I haven't seen this movie in years. I forgot about so many of the humanizing moments in it. The film stars Cillian Murphy and Naomi Harris, two fairly large names in British film. It starts with animal activists releasing the virus, which seems like a very conservative idea, but the film moves on to make it clear that those convervative ideas are a lesser thought. Our first experience with a zombie is that of a priest. Our protagonist runs from the priest and is saves by his new found friends.
Those friends teach him that in order to survive in the apocolypse he survived simply by being ill that he needs to lose his attachment and learn to kill without regard. This comes up later, a bit of a reference to Checkov's Gun.
There are several times throughout the film where in the characters seem very delighted with the idea of being human again, indicating that during the infection that they have lost thier humanity. Finding an unlooted supermarket and camping out at ruins that are free of infected gives the travelling group the ability to be human again.
As with many zombie films, there is a "recorded message" that attracts survivors to its location. It's at this location that we find that the true antognist is not the infected, but rather the people who are still there. The leader of the military complex intends to use the two woman brought to them by the group as the beginning of a new humanity.
While trapped in a prison room, our protagonist hears about how England is a tiny island isolated by the rest of the world, this is definitely some foreshadowing to the sequel. The climax of the film is absolutely unbelievable. The infected become the weapon of the protagonist, not even by his hands only, but by those of his compatriots. The Umbrella Corporation would be proud.
I went spoiler heavy on this one, because nobody should have not seen this one yet. But, it is a much more humanizing film than I ever remember it being. I remember watching this and Dawn of the Dead and thinking "Christ, if zombie could run...." But, for real, this movie is much more about maintaining and being human in a crisis such as this. What a wonderful film.
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