28 Days Later (Faber and Faber Screenplays) [Illustrated] [Paperback]

Alex Garland (Author)

Book Description

Series: Faber and Faber Screenplays | Publication Date: April 17, 2003

In this latest film from director Danny Boyle, a massive epidemic has swept the world, leaving in its wake a host of rabid humans seething with hatred and bent on destroying anyone untouched by the disease. Four seemingly unaffected people—a young man, a young woman, a father, and his daughter—flee London through an apocalyptic landscape as they try to reach the coast, beset along the way by attacks of “Infected” at every turn. When they arrive at an isolated house in the country, inhabited by a small group of soldiers, they think they have found a haven from the violence outside. But they soon find they’ve jumped from the frying pan into the fire.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Screenplay of the visceral new film from the team of Danny Boyle, Alex Garland and Andrew Macdonald as they follow The Beach with a no-stars cast, digital video shot, UK-set urban zombie horror film. The publication of the screenplay coincides with a UK wide tour of special screenings. The film will be released on 1 November.

About the Author

Alex Garland is the author of The Beach. This is his first screenplay.

Product Details

• Paperback: 96 pages
• Publisher: Faber & Faber; 1st edition (April 17, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0571216536
• ISBN-13: 978-0571216536
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,178,647 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Well All Hope Is Gone, July 7, 2003

By 

Sebastien Pharand (Orléans, Ontario, Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: 28 Days Later (Faber and Faber Screenplays) (Paperback)

Don't be fooled. 28 Days Later is much, much more than just a mere zombie movie. It is a great piece of post-apocalyptic drama that is reminescent of some of the best end-of-the-world stories every published.

Alex Garland (author of the amazing novel The Beach) and director Danny Boyle (Trainspotting) have teamed up to offer us a one of a kind experience in fear and terror. Here, a man wakes up in a deserted hospital in the middle of an empty London. Everyone has vanished. Everyone, that is, save for a group of people who look like monsters that feed on human flesh. These are the infected, the last survivors of a plague that has wipe off most of England's population. Coming in contact with a single drop of infected blood can be enough to turn you into a monster, which only takes 10 to 20 seconds to happen. The threat is there and very real.

The few unlucky souls that managed to survive have now become the prey, the hunted. Jim teams up with a young woman and a father/daughter duo as they try to figure a way out of this whole mess.

Garland is a born storyteller. Here, he uses the zombie narratives to address more pressing issues. Often, it is not the zombies that are the biggest threat to our few survivors, but other normal humans. This is one horror story that is all about human nature, a story that places characters before plot.

In the end, this story will affect you in amazing ways. This is not a story to take lightly. Nor is it a story that you will soon forget. 28 Days Later is a rare masterpiece in terror.

15 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Pretty Good for a 1st Time Screenwriter, April 9, 2003

By 

Douglas Hahner (Spotswood, NJ United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: 28 Days Later (Faber and Faber Screenplays) (Paperback)

I have never read any of Alex Garland's novels, but I heard so many great things about this movie, that I found a copy of this screenplay on Amazon.co.uk and bought it.

Screenplays are great to read. I had this one read in about the time it would take to watch the movie.

Being a fan of Romero's classic Living Dead trilogy, I was very excited to hear about this great new zombie movie from the director of Trainspotting. The screenplay moves very quickly. Our heros are at constant odds with the environment, the Infected, and each other. Pretty big homages are paid to Romero. The scene in the abandoned grocery store (the mall in Dawn of the Dead), and the climax in the house (the house in Night of the Living Dead) come to mind immediatley. There are others like the chained Infected (the chained zombie in Day of the Dead).

This is a great screenplay, and I can't wait until this movie gets a theatrical release in America (August 2003).

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great debut, November 26, 2003

By 

"aiylyn" (Washington, Mi United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: 28 Days Later (Faber and Faber Screenplays) (Paperback)

Yes, the movie seemed fast-paced while I was watching it, but this book really drives that point home. Garland doesn't waste any words here - he dives right into the meat of the story. Instead of having some extraneous scenes up front where we learn about the characters, he lets them develop along with the plot, which I think is a great way to go.

For those who always say "the book is better than the movie" (usually a true statement), this is about as close to a book as it gets for this movie, and it was a great read - especially because you can go back and re-read sections to refresh your memory (well now that the movie is on DVD you can do it there too).

I like that it has pictures from the movie. It helps us see things. It may be just my memory fuzzing out, but I do think I read some discrepancies between the film and this script. There were at least 2 or 3 places where I thought "Did it really happen like that in the theater?" This is not a strike against the book. I think this book is great. For those who don't have much time to read, this is perfect because it covers a lot of ground in a short amount of time.