“Remember we must die”
Director Danny Boyle has this way of returning to his most iconic material in ways that are wholly unexpected. 2017’s T2: Trainspotting rises to meet the middle-aged energy of its main characters, immediately doing a tonal 180 to indicate its intentions. Returning in 2025 to the universe he helped launch with 2002’s 28 Days Later (released the following year here in the States), one would expect Boyle to similarly zig when everyone’s expecting him to zag. And when aided by writer Alex Garland, another guy who loves to throw a change-up when you’re thinking fastball all the way, 28 Years Later was bound to disappoint, confound, and generally enrage a general public all too willing to allow movies to ruin their lives.
The film opens with a brief prologue set during the initial outbreak that serves two purposes: First and foremost, it sets up a character who will return in the film’s final moments, and second, to give Garland a chance to take a swipe at organized religion. A ten year old boy named Jimmy flees his house during the initial 2002 outbreak, running to the church where his clergyman father is actually welcoming the horde of rage-infected people. Once they infect the preacher, he leads them out of the church in search of their next victims, leaving poor Jimmy to fend for himself.
It is then established that the virus was contained to the UK mainland—retconning the final scene of the forgotten and forgettable 28 Weeks Later—and the rest of the world moved on, basically sharing responsibility for patrolling its shores to ensure the infected stay put. We jump ahead nearly three decades and the spirit of the British empire lives on in small pockets like the Holy Island, where a group of survivors have rebuilt an agrarian society connected to the mainland only by a miles long causeway that goes underwater when the tide comes in.
Here we meet the film’s main character Spike (Alfie Williams), a 12-year old boy literally leaving behind childish things—he second-guesses taking a Power Rangers action figure with him—as he is going to the mainland for his first hunt with his dad Jamie (Aaron Taylor-Johnson). This society teaches young men bow and arrow skills, harkening back to Britain’s grand old days, and once you come of age, your right of passage is to go to the mainland to kill some infected.
Leaving his sick mom Isla (Jodie Comer) at home, Spike and Jamie find the whole town coming together to see them off, and as they make their way down the long causeway, Boyle cuts in images of other great British conflicts. It’s a fascinating juxtaposition, addressing the lost history of the United Kingdom, all the noble causes that they fought for are now rendered meaningless. From the Norman Conquest on, Britain turned itself into an empirical force, subjiugating the rest of the globe, and now that’s all for naught. Now, those arrows that led them to conquer to the world are used for sport. This is a very British movie, by the way, which is why it’s unsurprising that American audiences didn’t connect with its themes.
For the record, it took me two viewings to really grasp all of this. My first viewing (to which I alluded in my review of Eddington) was less than ideal, but once I knew where the film was heading and what it was setting out to do, I could much better appreciate its rhythms and messaging. A big part of that which I tuned into right away was the pop culture, shocking, I know. Not only did culture die for the survivors in this universe in 2002, by extension, pop culture stopped as well.
Therefore, there’s generations being raised on a mishmash of (more than likely) VHS tapes of whatever the now adults like Comer and Taylor-Johnson were raised on, along with scraps of toys (like Spike’s Power Ranger) and things of that nature. This extends to music as well. I’m not about to retroactively give Boyle’s previous film, Yesterday, any additional credit, it continues along with a similar idea that we’re at the mercy of whatever the people who remember how to play those songs can play. Tom Jones’ “Delilah” seems to be a beer hall favorite, likely because these dudes played that song a thousand times, not because it’s the best piece of popular music to survive.
This stuff is all in the mix, it’s all in the ether, but it’s not the focus of the movie. It’s just the kind of stuff you can think about and let your mind riff on because it helps to flesh out this world. Boyle and Garland both know how to do this extraordinarily well, in particular because Boyle is a pop culture connoisseur.
What I find fascinating about 28 Years Later is that this is all table-setting, more or less, for the film’s actual story, which takes up the back half of the movie. Spike hears rumors of a mysterious Dr. Kelson (Ralph Fiennes) living on the mainland, and he hopes that this man—who hasn’t interacted with an uninfected person in three decades—can help cure what’s ailing his mother Isla. Fiennes is another perfect piece of casting because his Colonel Kurtz-like presence hangs over the film, with different stories circulating the village about him, and he is an actor that can play non-threatening just as well as he can the embodiment of evil itself.
Once the shock of Kelson’s introduction is over and we can get on to his involvement with the plot, he brings exactly what the movie needs at the exact moment he shows up. It’s all in keeping with the themes of the film, however, and Spike actually transitioning into adulthood. His father clearly wants him to be a big, strong, ruthless killing machine, but Spike just isn’t that kid. However, he does have something worth fighting for, something worth killing for if necessary, and watching him unlock that over the course of the film is terrific. Young Alfie Williams is quite excellent in this film, and proof that Boyle’s always been great with young actors.
It’s ultimately Spike’s film, and the fact he was basically hidden from the marketing might feel like a bait and switch, but you can’t market a movie like this around the journey of a twelve year old boy in the post-apocalyptic zombie wasteland. I’m kind of loath to talk about the plot details in the second half of the film, just because I want to convince you to watch the film and see for yourself what’s going on. There is one bit we can talk about because it’s not really a spoiler of any kind, and that is circling back to young Jimmy from the film’s opening.
The last three minutes of the movie have loomed so large since my first viewing. Though it seems to be a shameless tee-up for the next movie in the franchise, it’s actually the first major taste we get of Garland’s truly devious side. Most Americans live blissfully unaware of the existence of a man by the name of Jimmy Savile, but those who know of his horrible deeds are all too aware of him. However, it wasn’t until his death in 2011 that his true self was finally unmasked and it finally came to light that this great and generous benefactor, of children in particular, was actually a monster. In the 28 Days/Years universe, none of that stuff came to light, so a generation of now 30 year olds would still lionize him. Plus, as we talked about earlier, pop culture stopped in 2002, so all these kids had were Teletubbies, Power Rangers, and Jimmy Savile.
And Jack O’Connell, showing up—much as he did earlier this year in Sinners—with grimy teeth, a crooked smile, and bad intentions, is clearly going to make a meal of his character, Sir Jimmy Crystal. The keen eyed among you may even recognize Solo: A Star Wars Story bounty hunter Erin Kellyman among his band of Mighty Morphin’ Jimmy Savile Rangers. Whatever they’re getting up to in the sequel won’t be good and I can’t wait to see it.
Overall, 28 Years Later is the best kind of decades-later sequel because it deepens the mythology of the universe rather than doling out fan service. Yes, the film could’ve had Spike run into Cillian Murphy’s character Jim somewhere along the way, but that would’ve been some world class cheap heat. They’ll get to Jim eventually, but the more fully realized this world becomes, the better it will be when they add him back into the mix.
This is a film with huge ideas, riffing on major themes, and having a great time—this film looks incredible too, Anthony Dod Mantle’s work is top of the line and a wonderful contrast to the early 2000s digital aesthetic of 28 Days Later. The production design is great, all of the elements are cooking, and a special shout-out to the folks down at the prosthetic dong factory, you guys must’ve been working overtime to crank out the units these dudes are sporting! You’re doing the lord’s work over there.
Header image via IMDb