28 Years Later
28 Years Later is a 2025 post-apocalyptic coming-of-age horror film produced and directed by Danny Boyle and written by Alex Garland. The third film in the 28 Days Later film series, it stars Jodie Comer, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Jack O'Connell, Alfie Williams, and Ralph Fiennes. The film tells the story of a boy living in a post-apocalyptic world who undertakes a hazardous journey with his ill mother in an effort to obtain medical treatment for her.
28 Years Later marks the returns of Boyle, Garland and cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle to the film series. Cillian Murphy, who starred in the first film, served as executive producer. The film was shot back-to-back with its sequel, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, which was directed by Nia DaCosta and released in January 2026.
28 Years Later was released in the United Kingdom and the United States by Sony Pictures Releasing through its Columbia Pictures label on 20 June 2025. The film received generally positive reviews from critics and grossed $151 million worldwide against a budget of $60 million.
Plot
In 2002, during the initial outbreak of the Rage Virus, a young boy, Jimmy Crystal, flees his house in the Scottish Highlands as his family is attacked by the Infected. He takes refuge in the local church with his father, a minister, but finds him praying in ecstasy, interpreting the virus as a harbinger of the end times. Jimmy's father bequeaths him a cross necklace and helps him to safety before submitting to the Infected as they break in.In 2030, the Rage Virus has been successfully driven away from continental Europe, leaving the British Isles under indefinite quarantine with few survivors. A civilised community has subsisted on Lindisfarne, an island defended naturally from Great Britain by a causeway that floods with the tide. Among them are Jamie, a scavenger, his wife, Isla, who has a mentally debilitating illness, and their 12-year-old son, Spike.
Jamie and Spike cross to mainland Britain for a coming-of-age hunting ritual. They find an Infected, tied up and branded with the name, "Jimmy". They then escape a pack of Infected, led by an "Alpha," an evolved Infected; stronger, and more intelligent, than the others. Jamie and Spike shelter overnight in the attic of a run-down cottage, where Spike observes foreign boats on quarantine patrol, and a fire further inland. When the attic collapses, the Alpha pursues Jamie and Spike across the partially inundated causeway, until the village sentries kill it with a ballista.
The village throws a party for Spike to celebrate his first kill. Spike is upset by Jamie's embellishment of his deeds, and discovers his affair with Rosey, the village schoolteacher. He discusses the fire with a family friend, Sam, who suggests that it was made by Dr Ian Kelson, a former GP in exile. The next morning, Spike confronts Jamie over his unwillingness to seek medical care for Isla and his infidelity. Jamie insists that Kelson, whom he once witnessed burning corpses en masse, is too mentally unstable to help.
Unconvinced, Spike and Isla escape the island and journey to mainland Britain, where they are rescued from a pack of Infected by Swedish Navy seaman Erik Sundqvist, the sole survivor of a stranded NATO quarantine patrol boat. Isla discovers a pregnant Infected and helps it deliver an uninfected baby girl. A paranoid Erik shoots the Infected mother, and threatens to kill Isla and Spike, alongside the newborn if they do not let him kill her, but an Alpha appears and decapitates Erik.
Spike, Isla, and the newborn flee from the Alpha, and Spike shoots him with arrows, to no avail. Just as the Alpha catches up with Spike, Dr Kelson appears and temporarily sedates the Alpha with a blowgun and a morphine-xylazine dart. Kelson leads Spike and Isla to the Bone Temple, an ossuary he has constructed out of cleaned bones belonging to both fallen survivors and the Infected. He explains the funerary concept of memento mori and incorporates Erik's skull into the Temple. Kelson examines Isla and deduces that she has advanced terminal cancer. Kelson consoles Spike with the phrase, memento amoris – "remember, you must love." Isla and Spike share their last moments together, as Isla accepts her fate and arranges for Kelson to euthanise her, after which he gives her skull to Spike to place at the top of the Temple.
When Samson infiltrates Kelson's sanctuary, Spike subdues him with a medicated dart and saves Kelson's life. Kelson encourages Spike to take the infant home. Instead, Spike leaves her at the village gate and returns to the mainland, still disillusioned. Jamie reads a note from Spike that reveals he has named the infant after Isla, and promises he will return when he is ready. Jamie tries to follow Spike to the mainland, but is blocked by the rising tide.
28 days later, Spike is rescued from a pack of Infected by a group styled after Jimmy Savile. Their leader, the adult Jimmy Crystal, bears an inverted cross.
Cast
- Jodie Comer as Isla, Jamie's wife who is battling a mysterious illness
- Aaron Taylor-Johnson as Jamie, a scavenger and Isla's husband
- Jack O'Connell as Sir Lord Jimmy Crystal, the leader of the Jimmy Savile–inspired "Jimmy" cult and a survivor of the original outbreak
- * Rocco Haynes as Young Jimmy Crystal
- Alfie Williams as Spike, Jamie and Isla's 12-year-old son
- Chi Lewis-Parry as "Samson", a physically imposing alpha leader of the infected
- Edvin Ryding as Erik Sundqvist, a Swedish soldier
- Christopher Fulford as Sam, a friend of Jamie's and a resident on the island
- Stella Gonet as Jenny, a member of the island's leadership council
- Ralph Fiennes as Dr Ian Kelson, a former doctor and survivor of the outbreak
Themes
Boyle and Garland have said that 28 Years Later explores themes of British isolationism and cultural decline, with the film's quarantined Britain reflecting a broader sense of political and cultural detachment following Brexit and the COVID-19 pandemic.The island community in the film represents a post-progressive return to regressivism, where society shifts away from forward-looking ideals and instead toward nostalgic myths rooted in a misremembered past. A montage blending authentic British wartime footage with scenes from the film Henry V, set to Taylor Holmes 1915 recording of the 1903 poem "Boots" by Rudyard Kipling, reflects the filmmakers' intention to depict how the isolated community reconstructs a cultural mythology from fragmented and partially remembered aspects of Britain's past. The sequence illustrates how narratives such as the Battle of Agincourt or the Blitz become distorted through transmission, evolving into instinctive half-truths rather than historically accurate accounts.
The characters' increasing risk-taking over time since the initial rage virus outbreak mirrors society's gradual relaxation of COVID-19 precautions despite ongoing risks.
Production
Development
In June 2007, Fox Atomic confirmed development on a third 28 Days Later film, dependent upon the financial performance of 28 Weeks Later following its home video release. In July of the same year, Danny Boyle said that the story for a third instalment had been mapped out. By October 2010, Alex Garland stated that due to differences involving the film rights, the project had been delayed. In January 2011, Boyle stated that he believed the project would be realised, confirming further developments for the story. By April 2013, however, the filmmaker expressed uncertainty as to whether the movie would be made. In January 2015, Garland addressed the project's status, confirming that while it had fallen into development hell there were serious discussions going on behind the scenes to produce the project. Reiterating that development was progressing, he stated that the script he was working on was tentatively titled 28 Months Later. In June 2019, Boyle confirmed that he and Garland had been working on the third instalment. In March 2020, Imogen Poots expressed interest in reprising her role from 28 Weeks Later, followed by Cillian Murphy in May 2021.In November 2022, Boyle, Garland and Murphy all indicated their interest in making a sequel to 28 Days Later. In June 2023, Boyle and Garland expressed in collaboration their intentions to "seriously" and "diligently" see the project enter production; while announcing that the script was now titled 28 Years Later, acknowledging the years it had taken to be developed. Boyle stated that he would like to serve as director, unless Garland chooses to. By July of the same year, Murphy stated that he had recently discussed the possibility of a third film with Boyle; once again expressing interest in reprising his role if Boyle and Garland return to the franchise in their creative roles. Garland originally wrote a spec script for a 28 Months Later, in which the rage virus had been weaponised by a military force, prompting a team of Chinese special forces to search for the original laboratory where the virus was developed in order to create a vaccine, with the whole film to be presented in subtitled Mandarin Chinese. However Boyle disapproved of the script, as he felt the idea of weaponising the virus was an overused horror film trope, drawing comparison to the Alien film series.
In January 2024, it was announced that a third film titled 28 Years Later was officially in development; with plans for the project to be the first of a new trilogy of sequels. Danny Boyle directed the first instalment, with a script written by Alex Garland; while the latter will also write the scripts for each of the planned sequels. Boyle, Garland, Andrew Macdonald, and Peter Rice will serve as producers. In February of the same year, Murphy discussed his potential involvement with the project; that same month, it was reported that the rights to the first film had reverted to Macdonald from Searchlight Pictures. He promptly sold the first film's distribution rights to Sony Pictures, as well as rights to future sequels. In March 2024, Garland confirmed that he is writing a trilogy of sequel films. The following month, Garland said the 1969 film Kes was a major influence. Murphy was revealed as an executive producer later that month. The film was produced by Columbia Pictures, and DNA Films, with funding support from TSG Entertainment.