Rage Virus

A Carrier's Rage-infected blood seen through a microscope. (28 Weeks Later)

The Rage Virus, also more commonly known simply as (the) Infection or The Rage, is a disease in the 28 Days Later franchise which is the main catalyst and an antagonistic force throughout the entire franchise. It is a virulent, bloodborne, apparently man-made pathogen which fully infects its hosts in a mater of seconds, and locks them in a permanent state of extreme, uncontrollable, homicidal animalistic rage and chronic hemorrhaging.

History

Film Canon

Origins and Original Outbreak

The Rage Virus originated in the Cambridge Primate Research Centre, which was experimenting on chimpanzees infected with the virus. A local scientist, when attempting to explain the virus' existence and why it was there, stated the chimps had been given "an inhibitor" and that "to cure, you must first understand". The Virus broke loose and crossed to humans when three animal rights activists, whom were known to the aforementioned scientist but whom were themselves clueless to the Infection's existence, successfully freed one of the chimps, which promptly infected one of the activists before being killed. The infected activist then attacked her comrades and the scientist, and the Rage Virus began to violently spread outward through the population of Great Britain. (28 Days Later (film))

An animal rights activist, bitten by an infected chimpanzee, becomes the first infected human. (28 Days Later (film))

Over the course of the following few weeks, the Rage Virus spread throughout mainland Britain like a wild fire, with the Infected's attacks initially being misinterpreted by the authorities and the media as mass rioting, and the outbreak caused British society to increasingly break down as more people were infected or killed and as the Infected overran the military blockades erected to try and contain the spread, eventually triggering a frantic rush to escape the country. (28 Days Later (film)) Fifteen days after the Rage Virus' release, mainland Britain was quarantined by NATO and the UN. (28 Weeks Later) By the twenty-eighth day, public services and all society on mainland Britain had completely collapsed due to the outbreak, and the majority of the British population were either dead, infected or refugees overseas, with very few scattered uninfected survivors left in the country. (28 Days Later (film)) Although most of the survivors in Britain assumed the outbreak to be the end of all civilization, in actuality, the outside world beyond Britain was completely spared from the Rage Virus due to it being unable to cross ocean-based natural barriers to other landmasses.

Infected starving to death over eight weeks after Infection was released. (28 Days Later (film))

Nine weeks after the Rage Virus was released, the last of the Infected were reported to have died off from malnutrition, leading the outside world to eventually declare mainland Britain "free of Infection" and set their sights on beginning to repatriate the British refugees and survivors. Unbeknownst to the world, however, the Rage Virus still retained one living host in Britain: Alice Harris, who had become a Carrier during the Original Outbreak. (28 Weeks Later)

Second Wave

Twenty-eight weeks after the Original Outbreak's twenty-eighth day, Alice Harris was brought to District One - the secured repatriation zone of London - as a rescued survivor. There, she triggered a new outbreak of the Rage Virus when she unwittingly infected her husband Donald Harris via a kiss, and Don proceeded to kill her and trigger a mass Infection within the densely-populated zone. The US Army responsible for safeguarding District One attempted to exterminate the re-emergent Infection, first by firebombing District One, then by venting poison gas and sending out armed forces after a large number of Infected had survived and escaped into the surrounding London area.

The Infected escape District One and swarm London. (28 Weeks Later)

During the chaos, Alice's son Andy Harris, whom had inherited her natural immunity to the symptoms of the Infection, became a Carrier like his mother, and was subsequently evacuated by an unaware Flynn via helicopter across the English Channel towards France. Within the following twenty-eight days, the Infection appeared on mainland Europe, with Infected rampaging in Paris. (28 Weeks Later)

The Second Wave of the Rage Virus reaches France. (28 Weeks Later)

The outbreak in mainland Europe was subsequently swiftly contained and the Infection's presence there completely wiped out, leaving the Rage Virus once more confined solely to the British Isles, which remained quarantined and became an unconditional no-fly zone for the following twenty-seven years.

28 Years Later

A pack of Infected including an Alpha (second one from the right) in post-outbreak Northumberland. (28 Years Later)

Twenty eight years after the outbreak, the Rage Virus remained rampant on mainland Britain, as the Infected now prioritized seeking self-nourishment, which enabled them to survive for years longer than before. The Virus had long since evolved into several new strains, producing distinct Infected variants such as Slow Lows and Alphas in addition to the more numerously-seen "baseline" Infected (Fast Ones). (28 Years Later)

Other media

28 Days Later: The Aftermath

The Rage Virus began when Cambridge scientists Clive and Warren were hired to try and isolate the specific neurochemicals that cause anger and excessive aggression in humans in order to develop an inhibitor that regulates anger control issues. After they developed an inhibitor, Warren believed that delivering widespread with a pill or an aerosol wouldn't do, and after getting the idea from seeing Clive sneeze to use a contagion as the delivery system, he selected the Ebola Virus; testing the new combination on the Primate Research Center's chimpanzees. Within two weeks, several isolated genomes in the Ebola Virus reacted to the inhibitor and mutated, causing the inhibitor to have the opposite effect: instead of inhibiting anger, it caused its hosts to become full of constant, uncontrollable rage. Disgusted by what he and Warren had created, Clive quit from the project and informed the Animal Freedom Front about the experimentation on animals, leading to the break-in which unwittingly set the Virus loose.

28 Days Later (comic series)

The Rage Virus was claimed to have originated in London instead of Cambridge.

At some point within several months after the Original Outbreak, the Rage Virus, through unknown means, spread from mainland Britain to Mainland, Shetland and the island's population was infected, prompting the American military to quietly extend the British quarantine to Shetland without telling the wider world about what had happened.

While the majority of Infected in mainland Britain were believed by the wider world to have died off, the Rage Virus in actuality still had an active presence in Britain. Most to all of the Infected in England were dead, but Scotland, which had more survivors than the south and was hit by Infection much later during the Original Outbreak, was still crawling with Infected throughout the months in-between Jim, Hannah and Selena's extraction from Britain and the second London outbreak.

Parties within the American military were interested in experimenting with the Rage Virus. During the Original Outbreak, Major Sanders was connected to an American facility on the Isle of Wight which was experimenting on captured terrorists with the Rage Virus to try and develop a cure. In the months after the outbreak, a much more malignant American black operation was experimenting with the Rage Virus in infected Scotland, attempting to modify it to create a military performance enhancer, before Selena decimated the entire operation.

Infection and Other Characteristics

"If someone gets infected, you've got between ten and twenty seconds to kill them."

―Selena on how quickly the Rage Virus infects and takes over its hosts.

The Rage Virus is spread through the blood and saliva, and is highly contagious to the point that just one drop of infected fluid is enough to infect a new host. The Virus is typically transmitted through skin-breaking bites from the Infected, or by infected blood getting into a victim's orifices such as the mouth or eyes (usually by the Infected vomiting blood directly into a victim's face), but it can also spread through saliva exchange like when an unknowing Carrier kissed a non-Carrier at the start of the Second Wave. (28 Weeks Later)

Infected chimpanzee. (28 Days Later (film))

Once a host is infected, it will take ten to twenty seconds before they succumb to the Infection. It appears that the amount of time it takes for the Rage Virus to take over a host specifically depends on the amount of Rage that the host was exposed to. If two mouthfuls of infected fluid are vomited directly into a host's face, they will become infected almost instantly, but if one drop of infected fluid gets into their system through their eyes (which are a more direct connection to the brain), then it will take approximately fifteen - thirty seconds before the Virus begins to visibly affect them. (28 Days Later (film)) An infected host may experience painful spasms and uncontrollable twitches and convulsions as the Rage Virus takes over their system, and they will begin to bleed from their eyes and mouth.

Primates like humans and chimpanzees are apparently the only animals capable of carrying the Rage Virus, which is similar to the Ebola virus that the Rage Virus was said to have been derived from. For example, a crow was observed pecking a dead Infected soldier from the rafters of a building, yet showed no signs of infection. Also another crow was observed pecking at and eating the flesh of a still living Infected that has been left hanging upside down. (28 Days Later, 28 Years Later)

Dr. Ian Kelson discovered that iodine is highly toxic to the Virus, coating his skin in an iodine solution to act as a disinfectant that decreased his chances of contracting Infection. (28 Years Later)

Symptoms

See main article: The Infected

Donald Harris, an example of an infected human.

After a host is infected by the Rage Virus, they suffer spasms in the extremities, experience excruciating pain described as a "burning" sensation, (28 Days Later (film), 28 Weeks Later, 28 Days Later: The Aftermath) and the Infection also starts causing capillaries to hemorrhage, (28 Days Later (comic series)) making the host frequently vomit blood and bleed from their eyes and nose. The Infected's eyes also turn scarlet red. In 28 Years Later, the Infected's eyes are shown to illuminate when near a light source, similar to animals whose eyes have "tapetum lucidum". This may or may not be a result of a mutation in the virus.

After an infected host succumbs to the Rage Virus, they will suffer from extreme, uncontrollable anger and aggression, and almost all higher brain functions will disappear. From that point on, the Infected will seek out and viciously attacks any uninfected person above any other goal - even self-preservation - with not even their closest loved ones or former comrades being spared. An infected individual's past personality or relationships are all erased, overpowered by the strength of the Rage virus.

Because of the Virus' extreme contagiousness and very short incubation time, just one Infected can trigger the mass infection and decimation of a dense crowd of people within a matter of minutes, (28 Weeks Later) and the Virus thoroughly spread through and decimated the entirety of mainland Great Britain in just four weeks. (28 Days Later (film)) The Rage Virus gives those infected heightened mobility and endurance, thus enabling them to quickly rampage through miles and miles of territory and invade entire towns before expiring from lack of self-nourishment. (28 Weeks Later) The Virus seems to change the behaviour of the Infected over time as well, because recently-infected individuals were generally highly active during the day; (28 Weeks Later) but victims of the Infected who had likely been infected for longer were generally more active at night. (28 Days Later (film), 28 Days Later (comic series)).

Certain individuals, after getting infected, experience substantial muscle growth, allowing them to easily dismember their prey indicating steroid-like characteristics of the virus. Moreover, such infected seem to retain at least some higher brain functions which allows them to plan and coordinate attacks of other infected people. Such process seems to eradicate the will to infect others, favouring plain killing. (28 Years Later)

Rage is a recombinant strain of Ebola, and while its psychological symptoms are more like those of Rabies, it does retain some of the physiological symptoms of Ebola: red eyes, internal and external hemorrhaging and bleeding. The Rage Virus is only capable of infecting primates, a characteristic presumably based in its origin as a recombinant Ebola strain. (28 Days Later: The Aftermath)

Immunity

See main article: Carrier

Alice Harris' bloodshot left eye, the only apparent symptom of Infection in Carriers. (28 Weeks Later)

Alice Harris and her son Andy both exhibited an extremely rare natural immunity to the symptoms of the Rage Virus if not the virus itself, which was previously unheard of to Operation Rising Dawn seven months after the Original Outbreak. Upon being infected, Alice and Andy both respectively suffered none of the devastating physical and cognitive adverse effects of the Virus except for a permanently bloodshot left eye, although their blood and saliva still hosted the Virus permanently and could still transmit it to other hosts. Major Scarlet Levy believed that a Carrier's blood could be used to find a vaccine or possibly even a cure for Infection. However, Alice was killed and her body incinerated by firebombing amid the Second Wave of the Rage Virus before any testing could be carried out, and Andy's status and whereabouts after he was transported across the English Channel to France (where the Infection subsequently broke out for a time) are unknown. (28 Weeks Later)

According to one account, Dr. Billingsworth, a scientist among an American black operation in Scotland, had found evidence of and was aware of Carriers months before Alice was discovered in London. (28 Days Later (comic series))

Trivia

• The disease is only ever seen being called "Rage" or "the Rage Virus" a few times: by the scientist at the start of 28 Days Later; in the sequence after the start of 28 Weeks Later that explains what happened in the Original Outbreak and the following twenty-eight weeks; in the opening crawl of 28 Years Later; and in 28 Days Later: The Aftermath, when Clive comments that he and Warren have "created a rage virus". Most of the other times a character mentions it, they simply call it "the Virus", "the Infection", or "Infection".
• It is unknown how the Rage Virus spread to France. One possibility is that after Andy, Tammy and Flynn crashed in France, Andy infected someone else (most likely by accident), and that person then began spreading the Infection in mainland Europe. Another is that infected reached France via the Channel Tunnel, but this would most likely have been blocked or destroyed by French authorities during the original outbreak.
• Although it was revealed in 28 Days Later: The Aftermath that the Rage Virus was accidentally created while scientists Clive and Warren were trying to develop an anger inhibitor, in the 28 Days Later comic series, Dr. Billingsworth implied that the Rage Virus was developed as a biological weapon. However, a few fans believe that Billingsworth had merely speculated this based on his research, or that The Aftermath is not canon to the comics.
• It was shown in 28 Days Later: The Aftermath and made apparent in 28 Days Later that the Rage Virus originated in Cambridge. However, in the 28 Days Later comic series, Eliott Muniz stated that it first appeared in London.
• No infected animals other than the infected chimpanzees are ever seen in the 28 Days Later franchise. According to Danny Boyle, this is because primates are the only animals that are capable of carrying the Rage Virus as hosts. This is further supported by the fact that no infected animals other than chimps have been seen, and the fact that Infection is a strain of Ebola, which infects primates. Also, in 28 Days Later, a crow was shown to be pecking at an infected soldier's corpse, and did not appear to become infected from consuming the corpse's blood which was carrying the Virus.
• While the psychological symptoms of Rage are similar to those of Rabies, most of the physiological symptoms resemble those of Ebola. The latter is likely because (according to 28 Days Later: The Aftermath) the Rage Virus is a mutated strain of the Ebola Virus.
• An alternative scene in 28 Days Later depicted that Rage can be cured through a complete blood transfusion from an uninfected individual. The Worsley House was originally supposed to be the lab where the Virus was developed. In this scene, the infected Frank was to be saved by having his infected blood replaced with Jim's uninfected blood. The scene was cut due to realism issues, as Danny Boyle and Alex Garland were unable to concieve a plausible explanation for this "cure" due to the establishment of the fact that a single drop of fluid carrying Rage is capable of infecting a host.
• The Flood from the Doctor Who episode The Waters of Mars share several similarities with the Rage Virus; both take over a host within seconds of exposure, causing the host to spasm as they do so. Also, both Rage and the Flood cause their hosts' eyes to change colour, and both viruses cause their hosts to exhude a liquid containing the virus from their mouths.
• Strangely, most of the physiological symptoms of the Rage Virus do not appear to be as severe in chimpanzees as in humans; while infected humans are constantly bleeding from their eyes, nose and mouth, infected chimps do not appear to bleed from their eyes or nose, and apparently vomit blood less regularly than humans. Also, while infected chimps do possess the uncontrollable rage towards the uninfected found in humans, at least one chimp was shown to clap sadistically as another infected chimp attacked a human, suggesting that infected chimps retain at least some sadistic thought processing. This would also suggest that the symptoms of Infection are milder in infected chimps than in humans. Some fans believe that this was shown in Donald Harris as well, who, when infected, appeared to express pleasure in seeing the uninfected suffer, and showed cunning and stealth usually devoid in infected humans.
• Though uncomfirmed, it has been speculated by a few that the amount of time it takes the Rage Virus to take over an exposed host could depend upon the person's emotional state.
• The Rage Virus is shown to be able to infect and take over a host within seconds; but in real life, it would be impossible for a virus to cause such large and virulent symptoms within such a short amount of time, however fast-acting it is.
• Some fans believe that the heterochromic eye colour of Alice and Andy Harris (the only two known Carriers) was linked to their natural immunity to the symptoms of the Rage Virus; some have pointed out that Scarlet Levy stated a genetic abnormality was probably the source of the immunity, and have suggested that the said abnormality responsible for Andy and Alice's immunity to the Infection's effects was probably the same one responsible for their heterochromic eye colour.
• Though Alice and Andy Harris are the only two known Carriers, in the 28 Days Later comic series, Dr. Billingsworth was aware of the existence of Carriers (as according to him, the black operation he was part of had found evidence that some people were naturally immune to the symptoms of Infection), implying that there are other Carriers besides Alice and Andy.

External Links

• List of Fictional Diseases - Wikipedia.org
• Rage Virus - Zombiepedia