LEILA FADEL, HOST:
First, there was the postapocalyptic horror movie "28 Days Later," then "28 Weeks Later." The latest in the franchise, "28 Years Later," opens, as you might guess, nearly three decades after a zombie virus escaped from a medical research lab in the U.K. And it is terrifying.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "28 YEARS LATER")
RALPH FIENNES: (As Ian Kelson) There were so many dead.
(SOUNDBITE OF SCREAMING)
FIENNES: (As Ian Kelson) Infected and noninfected alike.
FADEL: Our colleague A Martínez sat down with director Danny Boyle to discuss the new film. Boyle said he wasn't aware how much people loved "28 Days Later" until he went to a 20th anniversary screening back in 2022.
DANNY BOYLE: There wasn't any sense of, you know, watching an old classic or a - you know, something that they remembered with nostalgia. It felt urgent. And "28 Years Later," which is obviously convenient in terms of the...
A MARTÍNEZ, BYLINE: (Laughter).
BOYLE: ...Identity of the project...
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah.
BOYLE: ...And its connection to the originals, did give us the chance to start afresh with a whole swathe of new characters and a ground-zero effect of - you were looking at, how have they rebuilt their lives if there are any survivors? And how has the virus changed? How has the virus evolved?
MARTÍNEZ: By then - so we're about two years into the COVID pandemic in 2022. So how did that influence the making of "28 Years Later"?
BOYLE: It was obviously a reminder in real life of how cities can change their identity overnight in an unimaginable way - in a way that you can only ever figure happened in movies, and did use to happen in movies, like our movie. But it was more helpful for us about what happened in the year that followed. Our behavior changes after that initial alert - utter alarm - of danger. Humans don't sustain that. You relax, and you begin to take slightly more risks and then slightly more risks. And you just begin to find out how you can live within this emergency. And for us, 28 years means that, for instance, in the film, he takes his son to the mainland - his 12-year-old son to the mainland. If it was 28 days later, he would never...
MARTÍNEZ: Oh, never. Not...
BOYLE: ...Do that.
MARTÍNEZ: ...In a million years, right? Yeah. Yeah.
BOYLE: But the fact that it's 28 years later, he does. He's still a 12-year-old boy going to a very dangerous place. But humans do this. They've learnt how to manage the risk.
MARTÍNEZ: So you mentioned a father, Jamie. And he takes his 12-year-old son, Spike, to the mainland. That's where the infected are. And the people in this film live on an island that's connected to the mainland by a causeway that's accessed by a low tide. So why does Jamie take Spike to the infected area?
BOYLE: He's doing his duty in terms of the way the culture of the island exists. He's doing his duty in teaching his son his role - what his role will be, which is the same as his father's role, which is to learn how to protect those who need to go to the island. So it's actually - it's tough love. It's hard, but he's got to learn it.
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah. A rite of passage, right? Yeah.
BOYLE: Yeah, rites of passage. And it's very traditional.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "28 YEARS LATER")
AARON TAYLOR-JOHNSON: (As Jamie) It's clear. Let's go.
(SOUNDBITE OF ZOMBIES APPROACHING)
TAYLOR-JOHNSON: (As Jamie) Get back to the trees.
BOYLE: It's only in the second half of the film, where he comes under the influence of his mother, that you realize the boy is gaining something different, which more fully makes him an adult, which is he learns something quieter and more compassionate and emotional. And it makes him a more fully rounded figure, I think.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "28 YEARS LATER")
JODIE COMER: (As Isla) You know, when I look in your face, I see your granddad's eyes.
ALFIE WILLIAMS: (As Spike) That's nice.
COMER: (As Isla, laughing) Exactly. You should get some sleep.
WILLIAMS: (As Spike) I'm going to stay awake and keep watch.
COMER: (As Isla) OK, Dad.
MARTÍNEZ: Now, "28 Days Later" made fast-moving zombies a thing. "28 Years Later" - the zombies get upgrades. Can you tell us a little bit about what people will expect to see with these zombies in "28 Years Later"?
BOYLE: Well, of course, the fascinating thing for us was that the United Nations or NATO or the EU have isolated this island. And I think in their imagination is that the infection will burn itself out one day, and they'd be able to repopulate the island if they needed to. And they think that because it - the way it presents itself, the infection, is hugely - is frenzied. It is enormously energy-consuming. So the only way it can survive is they have to learn to drink and to eat. And of course, if you don't have weapons, the only way you can eat is by being organized like a pack of dogs, and then that throws up a leader. A dominant will emerge - an alpha will emerge out of that. So there was that.
And then those who can't hunt - they go to ground, 'cause there are different ways of surviving. And the - so there's a pack that go to the ground and just eat berries and worms and snails and bugs, and whatever they can find. So there's an evolutionary - albeit 28 years is probably a short time for the evolutionary process.
MARTÍNEZ: (Laughter).
BOYLE: The virus has learned how to survive. It's effectively mutated, as we know COVID did.
MARTÍNEZ: Now, Danny, with this next question, I'm going to try my best to dance on the line of spoilers, because this is my favorite scene in the whole movie, and I can't go without asking you about it. Because Spike's mom, Isla, is having bad memory loss problems, has no idea what's causing it, once Spike finds out about this, that there's a doctor on the mainland, he takes her to him out of desperation. So there, they come up in a abandoned train car to an infected who is pregnant and is about to give birth. But despite their mutual fear of each other, their instincts as mothers take over. They both remember their humanity. Despite the infected's rage and Isla's fear of her, to me, that is the most hopeful part of this entire film, in that humanity still can win out.
BOYLE: Yes, and that's the purpose of that. There's something deeper. The virus doesn't create monsters. It creates very dangerous people, but they are still us, and that'll be a source of investigation for the rest of the trilogy. We're hoping to make three films. We've made two, and we're hoping to raise the money to make a third. And that's the basis for that investigation. But you're right - the premise is that deeper than the infection can reach, there is a humanity there.
MARTÍNEZ: Danny Boyle directs the new film "28 Years Later." Danny, thank you very much for the time.
BOYLE: Magic. Thanks very much. Cheers now.
(SOUNDBITE OF JOHN MURPHY'S "LEAVING ENGLAND") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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