Mark is infected and killed. Jim and Selena learn from radio broadcasts that the virus has spread across Great Britain and to mainland Europe. They meet Frank (Brendan Gleeson) and his daughter Hannah, who have a car and a recorded radio message claiming a blockade near Manchester has a cure. They drive north.
Twenty-eight days later, bicycle courier Jim (Cillian Murphy) awakens from a coma in a deserted hospital in London. He discovers the city is eerily empty. Wandering the streets, he enters a church where a pile of corpses lies and is suddenly attacked by infected, fast-moving humans. He flees and is rescued by survivors Selena (Naomie Harris) and Mark.