As you all have probably heard by now, 28 Years Later, which just premiered on the 2025 movie schedule, is an all-around great cinematic experience (even more so in the 4DX format). Like a lot of the critics who saw it before release (including CinemaBlend’s Mike Reyes, who gave it a 5-star review), I loved just about everything about the movie, including a great callback to 28 Days Later. If you’re wondering if I’m talking about Godspeed You! Black Emperor’s “East Hastings,” then you’d be correct.
After hearing the song that first introduced me to one of my favorite bands more than 20 years ago, I started to recall all these stories from the early 2000s about how Danny Boyle was able to get the anti-capitalist Canadian post-rock collective to let him use the track in 28 Days Later’s iconic London sequence. If you’re not familiar, the story is really cool…
Danny Boyle Shot The Iconic London Sequence First, And Put “East Hastings” While Editing The Scene
If you have a conversation with someone about 28 Days Later, the conversation is going to turn to the scene where Cillian Murphy’s Jim is walking through an abandoned London. The scene, which takes place weeks after the zombie apocalypse started in England, was actually the first thing Danny Boyle shot, as he revealed in a June 2025 interview with NME. During the chat, Boyle was asked about the music that inspired his film, and the filmmaker was quick to point out:
I remember, because we shot the opening sequence a couple of months before we did the rest of the film, and we put it together and put that track on it, and you just thought it’s very rare that you feel, oh God, that it works. I don’t care what anybody says about if it works, but very rarely, you feel that.
It’s easy to see why Boyle would gravitate towards Godspeed You! Black Emperor’s “East Hastings” and became immediately attached to it. The intensity of the track complements the eerie and chaotic tone of the sequence and ramps up the intensity before throwing the audience into the rest of the movie. However, getting the band to sign off on it was no easy task.
Boyle Had To Meet The Band And Persuade Them Because They Were ‘Suspicious About Fox’
Considering the personal politics and ideologies of Godspeed You! Black Emperor, both as individuals and as a band, it should be no surprise that the group was reluctant to let Danny Boyle and Fox Searchlight Pictures (now Searchlight Pictures after the Disney acquisition) use the track in 28 Days Later, but the director persisted.
During a June 2025 conversation with Soundtrack Extra with Edith Bowman, Boyle said the band was “quite suspicious about Fox,” the company that owned Searchlight at the time, and rightfully so. However, upon traveling to Newcastle to see the band and have dinner with them, Boyle was able to show them the scene and explain what the movie was about. Though the band eventually signed off on it, they didn’t allow the track to show up on the soundtrack, as pointed out in a 2022 Guardian piece on Godspeed’s rise in popularity.
However, It Was A Completely Different Story For 28 Years Later
Just like in 28 Days Later, the use of “East Hastings” in the final part of 28 Years Later creates an incredible and instantly iconic movie moment that I’ll be thinking about for a long time. However, getting permission to use the track this time around was a whole lot easier for Danny Boyle and company.
In the NME chat mentioned above, the director revealed that this time around, it was just a simple conversation and request, with Godspeed You! Black Emperor signing off on its use without any trouble. Just don’t go buy the 28 Years Later soundtrack expecting to hear the track, as it’s once again left off the album release.
Though “East Hastings” isn’t on the official 28 Years Later soundtrack, which is one of the best in recent memory, you can find the legendary song on Godspeed You! Black Emperor’s classic album, F#A#∞.
