- Directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo
- Written by Rowan Joffe, Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, Enrique Lopez Lavigne
- Stars Robert Carlyle, Rose Byrne, Jeremy Renner, Harold Perrineau
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 40 Minutes
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljqY7qrnycw
Spoiler-free Judgment Zone
Some time has passed since the last film, and things are getting back to normal, right? Well, not quite. This one was good, but not as good as the first one. The effects were still excellent, and it’s a blood fest. But we didn’t think the story was as gripping this time around.
Spoilery Synopsis
Don and Alice talk about their food supplies that are running low. We then see that they are part of a group of survivors. They argue about one of the girl’s boyfriends and whether or not he’ll return. A child starts beating on the door wanting in. Don opens the door and lets the kid in. He says that his parents were trying to kill him, and there were loads of others. Who he led right to their hiding place. The girl from before sees her boyfriend outside and immediately gets infected. Things devolve quickly from there.
Only Don gets outside, but he’s being pursued by hundreds of infected by this point. He finally manages to jump onto a motorboat and get away from them that way.
15 Days later, Great Britain was quarantined. 28 Days later, mainland Britain is destroyed by the Rage virus. 5 Weeks later, the infected have died of starvation. 11 Weeks later, an American-led NATO force enters London. 18 Weeks later, mainland England is declared free of infection, and 24 weeks later reconstruction begins.
28 Weeks later, Doyle is a soldier on the roof whining about not having anything to shoot. A group of returning evacuees arrive at the airport, even some children. Everyone coming in is screened for infection before they are allowed to return. They are heading for District One in the green zone. There are safe places and not-so-safe places throughout London. It is forbidden to cross the river and leave the safe zone.
The Major complains about families and what if the virus returns. It’s only been a few months since the last infected died.
Tammy and Andy get off the plane and are met by Don whom we met earlier. Don tells them that he keeps the power and water running; he practically runs the place and has full access. He tells what happened to his wife and their mother, and he lies a little to make it sound like he didn’t abandon them. Don still has nightmares about Alice.
At night, we can see from the lights just how small the “safe zone” really is. Doyle, Flynn, and the other soldiers keep watch over the safe buildings.
Andy complains that he doesn’t even have a picture of his dead mother, so Tammy suggests the two of them sneak across the river, go to their house, and get one. Doyle, still on watch, sees them cross the bridge. They get into the deserted, still trash-covered part of the city that still has bodies, get a scooter and drive through the same abandoned-type of scenes we saw in the first film.
They arrive at their former house and go inside. They get a photo and pack up some other stuff. And goes upstairs and finds… his mother, not dead art all. She survived that attack and went home afterward. The two kids run outside where the army is waiting for them. Alice is taken into custody as well; she’s panicked and half-insane.
Alice is screened and they do several blood tests. Scarlett says Alice is definitely infected, but she can’t explain why she’s not a monster. She is, however, a carrier and can infect others. Scarlet says she could be the key to a cure, but her boss, Stone, says they can run tests on her corpse just as well.
Don is notified about what happened, and he doesn’t know what to think about Alice being recovered. Tammy accuses Don of lying about Alice’s death. Don goes to see Alice, who is strapped down to a table. They make up, and he kisses her. A few seconds later, he’s fully infected, and Alice looks surprised. He tears her apart. We then get a montage of Don infecting soldiers and other people on the way out, freely passing through security doors with the access badge he’s wearing.
Stone orders a lockdown, “Execute code red.” Tammy and Andy find out what a zombie looks like before Scarlet lets them out. She thinks they may genetically carry the immunity that Alice had, but they all get separated in the crowd. There’s a quarantine room, and Don breaks in. There’s soon pandemonium in the crowded room as everyone becomes infected. Andy gets away through the air vent.
Everyone runs outside to where Doye and snipers try to decide who’s infected and who isn’t from the rooftops. Stone eventually orders them to shoot everyone. The snipers do their job, and a whole lot of uninfected people die. Andy soon meets up with Tammy and Scarlet. Doyle is locked in with them, and he wants to get out of there.
Flynn calls Doyle to warn him that the air force is going to firebomb in a matter of minutes. The government soon starts destroying everything.
Doyle, Scarlet, Sam, Tammy, and Andy cross the bridge into the unsafe zone, leaving the hordes of infected behind them. They all go to a field to rest, but there are several dozen infected approaching. Flynn comes in in his helicopter, but he can’t carry that many people. Sam panics and grabs the helicopter. Flynn chops up a bunch of them in his copter blades, but not all of them.
There is much running and shooting as the four try to get away from the pursuing infected mob. Doyle gets them into a car and pushes it to get it started before he’s set on fire by flamethrowers.
Scarlet, Tammy, and Andy make their way through the subway. As Scarlet tries to lead the other two through the darkness with her night vision, there is much screaming– until Scarlet is beaten to death by Don, who has appeared from nowhere.
Don jumps on top of Andy and bites him. Tammy shoots Don repeatedly until he’s dead. She chases Andy for a short way, but he doesn’t turn crazy. Tammy lies and says he’s not a carrier.
The two walk into Wembley Stadium where Flynn has parked the helicopter. He lets the board and flies them to safety.
28 days later, we see another outbreak, this time in Paris. That’s not gonna be contained.
Commentary
It was OK, but I never really bought the idea of bringing back civilians when so little of the country was under their control. Half the soldiers are monsters and the other half can’t follow orders. I also see no reasonable reason why the soldiers would blindly just kill everyone; unlike a normal zombie virus, you can tell if this virus has infected someone within seconds. A healthy-looking person who can stand still for thirty seconds is fine. Even more so if they’re driving a car.
The music was fine, although not up to the first one. The acting was decent, even though several of the characters weren’t acting rationally. The zombie makeup and effects were excellent, but overall the film focused entirely too much on the children.