Spoilers ahead for 28 Years Later…<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”credit-name” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”Black Han Sans|||on|||||” text_text_color=”#000000″ header_4_font=”|||on|||||” header_4_text_align=”center” text_orientation=”center” custom_margin=”||0px||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”]
Words by Charley Ross<\/strong><\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/flatplan-plus-content.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2025\/06\/GettyImages-135860236-scaled.jpg” alt=”Jimmy Savile” title_text=”Jimmy Savile” force_fullwidth=”on” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″] The ending to Danny Boyle\u2019s much-awaited 28 Years Later has shocked and divided fans \u2013 not least due to its use of the image of Jimmy Savile in its depiction of evil.<\/p>\n In 2012, Jimmy Savile was posthumously exposed as a prolific sexual abuser. His likeness has been used in 28 Years Later \u2013 in the very final two minutes of the film where Jack O\u2019Connell\u2019s character, named Sir Jimmy Crystal, has been revealed as a cult leader of a gang called \u2018The Jimmies\u2019, who are all rather shockingly dressed up as Jimmy Savile. It should also be stated that in this film\u2019s timeline, Savile\u2019s crimes had not been exposed.<\/p>\n Starring Jodie Comer, Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Ralph Fiennes, 28 Years Later takes us back to the world of previous movies 28 Days Later and 28 Weeks Later, which sees a rage virus run rampant. The latest chapter sees a group of survivors who have built a community on a small island. Boyle shot with 20 iPhones, and above all wanted to explore what humanity looks like today through a horror prism.<\/p>\n Taylor-Johnson and Comer play parents to a young boy named Spike, who is curious about the infected \u2018zombie\u2019 characters in a way that his parents are not. At the end of the film, we see Spike is saved by O\u2019Connell\u2019s character Jimmy, with the gang taking him under his wing. The Skins star has already made his mark on the horror genre this year playing a vampire in Ryan Coogler\u2019s Sinners, starring alongside Michael B Jordan.<\/p>\n The ending has shocked audiences, with one fan posting: \u2018Sort of appreciate that 28 Years Later, an excellent film, ends on a note so weird it threatens to tank the whole thing lol.\u2019 Another has described it as a \u2018genius representation of innocence being destroyed\u2019.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/flatplan-plus-content.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2025\/06\/28-Years-Later.webp” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” theme_builder_area=”post_content” hover_enabled=”0″ sticky_enabled=”0″ alt=”28 Years Later Jimmy Savile outfits” title_text=”28 Years Later”][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″] When images of actors dressed as Savile were leaked online before the film dropped (and context was clearer) critics felt uncomfortable at the idea of zombies dressed up as the disgraced abuser.<\/p>\n One critic told The Sun at the time: \u201cWhen we realised the hoard of zombies were dressed as Jimmy Savile we were shocked. It\u2019s at best eyebrow-raising and at worst stomach-churning.\u201d<\/p>\n Boyle agrees about the \u2018shocking\u2019 nature of the ending, and explains that the Jimmies gang will play a key part of the second film in what will be a 28 Years Later trilogy.<\/p>\n \u2018It is shocking. It returns you to the fact this is a horror film but not in a way you might be expecting,\u2019 he said in an interview with BAFTA. \u2018They go on to dominate the second film\u2026 I thought \u201cThis is the most original piece of writing I\u2019ve seen since Clockwork Orange.\u201d\u2019<\/p>\n The scripts for 28 Years Later and sequel 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple were both written by The Beach writer Alex Garland. The sequel will be directed by Candyman\u2019s Nia DaCosta with Boyle continuing to be involved with the project.<\/p>\n Boyle has also revealed that, while 28 Years Later focuses on the nature of family, the sequel will focus on \u2018the nature of evil\u2019, with the Jimmies playing a huge part. When it comes to the use of Jimmy Savile imagery, Boyle explained his thinking in an interview with Business Insider: \u2018He’s as much to do with pop culture as he is to do with sportswear, to do with cricket, to do with the honours system,\u2019 he said. \u2018It’s all kind of twisting in this partial remembrance, clinging onto things and then recreating them as an image for followers.\u2019<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”custom-quote” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” header_2_font=”Libre Bodoni|||on|||||” header_2_text_align=”center” header_2_text_color=”#333333″ header_2_font_size=”40px” header_2_line_height=”1.2em” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”] Garland has also weighed in on his intentions when it came to the film\u2019s ending. \u2018The thing about looking back is how selective memory is,\u2019 he said. \u2018It cherry picks and it has amnesia, and crucially, it also misremembers. We are living in a time right now which is absolutely dominated by a misremembered past.\u2019<\/p>\n Boyle has also expanded on his plans for O\u2019Connell\u2019s character and how his story fits into the wider 28 Years timeline and narrative. \u2018The role of Jack O\u2019Connell\u2019s character and his family, which is a replacement, really, for the family he loses at the beginning of the film, is to reintroduce evil into what has become a compassionate environment,\u2019 Boyle explained in an interview with The Independent, opening up further about what the rest of the trilogy will look like.<\/p>\n \u2018I asked Alex [Garland, writer] right at the beginning to just tell me what\u2019s the nature of each of the films, and he said that the nature of the first film is about family. The second film is about the nature of evil. And you\u2019re about to meet a lot more of them when it\u2019ll be more appropriate to talk about them in the second film.\u2019 Photo: <\/b>Getty\/Sony Pictures<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This was… a choice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":11410,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11403","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-feature"],"acf":[],"modified_by":"guestgrazia","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11403","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11403"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11403\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11413,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11403\/revisions\/11413"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}‘it’s all twisting in this partial remembrance.’<\/h2>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”]
O\u2019Connell\u2019s Jimmy \u2013 who is the young child whose family are killed by the infected in the opening scene of 28 Years Later \u2013 will be a main character in the sequel, […] which is also set to reintroduce Cillian Murphy\u2019s character Jim, the protagonist from 28 Days Later.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_divider color=”#111111″ divider_position=”center” divider_weight=”2px” module_class=”custom-divider” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” custom_margin=”0px||0px||false|false” custom_padding=”0px||0px||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][\/et_pb_divider][et_pb_text module_class=”credit-texts” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”|||on|||||” text_orientation=”center” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″]