Opening of a thriller: 28 days later

Analysis of 28 Days Later; deserted London sequence

The scene begins with an establishing shot of London’s city scape, the protagonist ‘Jim’ has just awoken, he takes a lonely walk through the usual iconic landmarks and tourist hotspots regularly featured in films; across Westminster bridge, passing the London Eye as the sunrises, through Whitehall to the Cenotaph, however it’s different to the generic movies set in London contrasting boldly due to the lack of civilisation on the usually hectic London streets. 

As he passes an over-turned archetypal red bus the implication is that the cities heart has died, moreover without it’s people it’s nothing. This echoes Sigmund Freud's theory of ‘the uncanny’,although the scenery is familiar to a global audience at the same time it’s foreign and uncomfortably strange, this is achieved through the segregation of a single character.

Another notable point in the sequence is there’s no diegetic sound, just as there are no corpses, 

Jim’s character mirrors the audience’s reaction he doesn't make a sound he just remains in an inset state of shock. However the non-diegetic soundtrack emulates Jim’s confusion acting as his ‘voice’ by getting louder and louder, more erratic and distorted as his journey continues. This makes Jim’s emotions almost tangible; he’s separated and extremely anxious.

The use of cinematography works hand in hand with the soundtrack, by moving further and further back, higher and higher into the sky. This heightens the isolation through making Jim smaller and smaller he’s almost lost within the landscape, reinforcing his sense of loneliness and the city’s abandonment.

In context to 28 Days Later the director plays on the fears of the audience at the time, although it was pre-9/11 it was based upon real world events Danny Boyle exclaimed, “The image was based on a photograph I’d seen from an earthquake in China, but clearly it’s based on a very human impulse’s- people trying to contact each other, trying to maintain links with other people when the normal channels have died or seem inadequate.”

The recent tragedy of an earthquake that had struck and shook China acted as inspiration for the Mise en scene in 28 Days Later for example, one way the Chinese civilians tried to find relatives during the mass hysteria was to post hand-written messages on boards, this inter-cuts with the 'Piccadilly sequence' in which Jim stubbles through Piccadilly and there’s thousands of messages pleading for information on lost loved ones. Danny Boyle orchestrated this film to bridge a connection from the fictitious desolation in 28 Days Later, over to the awful tragedies happening in reality, exploiting the global audiences inner most fears by playing upon themes such as terrorism for example, the overturned bus mirroring the 7/7 bombing, the Piccadilly sequence paralleling 9/11 and ground zero with the thousands of handwritten messages in search of information, and lastly the emptiness of London Imitating the mass evacuation of huge numbers of Chinese populace days before the earthquake hit.