What would you do if Ralph Fiennes handed you a skull? (CREDIT: Miya Mizuno/Columbia Pictures)
Starring: Alfie Williams, Jodie Comer, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Ralph Fiennes, Edvin Ryding, Jack O’Connell
Director: Danny Boyle
Running Time: 115 Minutes
Rating: R for Zombie Violence and Graphic Zombie Nudity
Release Date: June 20, 2025 (Theaters)
What’s It About?: In 2002, a little movie called 28 Days Later was released, introducing us to the Rage virus, which turned those infected into high-speed zombie-like creatures. Now it’s 23 years later, but a little bit more time has passed in this fictional world. And so, 2025 delivers to moviegoers 28 Years Later, in which the virus has been beaten back on continental Europe, while the United Kingdom remains under quarantine and left to fend for itself. This is the only world that 12-year-old Spike (Alfie Williams) has ever known, as he lives on a Rage-free island village along with his dad Jamie (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and chronically ill mom Isla (Jodie Comer). Intrepid souls occasionally travel to the mainland across a causeway for supplies while fending off the infected that freely roam about. With Spike now old enough to make the trip, he determines that he must track down a legendary doctor (Ralph Fiennes) to get his mom a diagnosis. Meanwhile, a few of the Rage zombies have leveled up with some of their own unique abilities.
What Made an Impression?: Out of Time: I only saw 28 Days Later for the first time a couple of years ago, but I already knew long before then that the cinematic landscape had been inimitably altered by its influence. Pretty much every zombie flick, post-apocalypse film, and general actioner owes it a massive debt. You could even argue that it’s influenced 21st century culture at large more than any other movie besides The Matrix. But while it’s timeless in that regard, it also feels very much of its moment. There’s no way that 28 Years could recreate that phenomenon, nor does it try to. But it does recreate its milieu on screen, and that’s a whose choice, considering how this is a world that has been essentially stuck in time for a full generation. I’m not saying that director Danny Boyle and screenwriter Alex Garland have been grappling with the Rage-iverse every day for the past couple of decades, but it is clear that some significant parts of their souls never left. If this franchise means anything to you, you’ll surely feel the same way
Life is Combat: Several of the early scenes are interspersed with clips of what appear to be old British wartime propaganda videos, as well as movie scenes depicting war throughout the centuries. Life in the village is basically like ancient Sparta with a hint of The Wicker Man, where the threat is ravenous flesh-eaters instead of rival city-states. The vintage footage feels satirical, but also like a Zen acceptance of reality.
Memento Mori et Amori: Perhaps the most striking image of 28 Years Later is the one on its poster: a tower of skulls, consisting of the remains of both the infected and the uninfected. In the midst of inescapable violence, Boyle and Garland advise us once again to look to the ancients, specifically the concept of “memento mori,” Latin for “remember to die.” But add just one letter to that and it becomes “memento amori”: remember to love. In the midst of whatever catastrophe we’re living through, we must also embrace each other.
Surprise!: As I conclude this review, I look back to my state of mind as I anticipated this sequel’s arrival. Would it expand the lore, or would we perhaps get closer to a cure for the Rage virus? But of all the possibilities I considered, none of them were anywhere close to what we ended up with. That’s not to say that the setting or the characters are vastly different from 28 Years‘ predecessors, just that its winding plot path is thrillingly unpredictable and that I was happy to embrace the uncertainty.
28 Years Later is Recommended If You Like: A new chapter that raises more questions than it answers
Grade: 4 out of 5 Teletubbies
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