Much-claimed director Danny Boyle has described landmarks ‘being transformed’ in front of our eyes during the 2020 Covid pandemic – as he reflects on the parallels to 28 Years Later lead character
The film 28 Years Later explores a fictional infected mainland – and director Danny Boyle has said that the strange Covid times we lived through five years ago has helped viewers relate to the lead character Jamie.
Set in a post-apocalyptic city, 28 Years Later tells the story of a highly contagious virus and its detrimental effects on the population, which leads to societal collapse. The film shows Jamie taking his 12-year-old son across a causeway to the abandoned and infected mainland.
Now, Danny Boyle has spoken about the parallels to the Covid era in a Reddit Q & A, about how a city can be “transformed overnight” yet “still be recognisable”. During the pandemic many of us saw our towns and cities take on a new identity for a while and strange sights were spotted on high streets and of in our local supermarkets.
Mr Boyle said: “What Covid did, it happened everywhere in the world, suddenly a city can be transformed overnight and still be recognisable. Suddenly it didn’t just belong to movies. Who would have thought that recognisable landmarks can be transformed in front of your eyes.
“That’s a wonderful opportunity for filmmakers to build on, and we duly did. That’s a connection to something everyone’s experienced. Over a longer period of time, after the urgency to stay safe (mask wearing, disinfecting everything, distrusting who you were meeting, was anyone sneezing in the room), you can’t keep that up for very long.
“You start to explore risk. As humans, you just do. How far can I go? That increases over time. When you apply that mentality over 28 years, the amount of risks you’ll take is huge. Jamie, our lead character, takes his 12-year-old son across a causeway to an infected mainland. 28 days after an outbreak he’d be a madman. But 28 years later he’s a hero for bringing his son out – it reflects all our shared mentalities.”
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28 Years Later writer, Alex Garland, finally confirmed that recent political events influenced the making of the third instalment. While fans of the franchise initially suspected that the global Coronavirus pandemic may have served as a massive inspiration for 28 Years Later, Alex— who directed Ex Machina and Civil War — denied any links between the upcoming zombie horror film and the global lockdowns.
Instead, the Academy Award-nominee was reportedly inspired by Brexit, and claims much of 28 Years Later has been inspired by Britain’s decision to leave the EU back in 2016.
Speaking to Empire about the script and its influences, Alex said: “Covid was not on my mind because it was too recent and too present, but Brexit was.” He noted a “sense of the globe just sort of shifting its position” and “not really looking in this direction,” all of which served as inspiration for the treatment of the movie.