Roger Ebert

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The sequence showing Jim's exploration of the now-deserted London is gritty and horrifying. Boyle's use of digital video adds texture; the inclusion of recognizable London landmarks, such as Big Ben shown here, with absolutely no people around heightens the tension and terror.

In his review of 28 Days Later, Roger Ebert praises Boyle's style--especially the use of digital video and his resistance to typical Hollywood romance--and marvels at the ghost-town London of Acts 1 and 2. But, Ebert feels the film's final act doesn't live up to the promise of the first two. Ebert's main complaint is with the ending.

Ebert's lament (essentially "if only the ending were better!") highlights what Ebert really values about the film: the horror. He wants to leave the viewer to imagine the logical consequences of releasing such a virus as the Rage into the global population. Ebert himself, perhaps the possessor of a scarily cynical imagination, asserts in no uncertain terms that the outcome is total annihilation. For Ebert, man's violence against man and the resulting Rage virus is the end.

But, Boyle leaves us a ray of hope. 28 Days Later is no Shaun of the Dead, another fascinating take on the zombie thriller from the Brits--Boyle's zombies will never be useful members of society, bagging our groceries and playing video games as in Shaun, but maybe the human race has hope.

What could be considered an early possible ending, this still shows Jim, Selena, and Anna escaping the military compound, now overrun by Rage zombies. At this point, the viewer is unsure whether this escape will be successful, and if so where our heroes will escape given that England is overrun with monsters.

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The sassy Ebert remarks, "The conclusion is pretty standard. I can understand why Boyle avoided having everyone dead at the end, but I wish he'd had the nerve that John Sayles showed in "Limbo" with his open ending. My imagination is just diabolical enough that when that jet fighter appears toward the end, I wish it had appeared, circled back and opened fire."

Ebert's "diabolical" ending is in keeping with the earlier desolation and alienation of the film. Even with Boyle's apparently more uplifting conclusion, we can still ask a related question: is the military actually a force of good here? We've seen the horror of a miniature police-state led by Christopher Eccleston, and really we have no reason to definitively conclude sunshine and rainbows for the next 28 days in the film universe.

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A more positive ending, but one that Ebert points out leaves substantially less to the viewer's imagination. 28 days after their escape (yes, we get the "28 days later..." caption again), Jim, Selena, and Anna have escaped to the countryside, the Rage zombies seem to be dying off, and the plane flying overhead promises rescue.