Warning: Full spoilers follow for 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple.
The fourth film in the 28 Days Later franchise, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple serves as a direct sequel to last year’s 28 Years Later (whew, that’s a lot of times saying “28” and “Later” already!), picking up right on the heels of that film. Directed by Nia DaCosta and written by series creator Alex Garland, the terrific film builds to a memorable finale, as Ralph Fiennes’ Dr. Ian Kelson and Jack O'Connell’s Jimmy Crystal come face to face. Both men have reacted to life in this post-apocalyptic Britain – decimated by a zombie-like rage virus – in very extreme ways, but where Ian has done what he can to honor the dead with his intimidating yet meaningful Bone Temple, Jimmy has embraced violence and madness. He has declared that he is the son of the Devil himself (or “Old Nick” as he calls him), torturing and killing other survivors he encounters alongside the select few he recruits as his followers, who are all forced to take on the name Jimmy as well.
Ian plays along with Jimmy’s threat to actually pretend to be the Devil to his group of Jimmys, lest he be killed, in an absolutely fantastic manner, with one hell of a performance set to Iron Maiden’s “The Number of the Beast.” But when Ian sees Spike (Alfie Williams) – the boy he befriended in the previous movie – has been forced to join Jimmy, he attempts to help him, leading to a deadly series of events in quick succession. Ian is fatally stabbed by Jimmy before Jimmy is turned on by both Spike and “Jimmy Ink,” a follower actually named Kelly (Erin Kellyman), who had grown increasingly dubious about his leader’s claims.
As Ian succumbs to his injuries, Kelly and Spike enact their revenge on Jimmy, with Spike stabbing him, and the two of them leaving the would-be son of the Devil crucified to the Bone Temple and hanging upside down. The last we see of Jimmy is his POV as one of the rage-infected lunges at him. Although anything is possible, for now it’s safe to consider that Jimmy is dead given he had no more allies and no way to protect himself…though I suppose it’s always possible he was simply infected himself.
Regardless, there is still plenty left up in the air for the next film in the franchise, which is now in the works. That starts with The Bone Temple’s coda, in which we see Spike and Kelly from afar as they try to avoid being grabbed by the infected while a father and daughter are watching and getting ready to step in to help them.
So let’s get to our big questions for the next 28 Years Later film, kicking off with the big ones centering around that dad in the final scene. He’s not a brand new character; that’s Jim, with Cillian Murphy reprising his breakout role as the lead in the original 28 Days Later! As Danny Boyle (director of the first and third films in the franchise, and a producer on them all) confirmed himself many months ago, Murphy’s cameo in The Bone Temple is setting up Jim’s return in a big way in the next installment. And yeah, “Jim” is one of the series’ heroes, and “Jimmy” is one of its villains, which is a bit funny…but such is life!
Was Jim Never Rescued?
The final scene of The Bone Temple features the return of Cillian Murphy as Jim for the first time since 2002’s original 28 Days Later. In the scene, Jim and his newly introduced daughter, Sam (Maiya Eastmond), are seen in a home that is quickly confirmed to be within the quarantined Britain, meaning they still need to live a guarded life in the midst of the infected. But this begs the question of what exactly happened after 28 Days Later’s closing moments, in which Jim and his friends unfurl a giant banner reading “HELLO” as a plane flies overhead, hopeful that whoever is in the plane sees them and that their rescue is imminent. Though these characters didn’t return in the first sequel, 2007’s 28 Weeks Later, that film’s opening – in which we see a widespread rescue and rebuilding attempt was made in the wake of the first attack of the infected – made it easy to assume Jim’s group would indeed have been brought to (temporary) safety.
So what’s the deal? Did whoever was in the plane not actually see that banner and fly on by? Did they see it and just not care to help? Or were Jim and the others in fact rescued, only to then get trapped once more when the infection broke out again in 28 Weeks Later? Also, it’s been so long that you have to wonder if Jim ever joined up with a larger group again, or just stuck to those he was already close to. After all, the final line of dialogue in The Bone Temple, after Jim’s daughter asks him if they should help Spike and Kelly, is him replying: “Of course we do.” This would indicate he’s stepped in to assist others throughout these 28 years, but the most pressing questions regarding Jim’s companionship centers on those we last saw with him..
Where Are Selena and Hannah?
The only person we see living with Jim in The Bone Temple is his daughter, so where is this girl’s mom, and how grim is the answer? Though we’re not explicitly told as much, that mom could be Selena from 28 Days Later, who was played by Naomie Harris in her breakout role (seriously, Danny Boyle had some spot-on casting with those two leads). So why isn’t she with them? And what about Hannah (Megan Burns), the then-teenage girl Jim and Selena bonded with and protected after the death of her father, Frank (Brendan Gleeson)? She was last seen living with Jim and Selena at the end of 28 Days Later, helping them unfurl that banner.
Given the unrelentingly dangerous world these characters exist in, it’s certainly easy to presume both Selena and Hannah died tragically in the decades since. But we get such a quick look at Jim’s current life, there’s plenty of room for other circumstances. Hell, it could be as simple as both women being out hunting or finding supplies when the final scene of The Bone Temple takes place. Or maybe Selena was doing that sort of activity, but Hannah did die at some point, or maybe it’s vice versa. Or maybe Hannah separated from Jim and Selena at some point, for whatever reason, and is out there somewhere with a different group. There are many possibilities, but it’s a pretty pressing question for the next film to hopefully answer promptly.
What Does the Future Hold for Samson?
A pivotal part of The Bone Temple involves the dynamic between Ian and the infected “Alpha” that he has named Samson, played by Chi Lewis-Parry. Ian begins to believe that the rage virus may not have truly replaced the personality of the afflicted, but rather masked it. Slowly but surely, he is proven right, as he uses morphine to continually calm Samson, who eventually begins to speak again. With his supply of morphine running low, Ian is then able to use his remaining resources to give Samson pills to treat psychosis, which begins to truly bring back his memories of the person he was before he was infected. Samson is last seen mournfully carrying the body of Ian after he finds him in the wake of what happened with Jimmy.
But with his friend Ian dead, what’s next for Samson? Is there any way he could possibly help other infected return to their true selves as well? That seems dubious, given that he doesn’t have the medical know-how Ian did, but it remains to be seen just how far his own intelligence goes. Did Ian have more of those pills, and would Samson even be able to identify them, since he was pretty out of it when he took them? And if he can’t help the other infected, what is the place for him in this world? We already saw him get attacked by the infected once when his behavior began to change – though he certainly reinforced just how formidable he was in the process by how he decimated them – but could he get any of the uninfected survivors to take him in now?
Though they never interact in The Bone Temple, Spike does know Samson from the previous film, albeit usually in the context of running for his life from him, so that would be a reunion certainly worth exploring.
What Happened to That Pregnant Lady?
The Bone Temple’s most unsettling and disturbing sequence involves Jimmy and his crew taking a small group of other survivors prisoner, then torturing them in an absolutely horrific manner; they are skinned alive. One member of this group, a pregnant woman named Cathy (Mirren Mack), manages to escape before the torture begins, hiding above in the barn where this is taking place and silently watching what happens to her friends in anguish. When Jimmy forces the only prisoner they haven’t skinned to fight one of his followers to the death, Cathy makes her presence known by sending a large hook hurtling down, killing the follower referred to as Jimmima (Emma Laird).
In the chaos that follows, Cathy makes a run for it, succeeding in getting away when Spike can’t bring himself to shoot her with an arrow and instead begs her to take him with her, though he sadly gets sucker-punched by her for his troubles and left behind. But what happened to her next? She was completely alone with no home or allies, making her prospects quite menacing in this scenario. But we never see her again, and given how much screen time she gets, it feels like she should make her return down the line.
What’s Jamie Been Up To?
After playing a significant role in 28 Years Later, Spike’s dad, Jamie (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), is absent from The Bone Temple. Last time we saw him, he’d discovered Spike had left a baby at the gate of their village, along with a note saying he would return one day. And yes, it’s true Jamie tried to run after Spike, only to be halted by the rising tide across the causeway to the village. But then what? Did he never go looking for his son? And yes, Spike said not to go looking for him…but he’s a kid!
Granted, Jamie was depicted as a massively flawed character, what with cheating on his dying wife and such, but he did still appear to love Spike. So what has he been up to since Spike left? Has he been raising the baby Isla (named after Spike’s mother) himself, or did he pass that off to someone else? Oh, and has Isla remained 100% healthy and psychotic rage-free, given she was the apparent product of the mating of two people with the rage virus? And hey, does Samson’s new clarity include any realizations about that baby, since it was highly implied (albeit not confirmed) that it was his own child? Because then he might want to pay a visit to Jamie’s village as well…
