Jim (28 Days Later)

Jim, played by veteran actor Cillian Murphy, is the main protagonist in the horror movie 28 Days Later. He is a courier in East London, and he is fortunate enough to miss the end of Britain due to the Rage virus, and he survives all the destruction. When he awakes, it is to a deserted England, with no life apart from that of the Infected, evil psychopathic humans who seek to kill everyone they meet.

Origins
Jim is a young man in his twenties living with his parents in North London. He is a courier for an unnamed company, and is driving on a motorbike a package to Leavesden but suddenly a truck crosses his path. He blacks out, and is unconscious and in a coma for four weeks. When Jim comes to, it is to find himself in an empty room, extremely ill, thin, starved, and weak. Jim looks around the room and the corridor outside, asking "Hello?" Nobody answers. Jim isn't sure what's going on, so he cautiously leaves the room, to deafening silence. He goes downstairs, and tries the hospital phones. But there is no electricity, and he begins to get alarmed. Jim yells out "Hello?" but only silence answers.

Jim goes out into London, and finds to his shock that the whole city is also deserted and there is no traffic, pedesterians, trains or life anywhere. Going through the abandoned city, he picks up rubbish, such as drinks, and goes round to Parliament, but the clocks have stopped and the whole place is abandoned. He gets really scared and goes through the empty streets and sees curtains swaying eerily in the abandoned tower blocks. Jim eventually finds newspaper cuttings indicating chaos and war and a sign about evacuation and missing persons posters.

The Infected: first encounter
Jim goes into a church, which is full of religious graffiti about the Apocalypse, and he goes upstairs, seeking help. However, the church is full of dead people. Jim goes to the balcony and looks down and says "Hello?" causing an Infected, lying in the church, to jump up and glare at him. Jim goes down the corridor and meets an Infected Priest, who banged on the door and broke out. Jim asked what was going on, but the Priest came at him, clawing, and began to try and bite him, but Jim knocked the man over with his bag. Jim thought he'd attacked an innocent man, but when the Priest stumbled back up, Jim realized this was a monster and he ran.

Numerous other Infected pursued him, running at him from all directions, and as he ran out into the dark London streets, Jim was saved by Mark and Selena, two other survivors, who bombarded the pursuing Infected with cocktails and set them alight. Then Mark blew up the gas station they had stopped in which killed all the Infected. Rushing into the Underground, Mark and Selena revealed their faces and told Jim of the destruction which had happened on the previous twenty-eight days.

Frank and Hannah
Jim wanted to find if his parents were alive or dead, so against Selena's wishes they went to Deptford and Jim found his parents had killed themselves upon seeing the chaos. Jim lit a candle in his house in the night, attracted two Infected who were previously his neighbours, and Mark killed them but was Infected himself. Jim watched Selena kill Mark, and she told Jim that the virus took twenty-eight seconds to Infect a human, and Jim would have ten seconds to kill an Infected human before they killed him.

Soon, Jim noted an electric light in an abandoned blacked-out tower block, and he alerted Selena. They climbed up the stairs of the tower, but when Jim was given drink by Selena to make himself better, they noticed two Infected running at them. The Infected shrieked and ran up the tower but were both killed by Frank, who lived with his daughter and was fighting off Infected who tried to get them.

Frank explained how the situation was desperate and he had picked up a signal from the Army who promised the Answer to Infection if they came to Blockade 42 in Manchester. Frank wanted to get to the Army but Selena tried to dissuade him. Jim and Hannah encouraged them to go because of the support the Army would give. So, they set off.

Manchester
After two encounters with the Infected, Jim and the group got to Manchester, where Jim had his first encounter with an Infected child, and killed his first Infected, learning what survival meant. The group found Manchester in flames, because the survivors had set fires to get the Infected out, but this meant the city burned because no authorities were there to save them. Jim commented how awful it was that no firemen could get there in time. They went to the 42nd Blockade, and Frank began searching for soldiers. However, when Frank got angry, he kicked a wall, and a drop of Infected blood fell off a corpse, and landed in his eye, Infecting Frank, who was immediately shot by armed soldiers.

The Army took Jim, Selena and Hannah to the mansion where they were living, and Major Henry West introduced himself.

The Answer to Infection
Jim was given a tour by Henry West of the place, who explained that the protection, although inadequate, was enough to keep them safe. They could tell of an Infected attack because landmines were round the lawn. Henry West introduced Jim to the soldiers, and also to Mailer, an Infected soldier who was kept chained up to learn about Infection and how the virus affected humans. Henry West noted that Infected did not eat, and so he explained his Answer to Infection was waiting for Infected to starve.

Jim was majorly disappointed, and during dinner, when they discussed about human depravity and how Henry West believed mass violence was normal for humanity, they were attacked by Infected, and the soldiers shot them all. Then, Jim discovered that violence aroused the soldiers, and they took a perverse attraction to Selena, and hit her, but Henry broke up the fight, and summoned Jim for a drink.

Henry explained his plan was for him to rape both Selena and Hannah, and to have the repopulation begin that way, with the Infected dying of starvation and thus saving everyone. Jim was disgusted about the rape, so he ran out, getting Hannah and Selena to flee, and was knocked out by Sergeant Clifton.

Final confrontation
Farrel, a rebellious soldier, protected Hannah and Selena from rape but was executed. Jim was taken along with Farrel to be shot, but Jim escaped due to incompetence of the soldiers. Jim, angry at the sadistic men, set the alarm for every Infected to be attracted to the mansion. Jim then escaped into the Blockade, and lured the soldiers there, killing one. He then got back to the house, and unleashed Mailer, who ran off to kill the soldiers. Jim watched Mailer maul them all and Jim killed the cook, and then he killed Davies, a really sadistic soldier, who planned to rape Selena. Jim killed Davies in a gruesome way by gouging his eyes out and bashing his head against the brick wall. Then Jim revealed to Selena he was not Infected, and he kissed Selena. Hannah reunited with them and the three escaped to the car, away from the Infected, but Jim found that an angry Henry West was sitting in the car, and West shot Jim, seemingly killing him.

Hannah got Mailer to kill West, and they took Jim to an abandoned hospital, where Selena revived him. At the climax, the three were in Wales, when a Finnish plane summoned a helicopter to rescue them. Jim was revealed to be sentenced for execution for killing a major, and is imprisoned until further notice.