Part I. The Plot

 Sequence 1      Animal rights activists break into the Cambridge Primate Research Centre to free the monkeys. A scientist intervenes and warns them about “rage.” Someone opens the cage anyway and is bitten by one of the monkeys, releasing the virus.

Sequence 2      Jim wakes up in the hospital. He walks around a deserted London, eventually walking into an abandoned church where he comes in contact with some infected people. As Jim is being chased, he is rescued by Selena and Mark.

Sequence 3      The trio travel to Jim’s house where they find that his parents committed suicide. Jim is attacked after lighting a candle and watching videos. Mark is bit by the infected and Selena kills him.

Sequence 4      Selena and Jim continue walking through London when they see an apartment flashing Christmas lights. With help from Frank, they fight off the infected and spend the night in the apartment.

Sequence 5      Without water, Frank decides that it is not best to stay put. He plays the Major West’s broadcast to the group and they set course for Manchester.

Sequence 6      While driving through a bridge and over wreckage, a tire pops. Hannah works to change the tire as the infected begin to run to their location. Hannah is successful and the group escapes.

Sequence 7      While stopping for gas, Jim walks inside a shack where he encounters his first infected alone. It is here that he makes his first kill of the movie.

Sequence 9      They arrive at the 42^nd blockade. Frank becomes infected and a group of soldiers shoot him as he changes.

Sequence 10    The soldiers take Hannah, Selena, and Jim back to the compound. Outside, Jim speaks with Major West who gives him a tour while the soldiers joke around in the background. West introduces Jim to Mailer, a black soldier who has been infected.

Sequence 12    At dinner, a group of infected make their way onto the grounds. The soldiers kill them and retreat to the house where Jim fights off Mitchell to protect Selena.

Sequence 13    West reveals his plan to use the girls to repopulate Great Britain. Jim grabs Hannah and Selena and attempt to run away.

Sequence 14    The soldiers hold Jim (and the Seargent) prisoner. They are taken to the woods where Jim avoids being killed.

Sequence 15    Selena feeds Hannah pills to calm her down. Jim rings the siren to get the soldiers’ attention and frees Mailer who attacks the soldiers. After searching the house and avoiding West, Jim finds and rescues Selena. Hannah meets them and they run to the exit.

Sequence 16    West, sitting inside the car, shoots Jim. Hannah reverses into the house, feeding West to Mailer. Selena and Jim enter the car and Hannah drives off of the property.

Sequence 17    Twenty-eight days later, Jim, Hannah, and Selena try to get the attention of a pilot flying over their “help” sign.

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Part II. Scene Explanation

In this frame, we are provided with a close up of Mailer, an infected solder who is now being used by West as a science experiment. Thid is the first time that we are introduced to Mailer, who will later have an important role in helping Jim defeat the rest of West’s troops. This moment, in particular, occurs following Mailer’s collapse onto the ground after profusely vomiting blood. He is now staring up at Major West and Jim who have entered the yard. Lying in the dirt with red eyes, red lips, and dirty clothes, Mailer appears almost primitive—very similar to the monkeys in the research center at the beginning of the film.

While Jim and Major West are not pictured in the frame, it is apparent that Mailer is staring at them. However, we, the viewer, are also provided with the illusion that he is staring at us. The frame, shot from above, allows us to look down at Mailer from the same perspective, and in the same manner, as Jim. Due to his clothes and skin being the same color as the dirt he is laying in, our eyes are immediately drawn to his face which, with this angle, we are able see as Jim sees—infected, but also humanlike. He is a man who, with the help of the camera angle, dirty clothes, and trembling body, appears to be helpless and, according to Major West, futureless. From this frame, it is obvious that Mailer is a monster and his actions, as well as the noise he makes only enhance this image; yet, because of this angle, he does not appear threatening, instead he looks to be suffering.

However, this is not the way that he is portrayed throughout the entire scene; he behaves as a typical infected: growling, snarling, and jumping at Jim as he enters the yard. Jim, not knowing that Mailer is chained to a post, is immediately scared of the potential dangers that the infected man poses to him. Nevertheless, Jim, a white man, has the upper hand over Mailer, a black man/monster. Not only is Jim uninfected, but he is also free. Mailer, despite being a dangerous being, is at the mercy of Major West and the other soldiers, who, with weapons and free rein, can do anything they want with him.

This image of a vulnerable black man being subjected to violence at the hands of a white man is reminiscent of black men being whipped and tortured during slavery and the hundreds of years following. Mailer’s dark skin, which appears to have been darkened with mud, red eyes, and red lips, only further aids in this connection to slavery and racism as he looks similar to a blackface doll (pictured below for comparison). Just as black men have been depicted as monstrous, so has Mailer. The only difference is that Mailer’s blood is infected with a virus, while the blood of real-life black men is only believed to be infected/contaminated.

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Part I. The Plot

Sequence 1 Asmiov’s “Three Laws of Robotics” are presented one by one. In between each law, the camera cuts to images of two people trapped in separate cars. One car contains Spooner who is saved by the robot. Next, Spooner awakens and the nightmare ends.

Sequence 2  We are introduced to a futuristic Chicago in the year 2035, where humans and robots share the streets. Spooner arrives at his grandmother’s house where she informs him of the robot lottery. This is where we learn of Spooner’s distrust of robots. When he leaves, he sees a robot running with a purse and chases after it, accusing it of stealing. He was wrong and at work, he is teased him about it.

Sequence 3   Spooner receives a call from Dr. Lanning’s hologram. At the scene, he finds Dr. Lanning dead. He speaks with Lawrence who does not question the death being a suicide. Spooner remains skeptical and begins to search the facility. He is introduced to Viki, USR’s supercomputer, and looks for surveillance footage. Finding none, he enters Dr. Lanning’s room where he finds and fights with Sonny.

Sequence 4   Spooner and Susan arrive at the robot construction facility to find Sonny. Sonny attacks him and leaves the building where he is captured and detained.

Sequence 5   Spooner questions Sonny who denies killing the doctor. He, instead, mentions that Dr. Lanning has taught him human emotions. Lawrence, calling Sonny an anomaly, orders for him to be destroyed. Later, Spooner searches Dr. Lanning’s home where he is almost killed after the demolition time suddenly changes. He tells Susan, but she does not believe him.

Sequence 6   Susan learns that Sonny can dream. Next, Spooner is attacked by robots that were summoned by Lawrence. We learn that one of Spooner’s arms is robotic.

Sequence 7   Susan learns about the accident and Spooner’s robotic arm. Spooner proposes that Lanning gave Sonny a way to keep secrets. They visit Sonny who draws a picture of one of his dreams.

Sequence 8   Spooner visits the location in Sonny’s dream and finds the new robots killing the old ones. Meanwhile, Susan is “destroying” Sonny while Lawrence watches.

Sequence 9   The robot revolution begins and Susan and Spooner sneak into the USR, with the help of Sonny, to end it. They walk to Lawrence’s office to override the system and find him dead. Here, they learn that Viki is in charge of the revolution, so they work to kill her.

Sequence 10 Sonny retrieves the nanites, causing Viki to send robots after Susan, Spooner, and Sonny. At Viki’s brain, Susan and Spooner fight off robots. Sonny enters with the nanites. He saves Susan (because Spooner tells him to) as Spooner jumps down to inject the nanites into the “brain.” Viki dies.

Sequence 11 The robots return to normal and are called to be stored away. Spooner and Sonny settle their differences. Last, we see Sonny standing on the hill from his dream surrounded by other robots, fulfilling the prophecy.

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Part II. Scene Explanation

            In this scene, Susan has learned about Spooner’s relationship with Dr. Lanning—the man who attached Spooner’s robotic arm after he lost it during the car accident. She is amazed by how real it looks and takes it upon herself to feel the arm. She squeezes and touches Spooner’s left arm, beginning with his hand and ending at his shoulder blade.

In this frame, particularly, the director provides us with a close shot of Spooner’s chest, with a specific focus on the area where the robotic arm meets Spooner’s shoulder blade. The position of Susan’s hand place emphasis on what appears to be veins, but are actually wires that connect the human and the mechanical parts of his body. This reveals how closely related Spooner is to the beings he hates. Although he is not a complete robot, one of the most central parts of his body is and is the only thing that allows him to appear and behave as a “normal” human being. Had he not received this prosthetic arm, he would have probably lost his job, however, a piece of robotic equipment has allowed him to live his life as he had before the accident. Nonetheless, despite Spooner experiencing firsthand, the wonders of robotics—including being saved by one—he remains skeptical of them and continues to detest them.

Additionally, the way that Susan touches Spooner’s arm serves as a way of humanizing him, even after we have learned that he is part robot. With dark lighting, Susan’s white hands bring light to Spooner and his mechanical arm, showing that the arm, although not real, is not a bad and scary thing. This is contrasted with the first time we learned about Spooner’s arm; he was fighting a robot and punched the ground. As a viewer, we expected his hand to break, but it did not, highlight the damage and dangers of the mechanical arm. This scene, on the other hand, shows that the arm is just an extension of a human Spooner. The cameras angle serves to make Spooner appear less threatening as a black man; the frame is shot from below, cutting off the heads of both Susan and Spooner and making them appear closer in height. The height and build of black men is what has been used in the past to describe them as aggressive and menacing, but now the camera angle and Susan’s hands are telling the viewer that Spooner is good—he is safe.

Contrarily, the frame also others Spooner in a way. It is slightly reminiscent of a slave auction in which auctioneers and prospective slave owners felt and squeezed the arms of male slaves to gauge how strong they were. This reminds the viewer that Spooner is black and that even though he is a human, he is still different and not necessarily, in a good way.

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