’28 Years Later’ ending explainer: Who’s Jimmy?

With 28 Years Later, director Danny Boyle and screenwriter Alex Garland are usually not solely choosing up the zombie-focused franchise they started in 2002 with 28 Days Later; they’re additionally charting a by-product trilogy centered on the household launched of their newest gnarly thriller. However there’s extra to household than blood, which the climactic finale makes clear and regarding.

Should you’ve watched 28 Years Later and are questioning what’s up with the ending and what it will possibly inform us about Boyle and Garland’s plans for the sequel, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, we’re right here for you.

Under, we’ll dig into the hidden particulars of the 28 Years Later finale, together with spoilers and particulars from Mashable’s Say Extra’s interview with Danny Boyle.

So, let’s start with the massive query:

Who’s Jimmy in 28 Years Later?

There’s extra layers to this reply than you may count on. On the highest stage: Jimmy is the title of the boy who seems within the movie’s ugly starting. Within the early days of the Rage Virus outbreak, a room filled with blonde kids sit watching Teletubbies on TV, whereas the sounds of adults shouting and violent smashing might be heard by means of the picket door of a comfortable front room. Jimmy is the one one we all know makes it out alive.

After his mom is attacked, she calls for that he run. And he does — to a close-by church the place a pastor kneels in prayer. Jimmy calls him “Dad” and says his mother has been attacked. However his father disagrees, telling the boy that that is God’s plan. “This is a glorious day,” the daddy proclaims, “A day of judgement!” Then, he offers Jimmy a golden crucifix necklace, saying, “My son, keep this with you always. Have faith!”

The contaminated storm the church and assault the pastor, who relishes becoming a member of their ranks. However younger Jimmy hides, clutching the gold crucifix necklace. Because the rampaging horde leaves, the boy shivers and says, “Father, why have you forsaken me?” A message that may converse to God the Father within the Christian religion or to his personal father, who selected the horde of undead over defending his son.

From there the film leaps to “28 years later” — and also you may search for Jimmy, even questioning if Spike’s dad is the boy from the start. However his title is Jamie (Aaron Taylor-Johnson).

By the tip of 28 Years Later, 12-year-old Spike is on his personal, like Jimmy was 28 years earlier than. And simply when Spike wants somebody to avoid wasting him from the rampaging contaminated, they meet, Jimmy introducing himself by title.

The film lingers on this Jimmy (Sinners‘ chilling and beguiling Jack O’Connell), his blond hair, the gold crucifix hanging the other way up from his neck. All of this implies that is the boy from the opening, all grown up. And he is clearly a frontrunner, as he drips in gold jewellery (necklaces and rings on each finger), relating to the others like members of his court docket as he wears a glittery tiara as a crown.

However what else can we glean from this scene?

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Jimmy is a harmful cult chief.

The primary clue that Jimmy is the pinnacle of a cult is that he is flanked by followers who costume like him. All of them have longish blonde hair. All of them put on velour observe fits. And, in case you take a look at the credit, they’re all known as Jimmy.

Whereas O’Connell is credited as as simply “Jimmy,” his gang is credited as Jimmy Ink, Jimmy Jones, Jimmy Snake, Jimmy Shite, and Jimmy Fox. Additional bolstering that Jimmy is an important determine on this film and its already-shot sequel, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, is that even the characters within the first scene are credited in connection to him: “Jimmy’s mom,” “Jimmy’s dad,” and “Jimmy’s sisters.”

Jimmy’s title seems elsewhere throughout Spike’s journey forward of their assembly. On his first day on the mainland, Spike and his dad come throughout an deserted home, the place an contaminated man has been hung the other way up from the ceiling. His fingers are sure behind his again. His head has a plastic bag tied round it, stuffed with pooled blood. Spike is shocked by the scene, and his dad explains that is “maybe a punishment. Maybe a warning.” On the person’s torso, spelled downward vertically, 5 letters are carved into the flesh: J I M M Y.

Later, as Spike leads his mom (Jodie Comer) deeper into the mainland in the hunt for Dr. Kelson (Ralph Fiennes), they stroll previous a home with graffiti that features the title “Jimmy.” Each these items recommend that Jimmy’s attain is broad on the mainland. And he is used it to create a cult that appears a slap within the face to his father’s faith.

He not solely wears his crucifix the other way up (a logo typically thought-about Satanic), but additionally the corpse bearing his title was hung the other way up. And in that remaining battle scene, one of many Jimmys leaves an contaminated dangling the identical manner. None of this implies that Jimmy’s kingdom is as healthful as his core inspiration.

What do the Teletubbies imply in 28 Years Later?

As teased within the trailer, the long-lasting British kids’s collection makes its look within the movie’s opening. It serves the preliminary function of building that this scene is ready in 2002, when the present was massively standard, and when the Rage Virus first took maintain. Maybe Boyle and Garland have been additionally amused at juxtaposing such violent imagery in opposition to the weirdly cheerful collection, the place the solar is actually the face of a guffawing child. However Dipsy, Laa-Laa, Tinky-Winky, and Po have a much bigger which means throughout the film.

Within the ending, grownup Jimmy is carrying a tracksuit that at a look appears black. However because the solar shines on it, you possibly can see it is truly purple. His fellow Jimmys put on comparable athleisure put on within the colours crimson, yellow, and inexperienced. They’re carrying the colours of the Teletubbies in tender materials that recommend the contact of their branded toys.

Whether or not Jimmy supposed to or not, he is memorialized that second of childhood trauma, surrounded by his blonde sisters watching the Teletubbies. He is made himself Tinky-Winky, constructing his new household together with his personal Dipsy, Laa-Laa, Po, and — whoever the Jimmy in blue is emulating.

To hammer house the connection, the slamming soundtrack by Younger Fathers pays homage to the Teletubbies by scoring the Jimmys’ battle in opposition to the contaminated to a tough rock cowl of the present’s theme tune. It is an completely bonkers second of cinema, but additionally a callback. In spite of everything, the untouched model of the theme tune opens 28 Years Later, forward of the reveal of Jimmy and his sisters watching the present. So, 28 Years Later creates a repetition, simply because the Teletubbies did of their present. And this repetition is mirrored within the movie’s montage sequences, which compress centuries of British warfare, utilizing archers and youngster troopers, to precise the relentlessness of historical past repeating.

What does Jimmy imply for 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple?

This already-shot sequel, directed by Nia DaCosta (The Marvels, Candyman) and written by Garland, is slated to come back out subsequent yr. From the title, you may count on it will deal extra with Dr. Kelson, who in 28 Years Later constructed quite a few constructions of bone as a memento mori. (“Remember death. Remember we must die.”) Nonetheless, we have seen how Kelson’s territory and Jimmy’s are in shut proximity by means of deserted, dangling our bodies and graffiti. So, might there be a coming battle between these two allies of younger Spike?

In an interview with Mashable’s Say Extra, Boyle teased how Garland pitched the primary two movies of this rising trilogy to him: “[Garland] said the first script is about the nature of family, and the second film’s about the nature of evil.”

This quote suggests Spike is in for an much more brutal journey than he is already endured. Searching for a path of his personal, Spike comes throughout a person who was as soon as a boy compelled to do the identical. However even within the temporary moments we spend with Jimmy within the finale, it appears he’s dangerously stunted by his childhood trauma. He is rebuilt his household like a Clockwork Orange crew, favoring eccentric costumes and relishing in grisly violence as if it is a recreation. It is onerous to really feel Spike is in secure fingers.

Will his father Jamie come to seek out him and cross Jimmy within the course of? Will Jamie and Dr. Kelson develop into unlikely allies as they search to seek out Spike or perceive the thriller of his adopted sister, Isla? Will Jimmy develop into a father determine that Spike turns to in his earnestness to insurgent in opposition to his father’s model of masculinity? (“Father, why have you forsaken me?”) Or will Garland plot one thing we completely cannot predict?

We’ll have to attend and see.

28 Years Later is now taking part in in theaters. 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple is slated for theatrical launch on Jan. 16, 2026.