Six months after the Rage virus decimated the population of Great Britain, the US Army helps secure a small area of London for survivors to repopulate and rebuild. However, when two siblings reunite with their father and unknowingly find their infected but asymptomatic mother, the deadly virus is reintroduced into the safe zone, triggering a chaotic new outbreak that threatens to spill beyond the country's borders.
Information |
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|---|---|
Language |
English |
Country |
United Kingdom Spain |
Premiere date |
May 11, 2007 |
Running time |
100 minutes |
Genre |
Drama Horror Sci-Fi Thriller |
Budget |
$15,000,000 |
Box Office |
$65,851,399 |
Crew |
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Directed by |
Juan Carlos Fresnadillo |
Produced by |
Enrique López Lavigne Andrew Macdonald Allon Reich |
Written by |
Rowan Joffe Juan Carlos Fresnadillo Jesus Olmo |
Music by |
John Murphy |
Cinematography |
Enrique Chediak |
Edited by |
Chris Gill |
Production Co. |
Fox Atomic DNA Films UK Film Council |
Distributed by |
Fox Atomic 20th Century Fox |
Official Trailer
The Plot
Betrayal at the Countryside Cottage
During the initial, cataclysmic outbreak of the Rage Virus in Great Britain, Don Harris and his wife Alice, who possesses a unique genetic trait of heterochromia, seek refuge in a fortified, remote cottage in the English countryside. They are not alone; they share their sanctuary with four other survivors: the elderly couple Geoff and Sally, a hardened man named Jacob, and Karen, a young woman struggling with the abandonment of her boyfriend. As the group sits down for a tense dinner, the silence is shattered by the desperate pounding of a young boy at their door. Despite the inherent risk, Don reluctantly admits the child, who reveals he has fled from the nearby town of Sandford after his own parents were consumed by the infection.
The boy’s arrival brings the nightmare to their doorstep. A horde of the infected, having tracked the child, launches a savage assault on the cottage. In the ensuing chaos, Karen is bitten and immediately killed by Don to prevent her transformation. The survivors are forced to split: Geoff, Sally, and Jacob attempt a desperate break through the barn, while Alice and the young boy flee to the upper floor. Don follows his wife, but as the infected corner Alice and the boy in a bedroom, fear overrides his loyalty. Ignoring Alice’s pleas for help and her refusal to abandon the child, Don slams the door shut, leaves them to their fate, and leaps from a window. He sprints across the open fields, pursued by dozens of the infected, eventually reaching a river dock. There, he finds Jacob struggling to untie a motorboat. In a final act of cold survival, Don starts the boat as Jacob falls into the water; when the infected Jacob attempts to climb aboard, Don uses the motor's propeller blades to shred him before disappearing downriver as the lone survivor.
Twenty-Eight Weeks of Silence
The Rage Virus eventually burns itself out across the British mainland as the infected succumb to mass starvation. Following a strict timeline of recovery—15 days for quarantine, 28 days for total destruction, 5 weeks for starvation, and 11 weeks for the arrival of American-led NATO forces—the reconstruction of London finally begins. By the 24th week, the city is declared free of infection. In the 28th week, the repatriation of survivors begins within "District One," a heavily fortified and fully functional green zone located on the Isle of Dogs, managed by the iron-fisted General Stone.
Among the new arrivals are Don’s children, Tammy and Andy, who were safely on a school trip abroad during the initial outbreak. They are processed by Chief Medical Officer Scarlet Levy, who immediately notices that Andy has inherited his mother’s heterochromia—one green eye and one brown eye. The children are reunited with Don, who has found a new life as the district's caretaker. However, the reunion is built on a foundation of lies; Don tells his children that their mother was killed by the infected in the cottage, omitting his own cowardice and her possible survival.
The Ghost in the Attic
The peace in District One is short-lived. Andy, haunted by a nightmare that he will forget his mother’s face, convinces Tammy to sneak out of the safe zone. The siblings bypass military security and travel across the desolate, vine-choked ruins of London to their old family home to retrieve a photograph of Alice. While exploring the house, Andy is shocked to find Alice alive in a disheveled, delirious state, having somehow survived the months of isolation. The US military, led by the wisecracking sniper Doyle, quickly tracks the children down and brings them, along with Alice, back to District One.
Alice is placed in immediate isolation. During a medical examination, Scarlet discovers an old bite scar on Alice’s arm. Though she carries the Rage Virus in her blood, Alice displays no symptoms—she is an asymptomatic carrier due to her genetic abnormality. While Scarlet views Alice as the potential key to a vaccine, General Stone views her as a biological ticking time bomb that must be eliminated to ensure the safety of the reconstruction project.
The Fatal Kiss and Code Red
Consumed by guilt over his past actions, Don uses his all-access caretaker keycard to bypass military security and enter Alice's isolation room. He finds her restrained and begs for her forgiveness. Alice, in a semi-lucid state, appears to forgive him. The two share a tragic, lingering kiss, but the moment is fatal; the Rage Virus in Alice’s saliva immediately infects Don. In a horrific burst of violence, the infected Don brutally beats Alice to death, gouging her eyes out before escaping into the heart of District One. He begins a rapid "domino effect" of infection, attacking soldiers and civilians alike.
As the virus spreads like wildfire through the densely populated zone, General Stone declares "Code Red." The military executes a total lockdown, cutting power and trapping hundreds of uninfected civilians in a safe room garage. Among them is Andy, who is separated from Scarlet and Tammy in the panic. The infected Don breaks into the garage, turning the safe haven into a slaughterhouse. As the situation spirals out of control, the order is given to the snipers on the rooftops: initially, they are told to target the infected, but as the chaos grows indistinguishable, the order shifts to "kill all."
Firebombing and the Sniper’s Defiance
Doyle, witnessing the massacre of innocent civilians from his sniper nest, finds himself unable to comply with the "kill all" order. He abandons his post and joins Scarlet, Tammy, and Andy, who have managed to escape the garage. Doyle leads the small group of survivors, including a man named Sam, through the streets of District One as the US Air Cavalry arrives to firebomb the area. They narrowly escape the incinerating napalm by hiding in a tunnel as the green zone is wiped off the map. However, General Stone observes from his bunker that the firebombing was not absolute; a significant number of infected have escaped the flames and are now heading into the wider ruins of London.
The survivors trek across the dilapidated city toward Regent's Park, hoping for an airlift from Doyle’s friend, the helicopter pilot Flynn. Scarlet reveals her belief that Tammy and Andy may have inherited their mother’s immunity, making their survival the most important mission in the world. When Flynn arrives, he is horrified by the approaching horde of infected and initially refuses to take the civilians. After using his helicopter's rotor blades to macabrely shred a wave of attackers, Flynn informs Doyle that he can only pick him up at a secondary location: Wembley Stadium.
Sacrifice and the Dark Underground
As the military begins pumping lethal nerve gas into the city to sanitize the streets, the group takes refuge inside an abandoned Volvo. The gas kills the pursuing infected, but the car will not start. Seeing soldiers armed with flamethrowers approaching to incinerate anything left in the gas's wake, Doyle makes a final, heroic choice. He exits the car to push-start it, successfully getting the engine running just as the soldiers arrive. Doyle is burned alive by the flamethrowers, sacrificing himself to give Scarlet and the children a chance to escape.
Scarlet drives the trio into the London Underground to evade a pursuing attack helicopter, where they are forced to continue on foot in the pitch-black tunnels. Using the night-vision scope from Doyle’s rifle, Scarlet attempts to guide the siblings, but they are separated on a steep escalator. In the darkness, Scarlet is ambushed and beaten to death by the infected Don, who has tracked his family into the depths. Andy wanders onto a dark platform where his father finds him and bites him. Tammy arrives just in time to see the horror and is forced to use Doyle’s rifle to shoot and kill her father. Despite being bitten, Andy does not turn; instead, his eye becomes bloodshot, mirroring his mother's condition. He is now an asymptomatic carrier.
The Fall of Europe
Tammy and Andy eventually emerge from the Underground and reach Wembley Stadium. Flynn, finding only the children and learning of Doyle’s death, reluctantly honors his friend's final wish and airlifts them across the English Channel. As they fly over the White Cliffs of Dover, the ruins of Britain are left behind, seemingly containing the threat. However, the finality of the escape is an illusion.
Twenty-eight days later, a frantic voice is heard over the radio of Flynn’s abandoned helicopter, now located in France. The scene shifts to the heart of Paris, where a massive horde of the infected erupts from a Metro station. They sprint across the Palais de Chaillot toward the Eiffel Tower, accompanied by bone-chilling screams. The Rage Virus has officially breached the island's borders and begun its conquest of mainland Europe.
Top Cast
- Robert Carlyle as Don
- Rose Byrne as Scarlet
- Jeremy Renner as Doyle
- Harold Perrineau as Flynn
- Catherine McCormack as Alice
- Imogen Poots as Tammy
- Mackintosh Muggleton as Andy
- Idris Elba as Stone
