This document provides a summary and analysis of the opening scenes of the film "28 Days Later". The summaries describe settings including a public place with police on horseback dispersing tear gas during an incident, a dark laboratory conducting experiments on a chimpanzee, and a nervous man in a lab coat calling someone on a telephone dated to the 1990s. Subsequent scenes show a character waking up alone and confused in an abandoned, dark hospital in a deserted London with overturned vehicles and no people. Notes posted on a wall may provide clues to what happened in the town during the 28 days referred to in the title.

1. 28 DAYS LATER
opening sequence analysis
Kanta Wongchai

2. This scene seems to be in a public place as we can see
the street and the lamp post. We know that the person
on horseback is a member of the police force because of
how they dress and the fact that there are many of
them. The tear gas in an orange colour shows that
something bad is going on and it is like a warning colour.
As the police and tear gas are shown together, this
indicates that there has been an incident and that they
need to use it to disperse people.
The logo of the production company is shown in the
opening scene. This acts as a mark of quality and also
enables the viewer to decide if they want to watch the
film or not. Production logos can be a genuine
indication of genre and this is because many
companies will focus on particular genres that suit
their target audience. As Fox has shown, the audience
will probably know what genre this film is.

3. This appears to be in a laboratory. As we can see a chimp
has wire attached to him which means that he is being
tested on. This can instantly make the audience think
that there might be something wrong. The room is really
dark and there is almost no light in this room, which can
make the audience feel uneasy or tense.ace seems to be
the laboratory.
This scene shows the police and armed forces using
brute force. We can see this as they are carrying
weapons and the reaction of the crowd showed how
out of control the situation has got. The police have
been forced to use violence to control the situation.

4. This scene shows a man who is calling someone on the
telephone. We cannot really see his face as its really
dark but he seems to be nervous and in a rush. His
costume looks like a laboratory uniform.The telephone
that he used dates the film to about the 90s.
The typography used in this scene to show the words
“28 days later”. This tells us that the next scene will
be what happens after 28 days. The font that used is
simple. The background is in black which conflicts
with the white font colour suggests something bad is
going to happen.

5. This is an extreme close up to show the character’s eye.
As this is the scene after it said “28 days later” and his
eye is half-open, it gives the impression that he is just
woke up after 28 days of been asleep. The light that
reflected on his face seems to be from the sunset. His
face is blocked by something - this makes the audience
curious about who he is.
The mid shot showing half of his body and the
surroundings. The setting is in the hospital as there are
hospital related items surrounding a bed located in the
centre. His chest is covered with a big plaster. The room
is dark which is unusual for a real hospital. His facial
expression indicates the feeling of confused and
shocked. His beard shows that he didn't shave for a long
time and it is possible that he might have been asleep
for a long time.

6. We can see the hospital’s main area and the character
wearing a patient’s uniform. The hospital is desolate.
The phone hanging on the wall is in focus and he is out
of focus. This is trying to show how this place is an
abandoned hospital. The phone that is hanging down
shows that nobody has used it for a while
The scene now switches to a high angle shot shows that
the character is looking down the building. The building
on the right makes him look really small, which infers
that he is alone in a really big city.

7. This scene gives us the setting of the film. It takes place
in London as we can see Big Ben behind him. The town
looks really quiet. There are no cars or people around.
The lighting in this scene is natural sunlight which gives
the scene a strange atmosphere. The man gives the
impression of having sickness and disease which fits
within the context of the film.
In this scene the man walks out and wanders through
the empty London streets. The car is flipped to the side
and we can see under the car. This means that
something big has clearly happened so the car is in that
position.

8. This is an establishing shot showing the centre of
London with no one there. It is in the evening as the
sky is turning into orange and yellow. There is a lorry
stopped in the middle of the road. The colour of the
lorry is red which could possibly represent danger.
The scene now switches to the intersection. In the
middle of the road is a car. By showing how desolate and
empty the city of London is (which is often very busy)
this gives a sense of a silent ghost town.

9. We now see a wall that is full of notes in focus. This
shows that many people have placed the notes there
for some reason. The man is walking towards the wall
which suggests that after he saw the wall he might
know what happened in this town during 28 days. His
shadow emphasizes that he is alone in this big town.