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| Portrayed by: | Stuart McQuarrie |
| Appearance(s): | 28 Days Later (film) |
| Profession: | British Army sergeant |
| Nationality: | British (Scottish) |
| Category: | Uninfected |
| Status: | Deceased |
| Cause of death: | Shot by Jones |
Sergeant Farrell was Major Henry West's second-in-command. He was executed for attempting to help Jim, Hannah and Selena escape.
Biography[]
During the Original Outbreak of the Rage Virus, Farrell was among the soldiers sent to cover the Forty-Second Blockade protecting Manchester, defending it against repeated Infected attacks. However, the Infected eventually overran the blockade and entered the city, killing all the soldiers at the blockade except for nine, including Farrell.
Farrell and the other surviving men, led by Major Henry West, fled to the Worsley House in the forest, which they fortified against attack with mines, tripwires, barbed wire and barricades. On Day 23 of the outbreak, West made a promise to his men that any female survivors they found would be forced into sexual slavery.
28 Days Later (film)[]
Thirty-one days into the outbreak, several of the soldiers - including Farrell - found Jim, Selena and Hannah at the blockade. Farrell drove them back to the Worsley House, where they were taken in by Major West and his men. The following night, Farrell was present at dinner among the soldiers and survivors. When they soldiers began arguing about the state of normality, Farrell expressed an opinion that the extinction of humanity by the Rage Virus would in fact be a return to normality for the planet. This amused the other men, including West, who asked, "Tell me, Farrell, exactly why did you join the Army in the first place?" Farrell knew he was being mocked, however, and refused to answer.
Farrell in the body dump site, about to be executed.
When the Worsley House then came under attack by the Infected, Farrell jumped up, called "Stand to! Stand to!" and led the men in rushing outside to defend the house while West stayed at the table, eating his dinner. Farrell coordinated the men's fire, and made sure each man reported "clear", indicating they could see no more infected, before allowing them to stand down and head back inside.
Afterwards, when Mitchell tried to force himself on Selena, Farrell shouted for Mitchell to stop. When Mitchell ignored him, Farrell slammed the stock of his L85 IW into Mitchell's back, knocking the air out of him. West arrived and intervened then, sending Mitchell to resecure the outside perimeter of the house, and Farrell to clear the bodies off the lawn.
When Major West told Jim of his plan to force women who came to the house into sexual slavery, Jim panicked and loudly attempted to take Selena and Hannah and escape. Mitchell knocked him out, but when Jim came to, Farrell was standing over him, aiming his rifle at the other men and threatening to shoot. Farrell hesitated, however, and the other men disarmed and subdued him.
Afterwards, he was imprisoned in the mansion cellar with Jim to be executed the next morning. Farrell, half talking to Jim and half to himself, recounting his favourite joke in The Simpsons, how Major West had "gone insane", and that the rest of the world was alive and functioning with Britain, the "diseased little island", safely quarantined.
Mitchell and Jones took Jim and Farrell to the body dump in the woods to be executed. Mitchell hated Farrell and looked forward to killing Farrell slowly with his rifle's fixed bayonet, but Farrell got Jones to shoot him dead before Mitchell had the chance.
The rest of the surviving men from the blockade joined Farrell in death, or were infected, later that night.
Personality[]
Sergeant Farrell largely kept to himself, and had a philosophical, "big picture" outlook on events since the infection. His intellect both amused and annoyed the other men, and even Major West mocked Farrell for his views. Farrell was a well-disciplined and stern non-commissioned officer, and it was Farrell, not West, who took command and led a swift and professional defence of Worsley House when it was attacked by the infected the night that the Manchester Three arrived. In combat, Farrell was a model soldier, making decisions quickly, keeping calm, and killing as it was required.
Unlike the other men under West's command, Farrell despised Corporal Mitchell and Major West, hating the former's childish bravado and the latter's amoral behavior. He was the only man in the unit willing to oppose West's plan to force civilian women into sexual servitude. Farrell also figured out that the rest of the world had survived and that Britain had merely been quarantined, leaving him the only one aware that West had simply gone mad and that his brutal plan to "start again" was completely unnecessary. Farrell was afraid as Corporal Mitchell and Private Jones led Farrell and Jim to be executed, but he found the nerve to taunt Mitchell and even spat in his face before being shot and killed by Jones.
Trivia[]
- Farrell stated that The Simpsons was his favourite TV programme, saying that his favourite joke from the series was one in which the character Smithers claimed that women and semen don't mix, to which Mr. Burns replied that everyone knew what Smithers thinks.
- Farrell was the oldest soldier still alive and uninfected in the remnants of the brigade Major Henry West commanded. His actor Stuart McQuarrie was born in 1963, meaning he was 39 by the time of the release of 28 Days Later (2002). Christopher Eccleston, who was born in 1964, turned 38 that year.
- Farrell is the only sergeant in the brigade posted at the Forty-Second Blockade who survived until 28 days after the outbreak of the Rage virus, and one of just two non-commissioned officers who survived there, the other being Corporal Mitchell.
- Farrell was definitely not well-liked by the other surviving men, as none of them seemed at all bothered by his death. With him gone, however, the unit quickly fell apart. Major West let himself be lured to the blockade and ambushed, and Corporal Mitchell focused his efforts on a last-ditch attempt to have sex rather than actually lead the other men and defend the house. It speaks of Farrell's effectiveness as a leader that West and Mitchell, the other two men with rank at Worsley House, needed less than 24 hours to get everyone else in the unit killed or infected (themselves included) after Farrell was murdered.