It has been 23 years (not 28, somewhat frustratingly) since British audiences were first introduced to the mind-and-body-ravaging Rage virus in “28 Days Later.” The virus turned everyone it affected into zombies, known as The Infected, obsessed not so much with feeding as with turning more people into zombies. The film’s heroes had a hard time evading The Infected, and then just when it looked like they were safe, they had to deal with the degenerate humans that had appointed themselves to power after the collapse of civilization. The Infected were still at large five years later in “28 Weeks Later” and humanity was more monstrous than ever. Nothing interesting must have happened 28 months later from the events of that film, because the series skipped right over it. Instead, it jumps to 28 years later, when older children and even adults have never known a world not affected by The Infected.
Teenager Spike (Alfie Williams) lives what passes for a normal life on an island off the coast of Scotland that can’t be reached by The Infected because of high tides. His father Jamie (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) is a hero to both family and community, going on dangerous missions to the mainland to gather supplies and kill Infected, who are just as ravenous as ever. His mother Isla (Jodie Comer) is bedridden with an illness different than the Rage virus, yet still causing her great suffering both physically and mentally. She desperately needs a doctor, but there isn’t one on the island, and Jamie warns Spike not to seek out the one setting fires on the mainland.
Jamie takes Spike to the mainland, where he tries to train his son to fend off and kill Infected as best he can. Unfortunately, the Infected are so aggressive and numerous that the lesson has to be cut short in the name of just trying to stay alive. The two barely make it back to the island. Spike failed at every turn during the excursion, but Jamie tells the town that his son was competent and brave. At first, Jamie’s lies putting over his son don’t seem so bad, but then Spike catches onto more lies, and the bond of trust is broken. Thinking that his father might also be lying about the trustworthiness of the doctor, Spike persuades Isla to come with him to the mainland, even though he has minimal survival training. Will Spike and/or Isla survive long enough to reach the doctor? Ralph Fiennes is billed in the film’s advertising, and he doesn’t seem to be playing a resident of the island, so… he’ll probably turn out to be the doctor, which means at least one character will have to meet him.
That predictable aspect aside, this is a movie worth taking seriously. Director Danny Boyle is just as good with his worldbuilding here as he was with a ransacked London over 20 years ago. “28 Days Later” was my first exposure to eventual Oscar-winner Boyle (and eventual Oscar-winning star Cillian Murphy, for that matter), and even with a genre that doesn’t usually lend itself well to awards, he still managed to immediately prove to me that he was one of the most gifted filmmakers in the industry. The glut of zombie media since then has over-saturated me on the concept, which is why I couldn’t work up the same enthusiasm for this film that I could for the original, even though Boyle hasn’t lost a single step. “28 Years Later” is still visually spectacular, excitingly edited, occasionally funny and touching, and successfully scary. I know that a follow-up called “28 Years Later: The Bone Temple” is scheduled for next January, so I won’t have to wait long, but if I didn’t know about that film, I’d say that I didn’t want to wait another 28 years to get another one of these.
Grade: B
“28 Years Later” is rated R for strong bloody violence, grisly images, graphic nudity, language, and brief sexuality. Its running time is 115 minutes.
Robert R. Garver is a graduate of the Cinema Studies program at New York University. His weekly movie reviews have been published since 2006.
Last Update: Jun 23, 2025 9:03 am CDT
