There won't be many big films this summer inspired by Aristotle. Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, director 28 Weeks Later, says his is. The philosopher wrote that "rage occurs when a person gives back their own suffering". Whether you think that's mildly pretentious for a film of this nature is not the point; you like it or not, survivor guilt is all over this film in spades.
The sequel to Danny Boyle's 2002 hit 28 Days Later, this picks up the story in a Britain being slowly reconstructed after the deadly Rage virus has wiped out life in the country. The American army leads the operation, and inevitably it all goes wrong. Such things sequels are made of. This one, though, was made at the encouragement of the British director, suggesting his successor on the basis of what Boyle felt to be a unique vision. He was right. Wanting to shoot London 'as an outsider', Fresnadillo riffs creatively on the first film's now famous images of a deserted central London - particularly in the haunting aerial shots of a DLR train carrying refugees to the 'safe' zone of the Isle of Dogs. Survivor guilt is everywhere; not least in Robert Carlyle, who failed to save his wife the first time around. This all leads to a disturbing route back for the mutating virus, whereby some victims take their rage out on those who they perceive to have cause their suffering. (I'll leave out the details for the sake of saving a plot spoiler).
If it's not surprising, then, to discover that the director has felt guilt since the day as a child in Tenerife he witnessed a fatal plane crash, neither is it a shock to learn the parallels with Iraq were deliberate. Arrogant self-assurance of the military? A situation out of control? A people who feel like foreigners in their own land? All there, and more - you may say it's a rather trite parallel, but then Iraq has rapidly become the lens through which we view so much. It may not be entirely convincing, but did we really expect anything else?
The sequel to Danny Boyle's 2002 hit 28 Days Later, this picks up the story in a Britain being slowly reconstructed after the deadly Rage virus has wiped out life in the country. The American army leads the operation, and inevitably it all goes wrong. Such things sequels are made of. This one, though, was made at the encouragement of the British director, suggesting his successor on the basis of what Boyle felt to be a unique vision. He was right. Wanting to shoot London 'as an outsider', Fresnadillo riffs creatively on the first film's now famous images of a deserted central London - particularly in the haunting aerial shots of a DLR train carrying refugees to the 'safe' zone of the Isle of Dogs. Survivor guilt is everywhere; not least in Robert Carlyle, who failed to save his wife the first time around. This all leads to a disturbing route back for the mutating virus, whereby some victims take their rage out on those who they perceive to have cause their suffering. (I'll leave out the details for the sake of saving a plot spoiler).
If it's not surprising, then, to discover that the director has felt guilt since the day as a child in Tenerife he witnessed a fatal plane crash, neither is it a shock to learn the parallels with Iraq were deliberate. Arrogant self-assurance of the military? A situation out of control? A people who feel like foreigners in their own land? All there, and more - you may say it's a rather trite parallel, but then Iraq has rapidly become the lens through which we view so much. It may not be entirely convincing, but did we really expect anything else?
We should be grateful. There will be precious few more big films this summer that seek to treat an audience like adults, and look like they have been made with this flair. It's brutally effective, utterly compelling and stays true to it's pessimistic convictions. It's in the nature of such things that I left this film glad to be alive and reflecting that the world is a better, more grace-infected place than I often allow a glance at the news to let me think. This isn't quite the achievement of the original, but it comes close and deserves to stand alone. If you have the required strong stomach and nerves, then you may find it a strangely lightening experience.
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