28 Years Later: How 20 iPhones were used to shoot the scenes

A 20 iPhone rig being used to shoot for 28 Years Later

British filmmaker Danny Boyle’s “28 Years Later” is finally going to arrive this year, after a very long delay since being confirmed. The upcoming post-apocalyptic film will cap off the trilogy of highly-rated zombie horror films that began with the Cillian Murphy and Naomie Harris-starrer 28 Days Later in 2002. The 28 Years Later trailer woke many zombie film enthusiasts up to the memory of the graphically violent movies when it came out in December 2024. Imagine reliving the opening scene of the sequel “28 Weeks Later”, where Robert Carlyle sprints across the field to save himself from the incredibly fast, Rage Virus-infected zombies after abandoning a certain someone to them. As its release nears, “28 Years Later” is in the news for the film crew using up to 20 iPhones to shoot several scenes.

2002’s “28 Days Later” was shot entirely on digital camcorders, which made the film famously stand out from other zombie features. More than 20 years have passed since then, and it would be an understatement to say that imaging technology has seen tremendous growth. So much so that for the third film, the filmmakers employed 20 iPhones simultaneously to shoot some scenes, as per a report by IGN. It’s not the first time the iPhone has been used to capture shots for films, but having 20 of them on a rig to shoot the movie scenes might be the first.

According to the report by IGN, “three special rigs designed to hold eight, 10, or 20 iPhones at once” were used to shoot these scenes in 28 Years Later. The special iPhone rig, however, was used for select shots only, and the filmmakers did use traditional film cameras and drones to shoot the other scenes.

Why the iPhone, but? The director reportedly said that they used the idea that since domestic video cameras/ camcorders were there at the time when 28 Days Later was released, and a zombie apocalypse did happen, then, 28 years later, “there would be low-fi recordings of the horrors lying around everywhere.”

In a statement given to IGN, Danny Boyle, director, 28 Years Later, spoke about the creative advantage of using the specialised iPhone rig for the film: “Wherever, it gives you 180 degrees of vision of an action, and in the editing you can select any choice from it, either a conventional one-camera perspective or make your way instantly around reality, time-slicing the subject, jumping forward or backward for emphasis. As it’s a horror movie, we use it for the violent scenes to emphasise their impact.”

28 Years Later is set for a June 20 release exclusively in theatres.