28 Days Later is one of the best zombie movies of all time, but it could have had a total of four different endings. While the film does not involve the ᴅᴇᴀᴅ coming back to life, 28 Days Later is generally considered a zombie movie, as it has many tropes found in the zombie apocalypse genre.

One of the strengths of 28 Days Later is its minimal cast and character-driven plot. The story centers on Selena, Hannah, and Jim, the latter of whom wakes up from a coma to find the world destroyed. 28 Days Later‘s Ebola-inspired “rage virus” is the agent of the apocalypse.

The movie’s most disturbing moments come from the fact that the human survivors are more brutal than the infected. Jim discovers this when he uncovers the movie’s military antagonists’ dark secret. This results in him getting sH๏τ, fighting for his life. Major West’s betrayal sets up three of 28 Days Later‘s four different endings.

28 Days Later Had Three Alternate Endings

28 Days Later kept audiences guessing Jim’s fate for some time. After he is sH๏τ, the screen fades, suggesting for a moment that the movie will end on a cliffhanger. Fortunately for audiences, this is not the case. The caption “28 Days Later” appears onscreen, and clips of the immediate aftermath of the shooting show Selena trying to resuscitate him.

Jim wakes up in bed before rushing out of the house to join Selena and Hannah in trying to attract the attention of a pᴀssing aircraft. While this ending was well-received, Danny Boyle had considered three other endings. One follows the common saying that when you die, your life flashes before your eyes.

The theatrical ending scene begins with several flashes of Jim’s life and an ominous upside-down sH๏τ of the word “HELL.” Jim wakes up in bed with a jolt at the beginning of the movie, and the ending mirrors this in a different bed. This directive choice gave viewers a few moments of ambiguity before it became clear that Jim survived.

28 Days Later used clips from this scene in two of its other alternate endings, where Jim’s fate isn’t so optimistic.

Jim Didn’t Survive 28 Days Later’s Climax In Two Endings

Danny Boyle filmed two of 28 Days Later‘s alternate endings and storyboarded a third. Two of the endings make it clear that Jim didn’t survive. Boyle filmed his original harrowing ending in the hospital, where Selena and Hannah, still in the red dresses that the soldiers dressed them in, battle desperately to save Jim’s life.

Hannah calls out the medications to Selena, who is a chemist. Still, Jim dies on the operating table, and this ending is now known as the “…what if?” ending. Boyle also filmed a more ambiguous version, which was not his original plan. 28 Days Later‘s “freeze-frame” alternate ending was not Danny Boyle’s original choice.

28 Days Later was filmed on a low budget, and Boyle ran out of money. The ambiguous freeze-frame ending was his solution. The action stopped as Hannah crashed the taxi through the gates. Fortunately, when the producer and Boyle showed the freeze-frame ending to the studio, they were given more money, allowing 28 Days Later to have a proper ending.

The Dark Reason Audiences Didn’t Like 28 Days Later’s Original Ending

28 Days Later is one of the bleakest and most tragic zombie apocalypse genre movies to have been made, and it gets progressively more disturbing. The audience is dealt several blows in quick succession, with Frank becoming infected just when salvation appears in sight, then Major West betraying Jim’s group, and finally, Jim being sH๏τ.

Test audiences saw the original ending as hopeless, with Selena and Hannah walking to their deaths. This was far darker than intended, and Danny Boyle made a controversial ending change, allowing Jim to survive. Similarly, the storyboarded ending saved the life of a different character.

28 Years Later may not be able to top 28 Days Later‘s most disturbing scene, in which Major West reveals that he sent a false message of salvation to lure in women. That said, 28 Days Later has another tragic moment that shocked its audience.

Frank is infected when a drop of blood falls into his eye, and within a few seconds, he turns from a loving father to a clothes-ripping, snarling monster. This is one of the most tragic moments in the movie, and it is when 28 Days Later‘s storyboarded alternative ending veers away from the theatrical story.

28 Days Later Almost Had A Very Wild Third Act

Boyle had storyboarded a final act for 28 Days Later, which was drastically different from the theatrical version. 28 Days Later‘s “Radical Alternative” ending replaced the disturbing military scenes with another horrifying moment. In the final alternative ending, Jim knocks out the infected Frank and takes him to a laboratory.

Hiding here is a scientist who reveals that a full blood transfusion will cure the rage virus. Jim sacrifices himself to give Hannah her father back, and after having his blood transferred to Frank, Jim is left to die in the laboratory.

The radical alternative ending for 28 Days Later would have been tragic, despite allowing Frank to live, but Danny Boyle decided not to use it almost as soon as he had finished storyboarding it. The alternative endings were included as bonus material with the DVD, where Boyle explained why he changed it in a commentary feature.

It was already established that the rage virus was so highly contagious that just one drop would infect you. This would make a blood transfusion too simple and unrealistic of an answer.

Which 28 Days Later Ending Is Canon For 28 Years Later?

The plot for 28 Years Later was kept тιԍнтly under wraps, with the highly disturbing trailer suggesting several different fates for its characters. Rumors indicated Cillian Murphy would reprise his role as Jim, and it was even suggested that Jim would be a cult leader in 28 Years Later.

This is not what happened in the movie, and Jim’s fate was never revealed in the sequel. 28 Years Later didn’t even show Jim in flashbacks, meaning the original theatrical ending remains the most likely canon event. The most likely option is that Jim survived.

Neither Naomie Harris nor Megan Burns reprised their roles as Selena and Hannah, which means that 28 Years Later failed to answer some major questions. While it is possible that the two women have survived and are thriving in another location, the bleak nature of 28 Days Later suggests this was not the case.

How The 28 Days Later Endings Compare To 28 Years Later

The main ending of 28 Days Later showed hope for Jim. He was living in a small home and tried desperately to get attention from the airplane for a rescue and extraction from the infected area. 28 Weeks Later showed that London had contained the infection, and Jim could have found a new life away from the area.

28 Years Later showed the virus had been mainly eradicated from continental Europe, and the British Isles remained in quarantine, with a few survivors. There were still infected there, and, in a horrifying revelation, some of them were evolving into a more intelligent form. The endings, as a result, are very different.

28 Days Later ended with a message of hope, but 28 Years Later ended with a hint of what is to come concerning the mysterious cult that exists on the British Isles. At the end of 28 Years Later, the young Spike finds a baby born to an infected woman, and he delivers it to his village before disappearing.

After this, Spike returns to dangerous territory, now completely disillusioned with his own society, and finds the cult, whose leader is a mysterious man named Jimmy, who was a young boy during the initial infection 28 years earlier. While the first movie ends with hope for salvation, the sequel ends with a look at rebuilding the future.