London is Deserted in ’28 Days Later…’ | Rotten Tomatoes’ 21 Most Memorable Moments

Director Danny Boyle’s terrifying ’28 Days Later…’ reinvigorated the zombie genre with unique visuals, a smart story, and fast-moving flesh-eaters. It’s a film of incredible moments – lashings of gore and chaos and shocking human behavior – but is perhaps best remembered for the quiet with which it opens. In the movie’s opening moments, Cillian Murphy’s Jim wakes in hospital and begins to explore a completely empty central London, walking by landmarks and on roads we’re accustomed to seeing crowded with people, unaware of the reason no one is around. It’s one of the eeriest sequences from any horror movie of the last two decades. In this exclusive interview, Boyle reveals that he did not in fact close down the city for the sequence, but shot early in the morning and – with the help of his daughter and her friends – managed to create the effect of an isolated metropolis. Boyles’ behind-the-scenes breakdown of the classic opening sequence is part of Rotten Tomatoes' Most Memorable Moments series, celebrating the most electrifying, terrifying, moving, and hilarious movie moments from the last 21 years.