It’s been nearly three decades since the Rage Virus decimated the UK population, leaving a new breed of being — the infected — free to roam the country, preying on the few virus-free humans that remain. Now an isolated community in northern England thrives, as best they can, in a new era. In 28 Years Later, the third installment in the zombie film franchise, a stern father does his best to prepare his young son for the dangerous world that lies just across the causeway on the mainland, among the infected that lurk in the hills. The movie, directed by Danny Boyle and written by Alex Garland, stars Alfie Williams, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Jodie Comer, Ralph Fiennes, and Jack O’Connell.
We’ll delve into the ending below. For everything else — what it’s about, who’s in the cast, and where it was filmed — check out this guide.
After a celebration of young Spike’s first kill — an infected on the mainland, away from their home on Holy Island — Spike walks in on his father, Jamie (Taylor-Johnson), having an affair. The next day, Spike, talking to Jamie’s friend Sam (Christopher Fulford), finds out that there’s a doctor who lives on the mainland. Sam, desperate to help his ailing mother, Isla (Comer), flees the island in order to find Dr. Kelson (Fiennes), even though Sam warned him that the doctor isn’t quite in his right mind. But neither is Isla, who’s been sick for some time (with what, we don’t yet know) and is barely coherent and always in pain. After deceiving the islanders and sneaking away with Isla, Spike manages to travel across the causeway, which regularly floods at high tide, and escapes onto the mainland.
Spike, armed with a bow and arrow, kills an infected that creeps up on him and Isla, but the commotion sends a hoard running toward them. When they take shelter in a gas station, they find reprieve, but only for a few moments — the building is overflowing with noxious gas. Soon, the infected break in. That’s where a stray Swede soldier, Erik (Edvin Ryding), finds them. From the roof, he opens a hatch and shoots at the infected. The whole place bursts into flames, but luckily Isla and Spike make it out alive. The mom and son learn their new hero, Erik, was left stranded after his Navy comrades were killed by the infected, though Isla is struggling to make sense of what’s going on or even to stay conscious. Whatever’s making her sick is keeping her lost in thought. When the trio later come across an infected who’s about to give birth, Isla immediately jumps in to help. Once the baby’s born, Erik says it must be killed because it’s likely infected. Just then, an Alpha (a massive infected with superhuman strength) comes in and decapitates Erik. That’s when Dr. Kelson appears. He seems to be able to calm the infected, and it turns out, he has a mutually respectful relationship with them.
Dr. Kelson takes Spike, Isla, and the baby back to his place (the Bone Temple — upon which he stacks the skulls of the dead into a tall monument), where he is able to properly assess Isla’s condition. He diagnoses her with terminal cancer. It’s unspoken, but both Dr. Kelson and Isla know — it’s Isla’s time. Kelson takes her out of Spike’s view and euthanizes her with morphine. He then processes her body and comes back with a clean skull — another to put atop the Bone Temple in honor of the dead. Kelson gives it to Spike to place onto the monument. Just then, Samson tries to attack them — it’s his baby Spike and Isla had taken, and his partner they killed — but Spike fends Samson off with a morphine-filled blow dart.
After Kelson suggests Spike should head back to Holy Island with the baby, Spike does just that … but doesn’t stay. Spike stays just long enough to drop off the baby and leave a note for his father. In the note, Spike introduces the baby (a girl named Isla, after his mother) and says he’s leaving once again for the mainland and will return when the time is right. Nearly a month later (28 days, to be exact), Spike is nearly consumed by a pack of infected when an odd-looking stranger, Sir Jimmy Crystal, and his band of Jimmies show up. The Jimmies, wearing matching tracksuits and blond wigs — overtake the infected, and welcome Spike into their cult — er, club.
Jimmy (O’Connell) is the man who leads the band of tracksuit-wearing blonds that Spike comes across at the end of the film. Jimmy is also the child we see at the beginning of the movie, who watches his entire family get killed by zombies. In the opening scene, the children are watching The Teletubbies, a popular children’s show that came out in the 1990s. Presumably this is the last thing Jimmy ever watched, which may have inspired his gang’s rainbow-colored outfits — but also signifies that he’s nostalgic for his TV-viewing days before the virus. This may explain (although it’s not made clear) why he dresses like the late Jimmy Savile, a disgraced British TV personality. The crew also wears chunky gold necklaces with upside-down crosses, which is notable given that at the beginning of the movie, Sir Jimmy watched his father welcome the infected into his church as if it were the second coming.
Yes. The follow-up, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, is set to release in 2026.
The Alphas are aggressive infected who have somehow mutated over time. Spike was told by his family friend Sam that, on certain creatures, the infection works like steroids, causing them to grow massive. The infected have mutated in various ways over time, or so it seems — they’re able to procreate, and the film shows the pregnant wife of an infected who Dr. Kelson has affectionately named Samson (played by Chi Lewis-Parry).
