Latest news with #Boyle
Euronews
5 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Euronews
Film of the Week: '28 Years Later' - Bold, brilliant and Brexity
When we left the 28 (pick your time span) Later franchise in 2007, the protocol-breaching actions of two misguided siblings led to the carpetbombing of London's no-longer-safe zone. Kids... What can you do? 28 Weeks Later, Juan Carlos Fresnadillo's surprisingly effective follow up to director Danny Boyle and screenwriter Alex Garland's 2002 zombie genre revitalizing horror experience, ended with a devilish final stinger that had audiences saying 'Et, merde' at the sight of the Rage Virus-infected emerging from a Paris Métro. 18 years later (in the real world) and 28 years later (in the Rage-infested world), Boyle and Garland are back, and they're not keen to simply rest on their laurels. We quickly learn that the terrifying pandemic has been beaten back from mainland Europe (the French presumably shrugged off the infestation and dusted off the guillotines) and that Rage is contained to Blighty. They really can't catch a break... And in many ways, that's the point. While the infected are still out and about, there exists a safe space – an island within an island. Its name is Lindisfarne, aka: Holy Island, and it's in this isolationist community, only connected to the UK mainland via a causeway crossable at low tide, where we meet 12-year-old Spike (newcomer Alfie Williams). His scavenger father Jamie (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) is keen to make a man out of him and so decides to embark on a coming-of-age ritual of sorts: take him inland for the first time in search of his first kill. As Spike's bedbound and mysteriously sick mother Isla (Jodie Comer) foretells in a fit of expletives, it's a really dumb idea... 28 Years Later doesn't look or feel like 28 Days Later. Or 28 Weeks Later, for that matter. So those wanting more of the same may end up disappointed. Ditching the lo-fi, punk rawness of the first brush with sprinting nightmare fuel and the equally lean-and-mean feel of the second, 28 Years Later is crisper and more expensive-looking. While that may frustrate some audiences, what's clear is that Boyle and Garland didn't come back to simply cash in and play it safe. It couldn't be any other way. 28 Days Later breathed new life into a horror mainstay by having the sprinting Rage-infected replacing traditional reanimated corpses. More than two decades later, zombies have invaded the screens and become ubiquitous – to the point of exhaustion. From the big screen offerings of the Rec franchise, Shaun of the Dead, Zombieland and Planet Terror (to mention only the high points) to the zeitgeist-capturing small screen hits The Walking Dead and The Last Of Us, civilisation-threatening outbreaks featuring ravenous walkers, crawlers and biters have become mainstream. The only way was forward. And a lot has happened since 2007's 28 Weeks Later – namely Brexit and a worldwide pandemic. Both of these resonate in 28 Years Later, especially the self-inflicted isolationist wound. The nationalist and seclusionist subtext becomes text: Saint George's Cross flying above the community; the banner reading 'Fail we may but go we must'; the sea patrol keeping the infection contained to the UK; the 'us' and 'them'-ness of looking backwards to a past of the England that once was... It all makes for a simple but effective Brexit analogy. It's not particularly subtle; but then again, no allegory-infused zombie movie ever was. And neither was Brexit. The obviousness of certain thematical strands is countered by some far more surprising choices, like the teasing-and-ditching of The Wicker Man motifs and the Summerisle setting in favour of exploring the evolution of the infected. Of course, the introduction of various kinds of berserkers ('slow-lows' or the terrifying 'Alphas' with Predator penchants for spine-yanking) will lead to inescapable comparisons with The Last Of Us. But the script does enough to explore the potential of its ideas without toppling into déjà vu – particularly when one initially grating yet radical element is introduced... Then there are unpredictably profound moments in the second half of the film, culminating in the Memento Mori / Memento Amori dichotomy, which is brilliantly delivered by the show's last act MVP Dr. Kelson, played to perfection by Ralph Fiennes. His scenes with Spike have an emotional resonance that elevates the material and make it hard to fathom how Alfie Williams is so accomplished for a first-time actor. We'll hopefully be seeing both Boy Meets World and the iodine-covered Colonel Kurtz again soon, as 28 Years Later was filmed back-to-back with the first sequel in a planned new trilogy, titled 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, which is slated to hit theaters in January 2026. Let's pray Young Fathers return too, as their terrific soundtrack is not worth ignoring. From the Teletubbies opening to a heroically bizarre finale which scoffers will likely liken to The Village, via a three-act structure that makes a young hero's odyssey evolve from a father-son adventure to a mother-son rescue mission to a young father figure spreading his wings, 28 Years Later's strange verve is exhilarating. While there are some pacing issues, as well as surplus to requirement CGI moments involving swarms of birds and deer, Boyle and Garland have truly outdone themselves. Without skimping on the edge-of-your-seat tension and gruesome viscera that made the first two instalments so pant-browningly effective, their belated sequel is a radical revival that eschews the obvious at every turn. It may not satisfy everyone, but give us daring over safe any day / week / year of the Rage pandemic. 28 Years Later is out in cinemas now. "Wake up, wake up" is the chorus of the Felix Flavour music that Jeny BSG choreographed for the Dance4Refugees campaign on Instagram and at the Bozar arts venue in Brussels. It's also the call to action for people everywhere to speak out and show their support for refugees. "Everyone needs to wake up. It's time to talk about it, it's time to help, it's time to react. We can't stay silent, we have to speak out for the oppressed and that's what I'm doing," she told Euronews. Jenybsg (@jenybsg)'in paylaştığı bir gönderi The social media campaign challenges people to post their versions of the choreography on Instagram and donate funds. It is aimed primarily at young people, who Jeny works with at her dance school and when she travels abroad. 'I try to reach out to the younger generation because for me they are the change, they can make a difference in this world. Dance was, for me, a great way to bring attention and change the narrative, to celebrate the strength, potential and resilience of refugees,' Jeny said. The dancer and choreographer was born in Belgium, where her family sought refuge from the decades-long conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). A background that left its mark on the artist and led her to activism in collaboration with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). "My family fled violence in the 1990s. My elder brothers spent time in a refugee camp. My mother and my father have experienced displacement, violence, fear, struggle", she recalls. More than 6.9 million people are internally displaced across the DRC, with an additional one million refugees and asylum-seekers in neighbouring countries, according to the UNHCR. This 'legacy' brought additional self-imposed responsibilities for Jeny, who set herself the task of 'not failing' and being a voice for the Congolese diaspora: 'Today I am living proof that the origin of refugees does not define the limits of refugees, but rather their strengths.' Jeny uses her platform to promote marginalized voices, having founded the AfroHouseBelgium, a Brussels-based dance school. She's also been working with the UNHCR since last year to amplify the stories of those forced to flee. "Dance is universal and the refugee cause today is also universal. We know that refugees come from all around the world: Ukraine, Afghanistan, Syria, DRC and other countries. But they are not only statistics or numbers. Their lives matter, and they are like us", she says. The UN says there are currently 123 million forcibly displaced people worldwide, twice more than a decade ago. Almost 37 million of them are refugees. The organisation warns that recent drastic cuts in humanitarian aid funding are putting their lives at risk. Funding for the agency is now roughly at the same level as a decade ago, said Filippo Grandi, UN High Commissioner for Refugees, at the launch of the annual Global Trends Report on 12 June. 'We are living in a time of intense volatility in international relations, with modern warfare creating a fragile, harrowing landscape marked by acute human suffering", Grandi highlighted. The report found that, contrary to widespread perceptions in wealthier regions, 67 per cent of refugees stay in neighbouring countries, with low and middle-income countries hosting 73 per cent of the world's refugees.
RTÉ News
10 hours ago
- Entertainment
- RTÉ News
Glory and gory be! 28 Years Later is
Danny Boyle and Alex Garland mix the gory with political allegory and a touching family drama in this riveting zombie thriller After great early promise in 2002 with 28 Days Later, Danny Boyle's zombie franchise looked like it was going to reanimate a moribund movie cliché but it all stumbled and shuddered to an ignoble halt with the delayed and frankly awful follow-up 28 Weeks Later. Now prefaced by much "is he/isn't he?" speculation about whether Cillian Murphy would reprise his role from the first movie (he isn't), Boyle is back at his maverick best with this deeply creepy return to form which reignites the twitchy paranoia and dread of the original. And glory and gory be - writer Alex Garland, and cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle also return, as does Murphy but as executive producer and not having taken his Oppenheimer diet to extremes to play a member of the emaciated massive. They have conjured up a fever dream of a film that somehow looks like a cross pollination of Mike Leigh realism, and the sickening surrealism of Straw Dogs and The Wicker Man. We are now on Holy Island off the northeast coast of England, 28 years after the accidental release of a highly contagious virus which caused the breakdown of society and turned infected folk into slavering maniacs with The Rage. Perfidious Albion is now in a state of not so splendid isolation and in quarantine patrolled by European vessels. Garland and Boyle do not hold back on gleeful commentary about the contemporary UK's perilous state, cut-off politically and culturally from the continent and muddling along with a sense of misplaced exceptionalism and proud independence. This post-apocalyptic vision of ye olde merrie future England comes shot through with the look and feel of the fabled lost 1950s Britain beloved of Reform voters and Brexiteers. So political allegory and gore is the order of the day; In the island's village hall a tapestry of a young Queen Elizabeth II in her coronation year takes pride of place and Boyle uses clips from Laurence Olivier's Henry V and wartime newsreel footage of the Blitz to underline the fortress Britain atmosphere. Later, we see the flag of St George in flames. Bow and arrows are the weapon of choice; everyone is dressed in ragamuffin chic and the island looks like it's devolved back to medieval England. Or maybe Féile '90. Wrapped in that grim tableau is a touching family drama concerning 12-year-old Spike (a very impressive Alfie Williams) and his parents, Isla (Jodie Comer - great as usual), who is suffering from a mysterious illness that causes huge trauma and grief for her doting son, and Jamie (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), a scavenger and survivalist given to flashes of his own type of rage. We first meet Spike on what will be a big day for him. He is about to be taken across the causeway that connects the island to the still contaminated mainland on his first sortie among the infected; a rite of passage that will test his mettle and see him take his place within the village hierarchy. Once across the causeway, the action clicks with an unforgiving ferocity and father and son barely make it home after a gripping moonlit dash back across the causeway as the tide goes out. As we have seen from the first two movies in the series, these zombies are not the shambling husks of B-movie lore but fleet of foot savages who pose a genuine threat. However, Garland and Boyle also introduce two new breeds of zombie - obese, sluggish creatures who forage about on the forest floor and have a nasty talent for creeping up on their prey, and Alphas, muscular pack leaders who take a lot to kill. When Spike hears about the mysterious Dr Kelson (Ralph Fiennes), an eccentric former GP who has remained uninfected and choses to live on the mainland, he sees him as a salvation for his sick mother and so he spirits her back across to the mainland much to the anger of the island's elders and his stricken father. Once we are back off the island, the movie takes on a semi-mystical air with impressionistic riddles and symbols and spiritual ceremony surrounding Dr Kelson. He is clearly the Col Kurtz of the piece, a shamanic witch doctor of sorts, who tends to his very own bone orchard and has his own way of dealing with the infected marauders. The sense of loss is everywhere. There are haunting and very moving glimpses of Anthony Gormley's Angel of the North sculpture rearing starkly from the landscape like the Statue Of Liberty in The Planet of The Apes and a very poignant shot of the now felled tree in the Sycamore Gap at Hadrian's Wall. A brief appearance by Edvin Ryding as a sardonic Swedish NATO soldier, who has been shipwrecked off the coast, adds another dose of dark humour to a movie which is surprisingly funny as well as disturbing. Scottish band Young Fathers provide a pumping but abstract soundtrack for what is a multi-layered, poetic and lyrical movie but with plenty of the comic book gore beloved of fans of the franchise. Arrows fly and slice through zombie flesh and that mad dash across the causeway is exhilarating. Full of strange images and taut action scenes, Boyle has said he wanted a sense of "suffocating intensity" to the film and he really does achieve it The bravado closing sequence, which strangely reminded me of some groovy sixties rock `n' roll flick starring Oliver Reed, includes a crowd-pleasing cameo and sets things up smoothly for the next instalment. If it's as good as this acrid, kerosene-choked thrill ride, we're in for another treat.
Metro
13 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Metro
Incredible films that were shot on an iPhone including star-studded 28 Years Lat
While there is endless filmmaking equipment out there costing from hundreds to £80,000 (and more), you would have thought the most anticipated horror film of 2025 might be using gear at the higher end of the scale… Right? Wrong. If you're saving up for the best camera in the business to film your next project, you may just be wasting your time. Why not just use your iPhone? Everyone else is, including Danny Boyle's 28 Years Later, which Metro has given 5 big fat emotional stars in our review. It's not the first time this has happened, either. Here are all the films you might not know were filmed primarily using an iPhone. One even made it to the Oscars. Hitting cinemas on Friday and starring Jodie Comer and Aaron Taylor-Johnson, the hotly-anticipated sequel to 28 Days Later used an adapted iPhone 15 for the job, making the Hollywood thriller – with its $75million budget – the biggest film to be shot with a phone to date. In 2002, 28 Days Later was one of the first Hollywood feature films to be shot with a Canon XL-1 for an intentionally low-fi look. This new flick – which kicks off a new trilogy for the franchise – took inspiration from its original. Boyle recently explained why he used an adapted iPhone 15 for the job during the London premiere of the film. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video The director told The Independent: 'We decided to shoot it on the upgrade of a domestic video camera. That's smartphones, they're everywhere. They are lightweight in the countryside. You can create special rigs with them, filming the violence. But also you can give it to the actors and they can film themselves sometimes. 'Horror movies let you refresh the palate – you don't have to go classical.' He also added to Business Insider: 'Any smartphone now can record at 4K, indeed up to 60 frames per second, which is more than enough resolution you need for cinema exhibition.' Boyle went on to reveal how they utilised farm animals to help, explaining: 'We did strap a camera to some animals a couple of times — yeah, a goat.' Nice. Stormzy's new film Big Man was fortunate enough to get their hands on an iPhone 16 Pro for filming… Eat your hear out Danny Boyle. Slow-motion scenes were captured in 4K 120 fps, while cinematic mode was also used to blur backgrounds. Apple's short film tells the story of Tenzman, a fed up musician played by Stormzy whose life is changed by two youngsters when they embark on a journey together. 'I've never shot an entire piece of narrative filmmaking on an iPhone before, and it's been a really invigorating process,' director Aneil Karia said. 'iPhone is much smaller than the traditional cameras used for television, film, or music videos, and the lightness and flexibility that comes with that is boundless in a sense. 'I like trying to strive for an intimacy with characters, and sometimes a big camera is not particularly conducive for that.' Psychological thriller Unsane, starring Claire Foy and Joshua Leonard, was filmed entirely on an iPhone 7 Plus. Unsane follows a stalking victim called Sawyer Valentini (Foy) who is trapped in a mental institution against her will. The 2018 film became one of the most high-profile uses of iPhone filming (until 28 Years Later) as its prominent director Steven Soderbergh championed the method through it. 'I think this is the future,' he told Indiewire. 'Anyone going to see this movie without any idea of the backstory to the production will have no idea this was shot on the phone.' Soderbergh's second iPhone-only film came hot off the heels of Unsane in the form of NBA drama High Flying Bird. This time though, an iPhone 8 was used. Fancy! In it Andre Holland stars as sports agent Ray Burke who tries to accelerate a rookie player's career in an unusual way. While it seems unlikely an iPhone would be able to capture the subtle details that make up a tense, dramatic sports film, it's largely focused on the chatter around the gamerather than the game itself. 'It was shot in February and March of 2018, in three weeks. It's a very small crew and the gear that's available to enhance this already pretty extraordinary capture-device made it even better,' Soderbergh told The Hollywood Reporter. 'So, if I had to do it in a more traditional way, it would have actually hurt the film. I was able to do things because of the ease of shooting something. 'You can basically shoot anything you can think of, you can put the lens anywhere you want. If I were in a more traditional mode, there were things that I wouldn't have been able to execute as well as I'd wanted, because of the size of the equipment and people necessary to move it around.' Tangerine, a 2015 film by Sean Baker – who swept the board at the Oscars this year with Anora – was shot entirely on an iPhone 5s using the FiLMIC Pro App, which gives further focus, aperture and colour temperature control. The independent film, which was met with critical praise and was Sundance Film Festival's breakout movie, was shot using an iPhone to keep costs low. 'It was surprisingly easy,' Baker told The Verge. 'We never lost any footage.' Alongside the help of the $8 app, Baker used a Steadicam to stabilise the footage. 'These phones, because they're so light, and they're so small, a human hand – no matter how stable you are – it will shake. And it won't look good,' he explained. They also used an adapter lens that was attached to the iPhone, which was 'essential' to make it cinematic. 'To tell you the truth, I wouldn't have even made the movie without it,' he said. 'It truly elevated it to a cinematic level.' 2012's Oscar-winning film Searching for Sugar Man follows two fans of a South African icon – believed to be dead – as they set out to learn his true fate. More Trending While Swedish filmmaker Malik Bendjelloul didn't set out for the film to make this list, he ran out of money so was forced to use an iPhone for the final shots. 'I started shooting this film with a Super 8 camera, which is pretty expensive stuff. I completely ran out of money. I had just a very few shots left, but I needed those shots,' he told CNN in an interview. 'I realised that there was this app on my iPhone and I tried it and it looked basically the same.' The iPhone App in question was called 8mm Vintage Camera, which did a decent job at imitating a real 8mm camera. Good to know. Got a story? If you've got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the entertainment team by emailing us celebtips@ calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page – we'd love to hear from you. MORE: 'Mind-bending' horror film available to stream for free as sequel wows critics MORE: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, 35, and director wife Sam, 58, look loved up at 28 Years Later premiere MORE: Jodie Comer talks through her character's agonising journey in unseen 28 Years Later clip
New York Post
15 hours ago
- Entertainment
- New York Post
‘Everybody Loves Raymond' creator reveals John Lennon was best man at Peter Boyle's wedding
All you need is love. 'Everybody Loves Raymond' creator Phil Rosenthal recently revealed that John Lennon served as the best man at actor Peter Boyle's 1977 wedding. Rosenthal, 65, shared the surprising news while celebrating 30 years of 'Everybody Loves Raymond' at the Paley Center in New York City on Monday. 11 John Lennon served as the best man at 'Everybody Loves Raymond' star Peter Boyle's 1977 wedding. CBS via Getty Images 11 Creator Phil Rosenthal shared the surprising news on Monday during an 'Everybody Loves Raymond' 30-year reunion in NYC. Getty Images Ray Romano (Ray Barone), Patricia Heaton (Debra Barone) and Maggie Wheeler (Linda Gruenfelder) were also in attendance. Boyle, who portrayed Romano's on-screen father, Frank Barone, in all nine seasons of the CBS sitcom from 1996 to 2005, died from multiple myeloma in 2006 at the age of 71. 'Two interesting things about Peter Boyle,' Rosenthal said while remembering the late actor. 'He studied to be a monk when he was younger. I asked him, 'Why'd you give it up?' And he says, 'There weren't enough girls there.'' 11 'Two interesting things about Peter Boyle,' Rosenthal began during a discussion about the late actor. Getty Images 11 'You know who the best man at his wedding was? John Lennon,' Rosenthal revealed. 'He was cool, Peter Boyle.' Bettmann Archive 'And the other thing is, I wonder if you know this. You know who the best man at his wedding was? John Lennon,' Rosenthal added. 'He was cool, Peter Boyle.' Boyle met his wife, Loraine Alterman, in 1974 on the set of Mel Brooks' 'Young Frankenstein.' Alterman was working as a reporter for Rolling Stone magazine at the time, and Boyle, who was starring in the film as Frankenstein's monster, allegedly asked her out while still wearing his costume and makeup. 11 Boyle married his wife, former Rolling Stone reporter Loraine Alterman, in 1977. FilmMagic 11 Alterman was good friends with Lennon's wife, Yoko Ono, which was how Boyle and the Beatles star connected. Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images 'He actually was out of makeup when we met, but let him have it his way,' Alterman clarified during an interview with The New York Times in 2001. The pair began dating, and they married in 1977. Alterman, who also worked as a music critic for Rolling Stone, was friends with Lennon's wife, Yoko Ono. It was through Ono that Boyle became close to the Beatles star. 11 'At the last minute, I asked John to stand in as my best man. And he said yes,' Boyle said in 2005. 'The rest is history.' WireImage 11 'He is John Lennon,' Boyler added one year before his death. 'And everything he does is memorable.' Redferns 'My wife and I had a very low-key wedding,' Boyle told Philadelphia magazine just one year before his death. 'At the last minute, I asked John to stand in as my best man. And he said yes. The rest is history.' 'He is John Lennon,' the actor added, noting that Lennon did not perform at the wedding. 'And everything he does is memorable.' Three years after Boyle and Alterman's wedding, Lennon was tragically shot and killed by Mark David Chapman outside his residence at The Dakota in NYC on Dec. 8, 1980. The 'Imagine' singer was 40 years old. 11 Lennon was shot and killed by Mark David Chapman outside his residence at The Dakota in NYC on Dec. 8, 1980. Getty Images Meanwhile, Rosenthal revealed that he would never reboot 'Everybody Loves Raymond' during the show's 30-year reunion in NYC on Monday. He explained that it would be 'impossible' without Boyle and Doris Roberts. Roberts portrayed Marie Barone on the show and passed away from natural causes in 2016 at the age of 90. 'I'll be honest with you, I'm a student of TV, and I've seen the shows that try to come back and do reboots. They're never as good,' Rosenthal told People shortly before the reunion event kicked off. 'So I'm happy with the memory.' 11 Boyle passed away in 2006 at the age of 71. His 'Everybody Loves Raymond' wife, Doris Roberts, passed away in 2016 at the age of 90. CBS via Getty Images 11 Rosenthal revealed that he would never reboot 'Everybody Loves Raymond' because it would be 'impossible' with Boyle and Roberts. Getty Images 'It's not the show that I miss doing,' he added. 'We did it. We did 210 episodes. That's a lot of anything. We decided to stop when we felt like it was enough. We weren't canceled. We stopped for a reason. What I miss are my friends. That's what I miss. All the people who made the show with us.' Brad Garrett, who played Romano's older brother, Robert Barone, on the beloved sitcom, said something similar when asked about an 'Everybody Loves Raymond' reboot earlier this month. 'There won't be,' Garrett said at the premiere of Disney Pixar's 'Elio' in Los Angeles on June 10. 'And I'm just saying that because that's something that Ray and Phil [Rosenthal] have always said.' 'There is no show without the parents. They were the catalyst, and to do anything that would resemble that wouldn't be right to the audiences or the loyal fan base,' he added. 'And it was about those two families, and you can't get around that.'
Sydney Morning Herald
16 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Sydney Morning Herald
28 Years Later review: Zombie franchise pushes boldly into new terrain
28 Years Later ★★★★ MA 15+, 115 mins It is 23 years since writer Alex Garland, director Danny Boyle and producer Andrew Macdonald unleashed the Rage virus upon the world and redefined the zombie genre in 28 Days Later (despite insisting their film wasn't a zombie flick at all). And in the first of a projected new trilogy, they prove there's plenty of life in them old bones yet. The filmmakers claim no prior knowledge of the franchise is necessary (Garland and Boyle were only executive producers on the 2007 sequel 28 Weeks Later) in order to enter the latest incarnation of the hellscape of England after the outbreak. And while it undoubtedly adds a little something to have seen the earlier films, they are largely right in that. As The Walking Dead made perfectly clear, you don't need an origin story when the world you've created is as fully fleshed out as this. Even if the flesh is in a horrible state of decay. We start here on the island of Lindisfarne, off the coast of north-east England. That gives our leads – Aaron Taylor-Johnson as Jamie, Jodie Comer as Isla, and Alfie Williams as their son, Spike – the chance to do some cracking Geordie accents, something we just do not hear enough of on screen, if you ask me. Isla is bed-bound, racked by a mystery illness that at first glance could be mistaken for early-onset Rage. Jamie is a hunter, a leader of the gated and so-far secure island community that seems to have clung to a version of civilisation fashioned some time between 1830 and 1940. He's taking Spike across the causeway – accessible only at low tide – that connects the island to the mainland, to hunt for slow-moving infected, and to dodge the fast-moving variety. It's a coming-of-age ritual, with a rather higher degree of risk than a bar mitzvah or a blue-light disco. Of course, things unravel pretty quickly, as they encounter a horde led by an oversized, more intelligent leader, known as an Alpha. Boyle is masterful at creating an almost unbearable sense of tension in these scenes. His use of jump-cuts, of varied focal lengths and exposures, above all his use of music and sound design (think Trainspotting, times 10) all combine to create and sustain a state of high anxiety in the audience. The mission is a turning point for Spike, but not quite in the way his old man had anticipated. His experiences, and the aftermath of them, open his eyes to the way myth is used to reinforce a particular version of the world. It causes a rift between father and son, and sets in train the second part of the film, in which Spike leads his mother back to the mainland in search of a doctor who is rumoured to be there, and who might provide a diagnosis and a cure.
