Waking from a coma, Jim (Cillian Murphy) finds that a disease has turned most of humanity into vicious zombies. With a few other survivors, he escapes the city, but nowhere is truly safe.
This is a nicely done film, but it is so derivative there is no reason to put an effort into viewing it. This is Day of the Triffids, The Omega Man, and Day of the Dead, tossed into a bag and shaken well. A government designed virus has escaped, turning humans into zombies (The Omega Man). Jim wakes up in the hospital, saved due to his accident, to find civilization destroyed (Day of the Triffids). He travels about the empty city (The Omega Man) until he meets a surviving warrior woman (The Omega Man—even the races are the same). After fighting and running from zombies—even in a shopping mall (all of the Living Dead films), our heroes find themselves confined to a military base where the soldiers are more dangerous than the zombies (Day of the Dead). They even keep a zombie there to study (Day of the Dead).
There are more rip-offs, but mentioning them would be giving away to much. Writer Alex Garland admits those films were “inspirations” for his script. I have to wonder why he didn’t try something new if he knew he was just stealing other people’s work. But as I said, it is a decent film, and if those others didn’t exist, I’d rate this higher. But they do, and all are better films (well, it’s a close call with Day of the Dead), so if you feel like seeing 28 Days Later, go see Day of the Triffids, The Omega Man, or Day of the Dead. If you’ve seen those, and just want more of the same, then this will work for you as you know exactly what you are going to see.