Director and writer duo Danny Boyle and Alex Garland reunite to explore a world ravaged by the rage virus, decades after the initial outbreak, in 28 Years Later. The film stars Jodie Comer, Aaron-Taylor Johnson, Jack O’Connell, Alfie Williams, and Ralph Fiennes as survivors fighting for ways to exist amidst the infected. Sequestering themselves in a small island, the group of survivors discover secrets and horrors far beyond the one currently sweeping across the country,

Watch the “Imagine” vignette with Danny Boyle and Alex Garland: https://youtu.be/8lo8rDf5ZGo

28 Years Later is partially set in Holy Island, with the community seeking safety from the infected by way of the causeway, the single entry point to the haven.  “The island and causeway felt like a great starting point for our story,” Boyle elaborates, “because the causeway can be defended when it’s exposed by the tide. A community could thrive. Instead of a post-apocalyptic state, it looks like a town from the turn of the twentieth century. But the mainland then becomes somewhere ‘over there,’ offering both promise and threat.”

With such an isolated setting, Boyle feels like they can get the most out of the characters put inside the community. “With this kind of film we can explore characters by deciding what rules they’re setting and following. It helps define how they think, what they prioritize, and who they are.”

For writer Garland, the type of society this infection brought forth feels like an accurate human reaction, mirroring the fact that the plague-ridden Britain is also isolated from the rest of the world. “We considered what the infection would look like,” he remembers. “What happens to the country being quarantined and essentially abandoned by the rest of the world?” 

He draws from the real world to try and answer those questions. “There’s a kind of ruthless, pragmatic, dog-eat-dog dimension to the ways things play out when a nation collapses. Broadly speaking, people not affected by the collapse ignore it and just go about their lives,” he says.

For producer Andrew Macdonald, the timing of 28 Years Later couldn’t be more perfect.  “We wanted to make a film with a unique kind of epic scale. Using 28 Years Later to accomplish that has been very exciting. It felt like the perfect time for us to return to the infected,” he says.

Find out what it takes to survive as 28 Years Later arrives in Philippine cinemas on June 18. 28 Years Later is distributed in the Philippines by Columbia Pictures, local office of Sony Pictures Releasing International. Connect with the hashtag #28YearsLater and tag @columbiapicph

Photo & Video Credit: “Columbia Pictures”

(ROHN ROMULO)