The opening sequence of 28 Days Later (Danny Boyle, 2002) is an extremely well-thought-out and

put-together piece of cinema. In this short seven-minute clip there are multiple things that you could
talk about but my main focus for this essay is going to be the use of mise en scene because I find that
without all of the small details added by Boyle, the story would not have been anywhere near as
interesting.

The first thing we see as the audience is the eye of the presumably main character as he awakes
seeming lost. The way that this is framed I find enhances the meaning of this shot, as I find having
half of the character’s face blocked from view adds to the mystery. It gives the audience time to think
of their own story of where the character may be or what he looks like. But I also find that it is
symbolic as it could be used to show the confused mindset of the character because he’s only gotten
half of the story that being the room he is in.

We then cut to a full shot of the character revealing that he is lying on a hospital bed. In this shot,
there is a lot to look at, but you are given a short amount of time to look. I find that the most
important thing in this shot has nothing to do with the surrounding objects like the mess of cables but
more the pose of the character in the bed. To me the pose has a religious meaning, it looks like he has
been posed to look like Jesus on the cross. The meaning that this adds to the story is quite a relevant
one, I find that it’s telling you that this character has basically come back from the dead to a new
world that he is unfamiliar with.
As the character gets up to leave the hospital room, we again get one of these shots where half his face
is covered. This time though I feel like it is done for a different meaning, this time I think it is done to
represent the learning of new information, the action of the blinds being opened is a visual way of
showing how his eyes are being opened to what is happening outside of the room he is isolated in. In
this same shot, you can see our character pick up a key that had obviously been left there for him to be
able to open the door once he had woken up. On this key is a red tag. The colour red is very important
and has been used deliberately as a warning. This is because red is usually used to show danger,
making this key a message to the viewer that once the door is unlocked our character is no longer safe
and anything could happen at any time.

Finally, the last thing I would like to talk about takes place later on in the sequence. This scene in the
opening sequence is a very unsettling one because of the lack of objects. The street seems very empty,
but I think this was done purposely to put emphasis on the overturned bus which is something that no
one has probably ever seen before in London. But the main subject of this scene is the statue. Its
location in the foreground makes it seem like it is overlooking our character, watching his every
move, judging him. It also makes the statue seem more powerful like it’s the one in charge now that
there are no people around.

In conclusion, mise en scene makes this dialog-free opening sequence full of story and detail, always
making the viewer think and come up with their own ideas.