Danny Boyle has shared a huge revelation about the final scene of 28 Years Later.
The new film is a sequel to 2002 post-apocalyptic horror28 Days Later, which ignores 2007’s 28 Weeks Later.
It stars Alfie Wlliams as Spike, a 12-year-old kept safe from the virus while living on a small island connected to the mainland by a heavily defended causeway.
The follow-up, which also features Jodie Comer and Ralph Fiennes, starts on the day Spike is taken on a mission to the mainland for the very first time with his dad, played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson.
28 Years Later is the first of a planned trilogy, with the second part, subtitled The Bone Temple, already completed and due to be released in January 2026.
The Bone Temple is teed up in 28 Years Later’s cliffhanger ending, which Boyle has revealed circles back to the film’s opening scene.
*Spoilers follow – you have been warned*
In the final scene, Spike, who has decided to roam the mainland by himself, comes across a cult led by the eerie Jimmy Crystal (Jack O’Connell).
In a bizarre twist that’s been branded “wild” by viewers, it’s revealed that the group, who are kung fu experts, take their fashion inspiration from disgraced presenter Jimmy Saville, wearing shell suits and blonde wigs.
In a new interview with The Independent, Boyle disclosed an intriguing detail about O’Connell’s character, revealing the final scene is not the first time he is shown in the film.
Jimmy is the young child whose family get killed by the infected in the opening scene.
“The role of Jack O’Connell’s character and his family, which is a replacement, really, for the family he loses at the beginning of the film, is to reintroduce evil into what has become a compassionate environment,” he said.
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“I asked Alex [Garland, writer] right at the beginning to just tell me what’s the nature of each of the films, and he said that the nature of the first film is about family. The second film is about the nature of evil. And you’re about to meet a lot more of them when it’ll be more appropriate to talk about them in the second film.”
Jimmy will be a main character in the sequel, which is also set to reintroduce Cillian Murphy’s Jim, the protagonist from the first film.
Find The Independent’s verdict on 28 Years Later here, and read the full interview with Boyle on Saturday (20 June).
