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The first scene of 28 Years Later plays exactly as expected. The sequel to 2002’s 28 Days Later opens during the first days of the rage virus spreading across Great Britain as a boy named Jimmy goes from watching Teletubbies to running for his life from zombies. Jimmy returns in the last scene of 28 Years Later, which is anything but expected. After a surprisingly soulful, openhearted film about learning to live with death, 12-year-old Spike (Alfie Williams) encounters a now-grown Jimmy, who leads a cult of track-suit wearing, jewelry-adorned survivors and goes by the name “Sir Lord Jimmy Crystal.”
The sudden tonal shift at the end of 28 Years Later has been one of the most-talked parts of the film, and has only stoked excitement for the sequel 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, releasing this weekend. Much of the conversation has centered around the inspirations for Sir Jimmy’s name and look, with many connecting it to English entertainer and, as revealed much later, sexual abuser Jimmy Savile. In a recent conversation with The Hollywood Reporter, Sir Jimmy’s actor Jack O’Connell confirmed the connection, saying, “I think he sort of models himself on the memory of this figure that was always on TV.”
As O’Connell’s comments indicate, Savile was a constant in British media, presenting on Top of the Pops, hosting a show on Radio 1, and starring in the children’s show Jim’ll Fix It, in which he and celebrity guests granted wishes sent to him via letter. Savile matched his striking but gregarious on-screen personality with a commitment to charity, raising thousands for hospitals, which earned him knighthood. Yet, a documentary released a year after his death in 2011 found that Savile had sexually abused hundreds of people over the course of his life, mostly children.
This combination of horrible darkness behind something that once seemed innocent and good fits neatly within the themes of 28 Years Later. Directed by Danny Boyle and written by Alex Garland, the movie looks back at the zombie hit from two decades ago from a post-Brexit perspective.
Where the first film ended with the promise that the U.K. would reunite with the rest of the world, 28 Years Later finds that Britain remains under quarantine, and thus culturally stalled while the rest of the world goes forward. Clinging to old rituals and superstitions, the British revert to mythologies, which range from the medieval imagery that Boyle intersperses throughout the film to the nomenclature adopted by Sir Lord Jimmy Crystal.
Although he allows that he “can’t speak” for Garland, O’Connell has a similar read. “My take was unchecked power. I think it totally exists in the story to unsettle,” he explained. “I love that it’s showing how popular culture just went kaput. And you see these people who were, in some way or another, just trying to latch on to what the messaging was in that era.”
Judging by the positive reviews The Bone Temple has garnered, O’Connell successfully managed to unsettle viewers with Sir Jimmy Crystal, but never as much as the surprising truth behind the person who inspired his character.
28 Years Later: The Bone Temple is now playing in theaters.
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