What the heck was that 28 Years Later ending?!
If you’ve seen the new zombie horror movie 28 Years Later, you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about. Yes, those last five minutes. If you don’t, steer clear of this article as I’m going full spoiler mode!
Set (funnily enough) 28 years after the outbreak of the Rage Virus, the story revolves around Spike (Alfie Williams), a 12-year-old boy who has only known life on Holy Island, which can only be accessed by a single causeway at low tide. The film follows his first two adventures on the mainland – one with his dad Jamie (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and another with his sick mum Isla (Jodie Comer).
Near the end, Dr Kelson (Ralph Fiennes) diagnoses Isla with cancer that he believes has spread throughout her body, causing her unbelievable pain. Kelson kills Isla off-screen to put her out of her misery before swiftly putting her body in a furnace and giving Spike her skull, which he places at the top of Kelson’s skull tower in the centrepiece of his bone temple.
Spike stealthily drops a newborn baby and a letter off at the gates of his island home before venturing off into the infected-ridden mainland on his own. It is here where the story concludes and leads into a tease for its sequel, The Bone Temple, which has already been filmed.
He runs away from a group of speedy zombies and comes upon a roadblock, where Sir Jimmy Crystal (Jack O’Connell) appears and offers to help, and he and his gang of colourful tracksuit-wearing back-flipping Jimmies slay the zombies in a spectacularly energetic and cartoonish way.
It is absolutely bonkers and such a tonal curveball. I couldn’t stop laughing in disbelief at what I was watching. What the f**k?! It’s so different tonally from the rest of the movie and the rest of the franchise, and it left me wondering if the sequel will be a horror comedy instead. We certainly can’t be expected to take it seriously, right?
But the most baffling element of all is O’Connell’s appearance. He’s wearing a long blond wig, a tiara, a purple tracksuit and oodles of jewellery. Is he… um… dressed as Jimmy Savile?! The Jim’ll Fix It host and horrific paedophile?! What does it all mean?!
Obviously, this is all speculation right now, but I just don’t see how writer Alex Garland is able to make this work. Sure, Savile wasn’t exposed as a prolific sexual abuser until after his 2011 death, years after the Rage Virus outbreak in 2002’s 28 Days Later, so Sir Jimmy Crystal wouldn’t know the truth about his idol (if that’s what’s happening). However, I just don’t see how it will fly in today’s climate, knowing what we know about him now. It feels in poor taste, and I don’t have a great feeling about it, even if the absurd action was silly fun.
We don’t have long to wait for answers as The Bone Temple has already been shot and it comes out in January.
28 Years Later is in cinemas now. You can read my review here.