Exploring the Terrifying World of “28 Years Later” Sequel Trilogy
Blood splattered across a TV playing the Teletubbies. Emaciated Rage Virus carriers running amok in rural England. A creepy, consonant clipping British voice reciting Rudyard Kipling’s sanity slipping war poem ‘Boots’ over the radio waves. Yeah, we’re thinking Danny Boyle and Alex Garland are back! After months of dripfed details and buzzy casting announcements, our first proper look at the duo’s 28 Days Later sequel trilogy starter 28 Years Later has finally arrived in the form of a heart-stopping, arterial-spraying, Ralph Fiennes and Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Jodie Comer starring new trailer. Check out how humanity is faring 10,228 days after the zombie(-adjacent) apocalypse below:
Into the Chilling Sequel
Is it us or did it just get even chillier round here? Save for a mother telling her kids to sit still and keep quiet as choppers circle overhead at the outbreak of the Rage pandemic, this first teaser for 28 Years Later — which, by the way, was shot entirely on an iPhone 15 Pro Max would you believe? — is a dialogue-free, vibes-heavy affair. Reminding us all that Boyle and Garland were doing the devastating, post-apocalyptic rewilded horror-thriller long before The Last Of Us spawned its first cordyceps carrier, nearly three decades on from their last step into this universe, the writer-director duo have lost none of their edge. Here we see Taylor-Johnson and a young boy traversing rural England, bow-and-arrow in hand, infected charging over the horizon line as they seek… something — or, if Ralph Fiennes’ recently shared plot details are accurate, someone. On their travels, we catch glimpses of a dirtied-up Fiennes’ marching towards a pyre of skulls (en route, perhaps, to a Bone Temple), Jodie Comer cradling (presumably) her child, and… could it be… Cillian Murphy’s bike courier Jim in a decidedly less-than-fully-human state?
Unveiling the Plot
Here’s our first official synopsis for the movie: “It’s been almost three decades since the rage virus escaped a biological weapons laboratory, and now, still in a ruthlessly enforced quarantine, some have found ways to exist amidst the infected. One such group of survivors lives on a small island connected to the mainland by a single, heavily-defended causeway. When one of the group leaves the island on a mission into the dark heart of the mainland, he discovers secrets, wonders, and horrors that have mutated not only the infected but other survivors as well.”
