- Selena: "I know he was a rapist and a murderer."
- Stiles: "He was a soldier and a patriot!"
- ―Selena and Captain Stiles' opposing views on Major Henry West.[src]
Major Henry West was the commanding officer of a squad of soldiers who survived the Original Outbreak of the Rage Virus, taking refuge at the Worsley House, but was driven insane by his experiences and the collapse of society, luring in other survivors in the hopes of forcing any female survivors to become breeding slaves for his soldiers. He served primary antagonist in 28 Days Later.
Film canon[]
Pre-meeting other survivors[]
Major West was a high-ranking veteran in the British Army. During the Original Outbreak of the Rage Virus, Major West was among the soldiers sent to defend the Forty-Second Blockade on the M602 outside of Manchester against repeated Infected attacks. However, the Infected eventually overran the blockade and the other military checkpoints and entered the city, killing all the men at the blockade except for Major West and nine of his soldiers.
The surviving soldiers, led by Major West, fled to the Worsley House in the forest, which they fortified against attack with tripwires, landmines, barbed wire and barricades. The soldiers also sent out a looped radio message declaring they had the "answer to Infection", and (believing that the Rage pandemic was global) set about rebuilding what they believed to be society.
Major West confesses to Jim that he promised Hannah and Selena to his men. (28 Days Later (film))
On Day 23, Major West found Private Jones suicidal with a gun in his mouth and threatening to kill himself because there was no future. West then promised Jones and the rest his men that any female survivors they found and rescued would be forced into sexual slavery, both to restore hope to the men, and to repopulate the country.
29 days into the outbreak, one of West's soldiers, Mailer, became infected (presumably during one of the Infected's attacks on the mansion), but Corporal Mitchell knocked him out before he could attack any others, and he was chained up in the Worsley House's courtyard for observation. West kept him alive to see how long it would take for the Infected to starve to death.
28 Days Later (film)[]
31 days into the outbreak, when Jim, Selena and Hannah were found at the forty-second blockade and taken back to the Worsley House, West gave the trio of survivors sanctuary at the mansion with him and his men. The following night, Major West and his soldiers had dinner with the survivors, and West had a toast to the new arrivals. When the men began arguing about the state of normality, West expressed an opinion that they were still in a state of normality as people were killing people just as they had been doing before the outbreak.
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Major West searches for Jim at the blockade. (28 Days Later (film))
After West's men then fended off an attack on the Worsley House by the Infected, the soldiers tried to force themselves on Selena. When Jim intervened, the soldiers violently retaliated. In an effort to make amends, Major West invited Jim in for a drink. He then talked with Jim about who Jim had killed since the Rage Virus broke out. West then explained to Jim that he had promised his soldiers women, and gave Jim a chance to join him. However, Jim refused, forcing Major West to have Jim locked in the cellar with Farrell and the two to be executed the following morning.
The next day, when Major West's soldiers were forcing Hannah and Selena into red dresses to appease them, the blockade siren was sounded. Upon discovering that Jim had escaped execution and was the one at the blockade, West and Davis then drove to the blockade to find and kill Jim. West and Davis split up to find Jim, and West later found the jeep he and Davis arrived in sabotaged, and Davis dead inside. Several Infected then arrived and attacked Major West, but West was able to kill them, and then made his way back through the woods on foot towards the Worsley House.
"You killed all my boys." (28 Days Later (film))
At nightfall, Major West arrived back at the Worsley House to find it in chaos with Mailer and the newly-infected Clifton on the prowl, and fewer and fewer of West's men left alive. After comforting a dying Jones, West waited in Frank's taxi for Jim to arrive.
When Jim, Selena, and Hannah came to the taxi trying to escape, they found Major West waiting for them in there. He blamed Jim for the deaths of his men and shot him in the stomach. Hannah then reversed the taxi with West inside into the pursuing Mailer, who smashed through the rear-window and dragged the screaming Major West out of the car. Mailer then dragged Major West back into the Worsley House, where the former brutally beat and mauled West to death.
Other media[]
28 Days Later (comic series)[]
Major West's decomposing corpse. (28 Days Later (comic series))
Prior to their separation amid the Original Outbreak, Major West was close friends with another British Army officer, Captain Stiles, whom shared similar misogynistic sentiments to him.
After West's death, his crimes at Worsley House do not seem to have made it to the outside world and to whatever remained of the British government and military. One of the Manchester Three, Jim, was arrested and sentenced to death for his prominent role in the deaths of West and the Worsley House soldiers.
Over six months after Major West's death, his corpse was still in the Worsley House's front hall where he'd died, decomposed to a mummy-like state. Stiles and a captive Selena approached West's corpse after returning to the mansion, and Selena ripped the dead major's dog tags from his body to trick Stiles into stepping on a landmine.
Personality[]
It is unknown what West was like before the outbreak of the Rage virus. By 28 days later, he continued to maintain a professional appearance and demeanor, even keeping his No. 2 Pattern service-dress uniform in perfect condition. He was highly popular with most of his remaining soldiers, who obeyed him unquestioningly. West reciprocated this, calling the men "my boys." Well-spoken and intelligent, West appeared competent at leading and organizing his surviving soldiers, and could project a calming, assuring air of confidence to newly-arrived survivors.
Behind the well-kept exterior, however, was a brutal, sadistic madman using his uniform and rank to present a respectable image to others. West promised protection and hope for the future in his radio broadcast, but had nothing to offer beyond a brutal plan to attempt to "start again" by forcing any women who came to Worsely House into servitude and sexual slavery. His loyalty to his soldiers, or to the civilians they were supposed to protect, only went so far- West appeared totally indifferent to the fate of Private Mailer, and did not hesitate to order the murder of either Jim or Sergeant Farrell when they refused to cooperate with his plans.
Trivia[]
- Henry West is the only character from the first 28 Days Later film whose full name is given.
- As of 2025, West remains the highest-ranking British officer to appear in canon, and the only British commissioned officer to appear in any "28" series film.
- In the comics, Major West's corpse is in a different spot and position than it was in the first film after Mailer killed him.
- When speaking to Jim in one scene in 28 Days Later, West says, "We must be a disappointment. You were hoping for a full brigade, an Army base with helicopters and a field hospital." Among the many abandoned vehicles and tents at the deserted blockade outside Manchester are at least one helicopter and a field hospital.
- On his No. 2 service dress uniform, West wears approximately 4 ribbons, indicating awards/medals received during his time in the British Army. Second from the left appears to be the Operational Service Medal for Afghanistan; if so, a slight anachronism, as 28 Days Later is 'set' in its release year of 2002, whereas the Operational Service Medal for Afghanistan was not established until 2003.
- When Major West was in his No.2 service dress uniform at the dinner, you can see the Parachute badge on his right upper arm, meaning he has completed the arduous all-arms pre-parachute selection course followed by the basic parachutist course, both of which are required to become an airborne-trained officer.
- West wears the Parachute Badge with Wings, the UK's insignia for a member of the military who is assigned to a unit where airborne operations are considered an active part of their duties. West was most likely a member of the Parachute Regiment before the outbreak.