I'm a zombie! I've been bitten! You're listening to the Survival Podcast. You're all going to die down. This is Zombies Ate My Podcast. Hello and welcome to Zombies Ate My Podcast. I'm your host Ryan Murphy and joining me as always is the Busy Zombieland Lou Page. How's it going, Lou? Run, those rage zombies are coming for us. Yes, this week we're covering our last Extra Life 2024 film, and that's 28 Days Later.
uh this is technically a ryan's choice and uh choose i did because it's been so long since we've seen this and we were waiting for it to come to digital and it arrived late last year, so of course it went on the list, and Blue were like a month and A half from 28 years later? Should have looked that up. I think I'm going to end up going to the theaters. Even if I have to go alone. Yeah, I will have to go alone. I don't think I have.
i i mean i could ask my uh friend locally if he wanted to go but i don't know if he's into zombies i don't mind going to the movies by myself uh i mean it's i'm totally fine with that i've done it before i did it for uh doctor strange and the multiverse of madness i just like i was like you know what it's been a long week i'm gonna take the day off i walked down to the cinema took a nice long walk downtown and went to the movies
in all honesty i usually go to the drive-in and the really nice actual real cinema to me is in in the city and i that's where i usually go there is a place up the street from me and it's one of those watch a movie and have dinner at the same time kind of places where you sit in like They're not even like fancy chairs. You're sitting at a dinner table and the movie is going on in the background while you eat.
And it's always a mess. It's always full of people screaming and hollering and Erica won't go to it. So I always refer to it as we don't have a theater in town because it's a piece of crap. I will go there because it's down the street to go see this if I have to. Yeah. Is that like an Alamo draft house type thing I keep hearing about or is that different?
This is different, but it's in that vein. But Alamo Draft House is nice. This place is more for kids. They show grown-up movies. Like, I saw the first Deadpool there. But, um, the food is super overpriced. Like, crazy overpriced. Like, a hamburger's gonna cost you $25. And it's not any fancier than a McDonald's hamburger, I'll be completely honest.
But it's always noisy. There's always people throwing stuff. I've seen people throw food at the screen and stuff. I hate going there, but if that's the only way I'm gonna see this, that's where I'll go. Yeah, so it opens June 20th, so as of this recording, about a month and a half away. I have just a traditional theater here in town. Won't mean anything to our majority of our listeners, but it's a Cineplex, which is a Canadian company. And...
Yeah, I think I'll have to see it on my own. Zombies is not Ashley's cup of tea. Obviously, the kids are too young for... for this film and and i'm really curious uh we'll get into it when we get to 28 days later but i'm curious to see Now that we've watched 28 weeks and 28 days sort of around the same time, you do kind of notice there is a tonal...
sort of shift to a certain degree but there's also this like familiarity between the two films but i really do feel like 28 years later is gonna skew closer to the original because it is the original writer and director My biggest curiosity is I'm gonna be wondering if there's even a reference to weeks later, but Alex Garland and Danny Boyle did produce the weeks later. They didn't write it, but they produced it.
Yeah, they didn't. And as far as I know, they didn't disown it. They just didn't have as big an involvement as they did with the original or this upcoming sequel trilogy. So, I mean, we'll see. I thought 28 Weeks Later was good. It felt more Americanized, and we did talk about that on the show because they basically bring in the American army. So it makes sense that they would feel more American.
but I get the sense that 28 years later is going to be a shift. I mean, I don't even know. Based on the trailer, it seems like it's, as you said, it's more nomadic. It's like a reset. I think it's going to hint at the prior movies, but I think it's going to be its own thing. Again.
we can't keep talking about it because we don't know anything else more than anybody else but i'm i'm i'm ready i'm ready we're ready and it's on the list i think probably the first time in the shows whole history that we've got a movie that's coming to theaters that is on the list it's on the what we're going to cover sort of docket and I think this will be the first time we go to a theater as As a show. I want to say we did it before once. What would it have been for?
I know we talked about Evil Dead Rise, but we never did it. We waited. Yeah, we waited, but that was because it was in the middle of the pandemic. It really wasn't theaters to go to. I feel like it was definitely in an era where we could have gone to see it. We just Things come to streaming so quickly. Sony is a little more apprehensive of dropping their stuff directly onto digital platforms.
So it'd be a longer wait to watch it at home, but I felt like Evil Dead Rise was like a month late. By the time you and I coordinated on maybe going to see it in theaters, There was already a release date for Home. Yeah. And I think HBO announced it was going to be on HBO within three months of it being in theaters. And I was like, well, then I guess we don't need to run around.
no it's so different now like we went to see it was a big deal like the first movie for my kids that were like we have to see it as soon as it's like Wednesday they knew when it was out and they're like okay we have to go see it I need to see it this weekend so when I go to school on Monday I'm not going to get spoiled by my friends or I can talk about it it was one of those like water cooler moments but for like my nine-year-old
and and it was a minecraft movie we went to see in theaters and the first question was like when can we see it again and and when we were kids It was like, you're going to have to wait half a year. It felt like when we were a year, a year, sometimes it was a year. Yeah. Like it would be in theaters forever because there just was no competition. So it could stay there as long as it wanted to, as long as it was selling tickets.
But now I said, and I said to Caden like, well, let me, let me Google it. And I looked it up. It's like, it'll probably be available for super rent. And sure enough, it's available for super rent, like May 20th.
So if you're right now having your kids bug you to go see a Minecraft movie, it's like, distract them with something for two weeks and it's like, oh, we'll have a movie night at home and it'll be fine. We'll pay the 20 bucks and super rent it. Or wait even a couple more weeks after that and then you can...
just rent it or buy it i don't it's a it's a different time so but that being said we are going to go see 28 years later in theaters uh that's the plan so uh there you go and with that let's get into the news The virus has completely devastated over 150 of the world's major regions and is spreading rapidly. Let's kick things off with some very good news for a franchise. You know and love. And that is the fact that Resident Evil 4 Remake.
has become the fastest selling game in the series to sell 10 million. So not the first game in the series to sell 10 million, but the fastest. And this is a game that came out in March 2023. So in two years, it's managed to hit $10 million, which is a pretty big milestone for a remake. Yeah, that's the thing. It's a remake, so you'd think that the remake would sell well, but it wouldn't sell this many.
It goes to show you that there's a reason why Capcom keeps making these games. Well, Resident Evil is a huge franchise for them, and I think we're due up for another one pretty soon, and there's talk that... obviously there's talk of like another remake and possibly a resident evil 9 they have that movie coming out like next september i feel like 2026 is going to be a big year for the franchise and we'll get some new video game
uh because they tend to sort of release them in chunks every couple years like every three years there's a new project um or at least two new projects every three years or so Last bundle being 2020 and 2021's Resident Evil 3 Remake and Resident Evil Village.
which it's crazy to think village was 2021 that's yeah i remember we were still in lockdown when it came out and i had nothing else to do and violet was a baby and i think i was on paternity leave when it came out and I ended up spending it like three whole days just sitting on the couch playing it between baby feedings.
yeah yeah it's weird to think back and i mean resident evil 4 obviously the remake it was it was one of our favorite titles from 2023 it was a big uh it was a big release and the dlc that they had for it separate ways was also fantastic um capcom has not really missed with their remakes i i believe lately like four three and two are all superb no
The only note I would have is stop trying to give us Resident Evil multiplayer. That's the only note. They took it for Resident Evil 4. They did. Fair enough. Or did they? Wait, did Resident Evil 4 have a multiplayer mode? No, it did not. Village had a multiplayer and I believe that multiplayer- I believe all their multiplayers are now shut down.
Yeah, do you think there's a chance, because Capcom is like this third party that likes to partner with other platform holders to kind of make their announcements. We have the Ghost of E3 coming up, which is usually early June. Do you feel like we get an announcement from Capcom about Resident Evil in June? I think we're going to get a tease of something.
That's where they technically, I think, teased Resident Evil 4 remake. I believe it was at E3 the year before. I don't know if we're going to get a remake or they're going to show us 9, but I think we'll get something. Gosh, if you think that movie is based on Resident Evil Zero, do you think they offer a remake of Zero and One, or probably just Zero? If I don't think they'd touch one, I think they'd do zero.
Well, we will see, but Resident Evil, a franchise we love, doing very well with Resident Evil 4 Remake becoming the fastest game in the series to sell 10 million. What could use some of that success is Little Maul. called the Monroeville Mall. We've talked about this story before. This was posted in our Discord. It does seem as though the iconic Dawn of the Dead location is facing the wrecking ball thanks to your lovely giant big box store Walmart.
Yeah, I'm really sad about this because if I find out they're going to knock this down, I might have to go on a road trip. Yeah. Pay my respects before it's gone. Yeah, there's a comic, not a Comic-Con, but an event happening. Let me pull up the Discord because I know one of the... uh what do they call it the festival oh uh last living dead weekend or is it living dead weekend it's the last one it is the last one because because they're going to be
No, it's called The Living Dead Weekend. Sorry, it's right here. so every year there is a living dead weekend a convention celebrating the film and its legacy this could potentially be the last one due to the fact that they're it's it still reads as though it's like plans slash rumors that they're gonna like either knock it all down My guess is that knowing Walmart, they're floating the idea around to see if it's going to get them bad press or not. Yeah.
Does Walmart care about bad press? Like, that's the thing. I don't get the sense that Walmart would care. Well, if they're planning on turning it into a Walmart, right, and knocking down the entire mall and putting a superstore or something in, or putting in a... A Sam's Club or something? If they knock down a piece of legacy like this,
then people in that town might not go. Yeah, like if it's a big deal there. It is a big deal there. Yeah. So my guess is that it might give them too much bad press and they don't want to open up a store that's not going to... not going to sell anything. The other thing too is that being as it's a piece of film history, Somebody could fight it and have it.
It might end up being, someone might try to list it as a, what's it called, a landmark. Yeah, they do say in the article it is a sort of, no, it is a cultural.
landmark cultural landmark and and it would be it'd be like erasing something that is critically important to the history of film um yeah like obviously movies are shot every day in different locations and you know some movies are you never hear of them again some movies are special but like i think this is this is a very clear connection to a cult classic film from a much beloved director and you have this mall that was a character of the film itself
and i get the sense it's it's still intact it's just not a walmart and walmart bought it so like You connect two and two together, it's probably cheaper for them to knock it down if they want to build a Walmart.
But I think there is, and they touch on it in the article, and there is a change.org petition that you can sign. Which I signed already. Yeah, I figured you had. There is details in here that basically... talk to like there is an opportunity for walmart while purchasing the building to preserve even just a part of it to kind of keep that cultural history alive Obviously, we'll still have them all in the film, but it doesn't make sense to...
tear it down especially as as this article states like it's still a pretty busy place you got a lot of people going in there for the fact that it was in dawn of the dead so um i i hadn't even looked at the petition where is it is there like is there like um it's in the article it's a change.org petition there was a thousand it's only been up for like It's only been up for like two days. There was a thousand plus people already on it. Yeah, interesting. It seems like you've got...
Oh, so they are petitioning to have it reviewed by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which sounds, I don't know, but sounds like an organization that deals with sort of keeping these places intact. but there are 904 verified signatures is change.org the one that like needs a thousand for them to like
Or was that like a government thing that I'm thinking of? I don't remember. I don't remember. I feel like there was like an American government petition service. Probably doesn't exist anymore. Maybe I'm making it up. I don't know what you're talking about, self. Maybe it's a Canadian thing. I don't know.
I can't remember. Maybe. But anyways, save the Monroeville Mall. Check it out. And hopefully Walmart will think twice about building another walmart's relentless like we had a big box canadian big box store fall through zeller's and they had these big it was basically like a canadian walmart
And they went bankrupt, and there were a bunch of Zellers across the country. And some of them got sold to developers, but Walmart actually bought a bunch of them. And specifically the town I live in, there are now two Walmarts. in this town, one in the West End and one in the North End. The city near where Erica and I both work, they just put in a...
Costco, and it is literally, I'm not joking, it's almost across the street from a Sam's Club. And Walmart did... They're the equivalent stores, and Walmart owns Sam's Club. Oh. Did you not know that? I thought Sam's Club was like a record store. It was called Sam the Record Man, but that might be... You're thinking of Sam Goody.
Which doesn't even exist anymore. It was a record store. But Sam's Club is a big box, Costco-like store, but it's owned by Walmart. So everything in it is basically a Walmart brand. And there's been one just outside of Portland for ages. And Costco decided to come to town. And Walmart did everything.
Possible they fought it in court. They fought it in City Hall They tried to they did everything to try and not get this Costco built and now that the cost goes built like nobody goes to the same Yeah So it's funny you were saying Sam's Club and I kept thinking it is a record store in Canada. It's called Sam the Record Man.
it's it's defunct now although there is one left i guess somewhere so similar to the last blockbuster but it kind of reminds me i was going through some we were cleaning out a garage at work and and there was a box filled with like press clippings and for some reason and one of them was like a future shop flyer and i was like oh man i miss future shop which was the canadian best buy until best buy bought them
Shut them down. That's like a trend, I think. I too was clean. My office has now got things in it and looking more like an office after my basement flooded a couple years ago. I'm finally getting this room back to kind of the way it was. And I was going through a box of stuff and I found an original GameStop flyer. for Dead Rising on 360 from 20 years ago. And it is a flyer for the mall. And when you open it up, it is a map of the mall.
And it treats it like it's a real mall. And then it says, find out now by buying this game on 360. And I still have this flyer. I've never thrown it away. I'm thinking about putting it in a frame. yeah it is weird like we had um we had a conversation about posters in video card uh video card boxes when you buy video cards they would always have like a poster and it'd be like whatever the 3d model thing they had that was attached to the current generation i'm like man I miss getting...
posters for my video games like when you pre-order that was always a big deal you know to bring it back to resident evil and zombies and all that for the show i pre-ordered resident evil for the gamecube when they remade it and i got a hat it was it was a stars hat so it was like the stars police station ball cap
I have no idea where it is. I could have sworn I brought it with me and held it close. I bet you it's in a box somewhere here and I dragged it to the post. I have a tricell bag somewhere. Yeah. From Resident Evil 5. Is that like a gym bag type thing? It was a cheapy little shoulder bag that you got for pre-ordering 5. Yeah, nowadays it's like if you want that stuff, you've got to buy the $300 version, and it's usually a statue, which I can't do anymore. No more selfies.
I haven't bought anything with an extra in it for ages. It has to be something I'm absolutely... crazy about and that's not a lot of things anymore yeah like i'm looking at my shelf i have uh i can't remember what i think oh it says right in the box i have the master chief uh halo helmet from halo 3 there was the meme that it was like for a cat it would fit on a cat although i i wouldn't recommend it and i have uh i have arkham city like the batman statue and then i have halo reach
uh the Halo Reach diorama and like I just I have no more space like those are big statues so um anyways speaking of video games one more story here and this is this is kind of filler but uh i figured i'd mention it days gone remastered is out now on ps5 A patch is available for PC players. but Broken Road, the expansion they've added into their remastered edition, which is like a horde mode, it must be purchased. I think it's about $10 American to buy it, if I...
Got my math right? Yeah, I think it is. I think that's what it says. It's 15 Canadians, so I'm... trying to do the yeah i'm pretty sure it's like 10 bucks yeah so if you own days gone on pc you can you get the improvements that the remastered has done although um there was a lot of improvements that were put into the pc version at launch from the ps4 version so It might not be much.
It's not a ton, but the new mode is cool. I don't want to poo-poo this game. I have it on a Steam wish list, and it goes on sale all the time for like $9.99. And I kind of go, should I? I don't know, I got plenty of other zombie stuff to play. I'll just play Resident Evil again. Like, I appreciate that this game is out there, and I don't want... It looked cool back when it was in early development, and I was really hyped for it.
But then when reviews came out for it, it kind of looked like it was more of the same. And I know that you played it. We talked about it here on the show and you never sold me on it either. And I was like, you, you enjoyed your time with it, but I still was like, I get better zombie stuff I can play. Yeah, I really enjoyed it. My co-host on the Gamers Inn, Jocelyn and I, we really loved it. The struggle that we had with it was that it was a late PS4 title.
and it really struggled on the base ps4 which jocelyn played it on and i had a ps4 pro and it ran a lot better on there so it struggled in that regard but my understanding is like it the pc version the port was really well done and um it had second life on the pc there but it It is treated by Sony and PlayStation as sort of this almost get the sense an experiment gone wrong i i think it's a great game but i think playstation kind of like doesn't hold it in the same regard as other titles
Yeah, no, and the other thing too is that I know Sony dropped it like a hot potato, and I know that there was some backlash from the guy who was the lead developer on it. I don't think he works for Sony anymore, but he's at every turn pooh-poohed Sony about it. So I'm like, if the guy who helped develop it is not excited about this, then I don't know how excited I should be.
Well, and there was a story that was put in the Discord, and I could only find the one article, but there is talk that the PC version and the remaster has sort of brought back to life the idea of a sequel. There was rumors that Bend, the studio behind it, had pitched a sequel, and it was turned down. But then Bend said, well, we pitched a lot of ideas, and we are working on something. That may or may not have turned out to be this remaster because they are behind the product as well.
i would like to see a sequel the ending of days gone set up An interesting scenario for a sequel, a story sequel, specifically to do with the zombies and what that plague was. But I remember enjoying it. I thought the story was very, it was very generic zombie.
story but it it had some heart to it and it and it had some interesting tech like the horde tech was really cool but i think that's why it struggled on on base hardware because uh it just It needed those extra resources to keep the... to keep the rendering running smoothly um but i'm curious that i i can just like the pc players who can buy the dlc i can upgrade my ps4 version to the ps5 version for i think like 15 bucks
So, I'm tempted, but there's so much going on right now. Again, maybe I'll play this someday, and if I do, I'll talk about it on the show. Again, I mean, it's a positive. Sony's trying to make money on this thing that they put out. what, five, six years ago. Yeah. Sony, if nothing, knows how to market and sell the same thing multiple times. It's almost like a Nintendo.
yeah yeah sony's uh very very good at that i was gonna i should say though that um it's steam deck verified green across the board so yep said something the steam deck is more powerful than a ps4 yeah exactly all right well let us move into our main topic which is 28 days later and as always we're going to start with a clip Okay, Jim.
I've got some bad news And that bad news is that four weeks after a mysterious incurable virus spreads throughout the United Kingdom, a handful of survivors, and I mean handful, try to find sanctuary. This is a very small group of folks. Like, they aren't joking when they say handful. Like, for the first hour and a bit, it is five people. That's it. Well, it is. You're right. No, it's always four. Somebody bites it real quick in the beginning.
yeah yes you're right like there is there's a lot yeah that character gets it's weird because like I forgot how let's talk about the infection I forgot how um yeah like how fast it goes how transmissible it is like how how it can be transferred just through just uh uh just blood like getting the blood did you get it in your mouth did you get it in your face like
And that moment when that character, the guy in the clip, you know, dies, he gets attacked, a zombie jumps through a window and he's got this like cut on his arm. And the other lady just kind of kills him on ceremonies. She doesn't even hesitate. Yeah, exactly. I wanted to start at the beginning, though, like with the day one stuff where you have the animal testing lab and you have, I'm trying to remember the group. the real life group is it it's PETA right but it's Yeah.
So I don't think that that's the exact group that is in this film, but it is constantly trope to that group in films. But anyways, they're in there trying to free these animals. I completely forgot. that they kind of address where the infection came from, and it's these tests on these chimpanzees in a lab. Yeah. It's a government lab. You don't know whether or not they were trying to cure something or if they were trying to make a weapon or what they were doing. But when the...
When the protesters show up to steal it and make a scene, the animal advocates or whatever, the guy in the lab is literally like begging them, no, you don't understand. You don't understand. You can't let them out. Yeah. Yeah, he's adamant. Like, you are basically going to end the world.
And we will circle back to the beginning of the film because I don't know if you watch the alternate endings that are available. I found them on YouTube and I watched them all. There's like a 20-minute video that has them all. There's an ending where Jim dies. There's an ending where everybody dies, I think. And...
I think there's a third one, but I haven't seen them in years, but I remember. I think I had a DVD copy that had them all. We'll circle back to the endings because I feel like there's a lot. there's a lot there i call the one where jim dies is basically the walking dead ending which i'm glad they they did not go with that one it was I think it was labeled as a what-if, you know, less than an alternate ending.
But yeah, the lab stuff is really interesting. I completely forgot about that. What I didn't forget was the music and how sparingly it's used. it's not licensed music it's it's a score but the way they use it to sort of like amplify this idea of like a london
Like a British town that is just basically like void. There's nothing there. And I know that when they were filming this, A lot of the stuff had to be filmed at like 3 and 4 in the morning when the sun was just coming up because it was the only time they could get those filming locations where they weren't busy roads. That's why there's a few shots in the movie.
that are at night that kind of don't make sense and then there's a few shots during the day where it's kind of hard to tell but you're like wait wasn't it just night a few minutes ago or wasn't it just night and now it's day and you're like And it's in the coinciding shots, but it's because of how they had to shoot it. And if you think a little hard, you can notice a few of them. Yeah, there's some really interesting behind-the-scenes stuff that I was reading on Wikipedia about how they shot it.
and how when it was shot. It was definitely a different era in terms of security and how... Oh yeah, this was a whole different world than we have now. Yeah, because this was shot pre-9-11 or around 9-11. I think just before was when filming started, I think.
yeah they specifically mentioned like a specific place or area in in the uk that they shot where like we wouldn't have been able to do this post 9-11 it just wouldn't that it would be impossible to shut this location down um like they talk about like there's a busy area where they shot that to make it look um just abandoned they had
police cruisers block off the street and they would quickly film. And that was the reason they actually said they used these DV cameras that were available in the early 2000s, which I worked a lot with for school projects and stuff. And they really do produce some terrible quality film. And you see that in this movie, like... They did want to preserve the look of the film, but there's really not a lot you can do with DV tapes.
like they're digital it's early digital video and the reason they shot on it is because they're really small cameras they're easy to get in and get out sometimes they would have like 20 minutes to get a shot and i had to like get it done quickly and they had to get into small spaces and get out to kind of like make it work but the quality is uh is not great there's there's a reason that only five years later 28 weeks later
looks like a completely different era of film like you go from dv to like film and it's just like what do we what do we it's a whole new ball game you know So you feel it when you watch this movie. Like, it's definitely shot on a different... The other thing, too, is it's hard to go back. I mean, this movie's over 20 years old at this point. And it's hard to go back to that now and think about what the state of the world was then and think about what's going on in this movie.
I remember specifically when this movie first came out. It got released in the UK, and it didn't get put out in America right away. Like, it took its time. And so there was a lot of talk of this movie, and I remember being like, come on, man. Like, I want to see this.
and it was like I was gonna have to wait like almost eight it was like six months before I could see this and I remember having it back in the day I bit torrented a version of this film that was filmed from a theater like with someone with a handicap and I watched the movie that way for the first time and then when it was in theaters I'm pretty sure I went to see it at least twice if not three times Yeah, a DV copy of a DV copy. Yeah, back when going to the theater only cost me seven bucks.
Oh man. Those are the days. Definitely doesn't cost $7 even for the ticket now. Yeah. Oh man. um i did have a thought though that uh when we're so early let's talk about like um i don't want to get too far out of us but let's talk about the iconic beginning after the lab
You see our main character, Jim, played by Cillian Murphy, wake up from a coma in a hospital. And we talked briefly pre-show about like, huh, that looked... and or felt familiar you want to talk a little bit about that Yeah, so there was a lot of controversy when The Walking Dead first came out because the opening scene in The Walking Dead is almost scene for scene.
Jim waking up in the hospital in this movie. And to this day, what's his name that created The Walking Dead claims that he had not seen this movie at that point. And I don't know if I believe him or not. And honestly, I don't care. You're free to steal little ideas from places. I know that when I've written something or I've watched something and I see somebody do something like that, I'm not ashamed to admit that I borrowed an idea from someplace else. It's fine. I mean...
Even the Resident Evil movie, the first one, steals from this a little bit when she wakes up at the end of the movie in a hospital bed and has to climb out and she finds out that... The umbrellas covering up the city of Rackham City is covered in zombies. Like, it's almost the same thing. It's a trope at this point, but I think this is the first place I ever saw it. Yeah, I definitely feel like it was the first place. I think that...
I'll give The Walking Dead a little more credit because I feel like they address some of the plot holes for Jim's scenario where Jim appears to just kind of waltz. Out of the... Although... Okay, let me think about this. So in The Walking Dead, when Rick wakes up, you get a sense that the hospital was barricaded and he was somewhat... protected from the horde that took over or demolished the hospital and everyone was killed except for him. In Jim's case for 28 Days Later,
He kind of wakes up and just waltzes out. He doesn't notice that anything's awry until he kind of gets... I mean, he's wondering, but when he gets out, no one's there. Definitely is abandoned, but not to the point where it's been like... barricaded but i think that might be the difference between the walking dead zombies and the 28 days later zombies is that 28 days later they're like more attracted to sound and movement rather than in walking dead they're
They'll just eat anything and they can smell it and they're hungry. Does that make sense? Yeah. Okay. No, and then these are fast zombies. Yes. So, you know. They are. This is sort of the invention of the fast zombie. immediately after this that's when the the the James Gunn written remake of Dawn of the Dead Headfast Zombies. Yeah, and that came right after this. Oh, yeah, you're right. It would have been two years later. It was two or three years later. It was like 2005 or 2006.
So that's the funny thing is I know there's a quote out there about George Romero hating fast zombies, but I wonder if he hates them more because they remade Dawn of the Dead with him or the fact that they just exist. To begin with from 28 Days Later. I get the sense he's more upset because they put him in his movie. I'm pretty sure that it was more because they put it in his movie. Um... He's always been the kind of person from everything I've read about him.
He didn't want everything to move at a fast pace. He liked slower paced stuff. Slow zombies made that easier for him. Yeah, for sure. I mean, there's not a lot of... zombies in this movie you know for being this this early in the in the zombie apocalypse It's very sparing. Yeah, it's very sparse. I mean, you get maybe at most five or six in one shot, maybe. Like, there's no horror.
When they're in the church, you see a bunch of them. When he first meets them, there's a bunch. I'd say there's probably like a dozen. Yeah. If I'm thinking of it correctly. There's definitely a good chunk when he ran away. There's a bunch. You never see more than probably a dozen at a time. And you got hints.
They don't really, not until the end of the film when you get to the army guys, but you get hints that 28 Days Later is kind of similar to The Walking Dead and that like... society has crumbled and every there are assholes everywhere like everything's kind of like gone to shit and people don't know how to be humans anymore they're not so in your face and about it like the walking dead is um
Because they meet the cab driver, and he's clearly not a bad guy. He helps them. Yeah, I forgot Brian Gleason was in this. Yeah, I forgot that he was in it, and I also forgot that Christopher Eccleston is the army guy. Yeah. What is with Doctor Who characters and being in zombie films? This is our second one. Yeah, I know. I know. And David Tennant did a vampire movie. Does that count for something? I think it does. Yeah. Yeah. I'll count it.
again the acting in this is so good almost everybody in this is now like a big name and I forgot that back in the day, people didn't even know who Cillian Murphy was when he did this movie. I mean...
This is what landed him Batman Begins, I think. Yeah, it would have been... Like, I think it did. It makes sense. I mean, Christopher Nolan being a... a british filmmaker as well and probably you know knew of the film for sure i i would imagine that's the case i mean he's a great scarecrow man it's been too long since i've seen Batman Begins. Batman Begins? No, that's not right. Is that what it was called? Yeah, Batman Begins. Weird.
I said it out loud and it just didn't sound right. And then the third one's called Dark Knight Rises. Yeah, I guess the Dark Knight. And the similarity of the follow-up is what's making me second impression. It's confusing you. It's confusing you. Those movies could have been named better. Batman Begins, okay, yeah. Because people were upset, it sounded like a prequel, but it really was a Batman movie. Anyways.
uh i i did make a note here confirmed 28 days later is a christmas movie they never explicitly say it's set at christmas time but there's a christmas music and christmas light so fair fair i'll take it i'll take it um yeah i had forgotten the one thing i will say that i had forgotten since i i mean i haven't seen this movie in years sure um I had forgotten how Brendan Gleeson dies.
oh man really yeah that's such an iconic scene i've forgotten that the body had blood that landed in his eye and i went oh i forgot i forgot it's been too long i that is i shouldn't I will be fair. I think the last time I watched this was I was showing it to my wife and we weren't married. So that would have been like...
14 years ago, at least, was the last time I watched this. That scene where the dad turns is just, it's seared into my memory. It's horrified. Yeah. It's one of those, because he's not bitten. uh the the body is it's it's a dead zombie but it's still the blood is obviously infected with the has the infection And it's like a drop of blood that goes into his eye. He knows immediately he is screwed. And he has to, like, push his daughter away. And that moment there also screams of, like...
i'm surprised that robert kirkman did not watch this film or remembered it while making the walking dead because that moment really feels like a walking dead shocking what a twist end of episode death type thing where he knows he's turning and oh god just heartbreaking and brutal And scary. And I knew the military twist because I've seen this a million times. I remember back in the day not knowing the twist.
The first time I watched this, I'd be like, they're saved, but the movie's not over, so something's gonna go wrong here. And I didn't know if it was going to be they got overrun with the zombies.
or if they were going to be the bad guys. And when they became the bad guys, I was like, oh, that's right. I knew Christopher Eggleston was the bad guy, was going to be the villain in the third act. And I was like... yeah i forgot how good a bad guy he can be yeah i honestly forgot like when i was watching this movie i was like i was trying to remember like
Clearly, these army dudes are the bad guy. But I couldn't remember why. And I think this is the... the biggest struggle i have with this movie and that it is 28 days later after the infection hit Um, and, like, this is the issue I have with Walking Dead is, like, the zombie apocalypse hits, and, like, Certain groups of folks just turn into the worst human beings ever. It's only been four weeks. It's been a month. Yeah, see, that's my thing is when I see it in other shows or other movies.
And then they'll be like, it only happened 30 days ago. And I'm like, society wouldn't devolve this fast. I will agree with you that society will devolve and whatever. But 28 days later? I don't know. I don't think so. Watching this movie, it's the most far-fetched part of it. Wow.
farfetched. There's zombies and that's farfetched, I guess. But no, I understand the concept that people would do whatever it is to survive. So if I see somebody do something bad to somebody else because they're trying to stay alive themselves, I can draw that up to human nature, but when I see people outright become villains, like the guys in this that were going to basically turn the two female characters into slaves, I was like...
It's a little bit of a stretch. I think it's, of all the things in this movie, I think it's the one thing that stretches it just a little bit. Yeah. I mean, look, it makes for, you know... It makes for an interesting story. It makes human conflict and it makes for an interesting story. I'll give it that. Like, I don't hate it. But it's the one thing in this movie that puts a little bit of doubt in me.
yeah and i i guess like it's just like and 28 weeks later kind of addresses this because like uh as far as i remember there aren't like there aren't i think there are bad there are bad guys in that movie but it It more so devolves into the army. Basically, quarantine's done, we have to enact the cleansing protocol, and everyone's going to die, and we're going to start over.
that was sort of the why it's funny 28 weeks later is also the armies the bad guys hmm uh but it's been it's been a month i get that like they are assuming well it's hard to say like there's talk that the whole world's been infected but then the army folks kind of understand or hint at the fact that only Like the UK has been quarantined and it's just the UK. And we know in 28 weeks later that that is the case, that it was just the UK. They quarantined it and they kept it sort of contained.
uh but in this film we only get hints of that and at the end jim is like wait We thought everything was infected, but you're telling me that it's confirmed it's just the UK and we've been quarantined. They don't 100% confirm it, but they hinted that that might be the fact. which kind of like to Jim makes it seem he kind of like has this realization like what the hell are we doing like if if it's if the island's been quarantined and we just have to wait it out why are we devolving into like
You know? Right. Madness so I understand the concept of stir crazy. I mean I saw some people do some pretty crazy stuff during the pandemic Yeah. But again, this is 28 days. We did a year. It didn't make sense. But it's a movie. It's a zombie movie. It's meant to create conflict and therefore drive the story forward. So, yeah.
I get it. I do have some clips that we're going to go through, and then we'll talk about the alternate endings, because I have those fresh in my mind. Speaking of... We talked a bit about... Jim and his realization as to what's going on. I cap this line. It's just hilarious. What about the government? What are they doing? There's no government. Of course there's a government.
There's always a government. They're in a bunker or a plane. I love that moment because it's like, he's right. There usually is always a government. Where is it? What's going on? Um, Even The Walking Dead couldn't steer away from the government just being gone. It was a big plot point in fear, right? What was it called? There was like a protocol. Like a bunker. Paradise? No. Something like that. Anyways. So I like that line. It's when they're kind of explaining to him what happened.
And then the film, like, I didn't get a lot of clips after that until, like, the tail end. So you can all have a shower. You look like you need one. Please. So the doctor telling them they can have a shower because they stink. It's been a while. Oh, and then, and you get the sense there's something weird going on as you see these army folks interact with these new survivors, and they're just, I don't know, there's some weirdness, and you...
sense it in this moment in the kitchen. What are you cooking, Jones? Surprise, sir. i can't wait it's like what are they what's going on you know What's going on? You wonder for a second, are they going to be feeding people? But you go, no, they can't be feeding people because the people would be infected and they would be infected. Right. That's a good point.
The one thing I thought they got right in the 28 Days Later bit is that food and grocery stores and and malls and all that are still plentiful like they come across there's a scene where they come across a grocery store and it's like untouched the produce is rotten but like they have aisles of just
preservables and food that they can grab and i thought that was like okay we are not like it's not like fallout times where like everything's picked bare and it's covered in dust like this is only less than a month and if a grocery store was abandoned and not looted because they're fast zombies and literally, like, everybody was either infected or got out of there.
these stores would still be intact, right? So I thought that was a nice, believable touch. Then you come across the army folks, they have kept and infected alive, and... And they give a valid reason. They're not experimenting on them, but they're saying, we want to know how long they survive until they starve to death. Yeah. How long until I die and then we can leave?
Yeah, exactly. And that's sort of the premise of 28 Weeks Later, they address that, like, you know, they all died, and now we've been able to sort of repopulate, although the virus... around but uh but yeah we get this explanation he's telling me he's futurist And eventually he'll tell me how long the infected take to start today. Which is like, you know, I guess if you are going to keep one of them, Look, it's never smart to keep it infected within the walls. I mean...
That's bananas. I always got the vibe that that guy was an experiment on purpose. Well, yeah. They fed him to the zombies so that they could see how long it takes from bite to death. Yeah. yeah because they say like oh we knocked him out and we were able to you know get him in chains but now that you mention that yeah like the fact that at the end you realize these guys are are crazy they're crazy they probably he probably said something that they didn't like and bam hey I got a crazy idea yeah
yeah um and again like as the scenes move on you get this sense of like okay there's there's something underlying here there's something going on and i think our years of the walking dead have taught us to see like you know, the villains of this, of the zombie genre, but... I've seen, I've seen enough zombie movies that I know the villains when I, I know they're coming, so... Again, I knew the twist this time around, so it didn't surprise me, but I forgot...
Again, this movie, it's been so long, I forgot how dark some of this is. I knew it didn't have a happy, it wasn't a happy movie, but I remember being like, oh yeah, yeah, oh yeah. I remember why they're bad guys. Well, I think because of the subject matter, I think it was good that they didn't give us the Walking Dead ending and then give us the happy ending where our heroes begin. Okay, I will say, the theatrical ending that we get with Jim Lives,
They spread out the help sign and you realize that there are still live people out here and that they might be saved. I think it's... It's what the movie needed. Yes. If it ended on a dour note, I don't think it would be as critically acclaimed as it is now. If it ended with Jim dying... I don't think this, I think there would be a fan base for this. But I think a lot of people would be like, oh. Yeah. I think killing everybody off is one of the things that hurts the Dawn of the Dead remake.
You watch the guy stand on the dock at the end as they go off on the boat, right? And it leaves you with hope that they made it. You know what I mean? And then they give you the post-credits scene with the video camera on the boat and everybody dies. Or it's implied that everybody dies. And you go, well, then what did I sit through this all for? I mean, and I love that movie, but I think if this movie had done that, I don't think it would be as popular as it is now. Yeah.
Yeah, no, I agree. I much prefer, and if you watch the alternate ending, the what if where Jim dies, it's not a, it's just not, like, it feels like a, it just feels it kind of feels cheap and a gut punch for, for gut punch sake, you know, like.
The way he... And they include some of those scenes in the theatrical where they're getting him to the hospital and how they saved him, but the way he dies in the alternate editing is just kind of like... it's disheartening it leaves you on a sour note and i think they did try to like they also had an alternate ending where uh the two characters
that survive are laying out the help sign or the hello sign yeah there is a version of that as well so you know they do end on a hopeful note they get quote unquote well we assume they get rescued but um but anyways There were moments, I had to cut this clip short just because of the different swears they have in Britain, but I thought this was a funny moment. there's uh there are these moments like there's like as you get to the end that last 45 minutes while like
I think it's the most intense of the movie. It is. When Jim's running around taking them out. Oh, he's like a Terminator, the way he comes back. Yeah. And they think that he's, they think he's one of them. This, that clip was from earlier on, but you're right. Like the ending where he comes back. And he basically, like, kills them all. Like, it's just, he's, he is there to save. He's there to save.
his people and and he doesn't anyone who gets him in his way is is well is is getting out of his way And there is that moment where she sees him and you can see her counting to make sure that it's him. Yeah, exactly. I thought that was a really cool moment. But there's some levity to the scenes.
in the tail end of the film because it like it is it is quite dark it's it's quite horrific but there are also these moments of levity uh sprinkled in and i think that's the danny boyle style and and there's this specific moment that i i laughed I thought it was really, it's even the way it's shot is comedic, but you can hear it. And when you hear it, you'll, you'll remember it. Gracias.
So it's these characters coming back into the building and you hear what sounds like the goat scream. Let's see if I can play it again here. ¡Gracias! It's this character running. The camera is a static shot, and you see the character run by, and then the camera resets, and then you see the zombie run by chasing him.
And all these other characters are standing there watching this happen. And it is kind of like this this comedic moment i felt it was comedic as as these characters it felt really benny hill you know well okay so the thing i will say about this movie and what's different from this versus what we normally watch the walking dead It has happiness.
And The Walking Dead, the happy notes are so far between. You get like one a season. Whereas in this movie, there's like the moment where they get rescued and they're with the cabbie. And then... They have realized they gotta leave and because the and he's still got a cab and they're gonna take his cab and like it feels It feels optimistic. It never feels like watching this movie as sad as some points are and as dire as the situation is.
You know, this isn't Zombieland, but it never feels totally hopeless. Yeah. At least not for very long. No, I mean, there is really just this, like, the moment, the turn, like, when the army folks reveal themselves to be villains. That's the stretch of the film where it's all gone wrong and they have to get out of there. It feels very Walking Dead, I'm trapped type thing.
But you're right, with the hopeful ending, it pairs well, it's balanced, and the good guys prevail, the bad guys all die. Horrible day. I think that's the way you've got to go to have a balanced movie. I am wondering, though, with this clip, if this is going to test your knowledge, because I got it wrong until I had to go through clips and figure it out. But I'm going to play the clip, and then you're going to have to tell me why it sounds so familiar.
And you're gonna be next. Alright, Lou. Reach back into history of the show. What is that clip used for? Wasn't it Dead Decision? They're dead. And you're gonna be next. Dead decisions. You got it. You got it, Lou. You're better not. I thought it was like our old intro.
uh which had a bunch of clips but yep dead decisions i heard it and i immediately because again like i haven't seen the film in a long time we haven't done dead decisions in like 310 episodes it was a short-lived segment because it was really difficult to do uh it had its moments though but um i was like I couldn't remember. And I went through the clips and I found it. Think about this, man. We were coming up with one of those every week.
The concept hurts my brain now. The concept that hurts my brain is that we would watch The Walking Dead and talk about it once a week. like that's that feels like a forever ago unheard of concept but uh We did it. We did it. We did it. We lived to tell the tale. But don't worry. I feel fine. Don't worry. I feel fine. Really. So there you go. And that's the clips I have. The only other thing I wanted to chat about before we head out was the alternate ending.
we talked about the jim dies alternate ending the extended ending with um
for that ending, leading with just the two survivors instead of everyone being there. But there is an alternate ending that basically starts... and this is a huge alternate ending and it was more of an exploration between the writer alex garland and the director denny boyle and it's not shot but it's all like storyboarded and it's this 20 minute youtube video i found and it's basically like it starts at the point where the dad gets infected
There's no army, but... they basically it's really worth watching they return to the lab that we see at the beginning of the film the dad still gets infected but instead of them killing the dad they they capture them, bind them up, and take them with them. Because the idea is the radio message plays saying we have the answer to the infection.
The Army's answer to the infection is supposedly hot water and... and and more meals but in in this alternate ending they go back to the lab and they say well let's go to what they were protecting with this blockade and it turns out it's the hospital it's this lab where The chimpanzees were seen at the beginning of the film.
And the idea is that there is a scientist holed up in this secure room with all these resources and they arrive there and they're like, hey, you said you had the answer to the infection. And basically, long story short, it turns out the answer is a full blood transfusion. And they find out that Jim is the only one capable, has the blood match with Hannah's dad, who's been infected.
And the ending is essentially Jim dies or becomes infected because he swaps blood with Brian Gleeson's character, the father. And he walks out. He's cured. So that's what he says. Like, there's a cure, but there's a catch. And the cure is basically you have to swap blood. The science in that doesn't make sense. Well, exactly. They said basically that once they established that a drop of blood in the eye could infect you...
How do you rid the body of a virus by just removing the blood? Like, are you going to bleach and clean every, you know, blood vessel? Like, it's just, it's too far-fetched. I guess it was just something they were trying to explore because they wanted to see if they could keep the movie very contained to a handful of people. Like really when the army... Yeah, it was a budget constraint.
Yeah, yeah. Although they talked about approaching this during post-production, or maybe they said pre-production, as you said, probably to address budget concerns. it's an interesting look and the fact that they kind of commissioned these storyboard animations for it it's an interesting watch it feels very I don't think it would have tested well it's very light
It's very far-fetched, and it kind of ruins... You would have to remove the moment of the father being infected by the blood going in the eye. I think that would establish how easy it is to be infected, and it wouldn't work. with the ending that they were setting up. Anyways, check it out. That's 28 Days Later. Lou, we've revisited it. We've had a great time.
But we're going to call it there, I think. And well, we got a pretty good plan for what's coming up next on ZAMP. And that is while we wait for The Last of Us Season 2 to complete. We're going to shift everything. We're going to throw a wrench into the system. We're going to put something in here. And I'll explain why in a minute. I'll explain why in a minute. You tell them what we're going to do. Yeah, it turns out we're going to watch Scout's Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse.
Which we swore we saw, but we actually didn't. I clearly remember talking about the trailers, but we never... Turns out we never watched it for the show. I've seen this movie several times. I own a copy. Digitally, I own a copy, so I've watched it a couple times when I'm bored. I really, really like this movie, but I also really like a lot of Chris Landon's movies, who is the director. So I think he has a really fun take on horror most of the time.
I'm excited for this. I know where this is going. And this is not, there isn't a... How do I put it? There isn't a... It's not people trying to save animals. But there is a lab thing that goes wrong in the beginning of the movie, and it's kind of more of a funny take on what happens in the beginning of 28 Days Later. If I remember it correctly.
so I'm going to be curious about Ryan's take. That was why we were just trying to discuss what we were going to cover, and I was like, did you see this? I said to Ryan, do you remember the similarities between this and the opening of... of Scout's Guide. And Ryan couldn't remember the beginning of Scout's Guide. And I was like, I could have swore I saw this for the show and that we've covered it. But a quick Google search says we have it.
Yeah. So that's next week, our next episode. Yeah. So I'm excited. I mean, zombie comedy, I'm all in. So we're going to talk about that. And then after that, The Last of Us Season 2 should be wrapped up. So we'll talk about the entire season.
And then we're going to watch a Canadian animated film called Night of the Zoopocalypse, which is an adaptation of Clive Barker's short story of... zombies i guess that's the the story there so and and if you're wondering uh as for the walking dead dead city uh well we're not we're not too sure we're not 100 sold yeah We're not going to not watch it, but reviews are out, and reviews basically are saying,
that it's really kind of the same thing the last season was that like Maggie and Negan both still there's still at odds there's still this and I feel like that's the wrong way for this show to go. I feel like these writers are not advancing. Characters are not growing. You know what I mean? If I want to watch a show, I want to see characters grow and develop. I mean, Daryl is growing and developing. I mean...
He's still Daryl, but you can see that he's learned more. He sent the kid off on his own, you know, in the plane. Yeah. There's some issues with the reviews we've read. We always... Like, I think... We've heard that there's Maggie Negan. We've heard this teenage angst that's really bad. The same stuff that we've always hated. So, we're still iffy on whether or not we're going to cover it or not.
Stay tuned. Stay tuned. Yeah, we'll figure it out. I have this negative trait of when I start something... It takes a lot for me to stop. watching it like tv shows specifically franchises are a big one like um i'm so the opposite of you i know like the mcu like i'm cursed because like i'm never gonna be able to although i have gotten better where i have not watched literally everything now because there's so much
But The Walking Dead is definitely in that vein where it's like, well, I've watched it all so far. Like, I can't stop or I'll get too far behind. Nope. Nope. Nope. I don't have that mentality. I drop things like a hot potato. Yeah. All the time. There's so much to watch that having this weird... I have to watch it because I've already watched some of it.
uh so this will be a good test but i'll watch it i'll watch the first few episodes i'll let i'll let you folks know lou and i will will touch base but stay tuned. It might be like when it's all done, we'll talk about it. And of course, 28 years later is going to be in there as well. So like basically right up until the end of June, all planned. Look at that. Aren't we efficient?
Uh, but, uh, if you, if you enjoy our efficiency on Zombies Ate My Podcast, you can support us directly. Patreon.com slash Zombies Ate My Podcast. All of that goes back into the show, pay for hosting and to rent and to see movies and all that fun stuff. um speaking of the website visit zombiesatemypodcast.com for show notes and all our previous episodes you can join our discord at tiny.cc slash zamp discord it's the best place to connect with fellow listeners as well as lou and i
This has been Zombies Ate My Podcast, and as always, we close out the show with some fine zombie knowledge from the busy zombie lord himself. Take it away, Lou. You're all in for a treat when Ryan sees. potato cannon killing zombies, and I think it's a weed whacker with an attachment on the end that kills zombies at some point. You're all in for a treat when Ryan sees it.
All right. I think we're going to relive fire extinguisher nunchucks for those of you that have been around long enough to remember.