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Not quite 28 years later, filmmakers Danny Boyle and Alex Garland are returning to the zombie tale that revitalized and evolved the zombie genre. The horror story that kicked off with 2001’s 28 Days Later and continued in 2007’s 28 Weeks Later jumps forward almost three decades to a world completely changed by the Rage Virus.
In fact, the first trailer for the long-awaited third installment reveals an England where survivors armed with bows and arrows live in primitive settlements and a filthy Ralph Fiennes stalks around a temple-like structure made of human skulls. But the trailer may not just be showing us what happened to society after the Rage Virus spread to mainland Europe (and presumably the rest of the world). According to some eagle-eyed fans, it may also reveal the dark fate of Cillian Murphy’s protagonist from 28 Days Later… Watch the trailer below:
So, where’s Jim? Fans quickly locked in on one very brief shot in the trailer, at 1:47, in which an emaciated infected rises from a field to do some chomping, while kind of bearing a resemblance to the Oscar-winning actor. To some viewers, this is confirmation that Jim was infected by the Rage Virus at some point after the original film. That of course wouldn’t be completely surprising if he happened to be one of the people who returned to England to re-settle the country right before things went to absolute hell in 28 Weeks Later. Or perhaps Jim, Selena, and Hannah were never actually rescued as the ending of the original film suggested.
Of course, it must be said that a big deal has been made about Murphy’s return to the franchise. Bringing back the Oppenheimer actor just for a cameo as a walking corpse would certainly be a choice. In fact, Murphy was spotted filming scenes as Not A Corpse Jim as recently as September. But even if the infected in this scene really is meant to be Jim, there’s another possible explanation: in the original film, Jim has dreams that are initially presented as reality. Perhaps that’s what’s happening here. An older Jim is imagining what would happen if he were to be infected. That’s this writer’s theory, anyway.
Fans think Cillian Murphy is an infected in #28YearsLater 😳🧟♂️ pic.twitter.com/sK7Wu8ScxJ
— Culture Crave 🍿 (@CultureCrave) December 10, 2024
Most of the rest of the trailer revolves around Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Jodie Comer, and Alfie Wilson journeying through rural England, while in another thread, a group of armed soldiers become zombie food. It’s unclear how the two storylines tie into each other, or how creepy Ralph Fiennes and his skull tower fit in, but the trailer certainly leaves us wanting more. It’s refreshing in this day and age to get a trailer that doesn’t hand out a bunch of answers before you’ve even sat down to watch the movie.
Also, shout out to the person who chose the Rudyard Kipling’s disturbing poem “Boots” (read by actor Taylor Holmes in the trailer) to accompany the terrifying images on screen. Meant to evoke the repetitive thoughts of a British infantryman marching to his doom in South Africa during the Second Boer War (1899-1902), Kipling’s 1903 poem is the perfect companion to Taylor-Johnson and Comer’s own march through the zombie-infested hills of England.
28 Years Later, which is out in theaters on June 20, 2025, is just the first installment in a planned trilogy of zombie flicks penned by Boyle and Garland. While Boyle is back in the director’s chair for this next entry, a sequel titled 28 Years Later Part II: The Bone Temple will be helmed by Nia DaCosta (Candyman).
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