It would be easy for zombie- movie fans to take
this film lightly. To call it a combined
rip-off of the
Night of the Living Dead/Dawn of the Dead/Day of the
Dead
series, the under-appreciated early 70’s movie
The Crazies, Stephen King’s
The Stand, and lots more you will probably
remember. Technically it isn’t even about zombies, but
people infected with a virus.
But writer Alex Garland and director Danny
Boyle have taken some familiar elements and given them a
freshness, an originality, even a vision, that is uniquely their
own. They have come up with a plot that is simple but
tight, and well-drawn characters. They also give you several
subtle reminders as to how precious our stressed-out, early
21st century life can be, as aggravating as it feel s
day-to-day.
This movie could have taken a paranoid
viewpoint, with mega-corporations uniting to enslave
the world with disease. Instead you see a series of
careless errors that come together to set off bigger
and bigger explosions. First, scientists create a virus
called Rage. Then they test it on chimpanzees which are
locked in cruel confinement (tiny glass tanks). The Rage
virus turns the chimpanzees into killing machines ready to go
off at any time.
Then, animal rights activists liberate
them.
The activists really want to do the right
thing. Given the amount of abuse done to apes in the
name of science, these activists refuse to believe a researcher
who tells them they are making a terrible mistake. They
react to this man like he is “the boy who cried wolf.” Only
this time it’s no bullshit. With their idealistic
animals-rights agenda, they are literally letting a plague loose
on the world. Not only do the infected chimps attack
the first human they get their hands on, but in a matter of
seconds you can see that she has been infected too, just
from the look in her eyes.
Ignorance, coupled with foolishly dangerous,
misguided science has resulted in a situation far worse than
a conspiracy-theory believer could dream up.
The movie’s hero, Jim, had been hospitalized
for injuries from a traffic accident. He awakes to
silence that feels deafening . Silence so thick you
could cut it with a knife. Outside the
hospital, he can see the usual pigeons and gulls but
otherwise the city is lifeless; all is still, unmoving. No
people to be seen anywhere. Familiar sights,
the Tower of London, the Houses of Parliament, but everywhere
the same deathly silence.
A bizarre dream–London without people
Jim is not normally a man of action. For
a long time he wanders, not sure how to react.
Ironically, the first living human he sees is a complete
lunatic, a minister in his own church, a place you might
well expect to serve as some sort of sanctuary.
Jim pulls out of his apathy long enough to bash
the minister with a bag full of metal cans. This allows
him to stay alive.
After more wandering, a group of maniacs spot
him. Jim runs but you wonder how much further he can
get. At that moment he meets the first normal people he has
seen, Selena and Mark. They rescue Jim by setting the
maniacs on fire.
Jim–One mistake can be fatal
Jim can see that neither Selena nor Mark has
been a soldier or police officer, but they have
quickly learned how to survive in this new world.
Selena quickly tells Jim there has been a plague, but not to
ask too many questions; “Staying alive is as good as
it gets.” The rules she and Mark follow are simple:
never go anywhere alone, and never go out at night, unless
absolutely necessary. You soon learn one more valuable
rule—if anyone you know catches the disease, you kill
them with no hesitation.
Selena and Mark go with Jim for a last visit to
his house. Because it’s too late to walk back to a
safe place before dark, they sleep there till the next
day. While Jim watches videos of his dead mother
and father, a man enters through a window. Clearly
infected. Mark and Jim are soon covered with blood
while they subdue him. Suddenly Selena kills Mark. She
tells Jim she knew right away that Mark was infected, by the
expression on his face. She is quick to add, “ I’d do
the same to you.”
One bite is all it takes
Eventually, Jim and Selena find two more
survivors living in a high-rise building, Frank and
his daughter Hannah. Holed up in this apartment, they
hear a radio message promising help and safety, at a location
near the city of Manchester. After some hesitating,
they decide to drive there.
Exposed and vulnerable
Even though each attack by an Infected (as
Selena calls them) is gruesome and thick with
spattered blood, you are shown one reminder after another of
how life was, how precious. A life you probably take
for granted, waking up each day and telling yourself something to
the effect of—Same shit, different day.
Only after this holocaust can people see the
small touches of happiness they once had. Jim’s family
in the video, his mum’s book of recipes. The goldfish in
Frank’s apartment, trying to survive in just a few inches of
water. Some beautifully shot scenes of horses running wild
in the countryside outside Manchester. Jim
feeling the breeze through the car windows. Selena and
Hannah playing cards in the back seat.
They find the city of Manchester burning, but
also find the people who had been
broadcasting salvation. These people are
army personnel and at first they seem decent enough. Major
West, the officer in charge, appears to have the trust of his
soldiers. He shows his practical side (keeping
an Infected man chained, to see how long he will take to
starve to death). Also a touch of the
philosopher: People were killing people before the
plague hit, he says, and basically nothing has changed.
But Major West is nowhere as sincere as he
seems. His radio message promised “salvation” but he is
far from any cure for the virus. He tries to justify the lie
to Jim by saying he had no choice, that his men were on the
brink of despair and suicide. “I promised them women,” he
explains. “Women mean a future.”
But for the soldiers, a future starting a new
extended family is not a goal. What they want are
sex slaves, pure and simple. They are ready to kill
anyone standing in the way, whether it’s another soldier or
Jim.
For the first time, everything depends on Jim.
(Frank was accidentally infected, and shot dead by two of the
soldiers.) To save Selena and Hannah, he must outwit more
than a half-dozen armed soldiers, none of them exactly filled
with compassion. Without spoiling the ending, I will say
this: The next time Selena sees Jim, she is shocked to
find (almost too late) that he is not one of the
Infected.
I enjoyed this movie the first time I saw it
and it appears to get better each time I see it again.
Selena and Jim’s parts are both written well and acted
well. (Naomie Harris is Selena; Cillian Murphy is
Jim, both real good.) Selena’s changes at many
crucial moments from pure survival instinct back to
a yearning to get close to people is touching. Watch
her face just after the wild horses have passed. She says to
Jim, “I was wrong about saying: ‘staying alive is as good as it
gets.’”
You see the gradual changes in Jim. At
first he seems almost clueless, hoping he can avoid
taking action, not knowing how to take
action. You see a huge change in Jim when he realizes what
the situation at the army camp really is. Christopher
Eccleston who has had plenty of experience playing men in
pain (Jude, A Price above Rubies, Let Him Have It) is all too believable as Major West .
Those in positions of authority turn out to
be as desperate (probably more desperate) than those
people who came to them for salvation. The Major almost
appears to be saying to Jim: giving these women to my
soldiers is the best I can do, under the circumstances.
I could go on and on about a number of
other characters and actors, but I’ll leave it at this:
No one strikes a false note in this movie.
The screenwriting and the directing are also
excellent, though there are so many tilted shots you feel
at times like you’re back watching the
Batman TV show of the 60’s. The digital
photography which worked so effectively in
Saving Private Ryan works well here too.
And as horrible as the scenes with Infected attacking are, so
many moments are just as effective in their still beauty.
Not many movies are able to make you jump out of your seat at
one moment, then silence you with stillness at another.
