28 Weeks Later is a 2007 post-apocalyptic horror film directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, who co-wrote the screenplay with Rowan Joffé, Enrique López Lavigne and Jesus Olmo.
The movie stars Robert Carlyle, Rose Byrne, Jeremy Renner, Harold Perrineau, Catherine McCormack, Mackintosh Muggleton, Imogen Poots, and Idris Elba.
During the initial outbreak of the Rage Virus[a], Don, his wife Alice, and four more survivors hide in a cottage on the outskirts of London.
Twenty-eight weeks after the outbreak, the U.S. military, under the command of Brigadier General Stone, brings in settlers and refugees.
They are admitted to District One, a heavily guarded safe zone on the Isle of Dogs, where they are reunited with their father, who lies to Tammy and Andy about their mother's presumed death.
Tammy and Andy sneak out of the safe zone and return to their former home to collect old family photographs when they are spotted by Doyle.
Inside their old home, Andy and Tammy find Alice alive in a delirious, semi-conscious state before they are discovered by soldiers.
Alice is taken to a quarantine room, where she is tested by Scarlet, a U.S. Army medical officer, and found to be an asymptomatic carrier of the Rage Virus.
Doyle, unable to keep complying with the order, escapes with Scarlet, Tammy, Andy, and numerous other survivors as the Air Force firebombs District One.
They break into an abandoned Volvo V70 to escape nerve gas that was released to kill the infected, but are unable to start the car.
A group of the infected emerge at the Paris Métro with a view of the Eiffel Tower, revealing that the virus has spread to continental Europe.
The international success of the 2002 horror film 28 Days Later influenced its creators—director Danny Boyle, producer Andrew Macdonald and screenwriter Alex Garland—to make a sequel four years following its release.
He also teased that its plot would revolve around the aftermath of the first film,[6] and would involve the US Army "declaring the war against infection had been won, and that the reconstruction of the country could begin".
[7] Boyle later hired Spanish filmmaker Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, believing he would be able to "bring a fresh new perspective" to the film.
[8] Fresnadillo felt the plot involving a family in Rowan Joffé's original script was underdeveloped, so he decided to rewrite it with collaborators Enrique López-Lavigne and Jesús Olmo.
Although both Fresnadillo and López-Lavigne were unimpressed with the initial draft, they found its concept of the family "trying to start over after the first outbreak" a redeemable aspect, deciding to retain it in the rewritten version.
[6] In September 2006, Robert Carlyle, Rose Byrne, Catherine McCormack, Harold Perrineau, Imogen Poots, Idris Elba, Mackintosh Muggleton and Jeremy Renner were announced as the cast for the sequel.
[9] Even though their roles were small or shot from a distance, all the extras who played the infected were required to have a movement-based artistic background, including such occupations as ballet, dance, gymnastics, circus performing, and miming.
[14] On 13 April 2007, 28 days before the release of the film in UK cinemas, a huge biohazard warning sign was projected against the White Cliffs of Dover.