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 42nd 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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