FILM · 2002 · UK
28 Days Later
- Directed by
- Danny Boyle
- Runtime
- 113 min
- Studio
- DNA Films
98 archived facts 7 topics 1 source Last reviewed Sep 2026
Twenty-eight days after a killer virus was accidentally unleashed from a British research facility, a small group of London survivors are caught in a desperate struggle to protect themselves from the infected. Carried by animals and humans, the virus turns those it infects into homicidal maniacs -- and it's absolutely impossible to contain.
Summary: TMDB
All facts (98)
- #001
For the highway scenes, the production obtained permission to film on the M1 between 7:00 and 9:00 on a Sunday morning. Police slowed traffic gradually in both directions. Using 10 cameras, the producers managed to capture a total of one minute of usable footage.
- #002
Contains a major spoiler — show
The execution pit scene near the end was filmed in front of a church on Witherington Road, which connects Salisbury to Downton. One of the crews did not collect the fake corpses after filming. A local hairdresser from Downton saw them from the road, panicked, crashed her car and called the police, who came to investigate and question the crew.
- #003
Contains a major spoiler — show
At the end of the film, the plane's pilot speaks Finnish on the radio. This was because the chartered jet carried the Finnish Air Force's markings, which could not be altered. The pilot's last words are "Lähetätkö helikopterin?", meaning "Will you send a helicopter?"
- #004
Contains a major spoiler — show
Several endings were filmed, including one in which Jim (Cillian Murphy) is taken to hospital and, despite Selena's attempts to revive him, succumbs to his gunshot wound. Selena and Hannah then regain their composure and leave the hospital together, an open ending implying they will make it. Test audiences, however, interpreted this as a certain death sentence for them. The producers successfully lobbied the studio to raise more money to film two special epilogues with more uplifting endings: one in which Jim is still dead but Selena and Hannah are found safe and well in a cottage by a lake, and finally the one used, in which Jim survives and ends up at the cottage with them.
- #005
The scene in which Jim and Selena celebrate with Frank and Hannah was filmed on September 11, 2001. Danny Boyle said that after lunch the cast and crew saw footage of the terrorist attacks and heard all kinds of rumours about planes heading for London, which made filming a celebration scene that day feel extremely strange: "We'd have televisions in the little room across from the main living room where we were shooting. And everyone would go in there and watch it. It changed the nature. Undoubtedly of the film." Boyle added that they were lucky to have already shot all of London's deserted streets a few months before September 11, because with all the new public safety measures introduced afterwards, the guerrilla style of shooting on location with only the equipment the crew brought along would have been nearly impossible.
- #006
Contains a major spoiler — show
The film caused some confusion over whether the virus was a worldwide phenomenon or confined to Britain. This was clarified in the DVD commentary. When filming began, Danny Boyle and Alex Garland intended to explain that the virus had spread worldwide, which is why Selena mentions outbreaks in Paris and New York early in the film. As filming progressed, however, they changed their minds and decided to make the virus's spread more ambiguous. They therefore wrote the dialogue Sergeant Farrell (Stuart McQuarrie) delivers when he is tied to the radiator as a counter-theory to Selena's claims, positing that Britain would be quarantined at the first sign of trouble and that the virus could not possibly have reached America or mainland Europe. Obviously, the sequel 28 Weeks Later (2007) confirms that Farrell was entirely right, and 28 Years Later (2025) specifically mentions that the whole of Great Britain has been cordoned off and that ships patrol its waters to ensure nothing leaves the island.
- #007
This was one of the first zombie films to popularise the phenomenon of running zombies. Zombie films had not been popular since the 1980s, so director Danny Boyle and writer Alex Garland felt the threat in the film had to be believable for a modern audience. Garland was a fan of Resident Evil (1996), and the running zombie dogs in that game inspired him to create running zombies: "mass velocity, visceral impact, to make it a really scary movie." Athletes were cast as the Infected because physicality was so important to them. Boyle thought that since athletes could do things other people could not, it would be interesting to turn that into the movements of the Infected.
- #008
Contains a major spoiler — show
The scene in which Major West explains his plans for Hannah and Selena to Jim was written the night before it was shot by Cillian Murphy, Christopher Eccleston and Alex Garland. A different scene had been written and filmed, but no one was happy with it, especially the two actors.
- #009
Almost the entire film was shot in sequence; only the pickups and a few reshoots were filmed out of order.
- #010
The extras playing the corpses in the church were university students who volunteered to appear in the film.
- #011
The hospital in the film is a real day hospital and is open only on weekdays. The hospital's trust administrators rent the building to filmmakers on weekends, and productions pay the hospital directly, meaning the money from filming goes straight into the hospital's trust fund.
- #012
Alex Garland and Danny Boyle did a great deal of research on social unrest, drawing ideas from what happened in Rwanda and Sierra Leone (such as bodies piled inside churches), but they drew the line at using real footage of such events in the opening montage. All images involving corpses or disrespect to corpses were fake.
- #013
Contains a major spoiler — show
Danny Boyle and Naomie Harris developed a backstory to explain Selena's stubborn, ruthlessly pragmatic outlook. Apparently Selena had to kill her infected mother and father to save her 14-year-old brother, only to discover he was already infected and have to kill him too. As a result, Selena avoids forming emotional attachments.
- #014
For the scene on top of the London tower block, there were initially only 100 buckets, in black and grey, for collecting rainwater, and they were barely noticeable. The art department then had to go to every shop and buy up as many coloured buckets as they could find. When Frank shows them to Jim, he explains that since it had not rained he tried a method he had seen on television, using a plastic sheet to catch dew and condensation, but failed. This is because he is using the method on an asphalt roof. The purpose of the plastic sheet is to catch and collect moisture and condensation rising from the soil, so it only works if you use it over soil.
- #015
Contains a major spoiler — show
Another way the zombie film was made more contemporary was the idea that the virus does not affect people physically (it does not kill them, as in traditional zombie films) but psychologically. In the film's backstory, scientists were initially testing a mood-balancing, Valium-like drug on chimpanzees kept in a permanent state of psychotic rage by the Rage virus. Both Alex Garland and Danny Boyle felt the idea of an escaped virus turning people into zombie-like beings through uncontrollable rage was a good metaphor for the contemporary phenomenon of social rage (road rage, air rage, hospital rage, etc.), and they liked the concept that the virus amplifies something already inside every man and woman rather than turning them into something wholly Other, as in the traditional route of zombie films. They removed the background of the virus's development because they felt the audience needed as little explanation as possible.
- #016
The 'design' of the rage symptoms was based on Ebola, which is contagious in all primates (including humans) and transmitted through blood. Ebola is a haemorrhagic fever that causes rashes, red eyes and both internal and external bleeding. Indeed, 28 Days Later: The Aftermath (a comic book set between 28 Days Later and 28 Weeks Later (2007)) explains that the Ebola virus was used by scientists as a carrier for the inhibitor that became Rage.
- #017
The crew submitted all the necessary permits to destroy the Canary Wharf petrol station, but the police were not (unintentionally) notified. When the explosives were detonated, the police dispatched fire crews (even though a fire crew was already present). Danny Boyle sorted out the problem a few hours later. The explosion cost a total of £250,000.
- #018
When Jim and the group stop at a roadside restaurant on the way to Manchester by taxi and Jim is attacked by the diseased boy inside, and Jim knocks the boy down and pins him by putting his foot on his chest, just before Jim delivers the final blow you hear the boy say "I hate you! I hate you!" several times. This is the only time you hear any of the infected speak, both in this film and in its sequel 28 Weeks Later.
- #019
The first choice to play Jim was Ewan McGregor, but he and director Danny Boyle had a falling-out at the time over The Beach (2000), in which McGregor was to have played the lead until Leonardo DiCaprio replaced him (they have since reconciled). DiCaprio was never a candidate because Boyle wanted to go with lesser-known actors. Contrary to rumours, the role was never offered to Ryan Gosling; Tom Hardy and Orlando Bloom were also among the actors considered. Cillian Murphy was eventually cast and would go on to work with Boyle again on Sunshine (2007).
- #020
Alex Garland and Danny Boyle felt the idea of the living dead wanting to eat people's brains was outdated. One of the original factors behind zombie films was the fear of nuclear energy and its possible effects on people. Garland and Boyle concluded that one of the greatest fears in modern society is the fear of disease, particularly a viral apocalypse such as Ebola or Marburg. Garland and Boyle were particularly inspired by the anthrax and bioterrorism scares in London and by events such as the spread of mad cow disease and foot-and-mouth disease in the United Kingdom.
- #021
Contains a major spoiler — show
The shot in which Jim finds the dead mother still clutching her dead baby was based on a photograph Danny Boyle had seen showing a pile of gassed Kurdish bodies.
- #022
The scene in which Jim finds and picks up the money on the stairs was based on a photograph Danny Boyle saw in Cambodia after Pol Pot was ousted.
- #023
It is one of the first mainstream films shot entirely digitally. Director Danny Boyle hired cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle after seeing The Celebration (1998). That film was shot according to Dogme 95 principles, meaning natural light only and handheld cameras, which was exactly what Boyle intended for 28 Days Later.
- #024
Cillian Murphy's nude scenes were shot on a closed set at Murphy's insistence. Danny Boyle reportedly felt, on first seeing Murphy without a shirt, that the actor looked so ragged that he wrote more shirtless scenes for him, including the film's climax.
- #025
Because the owner of the mansion lived upstairs, all the manor scenes featuring the upstairs rooms were shot downstairs. When Jim jumps through the roof window, he is actually jumping to the ground floor through a hole in the upstairs corridor.
- #026
Contains a major spoiler — show
The footage of the jet flying over Jim as he flees the two soldiers about to execute him was shot by director Danny Boyle. During production Boyle took one of the Canon XL1s home and spent two days filming aircraft through the trees in his back garden.
- #027
Because Danny Boyle wanted the film to be discovered and not to rely solely on star power, he deliberately sought unknown, low-profile actors for most of the leads. Cillian Murphy, Naomie Harris, Noah Huntley and Megan Burns were virtually unknown before the film; Murphy and Huntley had only small film roles, Harris had worked only in British television, and Burns had only one previous acting credit. The only well-known actors cast were Brendan Gleason and Christopher Eccleston.
- #028
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Christopher Eccleston and the other soldiers in the film underwent a three-day training programme with real soldiers to help them learn how to carry themselves convincingly.
- #029
The decision to shoot on digital video (using Canon XL1 cameras) was both an aesthetic and a logistical choice. Aesthetically, Danny Boyle felt the harshness of DV footage suited the post-apocalyptic urban landscape and the film's brutality: "The general idea was to try and shoot as though we were survivors too." Since the production could not afford to close bridges or use visual effects to create empty vistas, the scenes in London's deserted streets were shot over a week in mid-July in the early morning, after sunrise and before traffic built up. According to producer Andrew Macdonald, shooting with standard cameras, especially exteriors, would have been logistically impossible: "The police and local authorities were quite happy to help us because we could set up shots so quickly. With a six-camera setup we could literally be ready to shoot within minutes; we couldn't realistically have done that under the constraints of 35 mm, where a single shot takes far longer to set up." Boyle noted that one of the downsides of their cameras was that wide shots tended to have poor resolution: "You have to cut before people start working. Outside [Cillian Murphy] is just two frames, not a recognisable human being moving through this deserted London landscape."
- #030
Contains a major spoiler — show
When Jim, Selena and Hannah first enter the mansion where the soldiers have set up their fortress, the Roman sculpture of the Laocoön group is visible in the centre. In Virgil, Laocoön was a Trojan priest attacked by giant serpents sent by the gods, and his most famous line is "Do not trust the Horse, Trojans / Whatever it is, I fear the Greeks even bearing gifts." His presence matters because it foreshadows the soldier's betrayal and hidden motives.
- #031
The shot of the billboard at Piccadilly Circus covered in missing-person notices caused some controversy when the film was first released. Some said it was insensitive to what happened in New York after the September 11 attacks. Although the film was shot before 11 September 2001, it was released later. Danny Boyle said he based the shot on a photograph he had seen from an earthquake in China. He also said that if he had made the film after the September 11 attacks, he would not have shot that scene.
- #032
The scene in which Jim, Selena and Mark hide between windows to protect themselves from the explosion was based on a photograph Danny Boyle had seen of a bomb blast in Northern Ireland.
- #033
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The jet used at the end of the film flew from Blackpool to the location in the Lakes. The same journey took the crew hours, but the pilot made the trip in under four minutes at a fuel cost of £6,000. Initially the producers envisioned a computer-generated jet, but they learned it would cost $70,000, which the budget could not accommodate. In the end it turned out to be cheaper to hire a real fighter jet in Nice.
- #034
The London scenes were shot in July, several months before the rest of principal photography, to take advantage of daylight before traffic built up. The crew was so small that everyone, including the master and producer Andrew Macdonald, had to use a digital camera. In the commentary, director Danny Boyle expressed surprise at how they managed to achieve such a sense of devastation by blocking traffic for only a few minutes. While the crew photographed the empty streets, his daughter, then 18, and her decidedly unattractive friends were a great help in persuading drivers (mostly men) to wait a few minutes. However, because of the abuse impatient people directed at them, production sound could not be used. During Jim's walk on the bridge the crew had covered the road with rubbish, but they were horrified to learn that someone from the cleaning department had already cleared it all before they shot. With no large crew and no big cameras to point to, it took them a while to be convinced they were making a film.
- #035
The symbol used in this film is the international symbol for blood-borne biological hazard.
- #036
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The final scene (the one in the cottage near the lakes) was in fact a tagged-on ending. The money ran out during shooting, so director Danny Boyle considered an open ending for a while and finished with the bleak frame of Jim, Selena and Hannah escaping the mansion and slamming the door. After receiving some additional budget from Fox Searchlight, a scene was shot in a hospital in which Jim dies from his gunshot wound. Test audiences, however, disliked this ending, and even Boyle felt they could not do that to people, "because it was such a tough journey anyway." The studio then gave Boyle more budget to shoot the semi-happy ending at the lakes, for which Naomie Harris had to wear a wig and Cillian Murphy reluctantly cut his hair (he was already preparing for a new film). The new ending was shot on standard 35 mm to contrast with the digitally shot footage and to make the film "feel like [it] had opened up," and it was added to the film weeks before its UK premiere. After the film drew great interest in the US, it was re-released there with the bad ending in which Jim dies. Writer Alex Garland still described the happy ending as somewhat ambiguous, since it is never made clear whether the pilot actually identifies the survivors (even though he asks for a helicopter to be sent from his base in Finland).
- #037
For the film's music, Danny Boyle approached composer John Murphy and reportedly said he wanted to make "this zombie home movie that nobody really cares about, and maybe nobody will go and see it, but it means we can do whatever we want on it. Are you in?" The film's famous climactic track, 'In the House - In a Heartbeat', came about because the original piece Murphy composed did not work. He then remembered some music he had written years earlier, ran it alongside the scene, and found that the build of intensity matched the scene's main beats perfectly. It was later used in the sequel 28 Weeks Later (2007) and subsequently in various films and trailers, such as I Know Who Killed Me (2007), Kick-Ass (2010) (for which Murphy also wrote the score), the trailer for the video game Metro 2033 (2010), and a Louis Vuitton advert in 2012.
- #038
The film contains heavy product placement for the UK National Lottery, which funds the British Film Council.
- #039
The flashback scenes of Jim's parents were shot on Super 8mm film.
- #040
The Bible verse on Jim's postcard is from the Book of Nahum. Nahum was a prophet who foretold the destruction of the great city of Nineveh, capital of the Assyrian empire. Its inhabitants were to be completely wiped out as punishment for their sins.
- #041
The tunnel scene was shot in a new tunnel extension for which the producers had obtained a special permit.
- #042
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Because director Danny Boyle is not a fan of zombie films (and refuses to call 28 Days Later a 'zombie film'), he relied solely on screenwriter Alex Garland's knowledge of the genre's tropes and conventions. Garland cites various sources as inspiration for his script, particularly John Wyndham's The Day of the Triffids (1963), George A. Romero's "Dead" trilogy (Night, Dawn and Day) and The Omega Man (1971). Direct homages include Jim waking up in hospital from The Day of the Triffids (1963), the chained infected being examined from Day of the Dead (1985) and the scene in the shop (the people in the shopping mall from Dawn of the Dead (1978)), the supply depot encounter with infected children (also Dawn of the Dead (1978)), and the army hiding with outsiders to deliberately include women against the plague (also Day of the Dead).
- #043
The scene in which Cillian Murphy walks past an overturned London bus was shot just outside Downing Street. Because the Prime Minister's residence is on that street, the bus was not allowed to be placed there and another street was chosen. However, when the crew arrived at Downing Street at 4 a.m. and no one from the council was there, they went ahead and shot the film where they had originally planned. The whole operation, including righting the bus and allowing traffic back in, took only 20 minutes.
- #044
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Worsley House, where much of the film's third act takes place, was originally to house the laboratory where the Rage virus was developed. According to the original script and storyboard, Frank (Brendan Gleeson) was to be brought there after becoming infected, and Jim (Cillian Murphy) would cure him by draining all of Frank's blood and replacing it with his own, thus sacrificing his own life. As Frank, Selena and Hannah leave, Jim is tied to the same table as the chimpanzee from the opening scene, raging and screaming. This version would not have featured the soldiers. The idea was quickly abandoned because writer Alex Garland and director Danny Boyle felt it was impossible for every viral particle to be removed from a person in this way, especially since the film also establishes that the viral load of a single drop of blood is enough to infect a person within seconds. The Primate Research Centre was later written as the source of the viral outbreak.
- #045
The final week of shooting was devoted to the opening laboratory scene, filmed in Stuttgart, where only one of two groups of chimpanzees suitable for filming was available and where laws on the shooting of live animals are more permissive.
- #046
Megan Burns retired from acting after appearing in this film; she did not want to pursue a full-time career as an actress and instead focused on her passion for music and singing. She would not make another film for 16 years, until she was cast in the short film In2ruders (2018), and as of March 2024 she had done nothing since.
- #047
The tower block where Hannah and her father live is Balfron Tower, converted into luxury flats.
- #048
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In the script, the final line belongs to Jim rather than Selena: "Do you think he saw us this time?"
- #049
Stephen King is a big fan of the film and paraphrases a line of Selena's in his novel Doctor Sleep: "He needs us more than we need him".
- #050
Christopher Nolan was so impressed by Cillian Murphy's work in the film that he invited him to test for Batman Begins. Before taking the role of Scarecrow in Batman Begins (2005), Murphy read for Bruce Wayne/Batman.
- #051
The tunnel scene took two days to shoot.
- #052
Megan Burns had only one film credit before this film, as Teresa in Liam (2001). Danny Boyle cast her as Hannah on the strength of her performance in that film. She was his first and only choice.
- #053
Jim was written as English, but Cillian Murphy's accent kept slipping, so it was decided to keep him Irish.
- #054
A year later, Robert Kirkman's The Walking Dead (2010) comic book series was published in almost the same way: the hero wakes from a coma in hospital and realises the world has been turned upside down.
- #055
Cillian Murphy was suggested for the role of Jim to Danny Boyle by Paloma Baeza, who had appeared with him in Sunburn (1999) and The Way We Live Now (2001), playing his love interest in both productions. Boyle was initially hesitant because Murphy looked like a sweet and easygoing man, whereas the script had Jim exploding with rage at certain points. However, Murphy assured him that, coming from Cork in Ireland, he knew "fighting men" like Roy Keane. Baeza would later appear as Murphy's sister in Boyle's Sunshine (2007).
- #056
The film had been removed from many streaming services until 28 Years Later (2025) was announced as being in production. This put the original film back on the radar.
- #057
Contains a major spoiler — show
Some claim the story is largely inspired by, and even follows, the basic story of The Day of the Triffids (1963), such as the protagonist surviving the catastrophe helpless in hospital, an abandoned Britain, a group of people leaving London for a better place, and even the scenario of 'escaping from the soldiers who turn bad' towards the end. Writer Alex Garland admitted that his film imitates many apocalyptic films and that he never intended to reinvent the genre.
- #058
The angelic song heard in the background, particularly during the car journey, is Gabriel Fauré's "In Paradisum".
- #059
On its release in the United Kingdom it earned a modest $9.5 million against an $8 million budget. In the summer of 2003 it became a surprise success in the United States, grossing $45 million. With worldwide takings of over $80 million, the film was one of the most profitable horror films of the 2000s.
- #060
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A scene was originally shot in which the group, on their way to Jim's parents' house, passes through an abandoned railway carriage. The scene could not be used because it was clearly raining outside, and Frank later says it has not rained for days. Shortly after Mark dies, when Jim and Selena leave Jim's parents' house, they are seen passing three broken clocks on the outside of a building, where the second hand of the middle clock is stuck at 28 seconds.
- #061
Although unconfirmed, the title may refer to the widely held belief that the highest immunity to a virus develops 28 days after infection.
- #062
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Although the film contains scenes of the zombies attacking people by biting and maiming them, ironically the most horrifying scene in the entire film is Jim beating the would-be rapist soldier to death and gouging out his eyes.
- #063
The single malt whisky Frank discusses with Jim in the supermarket comes from the Lagavulin distillery. The whisky is part of the Classic Malts series and is known as one of the smokiest and most pungent whiskies on the market. Judging by Frank's remarks about the whisky, describing a "peaty aftertaste" and that it "takes out the fire but leaves in the warmth", he appears to be an expert.
- #064
The surnames of Jim, Selena, Mark, Frank and Hannah are never revealed during or at the end of the film. Likewise, Jim's parents' names are never revealed.
- #065
A scene that was shot and later abandoned featured a taxi full of people singing The White Stripes' "Hotel Yorba".
- #066
Many people (rightly) believe that Jim's walk through central London is a direct reference to the aftermath of 9/11, when public missing-person posters for those killed in the attacks on central New York (also a depiction of urban devastation) were commonly seen. However, the September 11 attacks actually occurred during filming and did not influence this part of the story; screenwriter Alex Garland had in fact drawn inspiration from the opening scenes of The Day of the Triffids (1963), in which a man wakes alone in a hospital as the sole survivor of an apocalyptic event.
- #067
If you had actually travelled 43 kilometres north-east of Manchester, you would find yourself in Huddersfield in West Yorkshire.
- #068
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The way Jim attacks and kills the soldier who could have been his rapist mirrors the attacks of the zombies infected with the Rage Virus. The scene symbolises Jim's righteous anger at that moment.
- #069
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There is a particular connecting factor between the prologue and the epilogue: the pilot of the plane at the end speaks perfect Finnish (very difficult for speakers of other native languages), whereas one of the Activists (the male follower) initially speaks English with a distinct, thick Finnish accent confirming his native language. He is also played by the Finnish actor Jukka Hiltunen.
- #070
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Throughout the film, the shots of the infected are filmed using non-standard camera shutter angles, resulting in the erratic staccato effect used to convey their rage. The same shutter effect is used when Jim succumbs to rage at the end of the film.
- #071
Filming had already begun without the full budget the producers believed they would need; they hoped to raise more money while shooting. When the money ran out during filming of the finale, Christopher Eccleston agreed to a last-minute pay cut to help complete the film.
- #072
Contains a major spoiler — show
In the comic book that follows the ending, Hannah's fate is that she is adopted by a German family.
- #073
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The jet aircraft in the final scene is a British-built Hawker Hunter.
- #074
The word "fuck" is used 61 times.
- #075
The film's unconventional credits include a thank-you to the Traffic Police for holding back London.
- #076
James McAvoy auditioned for the role of one of the infected. He would later work with director Danny Boyle on Trance (2013).
- #077
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Shortly after meeting Jim, Selena sarcastically asks him whether one of his plans for the future involves the two of them eventually falling in love and having sex. Although they are not shown having sex, they do fall in love and become a couple by the end of the film.
- #078
The cast includes one Oscar winner, Cillian Murphy, and two Oscar nominees, Naomie Harris and Brendan Gleeson.
- #079
The film's score, particularly the music that plays during the climax and final battle, proved highly memorable for other composers. A notable example is composer Bear McCreary, who wrote much of the music for The Walking Dead (2010), including its theme, and drew on this film's score while composing it. Most notably, McCreary said the music for the climax of the first-season episode "Tell It to the Frogs" (2010) was heavily inspired by the music of this film's climax. McCreary also drew inspiration from some of the music in the sequel 28 Weeks Later (2007).
- #080
The voice of the Finnish jet pilot was provided by Jukka Hiltunen.
- #081
At times during principal photography, the production was interrupted by tourists with better cameras.
- #082
The film is parodied in the music video for LMFAO's "Party Rock Anthem."
- #083
This gave Danny Boyle a much-needed success after the failures of A Life Less Ordinary (1997), The Beach (2000) and the little-seen television films Vacuuming Completely Nude in Paradise (2001) and Strumpet (2001).
- #084
This is director Danny Boyle's fifth theatrically released film, and his seventh if television films are counted.
- #085
One of the infected runs through a minefield.
- #086
The production wanted to shoot at Luton Hoo House in Hertfordshire, which has appeared in dozens of films such as Eyes Wide Shut (1999) and Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994), but another production outbid them. Instead they chose the smaller Worsley House at Trafalgar Park near Manchester. Apart from the military equipment and a generator, everything inside and around the house was part of the property: as money ran out, the script had the soldiers acquire a generator to power their lighting, which made shooting in and around the house much faster and easier.
- #087
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The wire fence that Jim, Selena and Hannah drive over while fleeing the soldiers toward the end was made from licorice ropes spray-painted with copper paint so as not to upset the stunt driver who had to drive through it.
- #088
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Frank (Brendan Gleeson) was originally to be infected by a dog, a nod of sorts to the zombie dogs in Resident Evil (1996). This changed when the writers decided the virus would be infectious only among primates, including chimpanzees and humans, and that no other animal would be infected.
- #089
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Other filming locations exist that went unreleased for some reason. When the group reaches the army blockade, you can clearly see a highway sign reading A6 Preston and Garstang and, next to it, a sign reading M6 South Manchester and Birmingham. The only place this exists is at the Preston junction, where the M55 interchange meets the M6, on the M6 J32 heading south from Lancaster. Also, when Jim escapes the military compound and turns on the siren, warning of the sirens directly behind his head, the sign reads M55 Blackpool and Fleetwood. This would be roughly around the Broughton area of the M6 north of Preston. A very likely reason this was not released as a location is that these scenes were not shot on location; with all the barricades, vehicles and other set dressing involved, closing a busy highway junction for the time required to shoot them is nearly impossible. This suggests the above-mentioned location was replicated elsewhere to avoid the logistical nightmare of closing multiple highways.
- #090
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Body count: 14 (possibly more).
- #091
Jim is briefly seen crossing a large bridge.
- #092
Because of the low budget, the lead actors had to share trailers with some of the extras playing the infected. Naomie Harris sometimes struggled to eat lunch when she had to share a table with actors in full infection makeup dripping bile and blood.
- #093
This was Alex Garland's first produced screenplay, stemming from his new partnership with Danny Boyle, who had directed The Beach (2000), adapted from Garland's own novel of the same name. Apparently Garland was not much of a fan of his own dialogue writing in this film and praised Boyle several times in the commentary for saving those scenes with his direction.
- #094
The first screening was held in London's Soho for a dozen crew members and 20 random viewers; the audience hated the film and said it was unsalvageable. It turned out these people were all New Zealand friends holidaying in the United Kingdom who had been rounded up at a bar. Fortunately, a Fox Searchlight executive who was also at the screening had already seen the film and knew it was better than that, so no major changes were made apart from the extended ending.
- #095
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The 'Frosty the Snowman' song that plays when Jim and Selena enter Frank and Hannah's flat was the most expensive licensed music track used in the film. Danny Boyle wanted to use Laurie Anderson's 'O Superman' during the discovery of Jim's dead parents, but the singer declined to sell the rights for personal reasons. Boyle also considered using The Clash's 'Hitsville UK' but ultimately did not, a decision he has regretted since; he did, however, include it in his next film, Millions (2004).
- #096
Godspeed You! Black Emperor's 'East Hastings' was always meant to play as Jim walks through the deserted London, but they tried a completely silent version as well. However, the scene in which Jim sets off a car alarm was found too jarring by audiences, so the music was put back in to soften it.
- #097
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After about 53 minutes, it would have made sense to bring the petrol tanker along for a nearly endless supply: one driver for the taxi and one for the tanker.
- #098
9/11 Connection: The scene in which Jim, Selena, Frank and Hannah celebrate with a picnic was shot on 11 September 2001. As the terrorist attacks unfolded in real time, the cast and crew found it extremely surreal to be filming the cheerful, celebratory scene.
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