28 Years Later: What happened in 28 Days Later and 28 Weeks later? Recap and how to watch on streaming ahead of new film

Danny Boyle’s famous zombie flicks gets its third installment with 28 Years Later on June 20, which is being released more than two decades after 28 Days Later, which kicked off the beloved British zombie franchise. The post-apocalyptic film catapulted the career of stars Cillian Murphy and Naomie Harris after it because beloved by fans and critics alike.

The world of 28 Days Later was expanded upon with 2007’s 28 Weeks Later. Now, audiences will return to the wasteland world of Britain almost 30 years after the Rage Virus outbreak.

The new flick stars Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Jodie Comer and Ralph Fiennes, and is set to be one of three films making a return to the universe. But before you dive into the new film, here’s a complete recap of everything you need to know about the previous films.

What happened in 28 Days Later?

28 Days Later saw bicycle courier Jim, played by Cillian Murphy, wake up from a coma after he was involved in a traffic accident to find the world eerily quiet. The London hospital has been deserted and Jim ventures outside to find that the entire city has been deserted.

In an iconic scene, while walking along a deserted Westminster Bridge, Jim finds a newspaper which reports mass evacuations. After entering a church, which houses the site of a massacre, Jim is chased by infected people, eventually coming into contact with Selena (Naomie Harris) and Mark (Noah Huntley), the first two healthy humans he has met since he woke up.

The group then travel to Jim’s parent’s house, where he discovers they have committed suicide. They make camp in the house before making their next move, but after Jim lights a candle and attracts infected, Mark is attacked and Selena brutally kills him without hesitation, telling Jim that that is when needs to happen whenever anyone is wounded by the infected.

Jim and Selena make off tor a tower block after spotting a signal from across the skyline. They reach the flat and encounter Frank (Brendon Gleeson) and his young daughter Hannah (Megan Burns) and Frank shares with them a radio message that he came across that promises salvation from the infection at a blockade just outside Manchester. The four pack up and bundle into Frank’s cab to make the journey north.

Reaching the blockade, they find it deserted. While exploring the scene, a drop of blood from above falls into Frank’s eye and infects him, with gunshots suddenly shooting him dead.

Jim, Selena and Hannah are brought to a mansion that is under the command of Major Henry West (Christopher Eccleston). However, they soon discover that the “sanctuary” that was promised is a sham, with the message created to lure female survivors to the home to become sexual prisoners for the soldiers stationed there.

This causes friction not only with Jim, but also Sergeant Farrell, who refused to go along with West’s plan. Major West instructs his soldiers to shoot the pair, and Farrell is killed while Jim is able to escape.

Jim, who has lured West away from the mansion with a siren, returns and frees Private Mailer, an infected soldier who was chained up in the yard for observations, to infect the soldiers residing in the home. Prior to this, Jim spots an airplane in the sky leaving trails behind it, indicating that there is activity in the outside world.

He finds Selena and Hannah, who have been kept prisoner in the house. As they are escaping the house amid a shootout with the soldiers, Jim is shot in the stomach by West, who was hidden on the back seat of Frank’s cab. Hannah reversed through the cab meaning that infected Mailer is able to grab West through the back window and the trio drive away from the mansion, escaping.

Another 28 days later, Jim, Selena and Hannah find themselves at a cottage in Cumbria where Jim is recovering. After spotting a jet in the sky, they attempt to gain its attention with a huge cloth banner which says ‘HELLO’ as the three wave to the jet, unaware if they have been spotted. Nearby the infected appear to be in a dying state, unable to move.

What happened in 28 Weeks Later?

In the 2007 sequel, the story temporarily jumps back to the initial time that the Rage Virus broke out, with Don Harris (Robert Carlyle) and his wife Alice (Catherine McCormack) hiding inside a cottage on the outskirts of London with four other people. After the group hear a young boy pounding at the door to let him in, they bicker about whether to let him in.

Eventually, infected people who have followed the boy reach the cottage and break in. As Don pleads with Alice to leave the boy, she refused and Don ends up making an escape by himself, leaving his wife, the boy and the rest of the survivors behind as they get overrun by infected.

The film then jumps ahead 28 weeks, when the infected population has died out due to starvation. US-led NATO forces have taken control of the United Kingdom, with Brigadier General Stone (Idris Elba) leading the command. Settle and refugees are brought in to be given homes, two of which are Tammy and Andy, the children of Don and Alice who were travelling abroad when the virus broke out.

They are reunited with Don, who they meet after being assigned to District One, located on the Isle of Dogs. He lies to them about their mother, telling them that he saw the infected kill her when in reality he abandoned her before he ever saw her die.

Tammy and Andy soon sneak out of District One to visit their old home and gather up some of their old belongings. They find their mother Alice alive inside the home just as soldiers who have been alerted by Sergeant Doyle (Jeremy Renner) about their disappearance turn up to return them to District One.

After the soldiers discover Alice, they quarantine her and is tested by Scarlet (Rose Byrne). She is found to be an asymptomatic carrier of the Rage Virus. Don learns that Alice is still alive and has been quarantined and is confronted by Tammy over his lie that he saw her die.

Discovering that Alice is an asymptomatic carried, Scarlet pleads with General Stone to keep her alive so she can study her for a possible cure. However, General Stone just wants to kill Alice to stop the virus from spreading again.

Don takes the decision out of their hands when he makes an impromptu and unauthorised visit to Alice to ask for her forgiveness. She tells him she forgives him, he kisses her and contracts the Rage Virus.

The virus sends Don on a rampage that begins with killing Alice before spreading the deadly virus through the medical base. General Stone gives an order to execute ‘Code Red’ to contain the virus.

Tammy and Andy are being pursued by an infected guard when they are saved by Scarlet who thinks that they could be the key to a cure now that their mother is dead. As part of Code Red, the residents in District One are rounded up, but Andy is separated from Scarlet and Tammy.

He encounters his now-infected father as he breaks into the containment area, with Don spreading the virus to the residents gathered there. They run to escape the infected, with guards and soldiers told to aim for the infected, but General Stone soon makes the decision to kill everyone after it became impossible to distinguish infected from people in the panic. Sergeant Doyle turns on the plan after spotting Andy in the crowd.

Andy is reunited with Tammy, Scarlet and a few other survivors. Sergeant Doyle also joins them, telling the group he has abandoned his post after they got instructions to shoot on sight. He offers to help them escape, after being told by helicopter pilot Flynn (Harold Perrineau) that the military plans to firebomb District One to contain the virus.

Flynn offers to pick Doyle up if he can get to Regent’s Park before the assault begins. During the attempt to flee, some survivors in the group are shot dead by a sniper, and Scarlet is also shot in the leg, however Doyle takes this sniper out. They find refuge in a tunnel right before the firebomb starts.

It is then discovered that a group of infected, including Don, also survived the firebombs. Doyle, Scarlet, Tammy, Andy and another survivor named Sam reach Regent’s Park where they are found by Flynn, but he isn’t happy that Doyle didn’t warn him about the prospect of bringing civilians back to the base. Doyle instead asks him to take the Tammy, Andy and Scarlet over the English channel.

However, the infected catch up with the group and they are forced to flee, with Flynn telling Doyle that he would only have one more opportunity to pick only him up at Wembley Stadium. The group make their way through central London again, avoiding nerve gas released by the military by hiding in a car.

The attempt to get the car moving but with no luck, Doyle jumps out to give it a push and a jumpstart when soldiers with flamethrowers begin hosing the street in fire, sacrificing himself. Just Scarlet, Tammy and Andy remain and to avoid the hordes, they drive into an abandoned London Underground station, using just the sight in the sniper rifle left by Doyle to see what’s in front of them in the darkness.

They encounter the infected Don once again, with Don killing Scarlet. He tracks down Andy and bites him, but Tammy tracks him down and shoots her father. Andy flees in fear after being bitten, but when Tammy catches up to him, she finds out that he does carry the same asymptomatic characteristic as their mother.

They arrive at Wembley Stadium, where Tammy explains what happened to Flynn but keeps Andy’s infection a secret. The trio take off in the helicopter as it pans over a destroyed London.

28 days later, we see Flynn’s abandoned helicopter as a distress call in French comes through on the radio. The film closes with a group of infected running through the street towards the Eiffel Tower, meaning that the virus has breached the British border.

Are 28 Days Later and 28 Weeks Later available on streaming?

After 28 Years Later released its first trailer, appetite to watch the duology on streaming went through the roof. At the time, 28 Days Later was unavailable on streaming and few physical copies (eg DVDs) were available to buy.

Therefore it was celebrated when a digital version of the film was added to online stores. You can buy or rent the first time in the trilogy on platforms such as Sky Store and Amazon Prime Video, but even better for those wanting to catch up before visiting the cinema - 28 Days Later is now available to watch subscription or fee-free on the BBC iPlayer.

The sequel, 28 Weeks Later, is not available on the BBC iPlayer. However, you can watch this with your Netflix subscription. You can also rent or buy the title on online stores including Amazon Prime Video, Sky Store and Apple TV.