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28 Days Later is nearing its climax. The protagonist, Jim (Cillian Murphy), has just been left for dead in an area infested with zombies. The soldiers who abandoned him think they’ll be free to spend the night raping Selena (Naomie Harris) and Hannah (Megan Burns). Little do they know that Jim is still alive, and he’s angry.

Jim makes a spectacular return to the fortress the soldiers have built, ready to wreak havoc. His goal is to get the women out of the building, but he’s also spent the movie being the passive guy, and he realizes that that doesn’t work so well. His wake up call drives him to become unmerciful. He leads zombies to the fortress and proceeds to kill any soldier that gets in his way.

The highlight of Jim’s rampage comes when he happens upon Jones, a relatively innocent soldier. He hasn’t done anything to Jim or the women, and he’s just trying to escape the zombies that Jim has unleashed. Despite Jones’ innocence, Jim is unmerciful. As the soldier approaches, Jim stabs him. The light falls on Jim’s face long enough for the audience to see that all emotion and feeling are completely absent from his eyes. The will to survive and the need to find his friends have turned him into a living, breathing, human zombie. After Jim kills Jones, he goes to the kitchen and attacks a soldier who is trying to rape Selena. Jim beats the man’s head against the floor and gouges his eyes out with his thumbs. He is so violent that Selena initially fears that Jim has turned into a zombie, too. For a few minutes, Jim resorts to a completely primal state that is both terrifying and thrilling to watch.