28 days later – Dr. K's Waiting Room

Movie Night [Day of the Dead]: 28 Days Later

01/11/202502/12/2025Dr. K4 Comments

The Day of the Dead (or Dia de los Muertos) is a traditional Latin American holiday celebrated every November 1^st. This is the perfect excuse to spotlight the long-running and ever-changing zombie genre, which is often used to parallel society and culture.

Released: 1 November 2002
Director: Danny Boyle
Distributor: Fox Searchlight Pictures / 20^th Century Fox
Budget: $8 million
Stars: Cillian Murphy, Naomie Harris, Megan Burns, Christopher Eccleston, and Brendan Gleeson

The Plot:
Twenty-eight days after rabid chimpanzees infected with a “Rage” virus spread an aggressive plague, bicycle courier Jim (Murphy) awakens to find London in shambles. After encountering other survivors, Jim follows a military broadcast promising sanctuary from the infected…

The Background:
Zombies have featured in movies in some form since the 1930s, initially portrayed as mindless slaves and popularly portrayed as the shambling undead thanks to the legendary George A. Romero. Like many, writer Alex Garland was directly inspired by Romero when dreaming up 28 Days Later, which came when zombies were having one of their many resurgences in horror cinema. Director Danny Boyle joined the project, impressed by Garland’s screenplay, which he saw as more of a post-apocalyptic story than a traditional zombie tale. 28 Days Later reimagined the living dead as voracious, aggressive infected individuals and achieved its iconic shots of deserted London streets by filming in short bursts early in the morning. Funding was a constant headache during production, leading to multiple alternate endings. Things took an eerie turn when filming coincided with the September 11 terrorist attacks, and rights issues have limited the film’s availability on streaming services, though 28 Days Later proved a massive box office success. Although zombie genre purists debated the film, 28 Days Later was universally praised for revitalising the concept, its stirring performances, unsettling atmosphere, and savage, fast-paced editing. The film inspired a wave of violent new takes on the genre and was followed by a similarly regarded sequel in 2007 and (eventually) the first of a proposed follow-up trilogy in 2025.

The Review:
28 Days Later has one of the most startling and dramatic openings in all of cinema. After a brief prelude where animal rights activists break into a secret laboratory to free some chimpanzees, the action picks up literally twenty-eight days later to find Jim alone in a dishevelled hospital. Confused and disorientated, he wanders the deserted hallways and stumbles onto the equally lifeless streets of London, seemingly left behind during the Rapture. For Jim, this is very puzzling as, from his perspective, he was ferrying a package across the city when he was hit by a car, only to wake up apparently the last man alive in the nation’s capital. Loading up on sugary drinks and venturing into the city on a whim, desperately calling out for anyone else, Jim gets his first glimpse of what’s happened when he sees headlines warning of a mass evacuation and military deployment. Bewildered, Jim finds a church full of bodies being feasted on by a handful of the infected, who immediately chase him, roaring and ravenous, into the streets. Malnourished and unprepared, Jim’s completely ill-equipped to escape or fight the infected horde. Indeed, much of Jim’s character arc is transitioning from a near useless, clueless bystander and into a more capable and proactive survivor, one who doesn’t hesitate to kill to defend himself and others and who actively makes plans to outwit the infected and any disreputable survivors. While Jim’s initially in disbelief that the Rage virus effectively wiped out the government and civilised society, the undeniable truth quickly sinks in after repeated attacks from the voracious infected and after he pays a sombre visit to his parents’ (Christopher Dunne and Emma Hitching) home and finds they’ve committed suicide rather than fall victim to the virus.

*Jim wakes up to find London deserted and society in tatters from the infected.*

Yet, despite the United Kingdom being a post-apocalyptic wasteland where bodies, abandoned cars, ransacked shops, and highly aggressive, zombie-like creatures lurk, Jim carries a glimmer of hope that not everything has gone to shit. This largely contrasts with Selena’s (Harris) perspective as she’s so hardened by the sudden destruction of everyday norms that she’s initially cold, pragmatic, and willing to hack apart her allies if there’s even a small chance of infection. Indeed, Mark (Noah Huntley) shares his harrowing escape from the infected, we never learn what Selena went through to go from chemist to cold-blooded survivor and are simply presented with a grim woman who refuses to let anyone slow her down or give in to hope. Despite her best efforts, Selena’s demeanour cools throughout not just Jim’s influence (regardless of her no-nonsense attitude, she fights to save him in the early going) but also spending time with Frank (Gleeson) and Hannah (Burns), a father/daughter duo who shelter them in their tower block flat and beg Jim and Selena to help them reach safe harbour at a military outpost. Moments of levity and normality are fleeting in 28 Days Later, but they flicker to life as the two stay, travel, and bond with Frank and Hannah, with Frank being a father figure to both and caring for Hannah’s welfare melting Selena’s ice-cold heart. The four make a good, fun surrogate family unit, bouncing ideas and opinions off each other and sticking together to gather resources and push through obstacles. While Jim advises against travelling through a tunnel, the four work together to replace a flat tyre and share some carefree moments. Jim’s so relieved to experience a brief flash of normality that he’s understandably horrified when he dreams of waking up alone once more, and noticeably hesitates when Frank is accidentally infected when they reach the military blockade.

*In a world where it’s kill or be killed and a battle for survival, the slither of hope remains.*

While Selena initially believes that Frank and Hannah, despite being good people, will inevitably be a burden, she warms to them and, despite her hardened attitude, can’t help but care for and protect others. She easily could’ve left any of them at any time but chooses to stick around and even becomes attracted to Jim, even if she still has walls around her heart. Selena is thus heartbroken for Hannah’s loss, equally distraught at first seeing her grouchy but affable father turn into a mindless monster and then witnessing him being gunned down. Although Selena was sceptical of salvation or a cure, she’s as grateful as Jim is when Major Henry West (Eccleston) rescues them and takes them into his heavily fortified mansion and offers the protection of his renegade soldiers. Like Major West, there’s a sense that all Selena has seen is death and violence, meaning she’s largely numb to it. By contrast, Jim’s noticeably rattled by it all, especially when he’s forced to kill an infected boy (Justin Hackney). Even then, Jim simply reacts to what happens, whereas Selena is always prepared, carrying a backpack of supplies and wielding a machete. By comparison, Hannah isn’t a fighter and even her dad, despite his cool riot gear setup, is more about first hunkering down and then travelling to a safer place where others can do the fighting. While Major West and his soldiers are more than capable of defending their turf, setting up trip wires, landmines, floodlights, and being well armed, their intentions are far from noble. Faced with a squad close to breaking point, Major West ordered them to make preparations and set up a false radio broadcast to bring in women and thus hope for the future, though Sergeant Farrell (Stuart McQuarrie) refuses to participate in sexual slavery and believes his commanding officer has gone mad.

*While Major West shines as a reprehensible madman, the soldiers drag the film down for me.*

I’ve always felt like 28 Days Later loses its way once Major West and his soldiers appear. The bleak, desolate atmosphere so meticulously established is replaced with a bunch of assholes who just want to muck about and bully struggling chef Private Jones (Leo Bill). To be fair, even douchebags like Corporal Mitchell (Ricci Harnett) and Private Bedford (Ray Panthaki) are quick to defend against the incoming infected. However, even their resources (which, strangely, include piles of electronics) cannot last forever and the restless men soon turn their eyes towards Selena and Hannah. While Major West initially chastises them, preferring a softly-softly approach, he’s quick to reveal his true intentions to Jim, hoping to coerce him to their side, but shows no hesitation in ordering Jim and the rebellious Sergeant Farrell to be killed. Though Private Jones objects to Corporal Mitchell choosing to stab Farrell rather than just shoot him, the others can’t wait to get their hands on Selena and Hannah. Amusingly though, despite all their training and weapons and preparation, the soldiers are easily overwhelmed by Jim and a few infected, showing that they were all bluster and no balls. In a film full of questionable, if relatable, performances (with Megan Burns being the weakest), 28 Days Later is elevated by Christopher Eccleston’s enigmatic presence. Major West exudes authority and initially welcomes the three, offering a sympathetic ear to their plight. However, his charming demeanour falters as the men grow increasingly restless and is soon shown to be a stone-cold pragmatist who sees their current situation as nothing out of the ordinary and has no compunction about chaining up the infected Private Mailer (Marvin Campbell) or letting his men rape women. For Major West, this is what’s necessary to learn more about the infected and rebuild society, but even he and his soldiers barely represent the worst of humanity as some are reluctant to follow his orders. While this shows that human nature is just as implicitly ugly as the infected are explicitly hideous, I do feel the film loses a lot of momentum once it clutters the screen with largely interchangeable soldiers.

The Nitty-Gritty:
For me, 28 Days Later is at its best when it’s showcasing the bleak, empty streets of London and the deserted motorways of the United Kingdom. It’s startling to see the normally busy and bustling city a literal ghost town as Jim wanders through the remnants of a once thriving society. Today, in a post-COVID world, these scenes hit even harder, with Jim discovering numerous posters of lost loved ones and left confused and horrified at the idea of some virus wiping out or driving away the populace. Jim’s initial goal is simply to find people and find out what’s happened, but he must work through the stages of grief before accepting the new status quo, insisting on visiting his parents and struggling to fight the infected. Conversely, Selena attacks with a viciousness that rivals that of the infected and keeps others at arm’s length, whereas Jim is still hopeful that there’s a chance for humanity, especially after seeing Frank and Hannah’s love and a plane flying overhead. Thus, 28 Days Later isn’t just about “survival” but what it means to live, with even Selena finding something more beyond violence thanks to their surrogate family. Still, things are pretty damn hopeless for the UK here as the government’s been wiped out (no big loss, really) and cities are abandoned or in flames. It’s left intentionally vague how many escaped before the UK was locked down, and Mark’s harrowing story of the masses literally trampling over each other again strikes a nerve post-COVID, but there’s also the suggestion that the rest of world is perfectly fine, meaning there’s a vague hope for the future even if the UK has been quarantined. For those left behind, it’s an endless fight for survival and some meaning beyond just living another day, with Major West having high hopes for rebuilding society with his morally skewed soldiers.

*Those infected by Rage are voracious, aggressive, and far more capable than zombies ever were.*

Of course, 28 Days Later isn’t a “zombie” film in the strictest sense but it’s clearly inspired by the genre and absolutely reinvigorated it, popularising fast and aggressive undead (or zombie-like creatures) that endure to this day. You know it’s not a typical zombie film right from the start, however, as 28 Days Later provides an explanation for its events with the vaguely defined Rage virus. This appears to be a man-made pathogen (though it can also be implied to have been inherent to the chimps) that drives the infected into a mindless, ravenous aggression where they attack and devour anyone on site. A bite or even a single drop of blood into a wound or orifice is enough for the Rage to near-instantly take hold, with Selena stating that you have between ten and twenty seconds to kill an infected before they fly into a wild rage, and there’s said to be no cure (largely because the chimps were released before the infection could be properly understood). The infected don’t seem to eat their victims, though they are driven by insatiable hunger and violently vomit blood and guts when starved. Major West is particularly curious about how long it takes the infected to starve and the film’s epilogue, which takes twenty-eight days after the initial twenty-eight days, indicates they need flesh to survive. The infected are extremely aggressive, exhibiting superhuman speed and strength and apparently having enhanced senses, particularly smell and hearing. If you see one, others soon swarm in a ravenous horde, crashing through windows and tearing through barricades in a desperate search for sustenance. Still, they’re easily killed (bullets, landmines, blades, baseball bats, and Molotov cocktails all work extremely well) and won’t return once killed, nor do they need their brains destroyed to be put down, but their sheer numbers and aggression make even one a formidable obstacle.

*Jim fights back against the disreputable soldiers and miraculously survives a near death experience.*

As pressing as the infected are as a threat, they are largely contained to cities and appear only sporadically. Like any good zombie (or zombie-adjacent) film, 28 Days Later is thus more concerned with the threat of human nature than its infected, with Major West and his soldiers posing more of a threat to Jim, Selena, and Hannah than the infected, whom they largely avoid on their road trip. The soldiers easily fend off the external threat but cannot deny their base instincts, relishing the thought of passing around Selena and Hannah and caring more about their sexual lusts than their dwindling numbers. Their overconfidence in their weapons is their greatest weakness as the untrained, scrawny Jim easily picks them off both by himself and by releasing the starving Private Mailer, who easily infects the soldiers and bring down their fort. Though Selena tries to spare Hannah the trauma of being raped by doping her on Valium, her feisty nature is quelled by the lustful Corporal Mitchell, leading Jim to leap to her defence and gouge the soldier’s eyes out in a rage. Selena’s so stunned by Jim’s animalistic behaviour that she almost mistakes him for an infected, yet she hesitates to kill him due to her feelings and is relieved to find he’s simply embraced his killer instinct to save them. As the three escape, however, Major West takes his revenge and shoots Jim, leading Hannah to feed him to his infected soldiers and Selena to desperately save Jim’s life at a nearby hospital. This is also where 28 Days Later falls apart a bit as the ending is so haphazard and nonsensical, with Jim miraculously surviving the gunshot and the three signalling a passing jet for aid. It’s clear that Jim was supposed to die, as in the alternative endings, and this slapdash “happy ending” just doesn’t gel well as a result. It would’ve been far easier to reshoot the scene with Major West to show him missing his shot than pretend like Selena could’ve ever saved Jim from a bullet to the gut.

The Summary:
It’s probably sacrilege to admit this but I’ve never been a fan of 28 Days Later. I find the film quite inconsistent and dull at times, the script is kind of all over the place with inconsistencies and obvious rewrites and changes, and the film loses so much momentum once Major West and his cronies show up. It’s a real shame as it starts so strongly, with Cillian Murphy wandering the eerily deserted streets of London and a palpable sense of dread and confusion presented through the visuals. Murphy does a good job as Jim, starting as a confused and somewhat useless leftover and eventually gaining a killer instinct that almost makes him indistinguishable from the infected. I enjoyed Selena’s no-nonsense portrayal as well, and that we never learn what made her so hardened to the post-apocalypse, and her character arc in learning there’s more to life than just surviving. I liked the surrogate family unit they built with Frank and Hannah, which was obviously doomed to end in tragedy but was far more appealing than having a bunch of dickhead soldiers eat up the screen time. Granted, Christopher Eccleston gave a captivating and chilling performance, standing out as the diamond in the rough, and Major West’s soldiers represented the worst of humanity, but I feel this angle stopped the film dead. There’s something here about the nature of humanity and the juxtaposition of an explicitly monstrous external threat being as dangerous as humanity’s base instincts, but I don’t think it was executed very well. I did like the depiction of the infected as ravenous, hyper aggressive, mindless animals and how quickly they spread the Rage virus. They’re not zombies at all and that’s made very clear, but they’re a significant threat and it’s still chilling seeing the United Kingdom left deserted and in shambles after just a few weeks of exposure. I absolutely consider 28 Days Later an influential film for many reasons and can see why so many like it and so many zombie purists abhorred it, especially back then, but I can’t say that it’s a favourite of mine or a film I’m inspired to watch much. It just feels too haphazard by the end, like there were too many ideas on the table and the simple, startling premise got muddled by rewrites and changes, making it an overall mediocre experience for me to this day.

My Rating:

Pretty Good

Do you think I was too harsh on 28 Days Later? Were you a fan of the more aggressive and faster infected compared to slower zombies? What did you think to the bleak, empty city streets? Do you agree that the pacing and ending were a bit off? Which character was your favourite and did you like how the genre was changed by this film? What is your favourite zombie film and how are you celebrating the Day of the Dead today? Whatever your thoughts on 28 Days Later, and zombie films in general, feel free to leave a comment below, check out my other zombie content, and donate to my Ko-Fi for more.

10FTW: Bad-Ass Movie Dads

20/06/202117/10/2025Dr. K2 Comments

Being a dad in a movie is tough; often, dads are portrayed as slovenly, uncaring, even abusive individuals who care more about drinking beer, watching football, cheating on their spouses, or work than their kids. It’s a bit of a cliché at this point and also quite a bum rap, to be honest, and often seems like a case of lazy writing to have the dad be the cause of all the problems and negativity in a child’s life in a film.

I suppose it makes sense, in a way; many movies involve a story about a child, son, or daughter standing up to adversity or challenging, even confronting, their neglectful parents to say nothing of the myriad of stories out there of fathers more concerned with work than the well-being of their child. Still, good movie dads do exist, even while being flawed characters in their own right, and so, seeing as today is Father’s Day, I’m going to run through ten that I consider to be amongst the most bad-ass of all movie dads…

10 Steven Freeling – *Poltergeist* (Hooper, 1982)

If I’m being completely honest, Poltergeist is more the story of a bad-ass mother as, throughout the film, it is Diane (JoBeth Williams) who eventually steps up after the demonic force inhabiting their house kidnaps her daughter, Carol Anne (Heather O’Rourke). Diane is the one who first feels and alerts her family to the presence in their house, she’s also far more emotionally stable despite her exhaustion and grief, and of course there’s the fact that she leaps into the “other side” to rescue Carol Anne and then has to suffer through a veritable horror show as their house is torn inside and out. Yet Steven (Craig T. Nelson) is the ever-reliable rock of the household; a bit of a goofball and perhaps (even by his own admission) too soft on his kids, he is the one who contacts a group of parapsychologists to assist them (despite his scepticism) and let’s not forget that Diane and Carol Anne never would have made it to back to the real world had Steven not been holding their literal lifeline. Despite his will weakening, Steven steps up even more in the sequel, Poltergeist II: The Other Side (Gibson, 1989), even landing what appears to be a killing blow to the malevolent Reverend Henry Kane (Julian Beck) who has been terrorising them, but, while reliability is an admirable quality, he takes the lowest spot for largely just being a supporting player (and for him and Diane sending Carol Anne away out of fear by the third film).

Here’s a shocking revelation for you: I’m not actually that big a fan of 28 Days Later. It starts off with such promise and with all those eerie shots of London but it’s a slow, plodding, miserable little film and the only thing I really like about it is that it made zombies faster, more aggressive, and ferocious as, for me, it otherwise wastes its potential. Still, amidst all of this we have Frank (Brendan Gleeson), a former cab driver and one of the few survivors of the infection. Initially hostile and a largely grouchy character, to say the least, Frank’s sole concern (beyond survival) is the safety of his daughter, Hannah (Megan Burns) but he soon bonds with Jim (Cillian Murphy) and Selena (Naomie Harris). Sadly, though, Frank can’t place much higher as, despite his capability as a father and a combatant, he grows complacent; in a world where the highly contagious Rage plague has turned the majority of the population into ravenous, zombie-like creatures, characters must constantly be on their guard and, for a split second, Frank lowers his. However, even while the Rage quickly overwhelms his body, his first thought is to warn Hannah back for her own safety before he is summarily put down.

8 Rick O’Connell – *The Mummy Returns* (Sommers, 2001)

I miss Brendan Fraser; whatever happened to him? Arguably best known for his appearances in the Mummy trilogy (ibid/Cohen, 1999 to 2008), in which he portrayed a quick-witted and capable Indiana Jones-style adventurer, Fraser’s Rick O’Connell undergoes an interesting character arc throughout the trilogy, beginning as a disillusioned soldier and transforming from a reluctant hero motivated only by his libido to a doting father and content family man who was happy to put his adventuring days behind him. In The Mummy Returns, Rick is mortified when Imhotep’s (Arnold Vosloo) minions kidnap his smart-alecky little git of a son, Alex (Freddie Boath), and relentlessly uses every resource at his command to track Imhotep across the globe to rescue his son. Encouraging of the boy’s mischievous nature, one could argue that Alex only gets himself into a position to be kidnapped thanks to his father’s influence and their relationship has soured somewhat by the start of the third movie but that doesn’t take away from the fact that Rick travels across the world braving sea, air, and all manner of mummified atrocities to rescue his boy. When his beloved Evelyn (Rachel Weisz) is temporarily killed, we see a heartbreaking vulnerability to Rick’s usual bravado and his first action is to shield Alex from watching his mother suffer and die. Fuelled by rage and vengeance, he then takes on a now-mortal Imhotep in a fist-fight and rapidly accepts his destiny as a Medjai to deliver a killing blow to the monstrous Scorpion King (The Rock) to not only avenge his fallen wife but also as payback for putting his son in danger.

7 John McClane – *Die Hard 4.0* (Wiseman, 2007)

In my experience, Die Hard 4.0 (also known by the far better title, Live Free or Die Hard) is generally not as highly regarded as its predecessors and I will always take issue with this; sure, it’s massively over the top and essentially turns the wise-cracking John McClane (Bruce Willis) into a superhero but that doesn’t make it bad. For me, it’s easily in the top three of the Die Hard films (Various, 1988 to 2013) thanks to Willis’ portrayal of McClane as weary, out of touch, and hiding a lot of his emotions behind a snarky attitude and grouchy demeanour. Now, to be fair, McClane doesn’t start the film as the greatest father; his daughter, Lucy (the always appealing Mary Elizabeth Winstead) is initially hostile towards him, refusing to call him “Dad” and preferring to take her mother’s last name. However, when she is kidnapped by Thomas Gabriel (Timothy Olyphant) as payback for McClane interfering in his “fire sale”, McClane doesn’t hesitate to throw himself into danger to rescue her, accumulating numerous injuries, enduring shots from a F-35B Lightning II, and even shooting himself in the shoulder at point-blank range to kill Gabriel. When taken by Gabriel, Lucy not only fights back at every opportunity but knows full well that her father will stop at nothing to rescue her, defiantly taking his last name and ultimately reconciling with him after seeing the lengths he would go to for her safety.

6 Darren McCord – *Sudden Death* (Hyams, 1995)

I feel like people don’t talk about Sudden Death enough; sure, it’s just “Die Hard on a boat” but it’s pretty decent for the most part, even with Jean-Claude Van Damme’s characteristically awkward acting and line delivery. McCord is very much like McClane, being a normal, average fire-fighter-turned-fire-inspector who has the odds against him. Though he’s much less cynical and grouchy compared to McClane, he is tormented by his failure to save a young girl from a house fire and has an extremely strained relationship with his ex wife. Similar to McClane, McCord’s relationship with his kids is a little shaky at the start of the film; Emily (Whittni Wright) views him with a heroic awe, believing him to still be a fire-fighter, while Tyler (Ross Malinger) is slightly more antagonistic and resentful. Still, he does obediently stay in his seat even as the hockey arena falls into chaos around him and Emily bravely stands up to terrorist Joshua Foss (Powers Boothe) after she is kidnapped, never faltering in her belief that her father will come to rescue her. For his part, McCord is slightly irresponsible as he leaves his young kids alone at the hockey game but more than makes up for it by taking it upon himself to disarm as many of Foss’s bombs as he can and take out the terrorists with little more than his wits, ingenuity, and some impressive kicks.

5 Damon Macready / Big Daddy – *Kick-Ass* (Vaughn, 2010)

Although his look and the specifics of his motivations were wildly different from his comic book counterpart, Nicolas Cage really stole the show for this awesome adaptation of the comic book of the same name (Mark Millar, John Romita Jr, et al, 2008 to 2014). Channelling the spirit of Adam West while wearing a particularly Tim Burton-esque “Bat-Suit”, Cage channelled his usual manic energy into a far more nuanced, complex performance that showed Macready to be both slightly unhinged and eerily logical. To be fair, you could argue that Macready is a pretty awful father since he pulled his daughter, Mindy (Chloë Grace Moretz) out of school and trained her to be his crimefighting partner, Hit-Girl, causing her to be more interested in elaborate knives and skewering criminals than…whatever it is pre-teen girls are into these days. However, you’d be forgetting the fact that Macready is tough but fair on Mindy, always encouraging her and pushing her to test her limits. Thanks to his training, she’s fully capable of taking out entire rooms full of armed men with ease; not only that, he also does cool stuff like purchase a whole bunch of weapons, toys, and even a jetpack. When’s the last time your dad bought you a jet pack!? Plus, there’s the fact that he continues to encourage and help his daughter even while burning to death before her eyes.

4 Harry Tasker – *True Lies* (Cameron, 1994)

Arnold Schwarzenegger has a bit of an iffy record when it comes to portraying dads, as we’ll see; sometimes he’s the career-obsessed type, other times he’s the overly protective type. In True Lies, he lies to his wife, Helen (Jamie Lee Curtis) and daughter, Dana (Eliza Dushku), on a daily basis to keep his true identity as a secret agent just that: a secret. As a result, and because she’s in that moody teenage phase of her life, his relationship with Dana is somewhat strained at the start of the film in that she sees him as dull and unreliable, unappreciative of the token gifts he brings her, casually stealing from his partner, Albert Gibson (Tom Arnold), and running off with her boyfriend or to her room to escape from him. However, like her mother, Dana’s entire perception of Harry is changed after she is kidnapped by terrorist Salim Abu Aziz (Art Malik) and it is her unassuming father who comes to her rescue…in a Harrier Jump Jet, no less! What makes Harry a bad-ass dad is that, when the chips are down, he drops all pretenses and shows his family exactly what he is capable of, gunning down countless terrorists and flying through city airspace just to rescue his daughter and shouldering the burden of keeping his true life from them in order to protect them. Once the secret is out, though, his relationships with both alter dramatically and they become a much more stable, contented, and united family.

Aaah, yes, Con Air; a ridiculously over-the-top action film, to be sure, featuring Nicolas Cage not only with an absolutely gorgeous head of hair and henched up to the nines but also sporting possibly the worst Southern draw I’ve ever heard outside of The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (Morgan, 2006). Still, as ridiculous as Cage sounds (and as ludicrous as it is that his character, a decorated Army Ranger, would be sent to prison for ten years for what amounted to a clear case of self defense, at best, and manslaughter, at worst), the film is full of equally bombastic action and performances, with John Malkovich, especially, stealing the show (and, presumably, all that scenery he chewed) as the malicious Cyrus “The Virus” Grissom. Poe stands out from the other dads on this list as he doesn’t actually meet his daughter, Casey (Landry Allbright), until the film’s conclusion; however, through his numerous correspondences with Casey, he encourages her to stay in school and listen to her mother and builds the best, loving relationship he can given his position. His entire motivation throughout the film is to get back to his daughter and, while he’s tempted to simply let things play out in order to meet that goal, his morals won’t let him stand idly by and he fights through overwhelming odds and explosions galore to not only finally meet Casey but also to teach her valuable lessons about paying for your sins and standing up against injustice.

2 John Matrix – *Commando* (Lester, 1985)

So, I said early that Schwarzenegger has a bit of an iffy reputation as a movie dad. Well, Commando, in addition to being, perhaps, the quintessential action movie of the eighties, also showcases Arnie as one of the most devoted and bad-ass dads ever put to film. A retired Colonel, Matrix (a gloriously ridiculous name if there ever was one) is perfectly content to have put down his guns and to live peacefully amidst nature with his young daughter, Jenny (Alyssa Milano). However, when Matrix’s past (or, more specifically, the fantastically sadistic Bennett (Vernon Wells)) catches up with him and Jenny is taken as a hostage, Matrix has only around twelve hours to track Bennett down to recover his daughter. Like Poe, Matrix’s entire motivation is geared towards rescuing Jenny but, while Poe (and many of the dads on this list), must use subterfuge to meet this end, Matrix instead literally moves Heaven and Earth to find Jenny, violently dispatching of all of Bennett’s henchmen and literally walking right into a camp full of seemingly-endless, fully armed soldiers, mowing them down with such reckless abandon that he barely needs to aim or reload. Witty, determined, and possessing a razor-sharp focus, Matrix is a veritable one-man army, capable of besting anyone who stands in his way, and yet still vulnerable and human enough to be injured when dramatically appropriate and fully prepared to go to any lengths to rescue her since, as he puts it: “All that matters to [him] now is Jenny”.

I mean, honestly, could it really be any other dad? Who else but Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson) could make the top of a list like this? Like a lot of the other dads I’ve talked about, Mills is a devoted father who has left behind a violent life to focus on building a relationship with his daughter (Kim (Maggie Grace), in this instance) despite having a frosty relationship with his ex-wife, Lenore Mills-St John (Famke Janssen). Having lost his marriage, and many years of bonding with Kim, due to his work as a “preventer” for the government, Mills is a loyal, if somewhat overprotective, father who just wants to be there for Kim and to encourage her dreams of being a singer. However, when she is taken by Albanian sex traffickers, Mills puts his unique set of skills to good use; like Matrix, his entire motivation revolves around finding his daughter but Mills has even less to go on and yet, within twenty-four hours, manages to track down enough of a lead to bring him within arm’s reach of Kim’s location. Along the way, Mills dispatches anyone who opposes him with a cold, calculating efficiency; age, clearly, hasn’t dwindled his skills or resources and, for the most part, he’s still able to function at peak efficiency with very little sleep or food. Of all the dad’s on this list, Mills is the most determined and competent; every movement is premeditated, meticulously thought through, and executed with alarming proficiency and yet Mills is still humble and vulnerable enough to show real pain, fatigue, and to deliver Kim back into the arms of her mother and stepfather.

Do you agree with my list? Perhaps you have another favourite movie dad who you think should have made the cut; if so, who is it and who are some of your favourite (or least favourite) movie dads? What are you doing this year for Father’s Day? Do you have any particularly fond memories of your dad? If so, feel free to share them, and any other comments, below.

My Rating:

Pretty Good

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