Editing 28 Days Later (section)

== Production ==
=== Development ===
Early influences on writer [[Alex Garland]] included the [[George A. Romero]] films ''[[Night of the Living Dead]]'' (1968) and ''[[Dawn of the Dead (1978 film)|Dawn of the Dead]]'' (1978), which he loved as a child. Garland claimed to have largely forgotten about the zombie genre until he played the video game ''[[Resident Evil (1996 video game)|Resident Evil]]'' (1996), which reminded him how much he loved zombies after "having not really encountered zombies for quite a while".<ref name="interview">{{cite news |last=Hasan |first=Zaki |title=INTERVIEW: Director Alex Garland on Ex Machina |url=https://www.huffingtonpost.com/zaki-hasan/interview-director-alex-g_b_7038618.html |work=HuffPost |date=10 April 2015 |access-date=21 June 2018 |archive-date=10 April 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150410071357/https://www.huffingtonpost.com/zaki-hasan/interview-director-alex-g_b_7038618.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=":2">{{cite web |last=Jones |first=Ralph |date=2023-06-27 |title='28 Days Later': The Oral History of Danny Boyle's Genre-Redefining Zombie Masterpiece |url=https://www.inverse.com/entertainment/28-days-later-oral-history-danny-boyle-alex-garland |access-date=2023-07-24 |website=[[Inverse (website)|Inverse]] |archive-date=11 June 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240611123951/https://www.inverse.com/entertainment/28-days-later-oral-history-danny-boyle-alex-garland |url-status=live }}</ref> Director [[Danny Boyle]] liked Garland's screenplay for a proposed zombie film, having directed the [[The Beach (film)|2000 film adaptation]] of Garland's novel ''[[The Beach (novel)|The Beach]]''.<ref name=":2" />

Producer [[Andrew Macdonald (producer)|Andrew Macdonald]] had access to funding from the [[National Lottery (United Kingdom)|National Lottery]], and pitched it to [[Universal Pictures]], who declined to support it. Budget constraints proved to be an issue, with [[Christopher Eccleston]] having to take an emergency pay cut.<ref name=":2" />

On the [[Audio commentary|DVD commentary]], Boyle and Garland frequently call the film [[Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction|post-apocalyptic]] and a [[horror film]], commenting on scenes that quote from Romero's [[Night of the Living Dead (film series)|''Dead'' trilogy]]. During the initial marketing of the film, Boyle tried to distance the film from such labels. Boyle identified [[John Wyndham (writer)|John Wyndham]]'s 1951 novel ''[[The Day of the Triffids]]'' as Garland's original inspiration for the story.<ref name="Guardian2">{{cite news |last=Kermode |first=Mark |date=6 May 2007 |title=A capital place for panic attacks |work=The Guardian|location=London |url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2007/may/06/features.review |url-status=live |access-date=12 May 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070513170940/http://film.guardian.co.uk/features/featurepages/0%2C%2C2073292%2C00.html |archive-date=13 May 2007}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Inglis |first=Becca |date=2022-11-19 |title=28 Days Later gutted the apocalyptic thriller – but is it a zombie movie? |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/films/0/28-days-later-how-danny-boyle-reanimated-zombie-movie/ |access-date=2024-06-14 |work=The Telegraph |language=en-GB |issn=0307-1235}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=FILMMAKER MAGAZINE {{!}} Summer 2003: The Diseased World |url=https://www.filmmakermagazine.com/archives/issues/summer2003/features/diseased_world.html |access-date=2024-06-14 |website=www.filmmakermagazine.com}}</ref>

Five months after the film was released in Europe, video game publisher [[NovaLogic]] hosted a [[graffiti]] competition in a cross-promotion with the game ''[[Devastation (video game)|Devastation]]''. The connection was owed mainly to the similar theme of a devastated world. The prizes consisted of signed screenplay copies and posters along with DVDs.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.novalogic.com/press.asp?ID=74 |title=DEVASTATION GONE GOLD |date=14 April 2003 |access-date=1 October 2022 |website=[[NovaLogic]] |archive-date=11 June 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240611123959/http://www.novalogic.com/press.asp?ID=74 |url-status=live }}</ref> For the Infected, Boyle took inspiration from real-life diseases, particularly [[Ebola]], with aspects of [[rabies]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.nme.com/features/film-interviews/28-days-later-interview-anniversary-cillian-murphy-danny-boyle-3340282|title='28 Days Later' at 20: Danny Boyle and Cillian Murphy on why it wouldn't get made today|first=Dan|last=Seddon|website=[[NME]]|date=1 November 2022|access-date=11 February 2024|archive-date=11 June 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240611124000/https://www.nme.com/features/film-interviews/28-days-later-interview-anniversary-cillian-murphy-danny-boyle-3340282|url-status=live}}</ref> [[James McAvoy]] auditioned for a role as an Infected.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/entertainment/articles/2013-03/22/james-mcavoy-interview-trance-macbeth-x-men|title=James McAvoy interview on Trance & X:Men Days of Future Past – GQ.COM (UK)|date=26 March 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130326222534/https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/entertainment/articles/2013-03/22/james-mcavoy-interview-trance-macbeth-x-men |access-date=11 February 2024|archive-date=26 March 2013}}</ref>

=== Filming ===
[[File:London, United Kingdom (Unsplash mfbEp8lS1hA).jpg|thumb|Busy areas of [[Central London]], including [[Westminster Bridge]], had to be filmed early in the morning or while the crew briefly closed streets for the film's opening sequence.]]
The film features scenes set in normally bustling parts of London, such as [[Westminster Bridge]], [[Piccadilly Circus]], [[Horse Guards Parade]] and [[Oxford Street]]. To depict these locations as desolate, the film crew closed off sections of street for minutes at a time, usually on Sunday mornings. They typically had around 45 minutes after dawn to shoot the locations devoid of members of the public and traffic.

Portions of the film were shot on a [[Canon XL1S|Canon XL1]] [[digital video]] (DV) camera,<ref>{{cite news |first=Douglas |last=Bankston |url=https://theasc.com/magazine/july03/sub/index.html |title=Anthony Dod Mantle, DFF injects the apocalyptic 28 Days Later with a strain of digital video |work=TheASC.com |date=1 July 2003 |access-date=1 May 2007 |archive-date=20 January 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180120182055/https://theasc.com/magazine/july03/sub/index.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=":2" /> which was smaller and more manoeuvrable than traditional film cameras, which would have been impractical on such brief shoots. The scenes of the empty [[M1 motorway]] were also filmed within limited periods, during which a mobile police roadblock slowed traffic sufficiently to leave a long section of carriageway empty. The section of the motorway depicted runs near [[Milton Keynes]], Buckinghamshire, around 150 miles southeast of Manchester.<ref>{{cite book|last=Nigel|first=Freestone|title=The Ultimate British Roads and Motorways Quiz Book: 200 Questions on Road and Motorway History|publisher=Andrews UK|year=2013}}</ref>

For the London scene in which Jim walks by an overturned [[double-decker bus]], the film crew placed the bus on its side and removed it when the shot was finished, all within 20 minutes.<ref>{{cite web|title=28 Days Later : About The Shoot|url=https://www.cinema.com/articles/1468/28-days-later-about-the-shoot.phtml|access-date=22 March 2021|website=cinema.com|archive-date=11 June 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240611123953/https://www.cinema.com/articles/1468/28-days-later-about-the-shoot.phtml|url-status=live}}</ref> The crew had asked [[Westminster City Council]] for permission to place the bus outside [[Downing Street]], which was denied; when they arrived there at 4am and nobody from the council was present, they placed the bus there anyway.<ref name=":2" />

The [[September 11 attacks]] took place during filming.<ref name=":2" /> Boyle notes the parallel between the "missing persons" flyers seen at the beginning of the film and similar flyers posted in New York City in the wake of the attacks. Boyle said his crew probably would not have been granted permission to close off [[Whitehall]] for filming after the terrorist attacks.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Trimble |first=Sarah |year=2010 |title=(White) Rage: Affect, Neoliberalism, and the Family in 28 Days Later and 28 Weeks Later |journal=Review of Education, Pedagogy, and Cultural Studies |volume=32 |issue=3 |pages=295–322 |doi=10.1080/10714413.2010.495255 |s2cid=146485661}}</ref>

The mansion used in the film was [[Trafalgar House (Wiltshire)|Trafalgar Park]] near [[Salisbury]].<ref>{{cite web|title=The History|url=http://trafalgarpark.com/history/|access-date=22 March 2021|website=Trafalgar Park|archive-date=2 March 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210302003706/http://trafalgarpark.com/history/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|date=12 April 2016|title=This glorious country house was gifted to Horatio Nelson's family after he died in battle. It's up for sale – take a look around.|url=https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/trafalgar-park-sale-inside-12m-country-house-gifted-admiral-nelsons-grieving-family-1554498|access-date=22 March 2021|website=International Business Times UK|archive-date=25 May 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210525013815/https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/trafalgar-park-sale-inside-12m-country-house-gifted-admiral-nelsons-grieving-family-1554498|url-status=live}}</ref> Many rooms, including the [[Giovanni Battista Cipriani|Cipriani]]-painted music room and the main hall, were filmed with minimal set decoration. The scenes set upstairs were filmed downstairs, as the mansion's owner resided upstairs.{{Citation needed|date=June 2007}} The old ruins used as the setting for an idyllic interlude in their journey to Manchester were those of [[Waverley Abbey]], Surrey. The end scenes of the film with Jim, Selena and Hannah living in a rural cottage were filmed around [[Ennerdale Water|Ennerdale]] in Cumbria.<ref name="Cumbria">{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/cumbria/content/articles/2006/03/31/cumbriaonfilm_others_feature.shtml |title=Cumbria live |publisher=[[BBC]] |access-date=30 September 2010 |archive-date=11 June 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240611123953/https://www.bbc.co.uk/cumbria/content/articles/2006/03/31/cumbriaonfilm_others_feature.shtml |url-status=live }}</ref>

The production team hired an [[optometrist]] to supervise with the red [[contact lens]]es needed for cast members playing the infected.<ref name=":2" />

At a certain point, Macdonald announced to the crew that the production had run out of money, and filming ceased without a satisfactory closing sequence having been shot. After several different pitches for a new ending, with the original ending which featured Jim's death having [[Test screening|tested]] badly with audiences, the studio granted more funding to shoot the ending eventually used. The crew arranged for a real jet to fly overhead for them to film, as this was cheaper than approximately £70,000 for a [[Computer-generated imagery|computer-generated]] one.<ref name=":2" />

=== Alternative endings ===
The DVD extras include three alternative endings, all of which conclude with Jim dying. One of these was filmed, which involved Jim dying of his gunshot wounds.<ref name=":1">{{cite web |date=2021-06-12 |title=The Original Ending of 28 Days Later Was Far More Haunting |url=https://screenrant.com/28-days-later-movie-alternate-ending-darker/ |access-date=2022-03-27 |website=ScreenRant |archive-date=11 June 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240611124000/https://screenrant.com/28-days-later-movie-alternate-ending-darker/ |url-status=live }}</ref> In another, Jim dreams of the accident that left him in a coma as he dies from his gunshot wounds.<ref>{{cite web |date=2022-02-22 |title=28 Days Later (2002) - All Alternate Endings |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOLXWcA5Y1E |access-date=2024-12-17 |website=Youtube}}</ref> The third, a more radical departure, was presented only in [[storyboard]]s; instead of Frank being killed by soldiers after being infected, the other survivors tie him up and discover a research laboratory at the blockade, where Jim undergoes a [[blood transfusion]] in order to save Frank.<ref name=":1" /> The US cinematic release included one of the alternative endings after the film's credits in response to intense online debates over whether or not it was a more appropriate conclusion than the official ending.<ref>{{cite web |access-date=2 February 2008 |publisher=[[BBC News]] |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/3153077.stm |title=Plotting alternative film endings |date=15 August 2003 |archive-date=11 June 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240611123953/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/3153077.stm |url-status=live }}</ref>