28 Years Later

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I didn't know this going in, and it may mean I haven't been paying enough attention to details, but trust me when I say that it's well worth noting that this ends on a cliffhanger. While the last two were left pretty open-ended, here, it feels abundantly clear that the story is meant to continue, feeling more like the end of a season of 'Walking Dead', and less of a matter of leaving it to one's imagination to fill in the blanks. I say all this because it was honestly jarring for me, the way this ended, but we'll get to that more later.

Here, we leap through time from the previous two films, which take place somewhere between 2002 and 2003, and fast-forward to 2030, where the Rage Virus has finally been wiped out of continental Europe (making the very end of '28 Weeks' pointless). However, the British Isles have been left quarantined, serving as ground zero for everything that went wrong, and the population has been left to fend for itself. This chapter centers on a family of three living in a community of survivors who have their ways, including tradition.

One such tradition is shown by the father and son of this family, Jamie (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and Spike (Alfie Williams), in which Spike is brought to the mainland from their tidal island of Lindisfarne by way of causeway to learn some scavenging and survival skills in this world of terror he'd have been born into. Meanwhile, Spike's Mother, Isla (Jodie Comer), stays home sick with a debilitating mental illness that they can't quite figure out with no medical experts present, but they cope however they can.

During their time away from home, several things of note occur, like Spike getting his first kill and his first experience with an "Alpha," which is pretty much what it sounds like. While hiding out, Spike notices a fire in the distance that isn't thought too much of, and eventually, the pair manage to make it back home. Spike brings the fire up to their family friend, Sam (Christopher Fulford), a fellow survivor who helps Jamie and Spike take care of Isla. In turn, Sam tells him about Dr. Kelson (Ralph Fiennes), an apparent "madman" whom their community fears.

All Spike hears in this conversation is "Doctor," and he hopes that he can take what he's learned in such a short time to guide his mother to this doctor for some help. Much of the way the film unfolds, it returns to its original format by focusing a little more dramatically on the people involved. I have to say, everyone is excellent in their roles here and gives it their all, but Alfie Williams impressively knocks it out of the park, and I sense that he's probably gonna be a kid who goes places. Even standing next to Ralph Fiennes, this kid did a great job.

The film does a great job of once again bringing us a new set of survivors and a new set of circumstances, focused on a family much like in '28 Weeks,' but set many years after the initial outbreak, and we see a lot of adaptation at work here. It further impresses by showing us pure isolation, even on a large landmass. It's eerie to think that during this, the rest of the world has returned to normal (more or less) while those who have been stranded on the British Isles have adapted a culture of zombie apocalypse survivors.

For those questioning the somewhat famous clip of the very gaunt-looking zombie and whether or not it's meant to be what happened to Jim from '28 Days,' it is not him, and this is according to director Danny Boyle. Remember, this ends on a cliffhanger, though, and rumour has it that Jim may be coming back for the next movie, so that's exciting. But I'll say this about the film's cliffhanger ending - it comes out of nowhere. You'll want to pay attention to the film's opening scene for it to make any sense, and you may find yourself wondering what just happened to the movie. I hope there's a good enough reason planned for it to go so off the rails.

4/5

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