“OK Jim, I’ve got some bad news”.
Having previously re-released my thoughts on two of Danny Boyle’s “Top 5” films (Shallow Grave and Steve Jobs), here’s number 3 on my all time list from the English born filmmaker, and a film that immediately spawned a sequel as well as several gaming platform spin-offs and is arguably the first of its kind in the contemporary culture of “zombie films”.
Numbers 1 (Trainspotting) and 5 (Trance) are being released shortly but should you be unable to wait, please see the huge, hour long read that is my opus blog article on the cinematic career of Danny Boyle linked below or if you’re here for the zombies, please see my spoiler free review of 28 Days Later below, and my brief dissection of the opening to a magnificent film.
Danny Boyle — 12 Cinematic Gems
Trainspotting to Trainspotting and ten more gems all lovingly appreciated and spoiler free from inside a shallow grave.medium.com
“OK Jim, I’ve got some bad news”.
With no opening titles, the film immediately begins with a portent of things to come (both in terms of the film and in Danny Boyle’s directorial expertise) with frenetically edited footage of riots and destruction around the world, and of chaos and mass societal breakdown. There are numerous television screens all showing the same footage and as the camera pulls back we see a chimpanzee connected to these multiple screens via electrodes attached to his head. Three animal rights activists break into the secure facility housing this chimpanzee and a number of others but are warned not to free them. They are infected with the “rage” virus and when subsequently freed, they wreck a bloody and rage fuelled revenge.
We cut to a simple slide which notes: “28 days later”.
There is a close up shot of an eyeball and the faint sound of a person breathing before we cut to an overhead shot of a naked man in a hospital bed attached to various tubes. We cut to another close up, this time on the man’s face as he slowly awakens and begins disconnecting the tubes. He now peers through the blinds of the window into the dishevelled and untidy corridor outside of his door, which he opens with a key he finds on the floor. He shouts a faint “Hello” before we cut to the same man, now dressed in a green hospital gown as he stumbles around the eerily silent and empty hospital building. He repeats a faint “Hello” before trying the telephones but they clearly aren’t working and he now shouts a more distressed and anguished “HELLO”. After leaving the hospital building we cut to two shots of the distressed man, one from below and a second from above, with the stationary white ambulances starkly juxtaposed against the matchstick figure in green.
We cut to a beautiful sunrise over the London skyline but it’s eerily silent as we cut between a shot of the London Eye and the man now walking over Westminster Bridge (pictured above). He stumbles across the bridge which is littered with discarded pieces of London memorabilia as the camera pans up to his bemused and distressed face and the noticeably horrific scar on the back of his skull. “Hello” he cries out again. After he crosses the bridge we cut to a shot of a broken shop window and a bus turned onto it’s side. He lets out a more anguished and louder “HELLO” but all around him remains eerily quiet.
Further edited shots of the man follow him on his walk through the deserted streets, from the Houses of Parliament to the London Eye with one shot in particular standing out and from on high and again framing a matchstick figure all alone. The haunting musical soundtrack (Godspeed You Black Emperor by East Hastings) is the only sound to be heard and it continues to build to a crescendo as the man collects numerous discarded £20 notes from the streets. With the music continuing we cut to a long shot of the man juxtaposed against the beautiful early morning sunrise and St Paul’s Cathedral before cutting to a brilliant signature shot of the entire sequence as the distressed man continues his lonely walk against the background of a large billboard and a smiling lady behind him (see picture above).
After setting off a car alarm the man picks up a newspaper and the headline reads “EVACUATION”. The wonderful yet haunting music continues to build as we follow the man into a deserted Piccadilly Circus and the reality hits him as The Statue of Eros is cordoned off and the barriers swamped with notices pleading for information on lost family members. Unable to comprehend the enormity of the situation, and as the music comes to an end, he begins to walk away. We cut to the man, entering a church…….
The man in question is “Jim” and he’s brought to life admirably by a wonderful Cillian Murphy who continued with the Danny Boyle trend of a headlining actor who would go onto become a fully fledged Hollywood star. Roles in all three Christopher Nolan inspired Batman films followed, as did a brilliant performance in Nolan’s seminal film Inception and between these hugely successful franchise films Murphy also reunited with Boyle on 2007’s Sunshine and was truly outstanding in the underrated 2011 low budget thriller Retreat. But here as Jim, Murphy excels as he tries to make sense of the emptiness around him, of the devastation and heartbreak and of course, the virus ridden zombies that just love to attack at night! Fearing he was all alone, Jim is rescued by “Selena” (an excellent Naomie Harris) and “Mark” (Noah Huntley) who in the film’s only real exposition heavy scene describes to Jim the utter devastation the outbreak of the virus has wrecked on civilisation and the dire consequences should they come into contact with any of the walking dead and virus infected zombies. This brief scene in particular continues a key theme that permeates the film as Boyle blends the horror narrative of virus infected zombies with excellent directorial touches of light and shade, shadows and particularly reflections, as well as darkly comedic humour. The scene is bathed in shadows and reflections, a constant theme of the film, but the humour is raised by the inclusion of the classic Giraffe/Lion joke, which pleased this 42 year old teenager immensely!
Although ostensibly a zombie horror film it is also somewhat of a buddy/road trip film as our survivors seek refuge, a way out and survival from the horrors that surround them. It is in this respect that our main supporting roles are cast, with “Frank” (Brendan Gleeson) and “Hannah” (Megan Burns) as survivors and a Father/Daughter family unit. Gleeson is superb as always but it’s Megan Burns as the belligerent, cheeky yet determined to survive Hannah who excels. With refuge seemingly found in a northern outpost patrolled by a motley crew of sweary and on edge soldiers, by far and away the stand out supporting role is portrayed by a returning Christopher Eccleston as “Major Henry West”. Calm and self effacing on the surface but mentally unhinged and subtly terrifying, Eccleston is superb and almost steals the film from Murphy’s performance as Jim.
This post apocalyptic zombie horror from Danny Boyle spawned numerous imitators after it’s release in 2002 including a loose follow up 28 Weeks Later and even illusionist Derren Brown’s 2012 TV show Apocalypse. This certainly wasn’t the first film to explore themes of virus carrying zombies either but what sets this apart from it’s predecessors or indeed its imitators is the love story at the core of the film, of two disparate individuals thrown together in the midst of a horrifying situation and despite their selfish individual intentions for survival they seek solace in one another and a strong faith that human kind can prevail. The Director, along with his two leading actors in Cillian Murphy and Naomie Harris deserve great credit for keeping this narrative strand at the heart of the story despite the chaos surrounding them. As alluded to previously, the film is bathed in shadows and reflections and these are both highly effective and a source of the film’s building tension and suspense, as is John Murphy’s haunting soundtrack. The choice of East Hastings’ song during Jim’s lonely walk through the streets of London is an inspired inclusion, as is the inclusion of “Abide With Me” which is deeply personal for me and deeply affecting on the screen.
Director of Photography Anthony Dod Mantle also deserves immense credit for capturing the early morning sunrise shots and the vast amount of overhead and slow panning shots in the film’s opening segments, as well as the overhead shots of the single car travelling on a deserted motorway and our survivors walking along a similarly deserted train track. With the aforementioned shadows and reflections there is much to admire in and around the main narrative story. If there’s one small bone to pick it would be the inclusion of the shopping scene mid-way through the film. It’s good but it’s not needed, and only a minor flaw in an otherwise gripping and shocking zombie film, with a love story twist!
Thanks for reading. Just for larks as always, and always a human reaction rather than spoilers galore. My three most recently published film and television articles are linked below or there’s well over 100 blog articles (with 300+ individual film reviews) within my archives from which to choose:
“Enemy” (2013)
“Chaos is order yet undecided”.medium.com
“Barton Fink” (1991)
My Coen Brothers Top Ten — Vol 3.medium.com
“The Prestige” (2006)
The Best of Christopher Nolan — Vol 2.medium.com