Return of the Two-Handed-Eye-Gouge-Death-Grip
28 Weeks Later
I have just returned from my first viewing of 28 Weeks Later, and I was not disappointed. In fact, I was really impressed, I think they did a great job with it. I do have to clarify that I went in expecting to be entertained, but did not expect to see anything particularly novel. This pessimism stems from how much I loved the gritty, dark mood of the first, and my feeling that a sequel would be nothing more than an attempt to cash in off of the original’s success. Contrary to my expectations, 28 Weeks captured the mood of the original, and explored the idea of zombie apocalypse from a fresh perspective.
*Warning*: Spoilers
Despite my overall positive reaction, there were certainly a number of details that I didn’t particularly appreciate. One that jumped out at me was the recycling of the ‘two-handed-eye-gouge-death-grip’ attack. Now, I did think it was fantastic in 28 Days Later. The emotional charge of the imminent rapes, the characters’ confusion, and the ever-intensifying race for survival built it up to being an awesome climactic moment. However, in 28 Weeks, it simply came off as a cheap bit of gore, and seemed to be turning into some kind of patented zombie attack move.
[ZOMBIE INTELLIGENCE]
Another item that really didn’t do it for me was the fact that the dad, Robert Carlyle, seemed to turn into some kind of ’smart’ zombie. Yes, he had the rage and all, but he seemed to be able to pick and choose when to run blindly after fresh meat. Despite the infection burning through his veins, he was able to sneak along after the survivors, take cover from the fire bombing, and stalk the survivors halfway across London before ambushing them in the pitch black darkness of a subway tunnel.
[ZOMBIE PHYSIOLOGY]
This event is even more confusing after they made a point of saying the the infected couldn’t see any better in the dark than the rest of us. In all fairness, we certainly do not have any clear idea of how much intelligence victims will retain, in the event of an actual zombie outbreak. However, within the constraints of this film’s scenario, I think it broke from the believable.
[NON-CONVENTIONAL WEAPONS]
Now, for the integrity of the journal, I should consider the next item a complaint, but I honestly enjoyed it way too much. The moment I am speaking of is when our pilot buddy, Harold Perrineau, turns his chopper into a zombie-dicing blender of destruction. It was awesome. I do not advocate attempting this maneuver in real-life, but I’d drink to anyone crazy enough to chase that kind of glory.
[POST-APOCALYPSE RESETTLEMENT]
Despite these few annoying details, the overall story was quite interesting. The idea of resettlement and reconstruction after a catastrophic epidemic is one that isn’t given enough attention (A notable exception being the novel, World War Z, by Max Brooks). As was demonstrated by the premise of this movie, there is much to be said for reclaiming surviving goods and infrastructure. However, as the movie also demonstrates, there is considerable risk of re-igniting the outbreak. Might it have been better to simply melt the hot zone down a glassy nuclear wasteland? A horrific sacrifice, no doubt, but perhaps worth the reassurance of the infection’s eradication?
[TRIAGE]
This leads another interesting topic broached in the film: triage. As the outbreak re-ignited, the commanding officer went to greater and greater lengths to contain the infection. Despite the obvious ethical and moral dilemmas presented, this is a decision that any outbreak survivor would eventually face, at least at some level or another. Granted, very few of us will have to live with the nightmare of ordering hundreds, or even thousands, to their deaths, but any of us could easily end up in a position of having to decide whether a friend or loved one can be saved or not. This point was nicely illustrated at the beginning, with Carlyle’s character being cut off from his wife, seeing her pleading for him to return, and then choosing to flee. I think the character’s actions were supposed to have been motivated by fear, and not a cold vote for triage, but I believe the point still applies. He may have been a coward, and may have had a chance if he’d just fought back, but I’m not going to be the one to judge his actions.
All in all, I think the film is worth viewing. I didn’t catch any especially noteworthy zombie survival techniques, but I think the story succeeds in broaching some broader topics for consideration.
Read other “28 Days/Weeks” posts:
- See this is a really sh*t idea. You know why? Because it’s really obviously a sh*t idea!
28 Days Later - How best to deliver my new happy drug to the masses? Oh, I know, Ebola!
28 Days Later: The Aftermath
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i agree with you saying that the movie is worth viewing however i tend to disagree about not getting any zombie survival techniques. in the beginning when the zombie outbreak was starting to begin again aka robert catching the rage from his wife the snipers on top of the roofs did give me an idea. however if it was myself in that situation i wouldnt have so few in one that large of an area and i certainly wouldnt leave them so undefended. as i said i would have done it differently i probably would have at least a small unit with a sniper, two infantry, and most likely a heavy machine gunner in a decent firing position facing the opposite direction or at the very least covering the entrance/exit as to prevent infected form overrunning the position. most likely the unit would be armed with 4 CAR-15’s or M16A2’s as well as a M60 for the heavy gunner and a BARRET .50 cal sniper rifle with enough ammo for each to make a decent stand and still move position to position comfortably. but i am rambling also the whole heli blades of doom scene while exciting and adrenaling pumping wouldnt be so easy to pull off as you said and i would buy the guy a bar if they did that and saved my ass. i also did not get the referance to the ‘two-handed-eye-gouge-death-grip’ attack its been awhile since 28 DL and i dont remember seeing it in 28 WL please refresh my memory but all in all good review and interesting ideas for me to consider
You’ve brought up a good point about how those rooftop snipers were far too few in number to effectively contain an outbreak. While they’re certainly good at picking off individuals, they aren’t the right tool for containing a rapidly escalating situation. There definitely is a lesson to be learned there. I also agree with your suggestion for more soldiers and heavy machine guns. This slight increase of force would be far more effective at containing a crowd, and might have saved them from having to firebomb the city.
Heh, as for my “two-handed-eye-gouge-death-grip” comment, I’m referring to the point towards the end of 28 Days where the main guy, Jim, is running around the mansion raising hell. He rescues Selena by dropping into a room, where a soldier is holding her, wrestles with the soldier a bit, then kills the guy by gripping his head with both hands, and driving his thumbs deep into the soldier’s eye sockets.
ahh i see thanks for the info i just finished rewatching 28 DL and i see this i have two words screw that. lol but i appreciate the fact that you acknowledge my points as a good thing in most cliques i would probably be shunned for a while but anyway i also noticed something i overlooked in my previous post and that was that the scene in which the zombiefied robert had absoloutly no problem in seeing his children in the dark even though they required the use of the now dead snipers rifle scope which was a NOD (night optical device) bad screenplay on the directors part zombies whilst even being able to have better senses would still be at the same level of a human in terms of senses although maybe slightly enhanced due in part to the rage virus? and as for the ending how did the infection surface in france? unless a french person kissed him in a customary fashion of some sort? i dont know it might be plausible but still wouldnt the french be aware of the situation in britan and take measures to stop or shoot down any incoming aircraft from the area? i am simply pointing out flaws in the movie as i once did with a friend while watching dawn of the dead (2004) we took notice and categorized all major and minor screwups and succesful rolls using a standard D20 die it was actually a good time try it sometimes you wouldnt believe how many critical screwups these people made in the movie but im off topic so i hope for a response soon so as to further our discussion
Yeah, I thought that Carlyle’s character being able to get around in the dark so easily was an annoying inconsistency. I suppose that anything is possible, but they just made that explicit point, earlier in the film, of saying that the zombies couldn’t see in the dark. Oh well.
As for the infection reaching France, well, I really need to see the film again, but I got the impression that the infected had crossed the English Channel through the Channel Tunnel. At least that was my assumption, as I think they showed them coming up out of some dark tunnel and running into Paris. Though, like you said, you would think that the French would have been pretty aware of the chaos across the channel, and blocked up such an obvious vulnerability.
you seem to have a clear grasp of the situation although as it is a movie they do have to find some way to make another movie i suppose and i have a feeling they will and the title could possibly be 28 months later but this is just a guess. anyway i am an avid video game player (mostly shooter games)but i am going to go into the industry and my first game (i hope) is going to be a zombie survival shooter game i am thinking about implementing many of the zombies types into would you like to maybe comment on any thing you would like to see in a video game like that i am always looking for good ideas i look foward to your comment
Heh, yeah it was a rather blatantly obvious setup for another sequel, but that’s ok with me. I want to see more of the zombie apocalypse.
I was a big fan of FPS’s back in the day, but I honestly haven’t been able to devote real time to any since the early Counter Strike days. As for what I’d like to see in a zombie game, well, I should probably write a full post on the topic, but, off-hand, I’d be interested in seeing some more MMORPG’s in an undead apocalypse setting. I’ve seen a few things out there, like “Urban Dead”, but it didn’t look that exciting. However, to be fair, I haven’t tried it out, so it might be great.
Regardless, I just think it would be fun to play in a massive, Mad Max type, world fighting to retake cities, establishing outposts, and maintaining uneasy truces with other survivors (players).
well i was possibly thinking of making a mmorpg type of game but i soon realized that a. i would need a staff to help undertake the project b. i would have to do lots of research into anti bot, and hacker software c. setup a f2p and p2p type as these games can be costly and d. learn about coding and other stuff of that sort but your right with the success of runescape and world of warcraft it would be nice to have my name known by many zombie survivor fans but it would be hard with all the copyrights and trademarks but who knows what the future may bring?
if i do manage to somehow bring this into being i would like to give you some credit on the project seeing as how most likely you would be a great source of information
Game development is definately a major investment of time. If you haven’t already seen this, you might want to check out “Left 4 Dead”, it looks like it could be a pretty sweet game. I’ve been reading about it at this fan site:
http://www.left4dead411.com/
Not a mmorpg, but I do like FPS’s and cooperative game play. It doesn’t look like it has been released yet though.
interesting but i noticed it will be pc only im excited to see it but as i dont have a pc controller i might have to go get one it looks to be a great game
Heh, yeah, I’m kind of in the same boat. I pretty much exclusively work on a Mac, so consequently I don’t get to do much gaming. “Left 4 Dead” does look like it could almost be worth putting together a PC just to be able to play it