’28 Days Later’ – Best Alternate Movie Endings

The end of Danny Boyle's '28 Days Later' features Serena and Hannah trying to save Jim after he sustains a gunshot wound. He slips into a coma, bringing Jim's story full circle, but he later awakens and joins the two women as infected people lay dying on the side of the road from starvation and a helicopter flies overhead — the three of them wave a huge banner that says “Hello” and wonder if the people in the helicopter saw them that time. It's not an entirely cheerful ending, but it's more hopeful than the original version that was intended by Boyle and screenwriter Alex Garland. In that version, Serena and Hannah, still in their ballgowns from when the military officers tried to rape them, try in vain to save Jim's life, but he dies and the pair of them pick up their guns and soldier on into a future unknown. This ending proved too bleak for test audiences, but it would have worked well in service of the film's tone.