving away, and it is aimed at West.
The ending, explained
Another twenty-eight days pass. Jim has recovered from being shot and is staying with Selena and Hannah in a remote cottage in Cumbria. The infected they see are lying on the roads, dying of starvation. A Hawker Hunter jet flies overhead, and the three of them spread out a giant cloth banner reading HELLO. They wave, and they wonder whether the pilot saw them. Jim, Selena and Hannah are alive. West and the soldiers Mailer infected are dead, as are Frank, Mark and Farrell.
The post-credits ruling
There is no post-credits scene. You can leave when the credits start.
✓ Spoiled safelyDog status: fine, no dog dies.
Questions people ask at 1am
Is 28 Days Later scary?
Yes. 28 Days Later is a 7 out of 10 and the dread lasts a few days. The fear comes from fast, frantic chases and then a cruel stretch with the soldiers, with plenty of graphic violence along the way.
How does 28 Days Later end?
Jim, Selena and Hannah escape the soldiers' house, and West is killed. Four weeks later they spread a HELLO banner outside a cottage to get the attention of a passing jet, and the movie ends there.
Does the dog die in 28 Days Later?
No dog dies in 28 Days Later. Animals do die in the film.
Is there a post-credits scene in 28 Days Later?
No. 28 Days Later has no post-credits scene, so you can leave when the credits start.
What is the rage virus in 28 Days Later?
In 28 Days Later it is a virus carried by lab chimpanzees. Within seconds of exposure it turns a person into someone who attacks everyone nearby, and it spreads across Great Britain until society collapses.
