What happened in 28 Days Later and 28 Weeks Later?

It also sees director Danny Boyle and writer Alex Garland teaming up again, following their collaboration on the original film back in 2002 – and so fans can perhaps expect a fair few callbacks to that movie.

With that in mind, read on for a full recap of both 28 Days Later and its 2007 sequel 28 Weeks Later – with the warning that there are obviously full spoilers for both movies ahead.

28 Days Later recap

The film begins by explaining just how the highly contagious virus broke out in the first place – when a group of animal rights activists freed a diseased chimpanzee from a Cambridge laboratory. After the virus began to rapidly spread, total societal collapse took hold in just a short matter of weeks.

Events pick up – as the title suggests – 28 days later, when we are introduced to bicycle courier Jim (Cillian Murphy), who had fallen into a coma in a traffic accident just before the virus broke out and is shocked to awaken from his hospital bed to find the streets of London completely deserted.

After he is chased by some infected humans, he is then rescued by survivors Selena (Naomie Harris) and Mark (Noah Huntley) who agree to accompany him to his parents house in Deptford – where he learns his parents have died by suicide. When Jim lights a candle, the infected are attracted to the house and wound Mark, who is promptly killed by Selena before the infection can take hold.

Jim and Selena then follow a makeshift signal and encounter taxi driver Frank (Brendan Gleeson) and his young daughter Hannah (Megan Burns), who alert them to a radio broadcast outlining a place of protection and salvation in Manchester, where the quartet duly travel.

However, on arrival they find it deserted, and – even worse – Frank is infected when a drop of blood from a nearby corpse falls into his eye, before hidden soldiers appear and shoot him dead.

It quickly becomes apparent that the supposed sanctuary was nothing but a ruse. The broadcast had been made by Major Henry West (Christopher Eccleston) so that he could try and lure female survivors into sexual slavery – and when Jim and another soldier refuse to go along with this, the latter is shot and Jim manages to escape amid the resulting melee.

When Jim finds proof of life in the outside world, he lures West away from his mansion and returns to free Mailer, an infected soldier who had been kept under observation – allowing him to infect and kill the remaining soldiers.

Jim, Selena and Hannah try to get away in Frank's cab - although Jim is shot by West as they drive away. Meanwhile, West himself is also killed by Mailer.

28 Days Later ending explained

The film concludes with a scene set another 28 days later, which shows that Jim is now recovering in a remote cottage in Cumbria from the wound he sustained after he was shot at by West.

In the final scene, we see Jim, Selena and Hannah attempt to gain the attention of a Hawker Hunter jet which is flying overhead – although it is never determined whether they are spotted.

Meanwhile, towards the end of the film we also see several infected lying on the roads surrounding the cottage. It appears that with so few humans left to feed on, they have been dying of starvation – rendering the outbreak at is natural end.

28 Weeks Later recap

Although set in the same post-outbreak universe, the events of 28 Weeks Later are narratively unrelated to the first film – at least as far as the characters are concerned. The film introduces us to Don Harris (Robert Carlyle), who we see escaping on a boat early on after his wife Alice (Catherine McCormack) and other survivors become infected during the initial outbreak.

It then picks up 28 weeks after the infection, with NATO now controlling Britain and repopulating the country with settlers and refugees including Don's children Tammy (Imogen Poots) and Andy (Mackintosh Muggleton) – who had been away from the country when the outbreak started.

After they are reunited with their father in a safe zone, they sneak out to visit their old home and are surprised to find their presumed dead mother alive, though in a delirious state. It turns out that she was immune to the virus but still carries it, which Don discovers when he kisses her and becomes infected himself – going on to kill her before embarking on a deadly rampage.

Meanwhile, medical officer Scarlet (Rose Byrne) deduces that Tammy and Andy may also be immune and that they are therefore vital in bringing about a cure. The US military struggle to keep a hold of the chaos as Don's rampage continues, and general Stone (Idris Elba) employs increasingly destructive and heavy-handed tactics to deal with things.

Eventually, forces begin to firebomb the whole zone, with Scarlet, Tammy, Andy and two other survivors including Delta Force sniper Doyle (Jeremy Renner) and a man named Sam escaping to London, where they are followed by Don. After an action-packed few scenes in London that sees Sam infected and Doyle burned alive, the surviving trio shelter in the London Underground.

There, they are are ambushed by Don – with Scarlet killed and Andy bitten in the resulting attack – before Tammy kills her father. It turns out that Andy was indeed immune, and he and his sister reunite with Doyle's friend Flynn, who flies them to France.

28 Weeks Later ending explained

Although it initially seems that we are getting a happy ending, the film actually ends on a major cliffhanger: in the final moments, we see a group of infected seen emerging from a Paris Metro station near the Eiffel Tower, suggesting that the virus has now spread to Paris.

But interestingly, new film 28 Years Later will not be following on from those events – instead bringing all the action back to the UK. Meanwhile, director Danny Boyle has also explained that the film will also not be further exploring the idea of immunity that was touched on in 28 Weeks Later, claiming that it is more clearly a sequel to 28 Days Later.

"What was unique about the first film and was the best choice we ever made about it was that it featured entirely British," Boyle told Collider during a recent interview.

"It was just that land. And it was extraordinary thinking about something that powerful breaking out in that particular space, and it had to be dealt with by the inhabitants of that land."

He added: "And we decided to concentrate on that. There’s nothing wrong with 28 Weeks Later. We just decided not to follow those story elements. And it’s a bold choice we decided to declare up front by saying the Rage Virus was driven back from mainland Europe."

28 Years Later is in UK cinemas from Thursday 19th June.

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