Henry West



Major Henry West is a character in the post-apocalyptic film 28 Days Later. He is played by British actor Christopher Eccleston.

Major Henry West was a veteran in the British Army. He was good friends with fellow officer Captain Stiles and was in command of a once-sizeable force of soldiers sent to defend the city of Manchester during the Original Outbreak of the Rage Virus. West had his men cover the 42 military blockade on the M602 outside of the city, defending it against repeated Infected attacks. However, the Infected eventually overran the 42nd blockade and the other military checkpoints and entered the city, killing all the soldiers at the blockade except for West and eight of his men.

Major West resolved to escape to the Worsley House in the forest with eight of his surviving soldiers, which they fortified against attack with mines, tripwires, barbed wire and barricades. The soldiers also sent out a looped radio message declaring they had the "answer to Infection", and (believing that the outbreak was global) set about rebuilding society.

Major West resolved to escape to the Worsley House in the forest with eight of his surviving soldiers, which they fortified against attack with mines, tripwires, barbed wire and barricades. The soldiers also sent out a looped radio message declaring they had the "answer to Infection", and (believing that the outbreak was global) set about rebuilding society.

On Day 23, West found one of his subordinates, 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.

Twenty-nine days into the outbreak, one of West's soldiers, Private 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.

Two days later, when Jim, Selena and Hannah are found at the blockade and taken back to the Worsley House, West takes the trio of survivors in. After an Infected attack on the first night, the soldiers try to force themselves on Selena and West reveals his motives to Jim in the hopes that he will understand, but he is forced to have him taken out into the forest the next day to be shot alongside Sergeant Farrell, who tried to defend Hannah and Selena from the soldiers and help them escape.

When West's men are forcing Hannah and Selena into red dresses to appease them, the blockade siren is sounded. West and Private Davis go to the blockade to end the disturbance before it attracts any Infected in the area, but once they arrive there, they find no sign of Jim.

West and Davis split up to find Jim, and West later finds the jeep he and Davis arrived in sabotaged, and Davis dead inside. Several Infected arrive and attack the blockade, but West is able to kill them. He then makes his way back to the Worsley House on foot. At nightfall, West arrives back at a chaotic Worsley House with Mailer and the newly-infected Private Clifton on the prowl and fewer and fewer soldiers left alive. After comforting a dying Jones, West waits in Frank's taxi for Jim.

When Jim, Selena and Hannah come to the taxi, West blames Jim for the deaths of his men and shoots him in the abdomen. Hannah then reverses the taxi into the pursuing Mailer, who smashes through the rear-window and drags the screaming Major West out of the car and back into the house, where he brutally mauls and beats him to death.