28 Years Later, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Alfie Williams, Christopher Fulford, Danny Boyle, Edvin Ryding, horror, Jack O'Connell, Jodie Comer, movies, Ralph Fiennes, reviews, Rocco Haynes
June 18, 2025
by Carla Hay
Directed by Danny Boyle
Culture Representation: Taking place in the United Kingdom’s Scottish Highlands, the horror film “28 Years Later” (the third movie in the series that began with “28 Days Later”) features a predominantly white cast of characters (with a few black people and Asian people) that are human survivors of an apocalypse and infected zombies.
Culture Clash: A father, mother and their adolescent son struggle to stay alive during a zombie apocalypse.
As a zombie horror movie, “28 Years Later” should rank among the best. It’s got plenty of harrowing and brutal action but has its most powerful impact in telling the story about the family at the center of the film. Most zombie movies just want to scare viewers, but “28 Years Later” also wants to make viewers cry.
“28 Years Later” is the third movie in the series that began with 2002’s “28 Days Later,” directed by Danny Boyle and Alex Garland. The second movie in the series—2007’s “28 Weeks Later,” directed and co-written by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo—isn’t as good as “28 Days Later” and “28 Years Later.” Boyle directed and Garland wrote “28 Years Later,” which arguably can be considered on par with the classic “28 Days Later.”
All three movies take place during the same zombie apocalypse in the United Kingdom (where the movies were filmed on location), but all three movies have different protagonists, which is why it’s not necessary to see “28 Days Later” and “28 Weeks Later” to understand what’s going on in “28 Years Later.” The origins of the virus outbreak that caused the zombie apocalypse are shown in “28 Days Later,” but that’s the only backstory that’s relevant to “28 Years Later.” The zombies in these movies become zombies within a minute of being infected, they move quickly, they eat human flesh, and they can be killed only through their heads and hearts. People can get infected if zombie bodily fluids get inside ther bodies or if they are bitten by a zombie.
Just like the title suggests, “28 Years Later” takes place 28 years after the events of “28 Days Later.” But the opening scene of “28 Years Later” is a flashback to the beginning of the zombie apocalypse when a pre-teen boy named Jimmy (played by Rocco Haynes) sees his family get killed by zombies. There’s a massacre in a church that might remind people of a scene in “28 Days Later,” when main character Jim (played by Cillian Murphy)—who isn’t in “28 Years Later” and who’s not the same person as Jimmy—enters a church and finds numerous dead bodies and a zombie priest.
As already widely reported, in “28 Years Later,” orphaned Jimmy has now grown up to be Sir Jimmy Crystal (played by Jack O’Connell), who leads a cult of members who are also named Jimmy. Sir Jimmy Crystal makes only a very brief appearance in “28 Years Later,” but he is the main character in “28 Years Later: The Bone Temple,” due out in 2026. When Sir Jimmy Crystal first appears in “28 Years Later,” you immediately want to see more of him because he’s destined to be one of the most talked-about characters in this movie franchise.
The protagonists of “28 Years Later” (which takes place in the Scottish Highlands) are a family living on Holy Island, a quarantined section on the northeast coast of England. Ruggedly handsome Jamie (played by Aaron Taylor Johnson) is a rough-and-tumble type, who is eager to teach his 12-year-old son Spike (played by Alfie Williams) how to hunt and kill zombies, who are called “the infected” in the movie. Spike’s mother/Jamie’s wife Isla (played by Jodie Comer), who is mostly bedridden with an undiagnosed illness, thinks Spike is too young for this zombie-hunting training and objects to it. Sam (played by Christopher Fulford), an elderly man who lives nearby, is a regular visitor to the household and is almost like a father figure to Isla.
In spite of Isla’s objections, Jamie takes Spike on Spike’s first hunting excursion, where they use bows and arrows. Guns and bladed weapons are also used as ways to kill zombies. Most of the zombies reside on the mainland, which can be accessed by walking on a causeway or by using a water vessel such as a boat. The main rule of Holy Island community is if you voluntarily leave Holy Island, no one from Holy Island will go looking for you. If you decide to come back to Holy Island, you have to find a way to do it without help from Holy Island residents.
By this stage of the apocalypse, technology communication (such as phone service and Internet service) hasn’t existed for several years. Spike was born not knowing what it’s like to have this type of technology. There’s a scene later in the move when Spike meets a Swedish soldier named Erik Sundqvist (played by Edvin Ryding), who shows him what a smartphone looks like, and Spike is fascinated. The movie also has satirical commentary about 21st century plastic surgery, which is also unfamiliar to Spike.
Spike greatly admires his father and wants Jamie to be proud of him. But over time, Spike sees some of Jamie’s flaws, which affect their relationship. There are no medical doctors on Holy Island. However, Sam and Jamie know about someone named Dr. Kelson (played by Ralph Fiennes), who lives on the mainland. Jamie tells Spike that Dr. Kelson is a mentally ill and treacherous quack who should be avoided at all costs.
The zombie attack scenes are extremely effective in immersing viewers in terrifying suspense. Just like in “28 Days Later,” there are freeze-frame techniques used in “28 Years Later” that give split-second snapshots of this horror. The landscape of “28 Years Later” (captured with Anthony Dod Mantle’s stunning cinematography) is very lush and green in this rural area, which is a contrast to the toxic gray-shaded urban decay of “28 Days Later” and “28 Weeks Later.” And the makeup and other visual effects in “28 Years Later” are superb in creating very realistic-looking zombies.
Beyond the technical aspects of “28 Years Later,” the movie has some of the best acting performances you can see in a zombie horror movie, thanks to a very talented cast. Williams and Comer stand out in how they portray the close and heartbreaking bond between Spike and Isla. Fiennes and Taylor-Johnson also do well in their roles as two people who have very different views of survival during this zombie apocalypse. Some of the story narrative is a little disjointed, but the movie gets better in the latter half of the story.
Most of all, “28 Years Later” has significant observations that with or without an apocalypse, some things remain constant about existing as human beings: The preciousness and fragilty of life; the need that most people have for loyal companionship; and resistance or acceptance of the inevitability of death. “28 Years Later” is the type of horror movie that ultimately shows that as fearsome as rampaging zombies can be, what’s even more dangerous is when people stop caring about each other.
Columbia Pictures will release “28 Years Later” in U.S. cinemas on June 20, 2025.